|rain|

|deux|

"mason murphy." he called back to her, then continued walking.

she smiled to herself, not knowing why. this boy was interesting to her. autumn decided to do a very crazy thing and decrepitly follow him. autumn was an adventurous girl, quite wild. she loved new places, people, and things. rain of course, was her passion.

she tip toed through the streets a fair distance from the boy, watching his unusual behaviour. she could hear him crying. after following him a for about ten minutes, she saw he was drinking. he collapsed down in the middle of the road, looking to be in pain.

autumn rushed over to see the what the issue was.

"mason!" she said panicked, not understanding what was happening.

his breathing was heavy, his cheeks were wet from fallen tears, and his screams were very vicious.

"mason, what's wrong?" she said, helping him from the ground.

as she sat him up he started to calm down. when everything had stopped he started to bawl harder than before. his crying made autumn want to cry with him, as she was unsure what was wrong.

"it's okay, mason." she comforted.

he rested his head on her chest holding on to her jacket, "it's never okay."

mason cried for a few minutes more until he felt a horrible feeling in his stomach. autumn became worried at his sudden stop. his hands flew to his stomach, clenching it as hard as possible, trying to keep down what was about to arise. suddenly he turned to the concrete, throwing up all the alcohol he had just taken in. autumn thought he was going to die, since she had never seen this before.

"mason, calm down, everything's alright." she cried, seeming scared.

he pushed her hand away and started to run. she stood up, stumbling, and ran after him.

"mason!" she called out, not knowing where he went or which way to go next.

about thirty seconds later she heard a squeal. she ran the direction the noise came from and found mason huddled in a corner. she was shocked to see he had a cigarette lighter in his hand. mason continued holding the flame under his arm, hitting his heads against the brick wall beside him.

in that moment, autumn realised everything was actually not okay for this boy. he was a mess. she had been so blind before, in her happy and wild life.

her hand rushed towards the side of his head, stopping it from meeting the wall again, and smacked the lighter out of mason's hand, slightly burning herself in the process.

"go away." he croaked quietly.

autumn sat down next to him.

"how often do you do this to yourself?" she asked, very worriedly.

he looked at his burnt arm, seeing scars and marks from previous incidents.

"i burn myself when i hurl, and i attempt suicide everyday. that's the result of chronic anxiety i guess. and that's how i deal with it." he whispered.

autumn didn't say anything to that. she just sat with him for a bit. mason eventually rolled down the sleeve of his hoodie.

"what if i said i'm willing to help you." she looked up at him with sorry eyes.

he looked at her and smiled slightly, which was the first time in years, "i'd say you wouldn't be the first person to try."

"i promise i'll stick around." she said, truthfully.

he looked down at his lap.

"why do you care anyway?" he asked her, seeming very confused.

"because you hate the rain, and i love it. i want to show you things from my perspective." she smiled.

he nodded, resting his head on hers.

"i can drive you home if you like?" autumn suggested.

"that'd be greatly appreciated." he nodded.

she held her hand out for mason to shake, and this time, he took it.