It All Started With Women's Rights -Frerard-

Wet Friends and Dry Ideas

I walked down the wet street, holding a textbook over my head, regretting my decision not to bring an umbrella. I brushed back my soaked hair from my eyes, sighing angrily. At least it was pretty outside when it rained. Or at least I thought so. The people around me looked like this rain just ruined their entire lives. A little rain wasn't going to stop me from doing whatever I had to do. I was gonna walk to school, dry off, and then head to class. Simple as that.

I watched several cars pass me and one almost hit me coming out of their driveway. I saw them roll down their window, for what I was assuming was an angry scolding about watching where I was going, but to my surprise, it wasn't.

"Frank, is that you?" I heard a familiar chipper voice.

I turned around, letting my arm carrying the textbook fall to my side to see better. I squinted through the rain and saw Mr. Way smiling. I walked up to his car and smiled, too. He leaned over to talk to me.

"What in the Lord's name are you doing, child? Don't you have a car or something?" He said, laughing, looking at my soaked form.

"Haha..." I tucked some soaked hair behind my ear, "No..."

I saw him think for a second and then him look around his car. He told me to step back so he could pull back up. I saw him gesture for me to follow him. I did, running to get out of the rain. I stood on his porch, which resembled a sunroom (it was enclosed), shivering. He went inside for a second and then came back in with a towel. He wrapped it around me and I took it gratefully. He rubbed his hands up and down my arms in an attempt to warm me up. I smiled awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. I just settled for a small thank you and he smiled, telling me it was no problem.

He took a step back to look at me and think. I saw him look around the neighborhood in thought. He reached out to me and flicked a piece of wet hair from my face, laughing, "What on Earth made you think that walking around in a storm was a good idea? Look at you! You're soaked to the bone!"

I shrugged, "I don't know, man. I hardly understand why I do things either."

"Come, sit down. I'll get something to warm you up." He gestured to a chair and then went inside before I could say anything.

I sat down, drying my hair off. I took off my soggy shoes, making a face as they made a very unpleasant sound. It was then I realized how soaked I really was. That textbook really didn't do much. I was 99.99% sure my underwear were wet too, and not in a fun way. I sighed. I heard the door creak open and saw Mr. Way pop out. He was carrying some clothes, a hair dryer, and a mug of something.

"These might be a little big, but I want you in something that's not cold and wet. This is for your hair and..." he set the mug down on the small table next to me, "this is some hot tea for you. Sorry if I'm going full 'mom mode' on you."

I shook my head and he set the clothes down on the table, "It's fine, really. Almost a little much for me, though. I feel like a nuisance."

"No, no, no. It feels good to help someone out." He smiled, "Here, I'll close the curtains for you so you can change. I'll be inside if you need me."

He yanked on some strings and curtains covered the large windows, creating the once open atmosphere very closed off. I looked at GW but he was already leaving.

"Wait," he stopped, turning towards me, "Thanks."

He smiled, "Anytime...Frankie."

I heard the door close and gladly yanked off my wet clothes. To my surprise, his clothes fit kinda nicely. The only thing that was a bit big was the sweater he had given me, but from its style, I'm pretty sure that it was supposed to be like that. I threw my clothes in a pile, sitting down and plugging in the hair dryer. This one was very intricate compared to Mom's. Her's was just a simple one that said off and on. I had no idea what the heck was going on with this one.

I knocked on the door, creaking it open, "Hey, uh, how do you use your hair dryer?"

I saw him sitting on the couch, drinking something out of a mug. He choked when he had seen me, surprised to see me. I smiled, waiting for him to say something. He stood up, saying that he could just dry my hair for me.

"Also, what about my clothes?"

"I just got a text saying that the school has a delay. I can just throw them in the dryer until we gotta go."

"Okay, cool."

I sat in a chair, as I was told to do, and I heard the dryer magically turn on after a few button pushings. I never really had anyone play with my hair or do this kind of thing before, so it was kinda nice. I didn't want to say it felt good, because, well, that would just make it awkward in my head. But, to simplify it, it did. I could faintly hear him humming as he went about his work. It was kind of humorous in a way. The way he tossed my hair as he dried it almost made me think that originally he was a hair stylist. I had my eyes closed because my hair kept smacking into them.

Then suddenly the dryer was turned off. I opened my eyes and brushed the hair from them. I looked behind at my new hair stylist and he was smiling, wrapping the cord around the dryer, "Where did you even get that thing?"

"I ordered it from South Korea." He said like it was a normal thing to order a hair dryer from South Korea.

"Explains why I had no idea how to use it," I said, taking a sip of the tea he had given me.

He chuckled, setting the dryer down. He asked me to pick up my clothes and bring them inside. I felt a little uncomfortable, but I knew he had only good intentions. He led me to his laundry room and opened the dryer for me. I tossed them in and he threw in a dryer sheet with them. He hit a series of buttons and closed the door, letting the load dry. I sighed.

"We got about an hour until we gotta go, wanna work on the project? I started thinking of ideas, myself." He walked as he talked and I followed.

He popped into a room that was what looked like his office and came back out with a journal. He nodded towards the front door and I walked towards the weird sunroom thing he had for a porch. From the small amount of his house that I had seen, I could tell he liked simple, yet elegant design. That was pretty much what his entire house was. It was shades of white, black, gray, and tints of red or purple. It was simple but sweet.

We talked for what seemed like days about our ideas. We came to a pretty solid idea. No one in the class would've come up with what we did. The mysterious man's name was going to be Fredrick. He was a ghost hunter/demon exorcist who had caught wind of the rumors about this man in town. The rumors were that he had started acting strange. He was a respectable man who had lived in the town for what seemed like all his life. Then one day people had said his eyes had turned bright red and he had scampered off into this abandoned house. He eventually cures the man of his demons but then- plot twist- they fall in love. It was his idea for them to fall in love, and I had agreed completely. It would sure make for a surprise when we presented our short story to the class.

"Now that we have that figured out," a ding was heard from inside the house, "You should go change into your uniform and we can head out!"

"But the sweater has grown on me," I whined sarcastically.

"If you love it that much, take it. I hardly wear it anyway and it looks way better on you." He got up, heading towards the door of the laundry room.

"Wait, really?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah. It's yours now." He called from inside the house.

He came back out with my uniform and he practically threw it into my arms. I giggled, trying to catch my clothing. He smiled, retreating back into the house. The curtains were still closed, so I just began stripping again, careful to set aside my new sweater.