Love Among the Pizza Boxes

The rain’s coming down in sheets now.
Holy mother of God, I’ve never seen it rain so much.
So, Shay and I are at the nearest gas station, which was about four miles away. So, not that bad of a run.
Well, we walked some of the way too.
But that’s beside the point.
And there’s a greasy man sitting behind the counter, peeking over his newspaper with a curious look on his face. He wears a red bowling shirt type deal and a beanie on his greasy head of hair. He’s got himself a beard.
I’m going to stop talking about that greasy old gooper now.
Gooper?
Okay. You’re cool, Riku.
Oh, you know it, Gary.
So. Gas. That’s what we need.
…
Oh, you are so immature, Riku.
Shut up, Constance; that was funny and you know it.
Anyways. I’m done talking to Constance and Gary now. I’m going to talk to an actually substantial person.
“Gotta love the rain,” I say just to say it, to no one in particular as I stare out the sticky gas station window.
“Oh, you know it,” Shay says, hauling a big ol’ red plastic jug of gas.
“Here, let me get that for you,” I say, taking the gas jug from her. Because what kind of boyfriend would I be if I made her carry it? And I set it on the counter that the grease ball is sitting behind and dig through my sopping wet jeans to find my waterlogged wallet. “How much, man?” I ask him.
Man?
Really?
You’re cool.
He completely ignores the question and leans towards us, shuffling his newspaper under his arm.
Shay schooches a little closer to my side.
“You wanna know something?” he asks in a low, Patchy-the-Pirate-like voice.
“Uh…” I blink.
Look at Shay.
Shrug.
Look back at the man.
“Sure?”
“The rain, rain like this. It tells of great sorrow. Do not be fooled by its pleasant-looking folly. You see, in life there is great love and the rain, rain like this. It tells of great sorrow. Do not be fooled by its pleasant-faced folly. You see, in life there is great love – “
“Yeah. We got it,” Shay cuts in, looking kind of shaken. “How much is the gas?”
“$15.26,” he says plain and simple, like he hadn’t just said something seriously… weird.
“Oookay?”
I pull a limp twenty-dollar-bill out of my wallet and grab the jug.
“Uh… Keep the change,” I say with a confused look over my shoulder as I take Shay’s hand in mine and walk out into the pouring rain.
Shayla shakes her hand out of mine and starts pacing ahead of me.
“Uh, Shay?” I ask, keeping her pace. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she says, shaking her head.
“What do you mean?”
By now I don’t know what to think.
Is she mad at me?
…
What did I do?
“That was just… weird. It was like…” She stops. “I dunno. Like, an old gypsy man came up to me, stuck his thumb on my forehead and whispered, ‘thinner’.” She shakes her head again. “It was just… bizarre.”
Shayla looks at me with her purple eyes. “Does that make any sense, Riku?”
I really want to tell her it does.
Like, really bad.
But honestly I have no clue what she’s talking about.
“Thinner?”
“Uh… Stephen King book. You know, with the gypsy curse…?” She looks me over and then sighs. “Yeah. I know. Stupid.” She kinda smiles.
“No, not stupid – smart. I never would have known that. If anything, I’m stupid.” I rub her forearm with one hand.
Her smile gets a little bigger and then she starts dragging me, my hand hold over her shoulder, to the side of the road.
“Uh… What are you doing?”
“We’re in the street and I wanna hug you, but we’re in the street.”
“Oh. Well okay.” I smile.
Then we’re on the shoulder of the dirt road and her arms are around my waist, but don’t quite make it all the way around.
I put one hand on her back, and the other on the back of her head, holding her close to me.
“Y’know…” Shayla says, placing her chin on chest so she can look up at me. “I think you’re the sweetest person I’ve ever met. And the goofiest and the wackiest and the silliest. And I think I love every last bit of it. I love every last bit or your silly wacky goofiness and your… wacky silly goofiness. I think that if I tried for years, searching for someone like you, I’d be very disappointed. Because there’s only you. You’re the only one who I’d make stand through a sap fest in the pouring rain. Because you’re you and I’m me and I love you. A lot more than I should. And I’m okay with that. I’m really, really okay with that.”
Constance had a ball with that speech.
I can’t stop smiling.
I have no clue how to respond though.
So I’m just gonna kiss her.