Well, I've had the idea in my head for this story for awhile... but I got a three-month long writers block after the first page and a half @_@. Anyway, I hope that you like it. (Rated 13+ for swearing and suggestive themes) Chapters one through seven are in this thread.
2/24/08: I've decided to stop posting chapters of this story. I'll keep writing the story and everything, but for me, the need to post every chapter makes me think that 'I have to' write rather than 'I want to' write. Thank you all for your comments and great critiques, and I wish you all good luck in your own writings.
8/22/07: I'll be posting chapters 8 and beyond in separate threads to make them easier to critique.
Chapter 8: post234532.html#234532
Chapter 9: post238028.html#238028
Chapter 10: post246008.html#246008
Chapter 11: post254216.html#254216
Chapter 12: post279349.html#279349
Chapter 13: topic25170.html
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Rain
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“If I were rain,
That joins the sky and earth that otherwise never touch,
Could I join two hearts as well?”
--Tite Kubo
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Chapter 1: Craig Selva
The rain seemed to come down as if to poke fun at the people who wished for sunlight. It came down from dawn to dusk without stopping. Craig had always liked the rain, so he never wore a waterproof jacket or kept an umbrella with him. He tended to enjoy the pitter-patter feeling of water droplets on his face, so he simply never bothered with covering himself up. In fact, he preferred the rain over a sunny day every time. All he did throughout those gloomy days in the city were talking with his friends on the streets, maintaining his little "gang's" territory, and taking walks in the rain with his clothes saturated with the chillingly cold gift from the clouds. In a way, he, too, poked fun at the sun-loving people in the dark and disgusting city he lived in. With it’s faceless skyscrapers and endless rain, it seemed only fit for the rejects of the world to live.
The sarcastic, smoking, drinking, high school dropout had once again found himself walking through the densely-packed sidewalks of the city with a lit cigarette between his lips and his hands in his pockets. Craig was a fairly tall seventeen year-old; about six feet on the dot. His short black hair was matted against his skull, and the rain cascaded down his thick locks in streams. He wore a dark brown trench coat and blue jeans along with dirty white cross-trainers. His mind had been lost in thought ever since he left his parents' apartment, and he had kept walking ever since. The roar of a passing truck jerked him out of his trance, and splashed an entire puddle of water onto his leg in the process.
Craig mumbled several curses under his breath and shook out his drenched leg, and continued to walk. He didn’t care if he got wet, what he cared about was when. Only he decided when he was going to get rained on. To him, nobody else had the right to do so. Just as he started to walk on a crosswalk on an intersection, there was a flash of light overhead followed immediately by a blast of thunder. A few people around him cringed at the noise, but he remained unmoved in his renewed trance.
“Well,” he said to himself as he spat out his cigarette into the gutter, “I may as well find a hotel for the night.” It wasn’t like he felt welcome back in that apartment, anyway. He stood under a bus stop’s overhang and counted the money in his wallet. Seventy three bucks. It was more than enough for a single night at a shabby hotel. Craig looked around and ran towards the first hotel to cross his sight. It was a simple hostel with a flickering sign standing on the front of it that read “Hotel: one night- $35.00”. It was run-down and dirty, but it would suit Craig’s needs, so he opened the door, which squeaked on the hinges followed by a small bell, and stepped inside.
A bellboy was standing behind the counter. He finished talking to a small group of people and gave them a key. Once he saw Craig enter, he said, “Welcome, sir.”
“Yeah, thanks. Do you have a room?” Craig said quickly, uncaring.
“I’m so sorry, but that group just took the last available room. We’re booked.”
“Crap,” Craig said under his breath, and promptly turned around.
“Wait, I can call some of the nearby hotels and see if they have any rooms left. It‘d leave a bad taste in my mouth if I leave you out in the cold with this kind of weather.”
He stopped just as he put his hand on the doorknob. “Fine, make a call.” He walked over to the counter and leaned on it as the bellboy picked up an old-fashioned tan-colored phone.
