Why Does Rain Fall

Henning

Henning wasn't exactly the scorn of the school, he was more the typical bad boy of it. He hated thinking of himself like that, he didn't smoke or do drugs, maybe the occasional beer, but never enough to get him in trouble. He was still close to his mom, and his sister was trying to stay as connected as she could, so it wasn't like his parents hated him. The school liked to assume things about Henning. There would be times he wouldn't mind, like when he heard rumors about him and Emma, and there would be times when he would mind, like when people talked about his family. He never said anything, though.

Emma had tried to get him back several times, and the first two times he gave her a chance. The first was after she had dated Josh, the mega frat boy. Their relationship was honestly disgusting, making out in the hallways, behind bleachers, gross. He and Emma had only kissed once or twice, whenever Emma was sad. He remembered their first kiss like it was yesterday, no matter how many times he tried to forget. It was in the theater workshop, when Emma and him were volunteering to help Lily with her last play. Henning didn't want to go, but it took a lot of convincing for Lily to get him to go.

Henning, can you go to my theater work call today? It's my last one.

Ew. No.

You can bring Emma.

Okay.

Like he said, a lot of convincing. Emma had agreed to go to spend time with Henning, he loved that about her. That she was always willing to drop everything and hang out with him, of course, it worried him sometimes. He wanted her to focus on herself, but Emma would always assure him that it was fine. As far as he knew, it was.

Their first kiss was as romantic as Henning could get. Emma was sad, she was crying about something Henning couldn't remember right on the spot. Henning had held her in his arms for hours until she had stopped crying. Her head emerged from his chest and looked at him with sad eyes. He brushed strands of hair out of her eyes, something Emma had always loved. Henning, of course, loved it more. He loved when strands of hair surrounded her face and framed it perfectly, she was so cute. He brushed the strands out of her eyes and leaned in as Emma stood on her tiptoes to reach his height. He thought it was perfect. He thought it was a sign that Emma really loved him. It wasn't.

The first time they got back together. It was actually okay to Henning. Emma was happy with him, and Henning was happy with her. He didn't care too much about what had happened in the past, Emma did. She kept apologizing, he thought it was cute. He thought it was cute that someone cared about him as much as Emma did.

He even talked to Kaelynn about it. A possible crush, he liked a lot of things about her. He liked how shy she was and how adorable she would get when she was in a crowd. They had hung out a few times, if you wanted to call talking in the halls "hanging out". He liked her, but Kaelynn didn't show any interest in him. So he dropped it. Instead, he would ask her for relationship advice. Kaelynn was amazing at giving advice, she never followed any of it herself, in fact, the idea of dating seems to make her sad. She never talked about herself too much, but he liked that. She wasn't self-involved. She cared about other people way more than she cared about herself. Henning wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or not, but he didn't care at the time. Emma was all that mattered, they were happy. He loved her. Everything was fine.

Until it wasn't. He talked to Kaelynn about it.

"Alright, what's wrong this time." Kaelynn always asked him that.

They were at lunch. Kaelynn sat by the vending machines a majority of the time, away from all the crowds and people. She would sit with her friends occasionally, but not as often as he wanted her to. She didn't eat much either, that annoyed Henning, too. She was always reading or on her phone listening to music, she was just a chill person in general. Of course, she could get excited sometimes and jump up and down to almost anything, he also liked that about her. Henning didn't know who was better, Emma or Kaelynn.

"Nothing is particularly wrong." Henning twiddled his thumbs.

"Emma, isn't it?" Kaelynn sighed. "Figured."

"She cheated on me."

"Again? Wow. Dump her."

"You don't get it..."

"Don't tell me what I don't get. Instead, explain it to me." Kaelynn was calm.

"Emma is just the perfect person. She's nice, she loves me, she gets angry all the time... and she really supports what I do. I love that about her." Henning was trying to keep the pressure inside his chest from exploding.

"I'm nice. I support what people do. Doesn't mean I want a cheater."

"But you've never dated. You wouldn't get it."

Kaelynn's eyes darted to his and scanned him. She scowled. "I've dated before."

Henning sat straight up. "You have? Who?"

Kaelynn scanned the lunchroom, looking over everything. Her eyes landed somewhere and her face deepened. She pointed to someone and tilted her head slightly.

She was pointing at a skinny blond with a crooked nose and a face that was honestly annoying to look at. He was laughing with friends and acting like an absolute idiot.

"Him? He's ugly as hell." Kaelynn shrugged. "What happened?"

"Don't feel like talking about it." Her eyes floated back over to her hands.

"Won't push it. Never will. But back to Emma..."

"She sounds like a dick. Dump her."

"Yeah," he paused, "That's what everyone thinks."

"Then everyone is right. Do what makes your heart happy."

"Emma makes me happy."

"Are you sure?"

Henning didn't respond. She nodded and went back to her hands. She patted Henning on the shoulders and got up. She waved and smiled, lunchtime was over. She went back to class, catching up with a few friends and smiling and laughing. He glanced back over at the boy she had pointed at. He was still there, his eyes following Kaelynn. He got mad, the pressure in his chest expanded. He got up, his legs moving before he had time to think, he was walking towards the skinny blond-haired kid. He wanted to recognize him, but he couldn't. Henning swore he saw him from somewhere. The boy turned back to his friends, said a few words, and noticed Henning. He took a few steps back. Henning knew what he was going to do. In one swift motion, Henning had the boy by the collar of his shirt, not taking the liberty to lift him up off of his feet. His friends backed away, they didn't do anything. The boy clawed at his hands as he noticed the teachers were moving in, he had to act fast.

"Listen here you little freak, I catch you making googly eyes at Kaelynn one more time I will make sure you're never able to move you ugly little self again, you got me?"

The boy kept clawing at his hand. "What the fuck? Who are you?"

"Someone you should fear. What's your name, dumbass?"

"It's Paul, let me the fuck down! What are you, her boyfriend?"

Henning took a second to think. He didn't have much time to say anything else before the first teacher backed him away from Paul. What a bitch name.

"Yeah," He set him down. "I am."