Thunder to your Rain (YA)

[16]

(A/N) FULL CHAPTER 16 HERE! Also, the music has nothing to do with the story or anything. I just like to show the songs I listen to when I'm writing. Enjoy!

Rain's POV

(5th Period Same Day)

I quickly changed into my P.E. outfit from inside the Girl's Locker Room. Gray normally changes in the bathroom if she can get here quick enough. It's wild in here sometimes. Last year during the swimming unit girls were getting butt naked, not a care in the world. Not me though, I had perfected the art of changing underneath my towel. Nobody was gonna ever see my lovely lady lumps.

Once the bell rang our gym teacher yelled out "Ten minute run!". This is where we would run laps around the gym for ten minutes as an assessment. If we stop even once we get points off. Normally we can choose our own pace but lately our teacher has been telling us to speed up once the minutes get smaller. They just wanna see us struggle in my opinion.

The first lap is when we are supposed to go the slowest to build up to the last few laps where we were expected to run at full speed. Right now we had to do our warm up so we wouldn't hurt ourselves when running. Pretty standard 30 jumping jacks, 15 pushups, 20 sit ups, and various stretches.

"Stand up, good job on your warmups." Mr. Davis claps.

We stand on the line and prepare for our run. I didn't expect this but Gray pushes her way to stand next to me. "Hey, can I talk to you?" She asks unsure.

I nod my head, and she gets within my personal bubble immediately. "I'm sorry for avoiding you, I won't sugarcoat any of what I'm gonna say to you." She appears stern as if she's practiced this.

"Alright," I say calmly. It can't be worse than what I've been thinking myself.

"I was angry at you because you said some things that I took offense to. You made it seem like insecurity is just black and white. If someone like me says they're insecure then it's just for attention or that if you look a certain way then you have to be insecure. That's wrong and fucked up to me that you even think that way. Or that if you don't look like the standard then you're undesirable. I don't understand why you feel that it's normal to degrade yourself or put yourself down." She says letting out a huge breath.

But if I think I'm unattractive I am surely entitled to feel that way, it's my own body and my own opinion. Why does that bother her so much? It's not like she could understand how I feel in my skin, she's nowhere near my size.

"I'm sorry I-" I start.

"I'm not finished." Gray says lowering her voice to a whisper. "You know I had anorexia last year, how dare you even try to claim that someone my size can't be insecure that I-I can't feel insecure. Insecurity about one's body does not discriminate at all. Skinny does not automatically equal healthy." She finishes and I think I spot a tear rolling down her face but I pretend I don't see anything. I'm not very helpful when someone's crying. Not to say I'm heartless but I wouldn't know how to comfort her if she started bawling her eyes out right now.

"Well, I didn't realize I hurt you so badly. I wasn't being careful with my words. I didn't mean for that to happen, I'm so sorry." I replied sincerely.

"That's one thing, but I shouldn't have ignored you either. I was just so freaking upset that you even insinuated what you did. You can apologize as much as you want and I'll forgive you but I won't forget. I don't believe in my heart that you truly understand what you did wrong, and it might even take a while for you to understand." She exclaims.

"You can't change the way I feel about my body overnight, but if you are willing to show me how, I promise you I'll try." I tell her nodding my head.