Thunder Only Happens when it’s Raining

He looked at the clock, three fifteen.

God, I have to get up for home-school in five hours! He thought unhappily, he realised he wasn’t going to get to sleep, no matter how hard he tried. He climbed out of the bed, trying desperately to not stand on Zac who was sleeping on the trundle bed below his own bed. He crept through the darkness of the hallway and downstairs to the garage, he turned on the small desklamp on the counter against the wall, and he pulled up a chair, grabbed a piece of paper and began writing everything he was feeling hoping it would inspire a song.

The next afternoon

Taylor looked suspiciously around as he got off the bus, and he pulled the collar of his leather jacket up just a little more, leaned his head down, trying to hide his face with the cap on his head. He was glad it was raining, gave him good excuse to shrug his shoulders up and hunch down without looking completely suspicious. This was what it took to get around, disguising himself and travelling alone, and rainy days were the best, less people around.

Sighing, he began his trek down the street. It seemed to be already getting dark, there was a rumble of distant thunder and the rain seemed like a thick curtain in front of him which he could hardly see through, the weather was like he felt. God he was tired.

He gave a concerned glance at the clock on the tower across the street, it was three fifteen, he had forty five minutes to get his keyboard and get home. He’d been tempted to ask Isaac to drive him to the music store, but he was still a little mad at Isaac for calling him a nasty little shit, and it seemed like Isaac wasn’t even going to apologise for it. Sometimes big brothers were such a pain.

Taylor pushed the glass doors of the music store and stepped in wearily.

"Hey, Tay!" grinned the guy behind the counter, who knew Taylor from the countless times when Taylor had been younger and had always been there buying music tabs and Isaac had always been there buying strings.

"Hey, Rob, Zac told me you called…" Taylor took off his soaking wet hat and ran his hands through his slightly damp hair.

"Yep," Rob – a guy of around thirty – smirked.

"What was wrong with it?" Taylor asked, he walked over to the counter.

"Tay, how the hell did you get gum into the lead plug at the back?" Rob leaned on the counter.

"One word. Zac."

"Zac? Why did he do that?"

"The lead kept falling out, it was a little loose…so, he stuck it firm with gum thinking that would help, it worked for a while too," Taylor admitted, he helped himself to a few M&Ms that Rob kept in a jar on the counter.

"Its no wonder every time you turned it on it started shooting sparks," Rob rolled his eyes shaking his head in disbelief. "Kids," he laughed.

"So if I plug it in, it won’t start sparking off…?" Taylor asked worriedly, he dropped a couple of M&Ms on to the counter, watching them roll in absurd fascination.

"Exactly."

"Lemme give it a try here, I don’t wanna take it home and then find out its still broken," he commanded.

"Geez, you’re such a worrier," Rob flicked an M&M at Taylor, "Hold on, I’ll go get it."

"Okay," Taylor said, he leaned against the counter, continuing to help himself to Rob’s M&Ms.

He heard the doors squeak open and he turned, couldn’t believe his eyes as Lauren walked in. Her hair was plastered to her face, and she was soaked to the bone. She seemed equally surprised to see him, "Oh…um…hi," she said quickly, she moved over to a stall.

"Hi," Taylor said, trying to mind his own business, he realised he must have acted like a real asshole to her yesterday, he had to admit, his mood had improved slightly since then – at least concerning Lauren. "Are you going straight to my house?" Taylor questioned, wondering if it was worth getting the bus with her.

"Yeah," she answered distantly, gazing over a music book.

Rob returned with Taylor’s Keyboard, which was a good four and a half feet in length and weighed probably as much as Taylor did himself. "Okay, Tay, here ya go, just lemme plug it in…"

"Okay," Taylor nodded, he straightened the keyboard out and ran his hands over the keys, "Geez, you let it get dusty!" he whined, "didn’t you keep it in its case?"

"Its been lying in pieces for two days, it gets dusty back there easily," Rob explained. "Okay, its plugged in, try it out," Rob suggested.

Taylor looked over his shoulder, Lauren was checking out some music tabs on a shelf.

