Rainy Day Man
By Kay Enasni

In the lives of all young teenagers, there are about a million crushes that you have. If you're a girl...it's a mad obsession with almost ever single guy that you see, save the totally geeky ones and the ones who are "just your friend". If you're a guy...then your hormones are in control and just about any girl that looks good is your primary target. Of course, I am completely biased in this subject, being that I am female. And also because of my experiences in love.

I, Ashley Hammond...have had a love life like you wouldn't believe. Being pretty {or so they say}, I've had about a million boyfriends. {Okay, 23...but who is counting?} They were cute, yeah...but we never really seemed to click. There were guys that came close and all...but none of them were really what I was looking for in a guy. A lot of times my friends {Non Power Ranger friends, that is to say} said that I should date Carlos. As if! The guy was my best friend!

So I kept on dating, searching for the right guy. At boyfriend number 23, I felt that I was head over heels in love. The guy's name was Freddy, a hotty in my biology class...and he was a transfer student from Japan. Of course he had been born in the U.S., and he looked totally American and all...but he was still from Japan. Anyways, we started dating when he gave me a bouquet of roses for Valentines day. What a sweetie he was! He handed them to me, looked into my eyes and asked me if I would go out with him. Of course I said yes!

Things were absolutely wonderful. We started talking and got to know each other. It was unbelievable how much the two of us had in common with each other! We liked the same movies, read the same books, had almost the same hobbies,...even had the same favorite ice cream flavor! It was love...definitely love! A perfect guy, backed with a perfect relationship. I couldn't have been happier!

We dated from junior year, all the way up until a few days after graduation. I bet you're wondering what happened? Ha, I used to wonder that myself...Gee, what happened to Ashley's perfect relationship with Freddy? That jerk, I'm glad I never saw him again after that day.

"Mmmm...your hair smells wonderful, Ashley..." Freddy nuzzled against my neck, kissing it and sniffing at my hair. "Really wonderful."

I closed my eyes slowly and ran my fingers through his dark brown hair. "I wash it, you know. That's probably why."

We had taken to kissing on his couch on that day. Freddy had just gotten his very own apartment, the biggest step of freedom from parental control. He wanted to show it to me and of course I agreed. Being a complete ditz who was totally in love, I didn't track his ulterior motive until after we had gotten there. At first, he just showed me around his place...perfectly harmless. Then he asked me if I wanted anything to drink...and I said no. That was also harmless. Then we sat down on the couch. Harmless? Yes, at first...but not for long.

"Of course, of course..." he whispered thickly into my ear. This was something I had never heard before, a side of Freddy that I wasn't sure I wanted to see. His hands, which were on my hips before then...slid down to the bottom of my skirt, and then underneath it. I almost had a heart failure!

"Freddy..." I tried to push him off of me where he had pinned me to the arm of the couch. "Stop it, okay?"

Nope. This definitely wasn't harmless anymore. His hands roamed around inside of my skirt. "What? Don't you love me, Ashley?"

I squirmed and pushed at him again. "Yeah, I do...but I don't want you doing this! Stop it, okay!?"

"Awww...come on..." he started kissing down my neck. "We love each other, and we've been dating so long...give me one good reason why we can't."

I growled and shoved his head off of my neck. "Because I don't want to!" I declared. "I don't want to do this! I'm not ready!"

Grumbling, he pulled his hands out from under my skirt, and got up off of me. "You can leave now, Ashley. Don't come back, got it?"

I stared at him for a moment. "Freddy? I...don't understand! Why?"

Freddy snorted, stood up and pushed me into the door. His eyes were blazing...and it scared me. I had loved this man, and here he was...breaking up with me. And why? "If you don't trust me enough to sleep with me, I'm not gonna waste my friggin' time! I've been working up to this for a year and a half now...and there you go..." he mocked me, trying to mimic my voice. "'Freddy, I'm not ready!' Like hell you're not ready!"

I groaned inwardly and shut my eyes as he pinned me to the door. "I wasn't ready, there isn't anything wrong with that!" I insisted. "Freddy, I do love you, I'm just not ready for that yet!"

