When The Rain Stops (BXB)

Chapter 17

"You sure you don't want a ride?" asks Harrison. He's hovering over me on the stairs railing, watching me put on my shoes. "I wanna talk to you about the movie."

I shake my head. "I wanna think about some shit."

"I know you don't wanna stay, but are you gonna be okay?" asks Natalie, who's standing between Harrison and Everett above me. "You'll let me know, right?"

I nod. "I will. Thanks, Nat."

Owen slides down the railing to the bottom step, staring at me. "You don't have to do it. It sucks not having a phone, sure, but you don't have to throw yourself under the bus for me."

"I'm gonna," I say, looking him right in the eye. "It isn't fair to you that my mom ratted you out and you lost shit. That isn't fair."

"Dude, it's fiiine," Everett insists. He grabs Owen's shoulders and says, "It happens to him all the time. He uses my phone."

"No, it isn't," I say back, stepping forward. "What my mom did wasn't okay."

Owen seems taken aback by it, and sighs. Shaking off Everett's hands, he puts his on my shoulder and smiles tiredly at me. "Do what you got to, Jackson."

Paige stands by the front door. She's literally stopping me from leaving. "You sure you can't stay?"

"I don't wanna be grounded forever, Paige."

"You already are," she points out.

I turn. Everett's sitting on the lowest step, Harrison's standing above him, with Natalie right beside him. Owen takes a seat on the bench beside the stairs. Don't know where Tucker is, but I don't really care. He's weird. "Thanks for the night out of prison, guys." I bob my head. "I'll let you know if I'm ever gonna see school again."

Natalie snorts.

That's a nice confidence booster. I'm funny to her.

"You sure you can't stay?" asks Paige again.

"Can't believe I'm sayin' this, but I do wanna graduate this year. Besides," I sigh, "wanna get back before my parents call the cops." I look back at everyone. "Best I'm not here. So I – "

She waves her hand at me and opens the door. "See ya, Straggler."

I nod, and, remembering that I'm outside town, the door closes behind me. It's the water tower that kinda gives me a point of reference, and I head back towards town with no moon and the sky lighting up with lightning but no thunder.

I'm fucked. Or gonna be sick. Or both.

I pull out my phone and call Rory. It rings and rings before going straight to voicemail. "Hey...uh, I'm..." I don't know what to say. I had the idea, but not the words. I blink and whisper, "Never mind." And hang up.

The rain starts falling. But still no thunder.

There's basically nothing on the rural side of town. It's open, flat land that people could build on, if we had people interested in building. We're one of those places that get looked over. The highway's five miles that way, so we're not a stopover for people road-tripping. Nothing fancy's happened here. Nothing old's here. Hell, I think some of the buildings don't even qualify as old since they've been gutted and renovated so many times.

Honestly, there're times where I feel like I've been walking in, like, some kind of stretching road where town gets farther and farther away no matter how long I walk. But then the old train bridge rattles when I walk over it. Past some old buildings that're tagged with bad graffiti and I'm back in the center of town. Harrison's truck is still parked across from the library. I go underneath the roof in front when it begins coming down harder.