LIKE RAIN

by Leen Elle

  "But-"

  "You need to get closer to here if we start thinking about marriage," he said.

  "Marriage!" I screamed. "Who said anything about marriage? You can't marry her!"

  "I know it's a scary thing to think about, but I'm sure you realized that I might some day re-marry," he said.

  "I know that, but her?! How can you possibly want to marry her? She can't be my mother!" This was insane. I couldn't believe what he was telling me. There was no way in hell I could stand having her as my mother.

  "Nevaeh, calm down. This is why I want you to get to know her. I think you'd really like her if you tried to," he said.

  "No way!" I yelled. "There is no way I could ever like her."

  "Well, you're spending the day with her tomorrow."

  "What? Definitely not! I am not going," I protested.

  "Yes you are. Whether you want to or not, you're going. She's taking you shopping and for lunch. She'll be here at 10:30 tomorrow morning so you better be ready. No more complaining."

  "But-"

  "No more complaining," he said sternly. He got up and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. I could not believe what was happening. He couldn't make me go, he couldn't. I was not going to spend the day with her!

  But the next morning I found myself sitting in her car, staring out the window and sulking.

  "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Jasmine said.

  "Fun is not the word I was thinking," I mumbled. We got to the mall and Jasmine power-walked to the entrance in her way-too-high, way-too-skinny heels. I could just see her tripping and collapsing on the floor, and I almost wished that it had happened. I had to practically run to keep up with her as we dodged between people and made our way to the first store Jasmine wanted to visit, Bloomingdale's.

  "Um, isn't this a little expensive?" I asked as we made our way through racks of skirts, pants, and blouses.

  "Oh, don't worry about a thing," she said. "A woman can treat herself every once in a while, can't she?" I just rolled my eyes. "Now you go find your section, and I'll just stay right here in the woman's department. Just come find me when you're done," she said.

  I was relieved to get away from her. I didn't even go to my clothing section. I just walked around the store for about 10 or 15 minutes. It wasn't really my kind of store, and I could never pick out something that cost so much money.

  I went and found Jasmine after I walked around for a while. She was almost in exactly the same spot as when I left her. I saw she had a variety of clothing articles draped over her arm.

  "Oh you're back already!" she exclaimed.

  "Yeah," I said. "I didn't find anything."

  "Alright," she said. "I'm just going to try these things on. I'll be right back darling." I sighed and found a chair to sit in while I waited. Almost 20 minutes later she finally came out.

  "What terrible luck," she said. "Absolutely nothing fit right!"

  "Come on, let's go somewhere else," I said, growing more and more impatient. It went basically the same in all the stores we went it, except Jasmine was finding more and more things that fit her. By lunch time her arms were full of shopping bags, and mine were still empty.

  "Boy, all this shopping sure makes you hungry!" she said. "Let's go eat." Of all the 36 places we could eat she picked McDonalds. She ordered a salad and a diet pepsi, while I ordered 2 hamburgers, chicken selects, and a large fry. Jasmine looked at me with wide eyes when she saw what I had ordered.

  "God, where do you put all that?" she asked, dumbfounded.

  "I don't know," I shrugged. "Is that all you're eating?"

  She nodded. "Some people can't eat a house without getting fat." I almost laughed but stopped myself. "God, you're so tiny. I wasn't sure that you ate at all."

  I stopped and looked up at her. I hated her more for saying that. "You know," I said, putting down my hamburger, "I'm suddenly not feeling so good. Would you mind taking me home?"

  "Oh nonsense! We've still got loads more shopping to do!"

  "But I don't feel well," I said, growing impatient with her. "I want to go home."

  "Oh, well if you must," she said. So Jasmine took me home. She wanted to come in and make sure I was okay, but I insisted that she didn't. My dad looked up from his newspaper when I entered the kitchen.

  "You're home early," he said.

  "Yeah, I wasn't feeling too well," I lied. He looked at me suspiciously. I could tell he didn't believe me.

  He sighed heavily. "Nevaeh, the idea wasn't for you to try and get out of it early. You may think you were doing me a favor by going at all, but I wanted you to spend the whole day with her."

