Thunder Inside

Prompt: “Caught in the rain”

The dim lighting of the library was starting to strain Eliza’s eyesight. The words in her notebook swimming together, and she finally rubbed her eyes, flipping her notebook closed. Across from her, Weston was scanning through most likely ten different open tabs on his computer trying to sort out between research he had already cited versus which ones he “would go back later to fill in”. 

“This is why I always say to write down what sources you use as you go, because now you’re having to rush to find everything at the last minute even though you’ve already technically used it.” Eliza said, leaning back in the stiff backed chair with a smirk. She pushed her glasses onto the top of her head, folding her arms across her chest as Weston glanced at her with an annoyed look, blue eyes nearly black.

“I’m just saying, is all” She said with a smile, laying her arms onto the table and resting her chin on her hands. 

“Well you just saying is unnecessary. I’m aware that I’m an idiot and I should’ve done this, that, and so on. But it’s part of the process for me so-“ He blew out a gust of air, “just let me fixate on this and create more work, I need it to survive. ” He said, a small smile appearing on his face. He always smiled like that when he thought he was being funny. That damn irresistible grin. Eliza couldn’t help but mirror it. Just as she couldn’t help but acknowledge she was waiting on the edge of her metaphorical seat to see if he’d say anything else. 

He hardly ever stuck around her long enough to speak more than a sentence or two, not because they didn’t want to spend time together, they were friends after all, but simply because of the strain on university staff in April. So close to wrapping up the semester yet everyone seemed behind, and between teaching her classes at a job Eliza had been comfortable in for years, she at last was fraying at the seams under the pressure. She could see why Weston was hoping to slip his foot in the door for Head of Department, he didn’t seem to be fraying at all, let alone breaking a sweat at a question in his own class. 

They had gained distance in their friendship just as a natural result of logistical barriers in their careers, but there was a shift and Eliza commonly found herself surprised at the changes in their dynamic, no longer predictable as it used to be. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when or why, even, but she couldn’t help but feel an undercurrent running between them that had not been there before.

Weston glanced down at his watch, eyebrows raising in surprise. 1 a.m. “Damn, it’s later than I thought. That’s crazy.” He said, and they both chuckled, moving at the same time. Weston, to pack up his things and Eliza to stand and stretch her arms with a big yawn, putting her glasses back on after untangling them from her curls. 

“Trust me I would’ve stopped you earlier if we had our classes tomorrow, but alas, I’ve not finished preparing my own lecture which kind of indicated, you know, that I’d be here for a while” Eliza said, watching as Weston stuffed his gray zip up into his black backpack, after slipping his laptop into an internal compartment. Smoothly sliding the zipper to close it and pushing his chair in, he came around the scratched wooden table, to start walking towards the exit together. 

“And you know what, you’re better than me for that. I truly didn’t consider that and you’ve saved me from drinking two cups of coffee rather than just the one tomorrow” He playfully nudged her arm as they wove around tables to reach the main entrance of the floor, where smooth metal doors awaited them. 

Eliza had been set up in a crevice of the library, attempting to gather her thoughts enough to write out her lecture, to avoid just regurgitating what she had written out in bullet points from a few years ago on a set of slides. She didn’t mind winging it, but with this semester’s students, she had received so many questions during her hour and fifteen minute lectures that she truly became stumped. It turns out, you needed to check your research every few years because you might have a student whose special interest is over this exact topic. When she thought of this, her face getting red under the bright lights of the small classroom she lectured in, she wanted to look away from those embarrassing moments in which she, the professor, became tongue tied under the gaze of her students. 

“El, you coming?” Looking up from the dingy green and yellow carpet, Eliza looks up to find Weston already inside the elevator, his long fingers hovering over the button to close the door. His brows are raised as he looks over at her. She shuffled forward quickly, too small of a distance for her to walk quickly and too long for her to continue walking at her snail’s pace. Once inside the elevator, they looked out at the empty library, and Weston pressed the button to close the door. 

“So, got any exciting plans for tomorrow?” He looked over at her, raking a hand through his hair. What does it feel like she wonders. She shook her head as if to clear the intruding traffic of unhelpful thoughts in her mind, her nail pushing against the dead skin on her other finger. 

“Honestly, I have a few friends of mine who want to host a movie night, so I know I’ve got that. And there’s also that poetry reading in the afternoon, and one of my undergrad students is participating. Shelby, she’s a very good creative writer and she’s been working hard on this submission so when she signed up to read, I knew I needed to go and hear it.” She rambled, quick to fill the silence and keep the glimmer of interest in Weston’s eyes on her, rather than the laptop he hardly glanced away from. She never saw him outside of his office, and it was rare indeed they were caught up in a space where one couldn’t shy away or find a reason to leave. 

“What time is the reading? I think I’d like to hear what you all get up to over there in the English department” He asked, making a shrugging movement as if to readjust how his backpack hands on his body. He adjusted strap length, pushed his shoulders back, and ran a hand down the strap to make sure it wasn’t twisted. 

Eliza blinked in surprise. The elevator doors opened and she resisted the urge to press the button to close them once more. To keep them trapped there for just a moment longer and admire that somehow, someway, Weston wanted to go to a school event. “It’s at noon tomorrow, I can write it down for you, if you like?” She offered, as they stepped over the small crack that separated the tiled elevator floor from the old wood that comprised the lobby floor. 

