Sunshower | Chris Cornell

1. First Sight

Seattle, Washington.
Late September - 1989

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It's the sound of hard rain beating down against my bedroom window, and not the brown alarm clock on my night table, that actually wakes me up today.

"Ughhhhhhhhhh," I groan and pull the bed covers over my head. I close my eyes again and stay that way in hopes of more sleep, but it soon becomes clear that I will not be able to do that. The time on my clock says it's almost 6:00 am; I feel so exhausted but decide to pull myself out of bed anyway. I walk towards my bedroom window and see that my black cat, Diego, is awake as well. Those bright yellow eyes of his move up to look at me and he purrs as I scratch under his ears.

"Good morning, handsome," I say to him, quietly, before walking away to the bathroom. After washing up and taking care of other needs, I go over to my closet and pick out something to wear for the day. I end up choosing my favorite worn out blue jeans, a soft dark grey sweatshirt and my usual black combat boots. Not a very exciting or sexy selection by any means, but that's alright. I've never liked wearing anything that draws a lot of attention to my body. As I'm changing out off my shorts and oversized t-shirt, I try to avoid glancing at myself in the mirror near by. It's only when I'm done getting dressed that I feel comfortable enough to take an actual look.

'Not so bad,' I think and sigh. The sweatshirt is loose enough that you don't really notice my tummy and it's long enough to cover my backside. I focus on my face next; my cheeks are a little chubbier than I would like, but at least my fair skin was healthy looking. My brown eyes looked tired, though. The dark circles underneath them proved that I wasn't sleeping well lately, so I put on a little bit of makeup to help hide that. After I finished brushing my long brown hair, I stepped back and took one final look at myself in the mirror.

"Well, this is as good as it's going to get," I whisper to Diego, who's now curled up on the bed staring at me, and I shrug.

I take one last look around the room for any sign of something I might be forgetting. Seeing my purse in a chair by the corner, I quickly grab it and double check that it has everything I need. Once I left my bedroom, I wrote a note for my mother on the kitchen counter saying that I was leaving early for work today. It's still pouring down outside, so I also grab a coat and an umbrella before locking up the front door. I'm not sure why but despite the bad weather, I feel the need to get out of this house.

While walking sluggishly to work, I noticed there was a little coffee shop already open near by. It's a place that I had only ever seen from the outside before. I rarely go into those sort of things because the stuff they serve is probably too expensive, but today was different and I was feeling kinda hungry. With that thought in mind, I started walking faster in the direction of the coffee shop; once there I closed my umbrella and stepped inside.

The pleasant scent of freshly made coffee reaches my senses and it instantly makes me feel better. I looked around the place and took in all the simple black and white decor. I still had a little time to kill and the place was mostly unoccupied, so after paying for my order (which, to my delight, actually didn't cost that much), I decided to sit down at one of the small tables and ate my breakfast there. As I was taking a sip from my warm delicious drink, I saw someone else enter the coffee shop.

It was a man. I could only see him from behind, but he appeared to be young. His legs were ridiculously long and slender, so he must be over six feet tall. His hair was brown, curly and went passed his broad shoulders. He was dressed causally in a leather jacket and ripped jeans; when I looked downwards I saw that his combat boots were similar to mine. It was then that I averted my gaze back down to my drink. I would be so embarrassed if he caught me staring at him.