by A'zayler
Love Me through the Rain 3
A Novel By:
A’zayler
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© 2016
Published by Leo Sullivan Presents
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All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.
Chapter 1: The End or the Beginning?
Rain squinted hard as she tried to look avoid Love’s eyes. He was standing at the door of her hospital room staring at her, Summer, and Alex. The three of them had been talking about his sister, Fallon, when he walked in and heard them. Though he’d asked her two times already who she was talking about, she remained still, not saying anything because she wasn’t sure what to say.
It wasn’t her business to tell. Hell, it really wasn’t even her business to know. Fallon hadn’t told her, so she was certain she wouldn’t want her telling Dakota either. She could slap Summer for being so nosey and telling them what she’d read on Fallon’s chart. Rain fidgeted with the covers on her bed but didn’t break eye contact.
“Rain, I know you hear me talking to you.” Love’s voice sounded through the semi-empty hospital room.
“We’ll leave y’all alone. Just call me later, boo.” Summer stood from the bed and grabbed her purse.
“Why we got to leave?” Alex stayed seated.
Summer pointed her finger at him. “Bitch, get your ass up and come on. Nosey behind.”
Alex sucked his teeth and stood from the bed. He stormed over to the chair and grabbed his purse. When he turned around, all three of them were looking at him. Summer and Rain with looks of amusement, Love’s face was unreadable, but he probably didn’t find Alex the least bit entertaining.
Summer looped her arm through his and shook her head. “You make me so damn sick sometimes.”
“Whatever. You wanted to leave. Not me… bye, Rain.” Alex waved over his shoulder.
Love stepped to the side so that they could pass him before closing the door and walking over to Rain’s bed. Rain’s heart was beating a mile a minute as she tried to think of what to do next. Was she supposed to tell him? Was she not supposed to tell him? Should she make up some type of lie to fill in for their outburst? Summer and Alex had just left her; hadn’t thought twice about helping her get out of the mess they’d help her make.
Love’s locs were in a loose ponytail at the back of his neck. Some of the burgundy ends were hanging over his shoulder and around the top of his arm. He was so handsome with the light scowl on his face. He was seated with his legs stretched out in front of him with one of his hands in his lap and the other resting on her thigh.
“Tell me what’s good, Rain. I know it’s something you’re trying to hard not to tell me.”
Rain was thrown off by his tone for a moment because she’d thought he was angry, but it didn’t sound like he was. He rubbed her thigh softly, as he looked up at her face. As bad as Rain wanted to look away, she couldn’t because he was so beautiful and all hers. The dark chocolate skin and beautiful light brown irises were so magnetic. She couldn’t help but stare. He turned his head slightly to the side and softened the look on his face.
Rain could feel herself getting hotter and she hated it. Now was not the time for sex, but he was making it so hard. Being his beautifully handsome self, not doing anything, in particular, just watching her like only he could. Making her forget any and everything around and wanting to just jump into his lap and ride him into the sunset.
“Baby Doll. You okay?”
Rain nodded.
“I heard you say someone had AIDS. Who were you talking about?”
Dang!
Rain held her head down and pushed the hair that had just fallen over her eyes, behind her ear. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her breathing. Love could obviously tell something was wrong with her because he grabbed the bottom of her chin and held her head up. Rain’s eyes darted away from his momentarily, but it didn’t last as long as she would have liked.
“Look at me.”
Rain’s eyes landed on his and stayed, her dark ones to his light ones. “Summer.”
Love’s whole body tensed up. “What?”
Rain palmed her face and bit the inside of her cheek. Why in the hell did she just lie like that?
Love stood up from the bed. “When she found that shit out?”
“Yesterday.” And the lie continued.
“Damn, that’s fucked up. I need to tell my nigga. They been fucking and shit.” Love sounded disgusted.
Rain sat back on her bed and tried her hardest not to laugh. Summer was going to kill her. Whenever Love did tell Jacorey, that was going to be some funny shit. Rain giggled quietly because she could imagine how Summer and Jacorey were going to act when it came up. Both of them could be so dramatic at times.
“How in the fuck she missed that shit?” Love turned around and leaned against the windowsill.
Rain shrugged.
“Ain’t no way she could have missed no shit like that. That girl is healthy as fuck. Why you playing with me, Rain?” Love’s entire demeanor changed.
Rain sighed because she thought that maybe she’d bought herself some time, but clearly that wasn’t happening. Love crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her. He didn’t smile, nor did he frown. A straight face with not one ounce of emotion was displayed. Time was up. Her game was over.
“Fallon.” Her name was a whisper on Rain’s lips.
Rain watched him fall apart in front of her. She jumped out of her bed the moment she saw his chest sink in. His arms uncrossed and he grabbed his head with his hands. He sighed heavily before releasing something that sounded like more of a growl than anything. His shoulders rose and fell as he took deep breaths and released tears at the same time.
