A Beautiful Moment Amongst The Rain

I woke up one Thursday morning for school. I don't really know what it was that inspired me to get out of bed every morning with a smile. The day could have been gloomy and cloudy, but it wouldn't have mattered at all. Something was always there for me, giving me a reason no matter what.

I wasn't overly obsessed with my looks, my light brown hair and hazel eyes. I think I was average looking, nothing special. Yet, I'd preen in front of that bathroom mirror for at least five minutes before heading out the door for school.

My brother Ben, was always complaining about me, how long I took. I loved him, a lot. I never told him though, because I didn't want to say it, and I knew he didn't want to hear it.

"Tabbie, hurry the hell up! Some of us gotta gel up our hair!" he shouted at me from behind the closed bathroom door.

"Wait a sec okay?! Why don't you just put on a hat today instead of doing your hair?! It looks bad anyway!" I replied as I ran a brush through my hair for the third time.

"What do you know about cosmetology for guys?! Hurry up or we're gonna miss our ride!"

He was talking about my friend Lizzie, who gave us rides to school in her father's car. She had just recently gotten her drivers license, and was more than happy to use and abuse it. It would be a couple months before I could attempt to get my license again. I had failed miserably, not being able to parallel park. I went home crying, feeling like a complete failure at trying to pass one of the token moments of any teenagers life.

But Lizzie made it okay, she told me she'd be my personal driver until I got my own license. It was sweet of her, but I still did my best not to depend on her for transportation. We were close, but I refused to take her for granted. I didn't have that many friends, but the ones I had were wonderful.

"What are you doing in there?!" my brother exclaimed in his annoying voice.

"Slipping a tampon in, what do you think?!" I shouted at him, knowing it'd disgust him.

"You're fucking gross! Whatever, I'd rather put on a hat than step into a bathroom that you've been in, doing God knows what!" he remarked.

I heard him grumble and trudge away, allowing me a few moments of satisfaction for my victory over the small mind of the male species. I gave myself one last look over, before opening the bathroom door and turning off the light.

"You're sick!" Ben said, coming up from behind me.

I turned to face him, sneering at him. He was wearing one of his stupid faded black caps which made him look like a raggedy bum.

"Whatever, you guys aren't any better, nutting yourselves in your sleep!" I barked at him.

He gave me another look of disgust, "We don't do that crap! Where did you hear that bull?!"

Was he that naive and ignorant? A boy, going on 14, unaware of nocturnal emissions?! I had to screw with him on this one.

"Yeah, they teach it to you in school during sex-ed classes. It's not something normal, in fact, it's a precursor for a fatal infection!" I lied, hiding my smile and talking in a serious toned voice.

"What?! How come I've never heard of it?!" he asked, looking at me quizzically.

I'm excellent at lying, especially to kid brothers. I can keep a straight face, choke back laughs and smiles, all for the sake of leading someone on, even if it's too an embarrassing result.

"You're too young, they don't want to worry you guys yet about it. You'll learn about it soon though! C'mon, we gotta get to school!"

We ran downstairs and through the kitchen, where our parents were seated at the table.
I grabbed my backpack and a slice of toast as I made my way to the garage door.

"Morning parental units, have a good day at work, bye!" I said quickly, as I gave each of my parents a kiss good-bye.

"Later sweetie, have fun at work!" my mother said with a smile.

"See ya kiddo!" my father added in, not looking up from his morning paper and coffee.

Ben followed close behind, he tended to skip the family hello's and good-byes in the morning. He was one of those rebel wannabes, wearing, saying, and doing anything just to fit in. It was his first year in high school, so I understood why he felt so nervous and pressured.

Lizzie was waiting for us out on the curb, smiling when she saw us. Ben climbed into the backseat, while I took shotgun. When we were settled, Lizzie put the car into "Drive" and we made our trip to school.

"You ready for that history test?" Lizzie asked.

"I think so, well, I hope so at least," I said, not trying to fake my lack of confidence.

"You'll be fine, you're one of the smartest girls I know. Besides, I think Mr. Buckley has the hots for you!" Lizzie laughed.

"That is just plain sick and wrong! I'm not even going to get into how sick that is!" I responded, the thought making my skin crawl.

"I think you'll just end up failing Tabbie, you aren't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed," Ben cut in,trying to be funny in front of Lizzie.

He had a crush on her, this sixteen year old girl with dyed black hair and green contact lenses. By all regards, she was beautiful if not cute. But Ben was too stupid and young to realize that he was out of her league.

"Like you have room to talk, you didn't even know about nocturnal emissions until this morning!" I shot back at him.

Lizzie burst out laughing, almost swerving the car, "Are you serious?! You're a guy and you don't now about nutting yourself?!"

"What?! They never taught me about it! I mean, is it deadly?!" he asked, embarrassed and a little ashamed.

This prompted me and Lizzie to laugh even harder. It was truly hilarious that we knew more about a boy's puberty than a boy going through puberty!

"It can be," Lizzie said, now turning her tone dead serious, "As long as you notice it before it gets too out of hand."

The pun wasn't intended, but we both giggled to ourselves about it anyway. Ben failed to see the humor, so we continued to mess with him even more.

"Right, the first sign is when you wake up, you find a sticky pool of goo that has stained your sheets. It's a sign that your junk is gonna rot off!" I said in my serious tone.

"What does that mean? What's gonna happen to someone who has that?!" Ben asked, soaking in our every candy wrapped word soaked in lies.

"It means your uhm...your...your.." Lizzie was having a hard time talking about my younger brothers penis, so she nudged me to finish her sentence for her.

Yeah, like I enjoy talking about a fourteen year olds genitals.

"It means your penis will shrivel up like a raisin before it falls off and before you know it, no more Mr. Winky!" I said with an over exaggerated frown.

Lizzie did her best no to laugh, Ben was now petrified by the aspect of such a horrid ordeal occurring to him. I almost felt bad for him, but it was all in good fun. He'd find out later, most likely he'd ask a teacher, and they'd tell him the truth. Another cruel joke outed to be exactly what it was, a cruel joke.

The trip to school was usually only five to ten minutes long of a drive. I always hated walking into that building, having to pass everyone. It was like a meet market or beauty contest. The girls would look you up and down, judging you on your hair, makeup, clothes, and body language. The guys would look over, deciding if you were jerk off material, a piece of meat to be handled roughly. It made me sick. I think I spent those long moments in front of the bathroom mirror more for girls than the guys. I wanted to look my best for them because I wanted them to consider me someone beautiful and attractive. I really didn't care what the boys thought of me, most of them were walking hard ons or assholes.

That's how it was every morning for school, until you walked into my life. I never thought I'd ever seen someone that I could honestly call more beautiful than those models you see in magazines or on TV.

Do you remember that day? Hm..we didn't even speak when we first met, too scared I guess on my part. But the moment I laid eyes on you, something inside of me changed, or rather it grew. You made my heart feel fifty times bigger than it's size, and some part of me wanted you to see and feel it from across that school parking lot.

Do you remember?