Can't Evade Love

She tried her hardest not to fall for him...

I walk through the doors of the school library to find a book on Leonardo da Vinci for my Art Studies project. We have to research a famous artist and describe their style and what makes them stand out from other artists. I find the biographical section and walk down the aisle, searching for the ‘D' shelf. After standing there, searching the books and not finding da Vinci, I turn to leave.

 "Who are you looking for?" I hear from behind me. I turn and see a tall boy with dark hair, wearing all black. We are practically identical.

 "It's not here. I'll just look at the city library," I respond. He walks closer to me and looks at the shelf I was searching through.

 "Maybe you just weren't looking in the right spot," he whispers, leaning into me. The corner of his mouth lifts a little in a smirk and I back up to a more comfortable distance.

 "No, I think I was looking in the right place. I would think they'd have a book on da Vinci here but apparently, they don't."

 "It's probably in the ‘V' section, not the ‘D' section," he replies matter-of-factly, heading toward a shelf on the opposite side. I follow him to see if he's right.

 "Ah, here it is," he says handing me a book. The Artistic Life of Leonardo da Vinci. I nod my head at him and turn to leave but he grabs my hand.

 "Wanna hang out sometime?" he asks.

 "No," I say sternly and swipe my hand back. He squints his eyes at me as if he is surprised I turned him down. I go to the librarian's desk to check out my book and he follows me. I try to ignore him but then he speaks.

 "Why?"

 "There you go, sweetheart," the librarian says sweetly. I smile at her and leave, hoping he won't follow me again, but he does.

 "Hello? Are you going to answer my question? Or are you still thinking about it? I could come back later if you need more time."

 "That'd be great! How about in a hundred years?"

            "Wow, that's harsh. Why so serious?" he says, mimicking The Joker. I ignore him again and carry on walking to the bus stop. A bus approaches and I make my way toward it, willing for him to follow me this time. He stands in front of the door, attempting to block me from entering the bus. I duck under his arm and take a seat in the back. He sits down next to me.

            "But, really. Why not? I'm not asking much. I just want to hang out."

            I stand back up and head to a seat a few rows in front of us. He sits next to me again, glaring at me in wait for an answer. "You know, this isn't my bus. I'm risking my way home for this."

            Two guys the size of football players enter the bus and I take my opportunity for escape. I dart out of the seat and between the guys, jumping off the bus. The driver closes the doors as my feet hit the sidewalk.  

"Not my bus either!" I yell back at him. His face drops but then his smirk returns.

"Meet me at the park at five!" he shouts back at me. I turn around and shake my head. I wave to him as the bus passes me.

----

 I look down from my chemistry textbook to check the time on my phone: 4:45. Will he actually be there? Is this just a plot to make me look stupid by showing up to no one? I decide to take the chance and walk down to the park. I don't know why. Actually, I do. No one has ever shown me that much attention or been so persistent for mine. I'm just going to see if he's there. If he is, we might talk, but that's it. That's it.

 I look around before sitting down on a bench. I take my phone out and check the time again: 5:02. Maybe he's not here yet. Or maybe he stood me-, before I can finish that thought, hands go over my eyes.  I jump a little at first but then I hear his voice.

 "Guess who?"

 "I actually don't know. I don't think you ever told me your name."

            "No, I don't think I did either," he says as he sits next to me. "Cody," he adds, extending his hand to me. I take it and reply, "Rain."

 "Rain? Like the watery stuff that falls from the sky?" I nod. "Wicked. I like it. ‘Cody' is so boring. I wish my parents had named me something cool like ‘Rain'."

 "Isn't it so unfair that they can do that?" I ask him.

 "What do you mean?" he asks, dropping his arm around my shoulders. I grab his hand and guide his arm back to his side.

 "That they can name us whatever they want. Why can't we name ourselves? Do our parents have to choose everything for us? My name should be my name."

 "What would we be called in the meantime? Homo sapien number 2-0-0-4? I feel like that would get confusing. Plus, we can change our names anyway when we get old enough."

 "True, but I still don't think you should have to wait until you're sixteen like I did."

 "You changed your name? What was it before ‘Rain?' Wait, let me guess. Sun? No, Rainbow?"

 "Alright, enough. No, it wasn't either of those."

 "What was it then?" he asks, leaning closer to me and raising an eyebrow. I scoot backward on the bench but there isn't any more bench to scoot backward on and I fall off. My butt hits the ground and I feel my phone in my back pocket. Cody stands up and offers me his hand with his other arm behind his back. I laugh a little and get up by myself.

 "What was that I just heard? Was that a… no, it couldn't have been. Did you just…laugh, Rain?" He puts his hands over his open mouth in false surprise. I hit him lightly on the chest and he smiles. He walks over to an oak tree and sits down under it, patting the grass beside him. I sit down next to him and he stares up at the sky.

 "What are you doing?"

 "Birds," is all he says.

            "You're doing birds. Very interesting. Did they consent?"

            "You're pretty funny, you know that? No, I like birds. How amazing would it be to have wings? To be able to take off at any moment? Since the beginning of time, I think Man has been jealous of birds for that one reason. They're free. They can go anywhere they want, anytime they want," he says, laying his head on my outstretched legs. I question myself if I should move him off of me but he seems so content just lying there and it really doesn't bother me much.