"Shut up..." he spat, turned the doorknob and sent me crashing down into the floor of the hallway outside of his apartment.

I pulled myself up and out of his doorway with tears in my eyes. There was no way that what was happening...was really happening. Freddy...my true love...wasn't breaking up with me just because I wouldn't sleep with him! But as I cried out in protest, shouting out my love to him...all he did was slam the door closed. Seconds later I could hear the sounds of the chain as he locked the door.

He really was breaking up with me just because I wouldn't sleep with him. And all I could do was run as far away from his apartment as I possibly could, crying my heart out.

When I ran outside of the big apartment building, I found that it was pouring down rain. Of course, I felt that this was extremely convenient for my heartbroken mood, and just continued to run. The rain didn't matter...nothing mattered anymore. My life was over as I knew it. My boyfriend...the man I loved...had broken up with me because I refused to give myself to him.

As I jogged along through the rain, I wished that I hadn't stopped what he had been trying to do. I wished that we had slept together. That way we would have still been together. Why did life have to be so unfair? Why was love so fickle? I knew that he was the right man for me...I had known it since we had started to date! I didn't have anything to live for anymore if the man I loved didn't love me anymore. I just wanted to curl up in a little ball and die...or just keep running forever, getting as far as I could from Freddy and the rest of the world.

My vision was blurred by both rain and tears, making it so that I could barely see anything in front of me. Twin beams of light...from a car driving down the road near me, shown in my eyes. The horn of the car honked loudly, and it violently skidded to a stop. I dropped down onto my knees, burying my face in my hands. Somehow I had ended up in the middle of the road, mostly because I cared little about where I was going, or what I was doing.

I sat there in a little puddle in the middle of the road, directly in front of a black sports car. I heard it as the door opened, and someone stepped out of it. I didn't move, however...I didn't care if they wanted to come up and scream and curse at me. It didn't matter. I actually wished that they had run me down! But then I heard the person running towards me, calling out my name in worried concern.

"Ashley!" It was Carlos! My dear best friend practically since we were in diapers! "Ashley, what's going on!!" Soon he was crouched down on the ground next to me, with his muscular arms around me. He was trying to comfort me, and cars pulled up behind his own, honking their own horn. Carlos didn't seem to care, though...

He couldn't ignore the honking of the car horns for long, and before I realized what was going on, he had gotten me into the passenger side of his car and was driving down the road. I was so numb that I hadn't noticed....and probably wouldn't have noticed at all until he placed his hand on my shoulder, giving me a reassuring shake. I turned my tearstreaked face to look at him. My eyes were still filled with tears, so I wiped them until I could see his face clearly.

Carlos had stopped at a stoplight, and was now looking at me with a look of concern that I had never seen pass his face as long as we had known each other. One hand was on the steering wheel, while the other was gently massaging my shoulder. He bit his lip and was about to say something to me, when the light became green. With a short sigh, he turned his attentions back to driving. The hand on my shoulder went back to the steering wheel...and the black sports car lurched across the intersection.

I leaned back against the carseat, watching him. He was such a sweetheart...always had been. I never realized until that moment how deeply I cared about this guy who had hung out with me since we were little kids. Our friendship was much deeper than hanging out and all of that. It was much more than that. It was a bond made with mutual love and companionship.

I closed my eyes at that thought. Love? Was I in love with Carlos? Yeah, he was like my brother...that's how I loved him. I was in love with Freddy like a woman should love a man. As the thoughts of Freddy began to pour in, tears began to well up in my eyes once more.

Carlos finally spoke. "Why don't I park somewhere quiet, so we can talk?" he suggested, turning his glance off the road to look at me momentarily. "I think you need to get a lot off of your mind..."

"Damn straight." I muttered, rubbing my eyes. "I like, majorly need to talk." Using my valley talk, I hoped to hide how much I really was hurting from this. I don't think it helped much however. I think that he knew exactly how much I was hurting...and almost running me down in the middle of the road proved it.

He nodded, then turned on the street that was headed for the park. It was so typical of him, but I thanked him deep inside for it. The two of us had a special place in the park...a treehouse. We had built it when we were young, making improvements and such all through the years...and we went there whenever we wanted to talk. And this was one of those times. "I hope you feel up to walking a little in the rain..." he said.

