Why Does Rain Fall

Henning

"Pick the fuck up, Kaelynn!"

Several messages. Several calls. Where is this girl?

Henning wasn't exactly panicking. Oh, no. He was terrified. He came home, yelled his casual, "Mom, I'm home!" and threw his bag down the stairs, always landing perfectly in front of his room. He skipped practice, the coach wanted to have a "talk" with him. He knew what that meant.

I'm worried about you.

Are you gonna be okay, bud?

I'm here if you need me.

He could stand it the first... ten times. After that, it just became a habit. He'd finish changing, toss the ball four to five times, then the coach would stroll over with a sigh. You could assume the rest from there. He thought he was the most amazing coach, he appreciated that he checked upon him. He just didn't want to deal with it today. He just wanted to go home and bother Kaelynn. He wanted to catch up with Jace. For the first time in a while, he actually wanted to talk to people. He thought it was strange itself. So he went home. Gave a quick yell to mom, threw his bag downstairs, and took out his phone.

No new messages.

Damn. He wanted Kaelynn to be the first to say something to him. Just for once, he wanted to enjoy the feeling of sitting back and feeling... popular. Like he meant something to people. He got used to the feeling. It took a while. First, it felt toxic, then lonely, then finally nothing. His heart had handled a lot. Not as much as Kaelynn. Or Lily.

Lily!

He suddenly wanted to check on her. Her room was on the third floor of the three-floor house. So he ran up the twelve short steps and took a sharp corner. He knocked on the blue and cracked door. He thought he heard his mom calling him.

"Lily? You in there?" He waited. No response.

"I have a weird story to tell you, it's about a girl. I think you'll like it." He smiled slightly. Still, no response.

"Lily, I love you, but I'm coming in." He turned the knob on the door and it slowly creaked.

No Lily.

Henning had to step back to absorb all the panic he was feeling. The window was open in her room, even more panic. He yelled, "Mom!", the only thing that made sense of him to do. There was no response either. Panic was setting in faster and faster. He ran to the kitchen expecting to see his mother cooking up something, but she wasn't. Instead, there was a note.

I needed to go grocery shopping for your favorite food! I thought you deserved it tonight. Be home in maybe two hours. Love you. -Mom

"What the hell, mom?" As much as he appreciated the fact that she wanted to do something nice for him, it couldn't have been at the worst timing. He took out his phone and called Lily. As he expected, she didn't pick up. He called his mom and, not to be expected, she didn't pick up. So he decided to do something he had never done before. He just called Kaelynn. She didn't pick up, so he called again, and again, and again. He spammed her messages until he couldn't feel his fingers. He was beginning to think he was getting writers cramp. In defeat, he moped down the stairs and crashed on the couch. He laid his arm over his eyes, sprawled on the couch and hopeless. He honestly didn't want to move. He just prayed and prayed until someone would answer.

Ding!

He fell off the couch. He fell off the couch in surprise. He fumbled for a minute with his phone and finally checked the screen. It was from Kaelynn.

What the hell? I was doing something. What do you need? -K

My sister isn't home. Panicking. -H

Sister? -K

Yeah. Her name is Lily. She's... well she's a pretty sad kid. It worries me when she isn't home. -H

Yeah, I can see why that's worrying. Can she drive? -K

Yes -H

Damn. Is she in anything? She might be at a sports meeting. -K

She's in theater. I think she used to be in band. -H

The theater has a meet today. -K

Wow. He forgot about his sister's meeting. She wanted to act this time, he didn't expect her to want to act, but for as lovely as her personality really was, he could understand. Technical theater meetings are normally on Saturdays. 9 am to 5 pm. Right? That's too long and too early to have to get up. He never understood how Lily put up with it, but she loved theater. She would blast any songs from a musical in her room and sing along. She was good at singing, but she never joined the choir. Henning had done choir when it was required back in fifth and sixth grade. He hated it. He hated singing, he would prefer to listen to classic 80's and 90's rock music. He would prefer to listen to Queen. He loved his sister even though they had such different interests.

Did I help you at all?? -K

Yeah. Thanks a lot :/ -H

No problem. I used to be in theater myself, so I know a few things. -K

Really? Why'd you stop? -H

Reasons -K

Reasons. He noticed that Kaelynn said that a lot. She would find reasons to ignore his questions or brush them off her shoulder. She was such a mysterious person, and he liked that about her.

Can we meet up? -H

Wait. Did he just type that? He wanted to talk to her, yes, but did he just want to see someone? Like... in person? He could answer that himself. Yes, he did. He wanted to see Kaelynn and talk to her face to face. He never thought he would actually want to meet up with someone and talk again like I used to before. He was kind of becoming social again. Kaelynn responded saying she could ask her mom to drive her somewhere to meet up. He thought it was strange that she still had her mom haul her everywhere. He said they could meet up at the park since it was so close to his house, he could walk and be there within ten minutes. He went downstairs and grabbed his shoes and his dark blue jacket. He pulled on his red beanie even though he knew it was a strange color contrast, he didn't care too much. The jacket showed off his muscles so that he didn't have to worry about looking terrible. He thought about how Kaelynn would like his outfit, the casual and confident way he walked, him. Would she even like him? He hasn't even had interest in a girl since Emma. He always felt so toxic every time he saw Emma, she always looked so happy gossiping with her friends and wrinkling her nose every time she laughed. On the off chance that she was alone, she would always flip her hair when she walked past him. It made him mad. Could he even like being with Kaelynn? He thought about it as he locked the door behind him and jumped down the four stairs leading down to the ground. He kept walking. For the first time in forever, he was actually conflicted about something. Did he really like Kaelynn? Or was she a good friend? He pondered a little longer, slowly swishing his eyes to anything that moved. The birds, the swaying of the trees, kids playing in the street and parents watching them. The more he thought, the more he thought that the answer was yes to both questions.