The first weakness
394 Words
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It started with rain.
Not a storm, not thunder. Just that slow, steady kind that made the world feel softer.
Jude was sitting on the bleachers behind the gym, hoodie pulled up, headphones in but no music playing. He liked the sound of the rain better. It reminded him of hospital windows. Of being still.
“Found you.”
He didn’t have to look up. He knew the voice.
Mira stood a few steps away, already soaked, holding a half-eaten sandwich in one hand and an extra juice box in the other.
“You always disappear during lunch,” she said, sitting beside him without asking. “It’s like your signature move.”
“I’m not really into cafeterias,” Jude muttered.
“Why? Too loud?”
He didn’t answer.
She handed him the juice box anyway. Apple. He didn’t like apple. He still took it.
They sat in silence for a while.
“You know,” Mira said eventually, “most people would be freezing right now.”
Jude gave a humorless smile. “Maybe I like being uncomfortable.”
She glanced at him, then back at the field. “I think you just don’t want to be around people.”
He looked at her. She didn’t flinch.
“You think you’ve got me figured out already?” he asked.
“No,” she said simply. “I think you’re hiding. And I think you’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Jude didn’t reply.
The rain softened. The clouds thinned.
“You don’t talk much,” she said.
“I don’t have much to say.”
“Liar.”
He turned to her, surprised.
She smiled—just barely. “People who’ve seen the worst always have the most to say. They’re just too tired to explain it.”
That struck something in him—sharp and silent.
Jude stared ahead, jaw tight. “Why do you care?”
Mira didn’t answer right away. She picked at her sandwich crust, thoughtful.
“Because sometimes people need someone to sit in the rain with them,” she said. “Even if they don’t ask.”
He didn’t know what to say to that.
So he didn’t say anything.
But he didn’t leave either.
And that silence between them—it didn’t feel empty. It felt like something waiting to grow.
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- Writer
