Ronnie juggled the shopping bags in his arms, cursing himself for leaving it so late that he had to buy this much at once. Unfortunately, he only had a about two bowls of cereal, no milk and various condiments left at home and no time for another trip later in the week, unless he wanted to walk in the rain. He looked at the oppressive clouds overhead. Today was risky enough as it is.
As he made his way down his street, he noticed someone in the middle of the road yelling emphatically at...the sky? He couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but they were pacing a lot, gesturing angrily at themself, the sky and the street around them with a beer can which they then lobbed at the sky, not even waiting for it to clunk to the ground a few metres away before shouting more profanities.
Before he could ask if they were okay, he was startled by a deafening boom and they were struck by a blinding crack of lightening.
For a moment, Ronnie just stared in shock, ears ringing, as the stranger fell to their knees. Then they were struck again and he came to his senses, clutching his bags close, ducking into the nearest porch and hoping Mrs Joy wouldn't mind him leaving his shopping here for a moment. She was probably napping right now anyway.
The stranger was on their hands and knees now. As Ronnie watched, there was another boom and blinding flash and the stranger keeled over onto their side. To his surprise, the stranger weakly lifted a hand and flipped of the clouds, only for their finger to promptly be struck by another bolt and fall back to the ground. Nothing happened for a worrying minute, then they somehow started to move, pushing themself off the ground.
Ronnie glanced at the sky before hurrying from out of his cover to help them up.
"Holy shit," he breathed as he pulled they to their feet, though their legs shook uncontrollably, "Are you okay?" Fuck him, of course they weren't okay. They just got struck by lightning.
"Fine," they spat, irritably brushing at their smouldering clothes. They took a deep breath. "Family drama," they explained with an eyeroll, though it didn't really explain shit.
"Oh," Ronnie replied, looking up at the clouds, then back at the stranger. "Anything I can do? Maybe call an ambulance or...something?" The more he looked, though, the more it seemed they didn't need one. Though their clothes were charred in a few places and their long blond hair was frazzled by static, they seemed mostly okay. Even their hand was unburned.
"Not unless you know how to make parents take some fucking responsibility for once in their lives."
"I wish I did," Ronnie sympathised.
"Yeah, me too." They gave the sky a dirty look, straightening out their jacket before holding a hand out to Ronnie. "Ben."
Ronnie took it. "Ronnie."
"Sorry about that."
"It's...it's fine."
Ben took a few unsteady steps toward the footpath where his beer can had fallen, Ronnie following closely in case he fell.
"My house is just there," he told him, pointing back the way he came, "Do you wanna come over and...lie down while you sober up or something?"
"Got a recycling bin?" Ben asked, picking up the can and crushing it into a disk between his hands.
Ronnie nodded. "Just let me get my stuff."
"I'm not drunk, by the way," Ben said as they walked to Mrs Joy's house, "I was tipsy, but..." He gestured upwards irritably.
"Nothing like some heavenly wrath to burn it out of your system?" Ronnie joked.
Ben smiled. "No," he agreed.