Rain was about to wrap her arms around his waist, but she was unable to. He had leaned over and had his hands resting on his kneecaps. His ponytail fell to one side of his neck, as he tried to catch his breath. Rain rubbed her hand up and down his back, allowing him time to gather himself. When he began dry heaving, Rain ran to the small wooden stand next to her bed.
She opened one of the drawers and grabbed the plastic pink tub and ran to him. With impeccable timing, Love began to vomit the moment she placed the bucket in front of his face. She held the bucket with one hand and moved his hair out of the way with the other.
“It’s okay, baby.” Rain tried her best to soothe him.
“Urrgggh,” came from his mouth, as he continued to throw up the remnants of his stomach.
When he fell down to his hands and knees, Rain nearly spilled the bucket of vomit. She was trying her best to keep it near his mouth so he wouldn’t make a mess, but he was making it hard. On all fours, Love threw up until he had nothing left. Once he finally finished, he sat back on the floor and leaned against the wall. He lay his head back and closed his eyes while Rain stood to empty the bucket.
Once she was finished, she washed her hands and wet a few paper towels to wipe his mouth. She kneeled next to him and cleaned his mouth. He was probably as weak as he felt because he hadn’t moved, nor had he tried to offer her any help. His eyes remained closed with his arms down by his side. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought he had fallen asleep.
Rain made sure he was cleaned up before she threw the paper towels away and retu
rned to the floor next to him.
“Get a pillow to sit on,” he told her.
Rain smiled and stood to get a pillow. He wasn’t too out of it; he remembered to tell her not to sit on the hard floor. The nurse had come in the day before and explained different things, and hemorrhoids were one. She explained to Rain that she should try her best not to sit on anything too hard. Clearly, Love had been listening, too.
She returned with one of the pillows from her bed and sat next to him. Once she was comfortable, she leaned her head over and laid it on his shoulder. She laced her fingers with his and held their hands in her lap.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“How did you know?”
Rain debated lying again but figured she might as well get it all out in the open at one time.
“I went to talk to her.”
Love’s eyes opened and he turned to look at her. “You did what?”
“I went to her room and talked to her. She’s really nice, and the two of you look so much alike.”
“Why would you do that, Rain? I didn’t tell you to do that.”
“Okay, first of all, I didn’t need your permission. You’re not my daddy. Second of all, because somebody needed to do something. You and her both are walking around in this world like y’all have nobody when you could have each other. I don’t understand it. That’s crazy as hell.”
Love’s breathing began to pick up as he listened to her speak about him and his sister’s relationship.
“That still doesn’t give you the right to go behind my back and talk to her.”
Rain leaned forward so that he could see her face. “You must didn’t hear me when I just said that you weren’t my daddy?”
Love sucked his teeth and looked away from her.
“Now I know you may not want to hear what I have to say because you’re all in your feelings right now, but aren’t you the same one that was just sitting here vomiting because you found out she’s sick? Clearly, there’s some love and issues there that need to be addressed.” Rain stood up from the floor. “If neither of you are mature enough to handle it then I’ll do it for you. I have not one problem doing so.”
Rain sat on the edge of her bed and looked at Love. She could understand where he was coming from, but that didn’t mean she was going to allow him to throw any unnecessary tantrums. That was his sister and they needed to act as such. Whatever little problems they’d had in the past, it was time for them to let them go.
They were grown, and may not have a lot of time left to spend together, so they needed to spend it wisely. She sat in the same spot looking at him for another few minutes until he began to stand from the floor. When he was at his full height, he stretched his limbs before yawning. After he’d gotten himself together, he walked to the chair he had been sleeping in and took a seat.
Without saying anything to her, he pulled his phone out and began scrolling. Rain thought about saying something to him, but she didn’t have the time, nor the patience, so she didn’t even bother. If he wanted to act like a butthole because he didn’t want her help, then so be it. She would leave him right to it.
She got up from her bed and fumbled around in her purse for her cell phone before sitting back and making herself comfortable again. If he wanted to act like a fool, then she could too. They sat in her room for nearly a whole hour straight without saying anything to one another. The only reason they ended up having to say something was because the nurse came in with her discharge papers.
Rain was over the moon happy. She had been waiting on that since the day she’d gotten there. She was so ready to go, it only took her twenty minutes to get dressed.
“You ready?” Love grabbed the small purple bag with all of her things in it.
“No. I need to stop by your sister’s room first.” Rain knew that was a low blow, but she didn’t care. She liked Fallon and was going to pursue a relationship with her.
If she and Love chose not to have common sense and do the same, then that was their business. Her parents hadn’t raised her like that. There was no way in the world she would have a sibling in the same town as her and not talk to them. That was just stupid.
