Covered in Rain
Author's note: I came up with the idea for this story when I was listening to John Mayer's song "Covered in Rain". I was thinking of rain and I decided to write a story that takes place towards the end of Joan and Adam's last year of high school. I hope that you like it and I want lots and lots of R&Ring! It only takes a moment to let me know if you liked it or not and It's a major help to me so I know for future stories what to do to make them better!
Rating: PG-13 for mild language and sexual content.
Disclaimer: I do not own Joan of Arcadia. The wonderful Miss Barbara Hall owns it as well as anyone else who helped to create the show. Your show will never be forgotten!
I really wished that I had gone home earlier, like a few hours ago. It was only lightly raining then. Now it's pouring outside and it looks like a good recipe for a nice, loud thunderstorm.
I hate thunderstorms and not like the normal kind of "I hate thunderstorms"; mine is a full blown all the way fear of them.
On the last camping trip that I went on with my parents and brothers there had been this nasty thunderstorm and we almost got stuck out in it. Oddly enough, that was the last camping trip that we went on as a family.
The lights inside have been slightly flickerish all day. I glance at the clock on the counter and it's green digits read "2:44". I groan realizing that I won't be able to go home for another 2 plus hours.
Between my sulking and groaning, I don't hear the doorbell clang announcing a customer's entrance inside the bookstore. I look up, dreading a customer. I don't mean to feel so unfriendly, believe me. Sammy, my boss would fire me so fast it would make my head spin if I was ever rude to a customer. If this were any other day, I'd be more then willing to be nice, but today's just not one of those days.
I force a smile onto my face, look up and greet them and to my happiness, I know this certain customer.
My boyfriend Adam is standing on the mat inside the doorway. I try so hard not to laugh, because between the way his plum colored hoodie and his normally curly hair are sticking to him from the rain; he looks like a drowned rat.
"What?" Adam asks, shaking the loose rain off of his body. "Adam, please don't. My boss will see water droplets on stuff and it'll come out of my paycheck." I reply, walking over to him. "Seriously yo?" Adam asks. "Yeah. Remember Sammy, the guy who use to bug you and Grace last year to leave?" "That psycho guy?" Adam asks and I chuckle. "Yeah, him."
A smile is still on Adam's lips when I lean into kiss him. Every time I kiss him, it almost seems more amazing. He has the softest lips I've ever kissed and there's no other way to explain them, except for soft.
Adam's hand finds its way to the nape of my neck and he's playing with my hairline as he continues to kiss me, deeper this time.
We're both too tangled up each other to hear the doorbell clang. With a very loud throat clearing noise, Sammy quickly pulls us apart from each other.
"I hope that this is work related Ms. Girardi." Sammy says, slipping behind the counter. "Yeah, she was helping me choose a book. And um, this is the one I was looking for." Adam says as he quickly grabs a book off of the table of 'recommended' books by the door. "Uh huh." Sammy mutters under his breath.
Adam looks in the art section as I approach Sammy, trying to think of a good explanation for why we were uh doing what we were. "Sammy, you see we were uh--" I start and Sammy cuts me off. "I know what you were doing and regardless of what you may think, I wasn't born yesterday. So next time you plan on making out with your boyfriend, please don't do it in my store. Are we clear Ms. Girardi?" Without hesitating, I quickly nod in agreement. "I'm glad that we both agree on that. Now please say goodbye to your boyfriend." "Do you need me to stay here?" I ask, hoping that I'll receive the answer that I'm looking for. Sammy sighs loudly. "Are you trying to irritate me or is there something that you'd like?" "The afternoon off?" I suggest with a slight pleading sound to my voice. "You're supposed to work until 5." Sammy says, not looking up from the thickly bounded notebook that he's holding. "Yes I know, but it's obviously going to be a crappy afternoon because of the rain and there's probably not going to be too many people in here." I can tell that he's considering what I've just said, because it takes him a moment to reply. "If you want the afternoon off, fine. Take it. But you better be in here on Monday." "Definitely." I say. "Okay then. I'll see you Monday." Sammy says and he seems to be rather happy that I'm leaving. "Have a good weekend." I say as Adam comes to the front of the store. "Uh huh." Sammy mutters as he goes back to what he was doing.
