They're Just Shades: A Dave Strider X Reader

Thank the Rain

HEYO, MY BEAUTIFUL READERS! I know it's been quite a while since my last update. I know.

Quite a while.

Ahem. I've been beyond busy as of late, and although that is the excuse that pretty much all authors use, it's the truth. Seriously. These past three weeks, I have been stuck somewhere with a no-device policy. Also devoid of WiFi. Needless to say, I've suffered. Suffered greatly.

On a completely separate subject, I've switched into easier classes, so that should equal less homework in the long run. I'm gonna dedicate myself more to my Wattpad people! Hella!

And now for the show. Enjoy.

:D

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It wouldn't really be accurate to describe [F/n] [L/n]'s life as a normal one. It never had been. But somehow, it was getting stranger and harder to handle.

Sure. She'd had a few crushes in the past. But those were like Tylenol compared to the massive pill she was struggling to swallow now.

He was attractive, yes. Definitely funny. Charismatic. Smart. And so many more things that she only wished that she had. But she'd known plenty of people like that throughout her life! Hell, her abusive, drunk-ass father had even had that much going for him.

Putting it bluntly, she just didn't know what to do.

When she woke up the next morning, it wasn't to her alarm. In fact, she'd slept through that. It was 10:38 in the morning, and this was the latest she thought she'd ever overslept. So why did she still feel so tired?

She quickly peeled off the still-damp clothes from last night (and realized with dismay that most of the water had seeped into the couch cushions) and changed into something at random. It was a purple-and-blue long-sleeved shirt and washed-out jeans. Then, having forgotten to grab socks or do hair and makeup, she sprinted from her house and down the street to school as fast as her trembling legs would take her.

When she arrived at the gates, she was out of breath and her windpipe was burning. She couldn't seem to get enough air. And it was then that she found that she had also forgotten her schoolbag.

Knowing that she looked like hell, [F/n] tried to decide whether it was really worth it to push herself through the day. After all, if she could hardly breathe right now, there was no telling what four hours of education could do to her. So she decided to play hooky today.

After a while of aimless walking, she found that her legs had carried her into the middle of downtown. The buildings that surrounded the road were a drugstore, a pizza place/arcade, two small boutiques, and Japanimation, the store that Dave had taken her to on their "date."

She walked in the direction of the drugstore.

She hadn't even really noticed the heat of the day until the store's air-conditioning hit her in a large gust of near-Antarctic wind. The man at the counter blinked at her curiously. There was no one else in the store.

"Um, hello," she began, not really remembering why she had come here. "I-I'm looking for some. . . for, um. . . "

"Cold medicine?" the man offered, sliding his thick glasses up his nose.

Shocked, she realized that he was right. "Yes. Yes, thank you. Is there any? Cold medicine, I mean. Is there any here?" She was babbling, and it made him seem concerned.

His eyes didn't leave her as he pointed to the wall opposite where she stood. It was lined with bottles of medication, in liquid and pill form, from everything from feminine cramping to athsma attacks.