calm before the storm | the outsiders

•13•

November 21, 1985

Rayne

I pulled up to the park and walked up to the one park bench that had someone sitting on it. That person was the now familiar black haired boy I considered by brother. He heard my footsteps and turned to smile at me "Running a little late, aren't we sunshine?"

I rolled my eyes, "Oh, shut up. I haven't had breakfast and barely got any sleep last night."

Jonas chuckled, "You know its funny when people complain about not getting much sleep when I sleep about 4 times a week."

I sat down next to him on the park bench, "Well not all of us are night owl insomniacs, Jonas."

"And not all of us are privileged blonde girls from Atlanta who gets breakfast every morning either, sweetheart." Jonas smirked

I squinted my eyes at him, "You're lucky you have good looks, Winston."

Jonas mocked me, "Right back at you, Storm."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes again, Jonas just chuckled to himself. "So what brings you here anyways?" Jonas asks

"Do I ever have a reason?" I mention

Jonas nods, "Fair point."

"Do you know an Elliot Valance?" I asked

"Valance?" Jonas' repeated

"Yeah, I met this guy Elliot the other day and we had coffee. He said he's from here so I wanted to ask if you knew him." I explained

Jonas thought for a minute, looking out at the open park "Yeah we knew each other as kids for sure, I think we even went to high school together but by that point he probably completely forgot who I was."

"Why was his last name such a big deal?" I asked

Jonas hesitated, unable to find the right words. "Its just- we hung out because he was kind of like my step- eh nevermind, its useless to bombard your mind with irrelevant backstory."

"It didn't seem irrelevant 2 seconds ago." I pressured

Jonas looked at me, "Just mention the stuff with your dad, he could probably tell you from there."

I could tell when Jonas wasn't in the mood for reliving the past, its kind of sad how many times he does it. But I chose not to ask furthermore, he said it was irrelevant so I'll believe him. He'd tell me if it was important. Jonas tapped his foot, "I would kill for some coffee right now."

I shrugged, "Wanna take a walk to the coffee shop? I know its only across the park."

Jonas paused but then shrugged as well, "I don't got anything better to do."

We started walking through the park, it was chilly. I get cold easily too, I had a large coat over my knit sweater. I shivered when a gust of wind passed by, my whole body was stiff trying not to tremble. "It isn't even cold but you're acting like we're in Alaska or something."