I pull my jacket on and offer Adam half of it. He obliges and I pull the hood down. We walk sort of tipsyish to the bus stop. The bus pulls up to the curb a couple of minutes later and we get on. Walking towards the back of the bus, I push the hood of my coat back. Adam's still soaking wet and he's shivering slightly.
"You wanna tell me why you were walking around with no coat when it's obviously raining outside?" I ask as I push the wet hair off of his face. Adam shrugs. "I didn't really think about it I guess. I dunno." he replies. "You weren't thinking?" I ask raising an eyebrow. "Cha." Adam replies and I keep eyeing him suspiciously.
I take both of his hands in my own and try to warm them up because they are freezing cold. "Jane, I'm alright." Adam says looking at me again. "That's such BS. If you had been alright, you wouldn't have shown up at the bookstore soaking wet and jacket-less." I say as I continue to rub his hands. "So why were you out there?" "I wanted to get out of the house and I was trying to think of where to go and I thought of you and the bookstore." Adam replies. "Really?" I ask and Adam nods. "With you is my favorite place to be, besides my shed." "Your sweet." I say.
"Do you have any clue how freezing it is in my shed when it's cold out?" Adam asks and I'm not sure if he's joking or not. "Um cold?" "Cha Jane."
I look out the window and noticing the familiarity of my neighbor, I stand up and pull Adam along with me. "What are you doing?" Adam asks. "You seriously think I'm going to let you catch the flu or something?" I ask. "No--" Adam starts and I cut him off. "You are going to come inside with me and we're going to turn on the heat and start a fire or something. Oh and you need coffee too." "Jane, I'm fine--" Adam starts again and I cut him off once again. "No, you're not. You're freezing cold and you're soaking wet. I'm not letting you go home." I say and Adam seems to have given up because he follows me off the bus without questioning me again.
I offer him half of my coat again and we walk up to my front door. I take my key out of my messenger bag and turn it to the left. We walk inside and Adam closes the door behind us. Kicking off our shoes by the door, I walk into the kitchen.
"Where is everyone?" Adam asks as he follows me. "My parents are at work and then they're going to be going out to dinner and to the opera. Kevin's at work and then he's going to spend the night at Lilly's and Luke's spending the night at Grace's." I reply as I measure out the instant coffee before putting it in the coffee machine. Adam just stops and looks at me. "What?" I ask pouring water into the back of the coffee machine and pressing 'on'. "Luke is staying at Grace's?" "Yup." I reply. "Since when?" Adam asks. "I dunno, about a month again." "And I'm guessing that the Rabbi doesn't know?" Adam asks referring to Grace's dad. "Nope." I reply, walking out to the kitchen. "That's something I never saw coming yo." Adam says sitting down on the couch. " "Yeah, me either." I reply as I start for the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Adam asks. "I'm getting dry clothes for you." I say. "Jane, you've already done enough." "Oh, I'm just beginning."
I stand at the top of the staircase and wonder which brother's room I should go to. After a moment of consideration, I go into Luke's.
I come downstairs a couple of minutes later, a pair of plaid lounge pants and a black t-shirt in hand. "Here, take these and go change." I say, handing them to Adam. "Jane--" Adam starts and I cut him off. "Now!" I say pointing towards our downstairs bathroom. Adam rolls his eyes, stands and walks to the bathroom. Feeling very satisfied with myself, I walk over to the thermostat on the wall and turn the heat up to 73 degrees.
Adam comes back to the couch a few minutes later and accepts his mug of coffee from me. "How'd you know?" Adam asks after taking a sip. I just shrug and smile, because Adam's the only person besides my dad who drinks his coffee black.
(My mother drinks hers with 2 sugars and 2 creams, Luke drinks his with 4 creams, Kevin drinks his with 3 sugars, I drink mine with so much sugar in it, that if anyone else drinks it, they'd like spit it out instantly and my father drinks his black. If he tastes any sort of sugar or cream in it, he won't drink it.)
I stand up and take "Tommy Boy" off of the DVD rack and put it in the DVD player. "All my favorite things at once. What's the catch?" Adam asks, raising an eyebrow. I shrug and reply, "No catch. You needed comfort things."
