The next day afternoon a bus takes everyone from Disneyland to the airport. Later, the students chaotically board the flight occupying nearly all of the aisle. Moira sits with Nelson at the back.
Annie and Rachel take a middle row. Rachel at the center seat. A moment later Ricky puts his backpack on the rack above Rachel's row and takes the seat next to her while his friends take the seats at the opposite row.
Rachel smiles at Ricky, before exchanging glances at Annie. After take off, Rachel starts reading a book while Annie and Ricky are on their phones.
An hour into the flight, all the window shades begin to come down as passengers start their naps one after another, and the cabin lights dim.
Rachel tries to stay awake, to finish the chapter she's reading, but her eyelids become heavy and the book slips down to her lap. She falls asleep.
Suddenly a loud noise wakes her up. "Sorry," she hears Hector's voice while realizing her head is resting on Ricky's shoulder. She quickly straightens up and by the time she looks up Hector had gone. She hears Ricky saying something under his breath, like a curse word. Then he turns to her.
"You okay?" He says.
"Yeah."
"You should go back to sleep. There's still an hour left."
"I'm good," Rachel says stretching her arms forward a little. She wants to apologize to Ricky for falling asleep on him, but finds it even better to just pretend that didn't happen. She puts away her book, suspecting it was the culprit behind her drowsiness.
By the time food carts come out, Annie, who had also fallen asleep, wakes up.
Later on, the flight lands, and at the airport exit, while getting into their cab, Rachel sees Ricky and Hector a little further away at the sidewalk. Their friends are there, too, and it looks like Ricky and Hector are talking to each other.
"Hurry, come in!" Moira says, from inside the cab.
Rachel gets in. As the cab moves Rachel turns and looks through the back window but the boys are out of her sight.
"YOU NEED TO fucking stay away from her," Ricky says to Hector.
"And who are you to fucking say that?" Tate says from next to his friend.
"She's not like one of those girls you hook up with," Ricky says, not taking his eyes off of Hector. "Stop misleading her."
"If you know anything about Rachel," Hector says, "then you should know she can decide what she wants for herself. It's not my fault she's not interested in you."
Ricky grabs Hector's collar. Everyone becomes tense. Hector simply smirks.
"What's happening there?" Their teacher says from across the road, noticing the boys together.
Ricky lets go off Hector. Vince says, "Just a luggage mishap. We're leaving now."
Both Hector and Ricky are pulled away by their friends.
AFTER RACHEL REACHES home and is freshened up, she gets a call.
"You reached home?" Hector says over the phone.
YOU ARE READING
RAINSTORM
RomanceEverything changes the day she sees him in the rain. Teenager Rachel's life takes a turn one night when she catches her school's bad boy Hector under the rain in an act that no one would ever believe he did if she told them about it. As if that's n...
