Lighting a Match in the Rain

Chapter Eleven

The whole of my lunch break was spent in Mrs. Lane's classroom. Julian had practically begged me to join him for the hour so we could finish the project. Mrs. Lane was beyond delighted to be blessed with our presence, of course, and though insisting that she couldn't assist us in any way, she still pitched in her unofficial advice and direction. All the while 'not listening to our conversations' and 'focusing purely on grading papers.'

Sooner than later, the warning bell rang, and we packed up our stuff. Julian had already written a lot of the paper by himself, so we only had a few more paragraphs to type out then we'd be finished with it. "Coming?" he asked me when I didn't move to follow him out the door.

"Go ahead. I'll be there in a few." He nodded and disappeared into the hall.

"Something going on with you two?" Mrs. Lane questioned me as soon as he was out of earshot.

I gaped at her, fighting back the smile that always came when talking to her. "I already told you, there will be no boys for me this year. I'm not doing that again anytime soon."

She hummed and her hazel, almond-shaped eyes looked skeptical over my words. "Well despite what your gentle heart is feeling, the way he looks at you tells me that he's still interested."

I sighed, remembering how he acted with me at the party on Friday. I wasn't about to explain to her that I danced up against him and for sure felt his boner at one point. "Yeah, I know but I'm only interested in being his friend."

Her head bobbed, I guess finally trusting my claim. "If you say so...Have lunch with me tomorrow?"

"Sure. Then you can tell me all about how Macey is doing in your class," I said, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and giving her a hug.

She patted my back before releasing me. "And you can tell me all about this student council ordeal. I'm hearing you aren't the only president?"

Groaning, I just turned toward the door. "At least for the time being. It won't be for long." She just laughed as I left her to go to Mrs. Lemon's class where I would join my friends.

#

Yelling at my car, telling it how stupid it was, I slammed my palm down on the steering wheel and ignored the pain that ebbed in afterward. I thought I'd make it, but I didn't even get close. My poor car only made it a few miles off the school property and now I was stranded on the side of an empty road.

I had already called the repair place that my dad usually takes our vehicles to, and they said it would be an hour before they could come to get me and my car, despite the fact that the shop is only twenty minutes away from me. If I ended up waiting more than one hour I was going to get someone fired.

From this point forward, I was determined to learn at least a little something about cars because I hated the feeling of not being able to figure out the problem myself. I don't mind not knowing how to fix it, that's not my expertise, but I'd at least like to be able to know what's wrong.

As I waited, clouds gathered above the town and God decided to sprinkle Hollow Hills with rain. Soon, it was a downpour. Fortunately, after sixty-three minutes, a tow truck pulled up beside me on the road with the words "Al's Repair Shop" painted along the side. Relief flooded through me. I had begun to get bored. I ran out of Candy Crush lives ages ago and could only watch so many people do the same TikTok trend in one sitting. He was three minutes past the hour, but I decided I'd let it slide and not get him fired as I had once promised myself. The repairman climbed out of his car into the pouring rain and I followed suit.

"Thank you so much!" I started. "I don't really know what happened, but it's been days in the mak—," I stopped short when I recognized the familiar black hair and god-like bone structure. "Reed?" Yeah, it was him. His hair was drenched within seconds, flattening his waves down to his skull in a typically unattractive way, and a T-shirt that was once light-grey and hung loosely around his torso was darkening and clinging more to his skin by each passing second.