Wrong Quarterback | ✓

14 | kisses of water

           "It's raining."

"No it isn't. Is it?"

Reaching her arm out, Avery comes to a stop where they're walking along the breach trail. She turns her palm up towards the sky, watching a few droplets of water fall onto it, prickling her skin. Her lips twist into a smile. "Yeah it is."

She sidesteps a root as she continues to walk down this specifically narrow part of the trail, tilting her head back to glance up at the gray sky as her lips pull up further, droplets of water falling to her face.

A soft laugh escapes Ethan as she flings her arms out to her sides. "What are you doing?"

"Enjoying the rain." She says, glancing over her shoulder to look at him before she whirls on her heel, holding onto his arms as she smiles. His brows dip together, a glimmer crossing his eyes as there's a faint tug to his lips.

"Are we walking that way now?"

She rolls her eyes, pointedly tilting her head back to look up at the sky again, smiling – teeth and all – as the rain, which has increased in intensity hits her face. "Appreciate the rain with me."

"I'm appreciating it."

"For real."

She flickers her eyes back to him, narrowing them and a silent snort escapes him as he mimics her previous motion, tilting his head back to glance up at the sky. "Now what?"

"Now you smile."

The corners of his lips twitch. "Smile?"

She lifts her own eyes to the gray above, reaching her arms out as the cold rainwater prickles droplets over her skin in the otherwise warm summer's day. "Yeah, now you smile."

          A second later the sky cracks open with a thundering roar, rain pouring down, smattering against the leaves of the trees surrounding the trail and violently hitting the graveled path and the tree roots lying across it.

"Still smiling?"

Avery relishes in the feel of the water as it runs down her face. "Still smiling."

         As if in response to her words, another – louder, heavier – string of thunder makes it way across the sky, the tree crowns rustling above as the wind takes hold of them. She does love a good rain storm, but as the fabric of her blue linen sundress sticks to her body, as soaked through as her white tennis sneakers, she blinks away the water stuck to her eyelashes and looks over at him.

His lips quirk up. "Ready to run through this storm before it escalates or do you need more time to appr–" He cuts himself off as the gray sky flickers white, lightning striking down in the horizon. Another wave of crawling thunder follows and she laughs, already getting a move on.

"Let's find shelter. Whoa."

He's quick to wrap his hand around hers as she slips on a wet tree root, steadying her just as she's about to drop to the ground. "You okay?"

Another – silent – laugh escapes her lips. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

♡♡♡

They're full on running, sprinting down the street as they reach Ethan's neighborhood. The rain hasn't calmed down in the slightest, rather having grown even more fierce in the span of the past fourteen minutes. She follows him up his empty driveway as they reach his house at the end of the street, flying up the porch step and jumping in her place as he unlocks the door – more than eager to escape this downpour.