  "Dad, I spent more than enough time with her. I couldn't take it anymore!" I complained.

  "You're being ridiculous," he said. "Jasmine is a wonderful person, and you could see that if you actually tried to."

  "I will never see it."

  "Well you better start trying harder, because you're going to be seeing a lot more of her," he said.

  "You've got to be kidding me," I mumbled

  "Sit down," he said, motioning to the chair beside him. I dropped down into the seat. "I have something very important to tell you." He paused. "Jasmine's pregnant. We're going to have a baby."

  "WHAT?!" I screamed, jumping up from my seat. "You just met this woman and you're already sleeping with her!"

  "Nevaeh, calm down," he said.

  "No! I'm tired of being calm! This is insane. This whole thing is completely insane! She can't be pregnant. I don't believe it! I cannot believe you slept with that…that stupid whore!"

  "Nevaeh!" he yelled. "Stop it! I don't ever want to hear you talk like that about her again. Do you understand me?"

  "I hate you." I turned and ran out the front door. My face was streaming with tears as I ran down the street to Cael's house. I banged on the door, and he came to answer it.

  "Nev, what's wrong?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  "I HATE THIS! IT'S NOT FAIR! SHE CAN'T BE PREGNANT. I HATE HER! I HATE HIM!" I collapsed into his arms and tears were now gushing down my face.

  "Hey, hey. It's alright. Come on," he said, pulling me inside his house and shutting the door behind us. He led me to the couch and we both sat down. We didn't speak for a while. He just let me cry into his chest. I finally sat up and dried my tears. "Will you hold on just a second?" he asked. "I'll be right back." I nodded.

  Cael left the room and came back a minute later. "Okay," he said, sitting back down on the couch. "What's wrong?"

  I took a deep breath. "Jasmine's p-p-pregnant," I said finally.

  His eyes widened. "She's what?" he exclaimed.

  "Today my dad made me go shopping and to lunch with her. He said he wanted me to get to know her better. Now I know why. Oh my God Cael, I can't stand her. He can't marry her!" I sighed heavily and laid back against him.

  "Wow," he said. "I knew this was bad when I saw you crying. You never cry. But try seeing it from your dad's point of view. He's been lonely for 10 years, and for some reason he's less lonely with Jasmine."

  "Well he didn't have to be lonely," I said. "I was always there. He's the one who isolated himself from everyone."

  "I know, but now he's finally come out from hiding. I think he's gonna need your support in all of this. He needs you to be happy for him."

  "I'm not sure I can do that," I said.

  "Well you gotta try."

  I sighed again. "Cael, this is so crazy. Everything's changing so fast."

  "Well, there's one thing you can count on to always stay the same," he said. "I'll always be here for you."

  I thought about that. One thing that was changing was my relationship with Cael. He had a girlfriend now, and I sort of had a boyfriend. He wouldn't call me baby anymore, and I knew pretty soon he would have no time left for me.

  I smiled to hide what I was feeling. "Thanks," I said. "I should go, I guess."

  "Alright," he said. "See ya." He didn't get up. He didn
't hug me. He just let me stand up and walk out into the hot afternoon air. I could hear Maddy's voice ringing in my ear, still telling me that I was supposed to be with Cael.

  "I'm sorry," I said aloud, directing my words to Maddy as if she could somehow hear me. "But I guess God doesn't want it that way." I could just envision her shaking her head, telling me that if you wanted something you had to get it yourself.

  Chapter Fourteen

  My dad had already left when I got back. He was still gone when it was time for dinner so I called and ordered a pizza. 20 minutes later I heard a knock on the door.

  "Hey." It was Nathan. He didn't even wait for me to say anything. He just walked in, shut the door behind him, and kissed me. He led me over to the couch, his lips still locked on mine and set the pizza on the coffee table. He sat down and pulled me onto his lap. I kept thinking we should stop, but I didn't know how. 10 minutes later he was on top of me, and my shirt was on the floor.

  "We should stop," I said finally.

  "Why?" he asked, kissing my neck.