After a few seconds, the bellboy said into the receiver, “Yes, I have a guy here who needs a room for the night, and we’re booked over here, so… yeah, just one guy… oh, really? Well, thanks,” he hung up and said to Craig, “Looks like a lot of people like you want to get out of this storm we’re having. I’ll make a few more calls if you’d like.”
Craig said flatly, “Go ahead.”
The bellboy made several more calls, but had no luck in finding a hotel for Craig. “I’m sorry about this.”
“It’s fine.” He started to walk towards the door once again. Not once throughout his short stay did he change his expression.
“Wait a sec. There may be a place with rooms, but…”
“Just tell me where it is.” He said without turning around.
“… Okay, then. It’s on Tune Street down a small alley between the video rental store and the pawn shop. It’s kind of hard to miss.”
Craig whirled around, tromped over to the bellboy, and said angrily, “That’s a love hotel, smart-ass!”
“W-well, there might be other singles like you staying there for the night, so--”
“No way in hell I’d go in there by myself. I have an image to maintain around here! And if you think for one second I'll sleep in one of those disgusting beds...” He shuddered slightly, but maintained his angry look.
Bellboy let out a sigh, “Fine, stay out in the cold, for all I care.”
Well, Craig later found himself walking to Tune Street and sidling in between the two closed stores as stealthily as possible. If any of his street friends happened to be catch him walking there, his reputation of being a tough guy would’ve crumbled in an instant. Once he got there, he was at least relieved to see that it didn’t even look like a love hotel. It seemed only slightly cleaner than the hotel he went to earlier… and had no windows.
After mumbling a few more curse words, Craig finally opened the door. Inside, everything was red carpet and draperies, shining hardwood floors, and chandeliers. It may not have looked like a love hotel on the outside, but on the inside, it looked just the part.
“Welcome!” A woman, who looked like she was in her thirties, standing next to the staircase said. She had wavy black hair and wore a thick mask of make-up on her face. It was as if she was trying to hide the great beauty she had with a layer of dirt. At the most, she was mediocre-looking with the make-up on, but Craig seemed to be able to tell with those kind of things. The woman wore a red one-piece dress with black high-heels. “Oh. Are you alone? That‘s… rare…”
“Yeah, I just need a room for the night,” Craig said with embarrassment.
“It takes a lot of guts to come to a place like this alone,” she joked. “If you’d like a room, then you’re in luck. The couple that took the last room just left…”
“Then I’ll take that room. How much?” He took out his wallet.
“It’s usually forty-five dollars for a couple, but since you’re alone, I’ll cut it down to thirty.”
“Awesome.”
She grabbed the last set of keys on the montage of room numbers on the wall behind the counter, and said, “This way.”
Craig followed her up the stairs all the way to the fourth floor. The smells that emanated from each room were too out-there for him to describe to himself. He was surprised that there was so little… sounds of activity going on throughout the building. He couldn’t help but ask, “Are the walls sound-proof or something?”
They walked down the hallway as she said, “Yeah. It guarantees privacy for my customers.”
“I had to ask.”
“They all do their first time here.” She smiled jokingly as she turned the key to room numbered 406. The door opened, and they stepped inside to the brightly-lit room. “Hm. They must’ve left the lights on. Anyway, enjoy your stay.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Craig said as she walked out and closed the door behind herself. He tossed the keys onto the queen-sized bed, and unbuttoned his coat. Underneath it, he was wearing a black t-shirt that read across the chest: 'I’m not crazy, just ask my imaginary friend Bob!' From his lumped-up trench coat, he pulled a box of cigarettes, and bit the tip of one to pull it out. From his left pants pocket he brandished a black lighter, and casually lit the cigarette. He puffed out a small plume of gray smoke.
"Ah!" A high-pitched voice squeaked from behind him. He whirled around to see a girl, about a head shorter than he, standing next to the bathroom door wearing a white towel. She had long and wet dirty blond hair that went down past her shoulders and a somewhat petite body. Her dark brown eyes were full of fear and surprise. For the instant their eyes met, their senses seemed to fall numb. The cigarette fell out of Craig’s mouth and put itself out as it landed on the carpet.
At the same time the two of them shouted angrily, “Who the hell are you?”
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I'll leave you hanging for awhile. XD
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