 I look up at the birds as well and see a hawk circling a tree. "There's a price to pay, though. Some birds don't even make it past eggs. They get stolen from the nest and eaten. Plus, you probably don't get to choose what type of bird you are. Imagine having to be an emu," I say.

            "Emus are scary. They chase you around and have unnaturally long necks for a bird. I don't like them. They freak me out."

 "You did it again, Rain," he says. I furrow my brows at him and he looks up to me. I look down at him and he says, "You laughed." I roll my eyes at him. I don't even remember laughing. I guess it's just my natural reaction to being around Cody. Stop it! Just hanging out. Just talking. Nothing else! We went over this, Rain. Right, I say to myself as I start to stand up, letting Cody's head fall to the ground. He frowns at me and sits up.

            "I've got to go now," I say quickly.

 "Alright, see you around."

-----

 I exit the auditorium as the assembly finishes. Seniors can leave after it so I start walking home.

 "Rain! Rain! Wait up, Rain! Oh, come on!" I hear from behind me as I start to walk faster.

 "Hey, watch it, dude." "Sorry."

 "Rain, was that necessary?" I don't reply and he asks, "You alright, Rain? You seem upset."

 "You've known me for one day and all of the sudden you think you understand me? You don't, Cody. No one understands me. So, just leave me alone," I grunt at him, trying to hold back the tears in my eyes.

 "What's wrong? Did someone hurt you? Say something to you? Who was it? I'll break his nose. I will, Rain, just tell me who."

 "Unless you want to break my mom's and the guidance counselor's noses, I don't think you'll be much help, Cody."

 "Oh. What happened then?" he says. I sigh and we walk in silence for a few minutes. I don't even realize where I'm going until I get there and sit under the oak tree. I take my backpack off and show Cody the packet we received of college information from the assembly.

 "College? What about it? Are you worried you won't get in? You seem pretty smart to me, Rain."

  "My mom wants me to go to State but I don't even want to go to college. I don't think it's my place."

 "What do you want to do instead?" Cody asks.

 "Art. I love painting and that's what I want to do. I don't want to waste my time going to college and learning trigonometry and geology. I want to paint and draw."

 "What if you went to the University of Pennsylvania? That's only like an hour away and they have a great art program."

 "I thought of that but I still have to take the other classes I don't care about."

 "Sacrifices, Rain. Sometimes you've got to make sacrifices to get what you want."

 "I guess you're right. I just want to jump right into having my own art studio. The rest just seems irrelevant."

 "If you want your own art studio, don't you have to have some sort of business background? You could take business and art classes. That would cancel out some of the others you don't feel like you should have to take."

 "Yeah, I guess so," I say, running my hand along my sketchpad. He looks over at it and stares.

 "Nope, don't have it."

 "What?"

 "X-ray vision. I was trying to see if I could look through the cover." I lift up the cover and fold it behind my sketchpad. "That better?" I ask.

            He scans the drawing first, taking it all in. Then he looks at only certain parts, discovering the little details I added.

 "That's amazing, Rain. Truly amazing. How you got that lady's facial expression and the baby crying. You can see the look on the mom's face is concerned but calm as well. And the background with the stream and bridge, it's beautiful." He picks up the drawing pad and turns through some of the pages. My heart races as he flips through my most private possession. I feel as if he's peering into my soul.

 "Don't," I say as he turns to the page I drew on last night. I'm too late, though, he's already seen it. His clenches his jaw slightly in surprise.

 "Oh my God," he whispers, "It's like looking in the mirror. My hair, my nose, my eyes, my…everything. You're so talented, Rain," he says, looking up at me.

 My eyes drift downward but he softly lifts my chin so my eyes meet his. "They're beautiful. You capture everything so accurately, yet it's so…original and…you. Beautifully, originally, you."

 "You've got to stop doing that."

 "What?" he asks.

 "Saying things that make me want to kiss you."

 "You want to kiss me?" he asks tenderly.

            "Yes," I confess.

 He leans forward and closes his eyes and I do the same. Within seconds our lips meet and I feel warm despite the cold December air around us. My hand reaches up to cup his cheek and his arm curls around my neck. I open my mouth and feel his tongue meet mine, dancing to the rhythm of our synced heartbeats.

We break apart and I say, “Johanna, my real name is Johanna.” He laughs and kisses me lightly. “I like Rain better,” he says.

I kiss him back as if to say “me too.”

Author's Note

What? I know. I haven't written something this long in months.

Reviews

[barleygirl]

This is a delicious & brilliantly written love story! Wow! I'm so jaded, I'm sick of all the love poems here, so it takes a lot to get me to really "let go" & immerse myself in any kind of love situation. You do an excellent job of conveying physicality between two people using only words. Your various scenarios are easily visualized. Another thing you do really well is come up with playful realistic edgy dialogue. So much "love story" dialogue makes me want to barf it can be so predictable & lacking in true flirtatious whimsy. This is one of the best stories I've read lately, & I can't believe it's a love story, ta-boot! *smile* Fondly Margie