  "Because I don't know where my dad went, and he could be home any minute." Nathan didn't appear to be listening to me. He just kept kissing me. When I felt his hand pulling at my pants I sat up a little and pushed him off me. "Stop," I said firmly.

  "Sorry," he said, finally getting up. "Here." He handed me my shirt.

  "Well, I think my pizza should be free after that service," I said.

  He laughed. "No, I have to get in your pants if you want it free," he joked.

  "And do you give out free pizza often?" I asked.

  "Never." He smiled. "But this one's on me sweetheart." He kissed my forehead. "Alright, I guess I better go now."

  "No!" I said too loudly and too quickly. He looked at me, slightly puzzled. I blushed. I wasn't sure why I wanted him there so badly, I just knew I didn't want him to leave. "Could you stay?"

  He grinned. "Sure," he said, putting his arms around my waist and pulling me to him. "To do what?"

  I laughed. "Not what you're thinking."

  "Damn. Alright, how about we just watch a movie and eat pizza."

  "Sounds good," I said. So we put a movie in and ate our pizza. When my dad came home later that night I was sleeping in Nathan's arms.

  "Nevaeh!" my dad yelled, waking me up. "Nevaeh, what are you doing?" I straightened up, pushing Nathan's arms off me.

  "Well, we were sleeping," I said, already annoyed with him.

  "Don't give me any crap!" he yelled. "You can't just invite any guy you want into our house to do God knows what!"

  "Dad!" I screamed, becoming angrier by the second. "We didn't do anything so quit talking to me like I'm some kind of whore! You're the one who got a woman you hardly know pregnant! You're the one who's ruining my life!"

  His jaw dropped slightly and he appeared to be speechless. "Let's go," I said, grabbing Nathan's hand and pulling him up off the couch. We headed towards the door.

  "Nevaeh, you can't just run away from everything," my dad called after me. "You can't just run away from me!"

  "Like you've always done to me?" I closed the door behind us without waiting for another word from my father.

  "What was that all about?" Nathan asked once we got outside.

  "My dad's and idiot," I said, anger still boiling inside me. "He got some stupid woman pregnant. Now they're probably going to get married."

  "Oh, that's tough," he said.

  "Yeah, tell me about it. I hate her!"

  "So move in with me," he said.

  I almost laughed. "Yeah, that'll work," I said sarcastically. "I don't know what I'm going to do. This whole thing is insane."

  "I'm serious," he said. "You can move in with me." I stared at him, not sure what to say. "At least come check it out," he said.

  "Alright," I said. "I've got no where else to go." We got into his car and drove off. I could see my dad looking out the window as we pulled out of the driveway and down the street. We passed Cael's house, and I saw him sitting on the front porch with Kyla. It was midnight, I was in a car with a 19-year-old guy I just met, and Cael was sitting outside making out with some girl. So I guess we weren't meant to be, no matter how much Maddy had insisted we were.

  I sat back in my seat and smiled. I felt suddenly free. I liked being away from everything that was going wrong.

  "What are you smiling about?" Nathan asked me.

  "I'm not sure," I said.

  "Well, here we are," he said, pulling into the parking lot of a huge apartment building.

  "You live here?" I asked.

  "Yep, let's go." He led me to the elevator which we rode up to the 14th floor. He pulled out the key and opened the door to his apartment. It was surprisingly clean and tidy. The floors were carpeted in white, the kitchen was large, the couch was big and soft, and there was a balcony looking over the city.

  "I love it," I said.

  "And you haven't even seen the bedrooms yet," he joked. I laughed as he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. He walked into his bedroom and set me down on the bed.

  "Now what do you think of it?" he asked.

  "Even better."

  He grinned. "Well, there's a guest bedroom so you don't have to sleep with me. Unless you want to, of course."

  I smiled but didn't give him an answer. "I want to see the balcony," I said.

  "Yes ma'am." He picked me back up, draping me over his shoulder once again. He walked out onto the balcony and turned around so that my head and arms were hanging over the railing.

  "Oh my God!" I screamed. "Don't drop me!"

  He laughed. "I'm not gonna drop you," he said. "I'll just jump up and down."