“No, it’s okay, I’ll just put it in my phone in the calendar. That way I won’t lose the information.” He flipped his phone around, which she hadn’t noticed him reach for, and showed her the google calendar page open on his screen already. 

“Who decides to put a poetry event on a Friday afternoon anyways, I can’t imagine too many people will go, at least for students” He said, as they walked lazily towards the first doors of the exit. Large, arched doors with little windows at the top. 

“I can’t help but think it’s to show off our department to faculty from the other departments. Or maybe the president is showing up and they’re looking for an opportunity to gain more recognition or-“ Eliza looks up, turning from where she was holding the door open waiting for him to pass through, to now face the second set of doors and the absolute downpour outside. 

She couldn’t continue her thoughts, as one struck through her head so prominently. I have no umbrella. And while she knows this, the alternative is asking for an umbrella from someone, and from the looks of it, Weston didn’t seem to have one with him either. 

They looked at one another, both seeming to sigh, as Weston opened the door for her, and they stepped off the gray rug in the entryway, out under the arbor that is no wider than two people. They stood side by side, listening to the patter of rain in the road, and the fast plunk of the rainfalling off the arbor. 

At least there’s no thunder she thought. 

Weston has his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels, clearly waiting for something. “I don’t think it’s gonna die down at all” He said, looking over at her. 

She glanced back at him, how his auburn hair had become a shade darker in the black of the night, and how the light shone on part of his face from the streetlights posted in regular intervals on the sidewalks. 

She found herself staring at him, the beauty of him. He looked like he was about to say something, mouth open, but he closed his mouth before he even got a word out. A car approached, ignorant of the two pedestrians on the side walk as it sped across the empty lane. Water spewed from the road into an arc, and briefly Eliza acknowledges in the back of her head that inevitably the water will hit her, regardless of the tiny overhanging ledge sheltering them from becoming soaked. It is then, that predictable Weston does something so un-Weston-Like; he moved to stand in front of her, back towards the road, both hands on her elbows, and he gets hit with the water instead. 

She stared at him, the hair that is now plastered to his forehead, a stray segment of it stuck at an unattractive angle across his face, and the white button down he was wearing, as it had become transparent under the water that has now drenched him and claimed its next victim. 

“Weston, you’re..you’re soaked” She managed, holding his own forearms as he seemed frozen. Then, a smile cracked that blank expression, and he laughed. Eliza is caught up in that grin, that contagious and full laughter, that she too could not help but laugh. 

“Well, we wouldn’t want beautiful Eliza to melt, now would we” His grip on her arms seems tighter and more unwilling to let go. 

At this, she sucks in a breath, and like a phantom had taken over her hands, she reached up and pushed the stray hair stuck to his face. And there’s something in those eyes, as he stilled under her touch, sliding his hands from her elbows to her upper back, and finally, settling on her hips. They’re close now, much much closer than before, and her hands drift to rest on the sides of his face. She looked up, just a small tilt of her head to look into those blue eyes, as their faces inched closer and closer, until finally he captures her lips with his own. Eliza leaned into him, her hands getting tangled into his hair. It was like being electrocuted, like her body had been shocked back to life. And as they broke apart for a brief interlude of air, it was like fire between them. Weston, they shy colleague who had slowly opened his shell around her, a small enough crack to fit her in, had taken her completely.  

He was lost in the sensation of her. The feel of her warm navy cardigan, the cables creating a softness at odds with his crisp, wet shirt. One of his hands trailed up to the nape of her neck, ever so careful not to snag his hand in her large curls. He had lost all sense of where he was, what his name was, or what time of night it was. For there was no one but them, nothing to break them apart and no excuse to hide in their office away from each other. 

He lifted her, unintentionally, off the pavement, and with this momentum, they were no longer under the arbor but became soaked together as the sky boomed and a crack of lightning light up the sky. Their kisses became tender and soft, no longer spurred by the spontaneity of Weston’s drive behind the kiss, just savoring the touch and taste of one another. Her lips tasted like sugar, from the dessert-like-coffee she was finishing when he had arrived in the library. 

As Eliza’s own hair became plastered to her neck, she peeled back from him, not far, as they were still holding each other as if a wind could come blow them away. 

And when they looked at each other, Eliza laughed. He stills, heat rising to the tips of his ears and across his cheeks as he couldn’t help but wonder if his kissing really was that bad. 

Something in his expression must have changed, as she stopped laughing, and gave him a shy smile, lifting the glasses off her face once more because she couldn’t see beyond the water fogging them up. 

“I think-“ She paused then, and it’s almost as if he was waiting on the edge of a high precipice, wondering what she would say next. 

She cleared her throat, setting her hands firmly on his shoulders. His hands were frozen, and he found he would rather hate missing her warm body in his grasp, so he planted his hands on her hips once more. 

“I think I’d like to do some research over how the human body works…you know…for..lecture..purpo-“ Her confident start trailed into a squeak, as Weston gave her a grin. 

“Do you want my assistance” He asked, and new to him, his voice gravelly, deeper than it was before. 

“That’s so kind of you” She said with a large grin, and light in her eyes. 

He released his hold on her hips, and slid his hand in hers. They retrieved their bags, soaking wet from where they had slipped off in the rain. They strolled together down the street, towards the parking garage, a lightness in his step that hadn’t been therebefore, and a confidence in Eliza’s shoulder as she stood a little straighter.