Rainy Day

"Three across: 'What makes grown men cry but cannot be lived without?' Tav, do you know the answer?" Veronica asked Tavio, who was nonchalantly sipping his hot coffee across from her.

"I don't know, Vicky. It seems more of a riddle to me than a crossword puzzle. You know I'm not too good at those things…" Tavio sighed and rested his hand in his chin. "Sorry, but the only thing I'm concerned with right now is whether we can make it to the party in time." He looked out the window of the drab coffee shop they were sitting in, noticing that it was still raining as hard as it had been when they had decided to pull over to avoid a possible storm.

"Well, we would be halfway there by now, if your dumb old Toyota could handle a little rain." Vicky smirked.

"Hey, it's like a flood out there. My car can handle anything – I'm just not going to take any, uh, chances…" His voice trailed off as he tried to redeem himself and his car.

Vicky noticed his embarrassment and chuckled a little before cutting his stuttering off. "Just sitting here like you are is boring isn't it? You should've done this crossword with me! I asked you when I first started if you wanted to do this with me, and you said 'Not now, Vicky. I'm too worried. I'm always worried. Boohoo.' It's too late to help me now though, so you're going to have to sit there and zone out. I'm almost finished! Except for this one pesky question…" She tapped her pen on her lower lip.

Tav just shrugged, causing Vicky to lean across their round little table and plead with him. "C'mon Taaaaaaaavio! Can't you please just help me with this one question? Please please please please please please please please?"

"Oh please, it's not that big of a deal to you."

"Ugh, you're no fun! I'm so bored Tav, at least give me this game to look forward to."

"What's there to look forward to in a stupid crossword puzzle?" Tav took a sip of his coffee and smirked. "And you say I play useless games."

"Well, that's because you do!" Vicky retorted. "The games I play aren't useless; they're games that challenge the mind. I'm slowly building my I.Q. That's more than I can say about you."

"Very funny," Tavio said. "But I'll have you know, Pokémon has been known to improve—"

"Look!" Vicky holding up her paper with a triumphant look on her face cut Tav off. "All in pen! Have you ever tried doing a crossword puzzle in pen?"

"Uh, no… I'm always afraid I might mess up."

"Oh, yeah. Huh, guess I didn't. Looks like I didn't mess up once."

"Uh, that's good." Tav looked out the window to try to find a change of topic. It seemed like Vicky was always gloating about something, and it was so hard to get her to stop once she started. He noticed the bright hue to the sky, and realized it had stopped raining.

"Looks like it cleared up," Tav said. "Maybe we should get going; you know how Kanya is with her parties…"

"But Tavio! How are we supposed to go out there? It looks absolutely freezing. Not to mention there are some preeeeeeeetty big puddles on the road. Who even knows if your car can handle them?" Vicky shivered a minute later when someone opened the door to the little café, as if to prove a point. It seemed like she was trying to make a big scene and looked like a nervous wreck.

"Are you kidding me, Vicky? I think my car can handle some puddles!" He thought for a minute. Her demeanor was throwing him off; why did she look so uncomfortable? Maybe she was just a really good actress…"Man, you are just really set on that crossword puzzle, aren't you?"

"Uh…yeah Tav. Fine. It's the puzzle, you caught me."

"Ha, no. What's bothering you? Seriously V."

"Nothing!" He could hear the growl in her voice, but there was no sign of anger on her face. She just looked… tired. Whatever it was she was worrying about, it wasn't worth putting up a real fight to conceal.

"Vicky…" Tav tried to sound sympathetic, but really he was excited about getting her to open up so easily. He could tell she was dying to tell him, and it made him feel sort of good to know that he was this mysterious girl's trusted source.

"I… I don't want to go to Kanya's party."

"Well, I kind of figured that out."

"Umm, but I don't think you know why."

"You don't seem in the partying mood. You just don't want to be around a lot of assholes like Erin Daniel right now?" He tried.

Vicky didn't even chuckle at Tav's lame joke. "No, it's because of Kanya. Last time I was with her, we got into a huge fight. I feel like she called me over just to, I don't know," Vicky twisted a blonde lock around her finger. "Call me out on what I did."

"Kanya wouldn't do that to you."

Vicky sniffed a little and was obviously not convinced. "But, if we go to that party… It's just an excuse to embarrass me in front of all her materialistic friends."

"I know Kanya… and I don't-"

"Taaaaaaaav…" Vicky seemed uneasy.

Tavio thought about it for a moment. "Well, hey, we don't have to go! It's not like I want to see them either." He cleared his throat and laughed a little. "We could have a party of our own, y'know? I'll just grab a pizza at the place down on Maple Street, and we could stay in my house and watch movies!"

"Really? You trust me over at your place?" She gave him her usual sly grin.

"Hmm, I guess I do trust you there. But anyway, what do you say? It won't be like Kanya's parties…"

Vicky let out a snort. "Oh no, it won't be like Kanya's? Whatever will I do? Please, I'm done with her elitist attitude."

"Oh…uh." Tav tried to avoid getting into a long discussion about Vicky's deep-seated hatred for her friend that would end in about a week, so he stood up and began putting on his tan jacket. "Let's get going then!"

"Wait! I have to finish this!" Tavio raised an eyebrow and Vicky held up the crossword puzzle she had been working on as if it had been obvious.

"Seriously?" He asked. "You still aren't finished with that thing? Hey, it's not real important. Why are you obsessing over it?"

"It's important to me; I have to finish it! You can't just start things and not finish them. No, that's admitting defeat!" She slammed her fist on the coffee table, causing the other customers to give her annoyed glances. "Now Tavio, I'll say this one more time: 'What makes grown men cry but cannot be lived without?' It's four letters."

"Oh, that's easy: love."

"How the hell did you know?"

"It's a saying. C'mon, you've heard it before." He helped her put on her black leather jacket and brushed loose strands of blonde hair out of the hood.

"No I haven't!" Vicky playfully poked him as she backed out of the coffee shop, almost knocking an old woman on the sidewalk over from not paying attention.

"Watch out…"

"You've known it was love since the beginning, didn't you?" She asked as she climbed into the Toyota.

Tavio just laughed.