Adam keeps looking at me in pure awe as I press play on the remote. I move closer towards he and sensing what I'm doing, Adam puts an arm around my shoulder and makes the small amount of remaining space between us disappear and within minutes he's gently stroking my arm in an up and down movement.
"How'd you know what I needed?" Adam asks bringing my eyes from the TV screen to him. "I dunno, I just did I guess." I reply, laying my head on Adam's chest and return my attention back to the TV. A smile appears on my lips when I feel Adam lovingly running his fingers through my hair.
The movie ends about 2 hours later and I turn the DVD player off. Adam's been rather quiet for a while now and I turn to look at him. He's sound asleep.
I watch him sleeping for a couple minutes and then I wake him up with a soft kiss on his mouth. Adam blinks a couple of times and looks up at me sleepily. "Hi." he says in a voice softer then normal and he yawns. "Hi." I say. "What did I miss?" "The last like 45 minutes of it." I reply. "Hmm." Adam mumbles pulling himself into a more sitting position.
"What time is it?" Adam asks a moment later. I turn the TV back on and press the 'info' button. "5:49." "I've gotta call my dad," he says standing up. I hear him pressing in buttons on the phone in the kitchen. After some mumbling, I hear the phone put back on the hook and Adam returns to the couch a minute later.
"Well?" I ask. "I guess he already left for work 'cause there was no answer on his cell phone or at home." "So are you going or something?" I ask curiously and a smile creeps onto Adam's face. "Why? You trying to get rid of me?" "No, I was just wondering if you were staying or not." "Do you want me to?" Adam asks. "Sure, if you want to." I reply. "Cha Jane, but that wasn't an answer." Adam says, his smile growing. "Uh... I want you to stay." I say, choking on my words. "Then, I'll stay." Adam says and I smile, slightly unsure of what the outcome will be of my reply.
'Did I just invite him to stay the night?' I ask myself as Adam just keeps looking at me, his smile having risen up into his warm brown eyes. "I'll uh.. be right back." I mumble, half aloud and half to myself. "Sure." Adam says and that smile is still there.
I race up the stairs and grab for my phone on my nightstand. With slightly un-steady fingers, I dial Grace's cell phone, un-sure of what I might be interrupting...
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Grace could feel her cell phone vibrating as she took it out of her pocket and stood up from the couch and "The Simpsons". Luke watched her for a moment as she went up the stairs to her bedroom, and then he turned his attention back to the TV screen.
Grace pressed the 'send' button with her thumb and said "Hello?" into the mouthpiece.
"Grace, it's me," the female caller said and Grace knew from hearing those three words, that it was her best friend Joan. "What's up?" Grace asked sitting down on her bed and crossing her legs underneath herself.
"Adam came to the bookstore this afternoon and Sammy gave me the afternoon off. Adam was totally drenched and he said 'he'd forgotten his jacket at home', so we took the bus back to my house and he put on some dry clothes of Luke's and we watched 'Tommy Boy'. He called his dad to make sure he could stay for a while longer and his dad had already left for work. I asked if he was leaving and we sorta kept asking each other back and forth and I finally said I wanted him to stay. Did I just ask him to have sex with me?" Grace chuckled. "Grace! This isn't funny!" Joan said, with a slight 'I'm getting freaked out' sound to her voice. "Do you want to have sex with him?" Grace asked and Joan thought about it for a moment. "I guess. I dunno, I hadn't really thought about it." "Well you better figure it out soon Girardi." Grace said with a sigh.
"Maybe I do." Joan mumbled a second later. "Well..." "There is just no good answer to this." Joan said. "How's your night going?" "Okay I guess. Luke and I had dinner with the 'rents and now we're watching 'The Simpsons'." "If he's staying the night, then when's 'it' going to happen?" Joan asked. "When my parents go to bed." Grace replied.
"I've gotta go. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Joan said. "Have fun." Grace said, the smug look on her face obvious in her voice. "Yeah, uh you too." "Trust me, I will." Grace said and she hung up a moment later.
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I hang up my phone and regain my composure. Even with Grace's input, I'm still slightly freaked out about the whole thing. 'Keep your cool Girardi. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.' I say to myself. "But what if I do want it to happen?" I mumble out loud.