  I screamed. "Put me down! Put me down!" Heights were my ultimate fear. He put me down, still laughing. "Not funny!"

  He grinned. "Yes it was."

  "I hate heights," I said.

  He laughed again. "You know I wouldn't drop you." I turned to look out at the city.

  "It's gorgeous," I said.

  "You are," he said, standing behind me and putting his arms around my waist. I leaned back into his chest. "Are you staying here tonight?" he asked.

  "Yeah," I said, without even thinking. I didn't have to think about it.

  "Which room?" he asked.

  I hesitated. "Yours."

  Chapter Fifteen

  "Nevaeh Ann Taylor! Get your butt in here!" I heard my dad yell from the kitchen. I sighed and rolled my eyes, dragging my feet into the kitchen. "Sit down," he said sternly. Jasmine was sitting at the table too. "Jasmine and I have been talking about your recent behavior and-"

  "You and Jasmine?" I said, cutting him off. "Why are you talking to her about it? It's none of her business."

  He took a deep breath, obviously having a hard time tolerating my attitude. I knew I was being rude, but I didn't care. "Nevaeh, I'm getting a little tired of this. I don't like the way you're behaving and it's going to stop," he said. I didn't say anything. "Where were you last night?"

  "What?" I said.

  "Where were you?" he said, raising his voice.

  "I was at a friend's house," I said.

  "And what friend would this be?" he asked.

  I sighed. "The one who was here last night."

  "What? You stayed over at a guy's house? What has gotten in to you?!" he exclaimed.

  "You never cared about any of this before! I used to be invisible to you!"

  "Jasmine and I think you're getting a bit out of control."

  "Jasmine!" I yelled. "There she is again. She's changing you dad! Why is she getting a say in my life?"

  "Are you aware that she's sitting right here?" he asked. Jasmine hadn't said a word yet.

  "Yes, I'm aware of it! I'm not blind!"

  "Well then maybe you shouldn't be talking about her so disrespectfully."

  "Well maybe she shouldn't be here!" I stood up.

  "Don't you dare get off that chair," he said. I scowled and sat back down. "Jasmine is here because we both have some news t
o tell you." I could already predict what this news was going to be. He took her hand in his. "We're getting married."

  I couldn't control it. A high-pitched scream escaped my mouth. "I'm moving out!" I yelled.

  At this, they both started yelling. "Nevaeh, don't be ridiculous! You can't move out. You're only sixteen. You don't even have a job," Jasmine said.

  "Thanks for you concern mom," I said coldly, "but I already have a place I can stay."

  "What?" my dad said. "What in God's name are you talking about?"

  "I'll stay with Nathan," I said, standing up from the table.

  "That guy you were with last night? There's no way you're living with him!" he yelled.

  "Well, I'm not staying here."

  He sighed. "Okay, I think everyone needs to cool off. We'll talk about this later."

  "Fine," I said, standing up and exiting the kitchen. I wasn't sure where to go. Normally, I would storm out of the house and head to Cael's, but today that wasn't where I wanted to be. Instead, I stomped up the stairs and locked myself in my room.

  I wasn't sure how I could contact Nathan. The only way I'd done it before was by ordering a pizza. He told me he wasn't working today, but I had him bring me home. I figured I had given my dad enough of a scare. I felt different. I had never been so rebellious before. Although Nathan and I didn't do anything, it still wasn't like me to go running off with some guy I hardly knew. It's funny how much a boy can alter your judgment.

  I had no idea what to do about Jasmine marrying my father. I knew I was being impossible, but I couldn't imagine her being my stepmother. I wasn't sure if I was serious when I said I would move out. I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

  "Nev?" My dad knocked on the door. "Would you open the door please?" I got up and unlocked the door, then went back and sat on my bed.

  "Where's Jasmine?" I asked.

  "She left," he said.

  "When's the wedding?"

  "We haven't decide yet, but that's not what I came to talk to you about," he said. "I want to talk about your recent behavior with…uh…men." I could tell he was extremely uncomfortable.

  "Dad, what are you talking about?" I asked.