"Hey, Rob," Lauren called over, Taylor was surprised she knew him by name as well, "You got November Rain on piano and guitar tabs?" she questioned.

"I think so, let me go check," Rob answered and headed into the back room.

Taylor paid attention to his keyboard, and began working on some of the old classical stuff he’d been taught when he was younger, deciding on ‘Moonlight Sonata’ as it was the first thing that came to mind. He set the keyboard mode to ‘Classic Piano’ as usually the moment he turned it on it set on ‘Electric Organ’ automatically. His fingers began gliding over the keys and the music began pouring out of the keyboard, filling the music store with the haunting tune, he felt Lauren’s eyes on him, wondered if she was surprised he could play so well.

Her voice cut through his beautiful music like a razor.

"You’re doing that wrong," she commented.

Taylor immediately stopped, "what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You’re hitting a note too high…" she walked over, as she did he moved aside and gaped as she played the exact piece he had, only hitting the correct note, normally he would have thanked anyone for pointing out his mistake, but since he’d been playing professionally, he felt he was always right.

"But it sounds better when I hit the higher note…"

"But that’s not the way Beethoven wrote it," Lauren remarked.

"Yeah, well, I don’t think old Beethoven is gonna mind considering he’s been dead for longer than both of us have been alive," he retorted. He moved her aside a little, changed the setting on his keyboard and began running his fingers along it and began playing the piano introduction for ‘Weird’. Finally, satisfied that the keyboard was perfectly working alright, he nodded his head, and he turned it off, "Can I have the case for it?" he called to Rob in the background.

"Be there in a moment," he answered.

Taylor watched as Rob walked in and handed him the plastic cover for the keyboard, he pulled it over and zipped it up securely, then lifted the keyboard up with great difficulty, almost dropped it, if not for Lauren’s quick hand, he would have.

"I got it," Lauren said quickly, "You need help carrying this thing?"

"No, its okay," Taylor assured, he hoisted the keyboard under one arm awkwardly, he watched as Lauren began checking out what Rob had given her, a few music sheets. "Rob, put this on my account…" he said, motioning to his keyboard with his free hand.

"Okay," Rob nodded.

Taylor paused, looking at Lauren, "and her tabs," he added, he knew she’d be there for another two minutes or so pulling money out of a purse or a wallet, it would be much quicker to just put the tabs on his account, and then get out of there before the bus passed.

"Huh?" Lauren turned to him, looking at him quizzically.

"I’ll pay for your tabs, just hurry up, ‘cause the bus to my street is about to whiz by and if we don’t catch it we’ll be waiting for another fifteen minutes," Taylor explained, he tugged at the sleeve of her denim jacket, "c’mon."

Lauren smiled weakly and Taylor, "thanks," she mumbled, and she followed him into the rainy street.

A flash of lightening hit with a loud clap of thunder, and out of instinct she grabbed onto his arm, a little shaken.

He laughed, "don’t tell me you’re scared of thunder and lightening," he chuckled.

"No," she firmly took her casual stance again as the two began to make their way to the bus stop. "Just I didn’t expect it," she added.

"Didn’t expect it? It’s been like this all day…"

"Shut up," Lauren rolled her eyes, he seemed determined to get on her nerves again.

They caught the bus just in time and Taylor led her up to a seat in the back, she was holding her tabs – wrapped in a transparent plastic folder – and he looked, "November Rain, huh? Looks kinda tricky," he glanced at the notes.

"I can handle it…"

"Sooooo, you play keyboard and guitar?"

"My friend plays guitar…I play keyboards, piano, tambourine and the congas."
"Nice combination of instruments," Taylor smirked, recognizing the familiar selection of instruments, "Can you play them all at once?" he cracked.

Lauren gave a slight smile, "No, of course not," she said, "Just usually keyboards."
"Like me," Taylor said.

"Yeah, you have talent, but you’re a little fast…" she commented.

"Well, I was just trying the keyboard out, I wasn’t going to play a concerto you know," he explained, looking at her, her green eyes were set on the window, the rainy day outside. His thoughts were, Why is girl so infuriating?