Looking down at my soaked yellow blouse and black skirt, I shrugged. "I'm soaking wet anyways," I told him. "I won't mind at all."

"Good." A tiny smile cracked his lips as he continued to drive. We passed a sign that said 'Welcome to Angel Grove Park' "We're almost there."

Sniffling, I watched out the window as he searched for a suitable place to park his car. He always had the strangest way of going about it, avoiding parking places and wanting to park in the grass. "There's a spot right there..." I pointed to an entire row of empty parking places, which he just passed right by.

"I know." Carlos raised his eyebrows. "I just want to get as close as I can get...those are kind of far. You don't look like you're up for a lot of walking."

"I just want to run forever..." I admitted to him. "I think I can handle a bit of walking..."

He pulled up in an empty parking space...what a shocker, then stopped the car. "Okay, then let's go..." he turned off the ignition, putting the car into park mode. Both of us just sat there for a moment in silence. He looked at me, and I looked out of the windshield. Tiny drops of rain coursed down it, making it impossible to see outside. I hadn't realized how hard it was raining until then.

Nodding shakily, I opened the door and stepped out of the car. He was out only a few seconds later, shutting his door...then running to the other side to shut mine for me. I showed him that I was able to at least close doors on my own, and shut it myself. So instead of doing what he had intended, he wrapped an arm about my shoulders, and started to lead the way to the treehouse.

It upset me at first, but as I walked and saw images of Freddy, I saw his intention. I started to cry again, leaning on him as we continued towards our treehouse. And he kept his arm around me, asking me what was wrong in a soft voice that was almost drowned out by the rain. I don't think he cared that I didn't answer him...and just continued to sob my heart out until we reached it.

Somehow, I managed to climb up into it on my own. But as soon as I laid foot on the floor, my knees gave way beneath me. The tears had never stopped since I got out of the car.

Carlos pulled himself up into the treehouse, then rushed to my side. Both of his arms encircled me in wet, yet warm embrace. I laid my head on his shoulder, allowing myself to sob my heart out on his black tanktop. I just didn't care anymore...I had to let it all out. "Oh, Carlos!" I cried. "It was awful!"

He patted my back, rocking gently back and forth. "What was?" he asked me. "What's gotten you so upset? I haven't ever seen you this upset."

"Freddy..." I choked out. "Freddy broke up with me...be...because..." I started to cough.

"Shhhhh...." He whispered. "Calm down....why did he break up with you?"

"That's the worst part! It's...it's because I refused to sleep with him!!" I closed my eyes, clutching onto Carlos for comfort and protection. I heard a low growl escape his lips.

"That asshole..." he snarled. "How dare he!"

"I...don't know!" That was something that I had never heard from Carlos before. He got angry at what some of my old boyfriends had done to me, but never once had he sounded this angry. And there was also another tinge to his voice...an unrecognizable one. I found myself unable to say anything more...I had told him the whole story, and just cried. And he allowed me too...for eternity...or at least for five minutes...not once interrupting me, or letting me go.

Finally having cried myself dry, I pulled away from Carlos a bit. Still, he kept his arms around me. "Thank you, Carlos..." I shook my head. "I needed that, I probably might have gone insane and done something drastic."

He chuckled softly. "You almost did. You were running in the middle of the road. Lucky I saw you, or you'd be as flat as a pancake right about now."

His comment made me laugh a little, and I laid my head back on his shoulder. "You're so funny...and sweet. You always have been..."

"I try." he grinned.

"And you do a very good job!" I pointed out. "You're starting to cheer me up...I majorly owe you."

Carlos grinned wryly and poked me in the stomach gently with a finger. "Nahhh...You don't owe me anything. I'm just glad that you're okay. You're too good for that jerk Freddy, anyways. How dare he break up with you....and for a stupid reason like that!"

I sniffled. "You really mean that?"

"Of course I do, Ashley! I don't say things that I don't mean!" he smiled widely.

