Chapter Three - Rain

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"She tells me she wants to be a raindrop. She doesn't mind falling. As long as she's not alone."

Chapter Three// "Some of us feel the rain, others get wet

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Chapter Three// "Some of us feel the rain, others get wet."

"Well, well, well." A hand slammed down on the table.

Lana saw Alex's gaze turn from her to the left, and warily turned her head to face the man whose voice she recognized.

"The infamous Lana, out and about in town sneaking around with some unknown guy!" Two-bit Matthews announced.

He popped the maraschino cherry lying on top of Lana's napkin into his mouth, and made himself comfortable by stealing a chair from someone else's table.

"Ew, Two-bit I could've eaten that and spit it back out!" Lana said.

"And, for the record, we're not sneaking out," Alex chimed in.

"Oh?" Two-bit turned to face Lana and whispered in a low voice. "I think Darry is waiting at home for you or something."

All the color in Lana's face dropped. "Shit."

"What's wrong?" Alex questioned.

"I forgot we planned a family dinner tonight." Lana grabbed her belongings quickly and reached her pockets for the cash. Two-bit stood up next to her.

"By the way, I could've tasted your saliva if you had spit it out. I know you didn't." Two-bit added in matter-of-factly. For a split second, Alex and Lana both stared at him with disgust.

Alex followed them up. "Hey, don't worry about paying, I got it."

Lana hugged him as a thank you, but passed him some money anyway. "Seriously, I'm really dumb for forgetting. I'm so sorry, but I had fun today."

Alex scrambled to get cash out of his pocket and put it on the table as he tried to catch up with the fleeing girl. All the while, Two-bit trailed from behind in amusement.

Outside of the diner, the best friends hugged eachother, but not before some last words to the other. Alex put his hands on Lana's shoulders and looked her in the eye, "Stay out of trouble, okay?"

Lana reassured him and the two parted ways on opposite sides of the street.

"So, I assume you two are together?" Two-bit popped in.

"So, I assume you're driving me home?" Lana answered, avoiding the question.

"Yes, I am." He chuckled evilly.

"Should I be scared, Two?" Lana asked him, rhetorically.

"Nope," he grinned cheekily, then turned serious. "Be honest though, if you're seriously dating that boy, your brothers are gonna put you and him through hell."

Lana was already in the passenger side seat in unease and put her head to the window. "I'm not."

"Okay, respectable." Two-bit agreed, thinking the conversation was over.

Lana looked at him, weirded out that he would ever use that phrase, but continued with her train of thought. "Even if I was though, why would it be such a problem for me to date a boy? I mean my brothers talk about girls all the time."

This was quite a common occurrence for the two friends to be sharing their feelings and, in fact, Keith Matthews was one of the first people she ever confided in about her relationship with her brothers to.

The air in the car turned grim, and Two looked at her warily. Ever since the Curtis parents died, things had been hard for the siblings but especially hard on the 16 year old girl. Two-bit knew how harsh her brothers could be with her at times.

"It's just different with boys than in girls. It'll always be that way." Two-bit settled on saying. Golly, he thought. That actually came out much harsher than I intended it to.

Lana sighed. "It isn't fair."

Two-bit turned the corner sharply to the street Lana lived on and almost gave her a heart attack. Then, Lana contemplated her next words carefully, knowing she'd probably regret them as she said them.

"Sometimes, I just wish I wasn't in this family!" She rambled. "Like, why can't I just be a... a... raindrop! A raindrop, that's it. Floating through the sky and then falling to the ground. Actually, that sounds pretty painful. Well, you know, at least if I was a raindrop I wouldn't be feeling all this pain alone. I'd have a million other little friends... hehe, that'd be cute."

Two-bit was shocked at first, from what she initially said, but realized it was pretty normal to feel like that. As he parked his car and turned the engine off, he wanted so much to stop the girl in her tracks before she said anything worse she'd regret, but realized her rambling was probably a cause of the anxiety she was having about facing Darry, from coming home late and being with an unknown boy.

"Relax," Two-bit said in a calming voice as they were marching up the steps to her door. "Everything will be okay with Darry. The gang is here, he had a good day at work, and I made up some silly excuse that you were doing me a favor before he was able to get too worried."

Lana sighed again, and realized how grateful she was for Two-bit. "Thanks, Two, you just know how my mind gets in situations like these."

The duo entered into the house, and soon enough were sitting down at the table and enjoyed dinner with the gang.
°•
Lana's POV
My breath fogged the mirror before me, expanding from the humidity in the room to all four corners of the reflective surface.

Six drops of water accumulated on the very top of the mirror, and I noticed two droplets fell faster than the rest, then forming into two and colliding into the marble countertop below.

The four droplets left over were halfway down the mirror now, but one of them, smaller than the rest, was falling faster than the others.

My heart beat into my chest as I focused more closely on the race of droplets to their demise. With a start, right when the third drop was about to collide on the countertop, it was I who started to fall down a dark abyss.

Wind was rushing through my hair and only pins of light provided the ability of my vision. I looked down, and saw my parents below me, falling faster than I could keep up with and enveloping into darkness in one big swallow. Above me, I saw my three brothers tangled with each other, also falling but not as fast as I was.

When I observed what was falling beside me, a whimper fell out of my mouth when I saw Johnny. Holding his foot, trying to keep him from letting go, was Dallas. And then, right before crashed, I saw Alex, yelling for dear life.

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