“No, the hell you don’t.”
“Oh, yes I do, and I will. If you don’t want to join me, then please take your butt to the car and I’ll be down when I finish.”
“Rain, I’m not playing around. You’re not going. Let’s go.”
“Yes, I am.”
Love released a frustrated breath and looked toward the door. He took another few deep breaths before grabbing all of her things and storming out of her room. She felt a little dejected because she’d assumed he would have been a little easier to win over. She’d thought a little convincing and sweet talk would have changed his mind. Clearly, that hadn’t worked.
For a minute, she almost thought about changing her mind and just going home without seeing Fallon again, but she decided against it. It would only take her a minute to exchange numbers with her. There was no telling when they would run into each other again, so she might as well take advantage of the current opportunity.
Rain checked her face in the mirror, making sure she still looked decent, before sliding her feet into her slippers and looking around her room. She wanted to be sure that she hadn’t left anything before exiting. When she was sure she had everything, she left the room and headed back around to Fallon’s room.
The door was closed, with the same warning sign on the door. Being that she now knew what was wrong with her, she didn’t feel as nervous about going in. Of course, she knocked first, but as soon as she heard Fallon yell for her to come in, she pushed the door open. The same man from earlier was still there, and he was sitting in the chair at the bottom of Fallon’s bed.
Rain smiled at him politely before rounding the corner for Fallon to see that it was her. As soon as she saw Rain, she smiled.
“I swear you look just like Dakota. This is crazy.” Rain shook her head.
Everything about her face resembled Dakota’s. It was so weird looking at his face on a girl. He was so sexy to Rain, but there was nothing sexy about Fallon. Not in Rain’s opinion. She was a very beautiful girl, but it was still weird. Or maybe Rain was the weird one.
“He’s not with you, is he?” Fallon’s eyes got wide.
Rain shook her head. “No. It’s just me.”
“Good. What made you come back so fast? You missed me already?” Fallon smiled, and the hazel eyes that matched Dakota’s twinkled.
Rain shared in her giggling. “Of course, I missed you, but that’s not why I came back. They finally discharged me so I wanted to come by and maybe exchange numbers or something before I go home. Maybe we could have lunch or something one day.”
Fallon’s smile dropped a little, but she nodded her head. “I don’t normally get out of the house much, but sure. We can talk on the phone.”
Rain noticed the way she looked over at her man before agreeing to exchange numbers. Though she wasn’t a big fan of that, it wasn’t her business, so she just pulled her phone out and waited for Fallon to call her number out to her. After she had it entered in her phone, she called the number and heard a phone ringing.
Fallon looked over at her phone on the table next to her bed and picked it up. “I’ll save it. It was so nice to meet you, Rain. You seem so sweet. I’m glad my brother has you.”
Rain touched her chest where her heart was. “I wish he had you, too.”
Fallon nodded before looking away. Rain took that as a sign to leave well enough alone. “Well, I’ll be hitting you up soon, sis.”
Rain stuck her phone back in her pocket and let herself out of the room. She wanted to hug her or something, but she wasn’t wearing any of the protective gear that was recommended, so she didn’t bother. She walked back around the corner where her room was so that she could head to the elevators. When she rounded the corner, Love was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.
He saw her and sto
od straight up on his feet. Rain was caught off guard momentarily by his outstretched hand. Versus continuing on with her attitude, she decided to take his truce and move on. She locked her hands with his and walked down the hallway. They didn’t say anything to one another, just proceeded to the exit in silence.
His truck was pulled to the front near the door when they got outside. He helped her inside before rounding the truck and getting in himself. He drove out of the parking lot and in the direction of his home before saying anything.
“You’re going to need some clothes,” he whispered.
It was like everything that she had been trying not to think about came back in that moment. She hadn’t thought about her home being burned down in a few days because it was too painful. That one statement had resurfaced every piece of pain that she had been feeling. It was going to take too much for her to start over, but from the looks of things, she had no other choice. Rain sniffed hard enough to stop any tears from falling.
She cleared her tightening throat as well. “Can we go by there, please?”
Love looked at her and shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. You just got out of the hospital.”
“Please. I want to see it.”
She was certain it was against his better judgment, but Love made a U-turn in the middle of the street and drove toward her house. The soft sounds of Jeremih sounded throughout the truck as he drove. Rain looked out of the window, taking in the scenery. It felt so good to be out of the hospital. The various houses and restaurants had her so caught up that she didn’t even notice they were in her neighborhood until she saw the blackened building that was once her home.
Tears rose as Love pulled his truck to a stop. Rain unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. She was out of the car and headed up her small sidewalk before Love caught up with her. The door was burned to ashes, so she was able to walk right in. With Love’s assistance, she moved through the living room. Her furniture was still recognizable, as well as some of her pictures.