Biting my lip, I looked at him. We both were absolutely soaked down to the bone, and extremely cold...but being in his arms warmed me up so much, that it didn't seem to matter. His long black hair was matted to his head like a shiny helmet, and water dripped from his eyelashes. I giggled at that sight; he looked kind of silly. But at the same time, as I looked at him...a strange new feeling crept through me. Or was it one that had been there all along? It felt new and old...all at the same time.

This man...Carlos Miranda...had been my best friend ever since we were three years old. We did almost everything together. We shared our deepest secrets with each other, comforted each other when we were sad, praised each other when something good happened. Through good times and bad, he had always been there for me...and in my heart I knew that he always would. I also knew that I would always be there for him as well. This feeling that I was encountering, was none other for a deep love for him. He had been more like my brother for so long...but now I realized that I really loved him.

Like I had thought that I loved Freddy.

And as I looked into his dark brown eyes, thinking about the way that he had acted on this day, and the way he had acted our entire time of knowing each other, I knew that he felt exactly the same way about me.

Freddy wasn't the one who was my true love, it was someone that I had overlooked, but had known all the years that I could remember. It was the guy who was always 'just my friend'...and now...I was seeing him in an entirely new light. He was no longer 'just a friend', but the only man in the entire world that I would ever love. I didn't even have to think about it, as I had with Freddy. There was no doubt in my mind that Carlos was my true love, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

All of my life I had denied it, but it was true. And he knew it too...

What happened next didn't take either of us by surprise. Soaking wet, sitting in a treehouse that we had built together, in each other's arms...our lips met in a passionate kiss. So passionate, had it been explosives, the entire universe would probably cease to exist any longer.

After what seemed an eternity...we finally broke apart for air. I nuzzled my tear streaked face against his neck, smiling. "I guess that grandma was right in pairing us up after all, huh?" I asked him, tickling his sides.

He started to laugh, I just happened to know exactly where all of his ticklish spots were. "Yep, I guess so..." he replied, kissing me on top of my head. "And I thought that she was crazy at first, I really should apologize to her."

"You had better..." I teased. The next words came to my lips without asking me for permission...but I didn't mind them. "I love you, Carlos."

Carlos actually seemed to relax at hearing me say that. He moved away a little bit, then lifted up my chin with a crooked finger and kissed me again. "I love you too...and I have something that I want to ask you."

I shot him a confused look. "What's that?" I inquired.

"There is no denying how we feel about each other, is there?" he asked. I nodded.

"Of course...we both love each other!" I replied confidently.

He smiled, almost nervously. "Okay..." he began, then cleared his throat. "Ashley Hammond, ever since we met I have been in love with you. I may not have known it until now, but I always have been. I think that you can say that you feel the same way. You might also feel the same way in the respect that I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. I don't have a ring or anything, this is strictly spur of the moment, but straight from my heart. Ashley Hammond, would you do me the honor of marrying me?"

I stared at him for a moment in complete shock. But I didn't need to think about my answer. I already knew what it was going to be. Wrapping my arms around him tightly, I planted a passionate kiss on his lips and screamed out my reply to the entire world. "YES!"

And the rest, folks...is history. I married my true love, Carlos Miranda, two weeks later. He never was a boyfriend, so he never got on my list of 23. He was my best friend, my oathbrother, my fiancé, and then my husband...and to this day, we are still happily married.

It has been fifteen years since the day that Freddy broke up with me. I guess that I really should thank him. After all, if he hadn't broken up with me, I might have never found my true love...And for that at least, I will owe him. His heartbreak brought me to someone much better than he ever was.

Carlos and I are the parents of two wonderful children. Carlos Jr. is fourteen years old, while his little sister Cassie {Named after her godmother}, is nine years old. I am currently pregnant with a third and fourth child...twins. I'm sure that both of them are boys. Carlos has already agreed to name them after our children's godfather {T.J.} and his best friend Andros.

If my life was happy with Freddy, I am in pure bliss with Carlos. I will never forget that day when my best friend helped me to cope with lost love, and gained a whole new love on the side. True love. I will be happy with my rainy day man for the rest of my life. Who would have thought that those friends of mine who told me to date Carlos were right?

The End