RAINSTORM

Ch. 18

A/N — HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)  🎉

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"I can't hear anything," Rachel says, getting excited and tugging at Hector's arm.

"Wait," he says, "Let's sit down first."

While they walk among the tables to find an empty one, Rachel hears faint dialogues of the movie from the other tables.

After they find one, the two of them take their seats, and Hector takes out his phone and pulls up again the drive-in theater's app. The screen shows an icon of The Breakfast Club poster. Hector clicks on it. A seek bar appears, and the phone starts playing the movie's audio.

Rachel grins and claps.

Hector smiles. "You want anything to eat?" He says.

Rachel shakes her head, not taking her eyes off the big screen.

"I'll get us some popcorn," Hector says and leaves.

At the food counter, Hector orders a bottle of water, too, and two cups of coffee. He reads the menu again wondering if she might want anything more. "That's all," he says at the end finishing his order.

When he walks back towards their table, he sees how everyone at the bike section has come as a couple.

This is why he always came here in his car before, since it was just him each time and it would be awkward at the two wheeler section watching the movie by himself.

But he had always wanted to ride his bike to this theater. So when he saw Rachel crying and wanted to help her feel better, he decided to bring her here.

As soon as Hector puts down the tray at the table, Rachel grabs the popcorn and a cup of coffee.

"Didn't you say you didn't want anything?" Hector says.

In response, Rachel makes some unintelligible sounds while chewing mouthful and staring at the screen.

Hector takes a couple of popcorns from her and throws them into his mouth. He starts watching the movie. It's not like he dislikes The Breakfast Club, but he was hoping they would play a horror movie tonight.

AFTER THE MOVIE ends, Hector and Rachel are on their way back into the city. At a red light Rachel gets a call from her mother who wants to check up on her.

Rachel lies about being at home and having had dinner. After she ends the call Hector says, "Your parents aren't home?"

"They are visiting a relative and will be back tomorrow," Rachel says while scrolling down and noticing the many missed calls and messages left by her sister. Without responding to any of them Rachel replaces her phone back into her pocket.

A while later, Hector stops at a restaurant. They both get off the bike and walk inside.

After making their orders, Rachel says, "Didn't you have any other plans today? Hope I didn't take too much of your time."

"I'm good," Hector says, hiding the fact that he was on his way to hang out with his friends at a club, "I was in a mood for a movie anyway."

Rachel sighs. "So was I. With my sister." 

End of chapter