It Rains on Weekends

Chapter 7 (the full story)

If your tears are raindrops, then your words are hail.

Jace came out of the closet when he was 13.

You see, it had started with Anya, a girl who lived in my neighborhood.After Jace saved me that day, he had become like some sort of security blanket, and my panic attacks subsided.I may have had one or two every once in awhile, but they didn't trigger easily.With my panic attacks less frequent, I started to be able to stray away from my mother.She didn't have a problem with me wandering off on my own, and one day while I played outside by myself (Jace was busy, I understood that he had other friends too) Anya rode her bike past me.She stopped a few feet later, and backed up to where I was crouching, digging for worms in the flowerbeds.

"What're you doing?" She asked.

I hadn't noticed her presence, so when I looked up and saw a girl who was around 14, standing over me on a bicycle without a helmet (safety hazard there) I had to admit that I was a little intimidated.Nonetheless, I still moved my hands around under the dirt as I answered her.

"I'm looking for earthworms."

Her face didn't turn up in disgust, instead it just filled with honest curiosity. "Why?"

I shrugged."There's nothing else to do."

"So you chose to dig around in the mud for earthworms?"

"Judging by what I'm doing now, I guess I did." I took my hands out of the mud and rubbed them together to get the dirt off."As you can see for yourself."

She smiled, and noticing my dirty hands, took a tiny container of hand sanitizer out of a small backpack that she had on her back. "Hand sanitizer?' She asked, dismounting her bike and squatting down beside me.

"Sure, thanks." I took it and squirted some on my hands.The refreshing smell of guava laced the air as I rubbed my hands together."This smells really nice.Where'd you get it?"

she returned it to her backpack. "Bath & Body Works."

"What's that?"

"The store Bath & Body works duh."

I gave her a quizzical look and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Seriously? You've never been to a Bath & Body Works before?"

I felt stupid and small under her gaze."No.." I mumbled, my cheeks red.

She studied me for a second, and then she patted my head.Her hands smelled like almonds. I wondered if she put on lotion from the place she called Bath & Body Works too. "Kid." She began, even though she looked like she was only two years older than me. "Don't worry about it.Not everyone has the same tastes for scents and personal hygiene and stuff.Do you know the brand Ephiphme?"

I shook my head no.

"That's the brand of toothpaste I use." She breathed into my face, and I smelled cherries. "See?Now blow into mine."

I leaned over and blew.

"Mmm.. Peppermint.What kind of brand do you use?"

"Colgate."

"Where'd you get it from?"

"Target."

"What does it do?"

"It cleans and whitens teeth, prevents gingivitis."

"Mine does the same thing." She said, smiling. "Only it smells different."

"So? Yours smells better."

She chuckled. "Well I don't know about that.Peppermint is pretty rad too."