Chapter Text
It had been raining for four straight days and it was enough to drive any sane man over the edge. Jeff was well beyond sane at that point; the deadline for his latest novel hung over his head like a guillotine. He’s notorious for turning his work in at the last minute — a habit he’d managed to cling on to since childhood — and his agent was always stressing over it. Jeff was worried he was going to give the poor guy ulcers.
On Saturday in mid April, the rain had finally let up. The weather woman warned the residents of the upper east coast town to not make any outdoor plans for the rain was going to come back in full force later on that evening. As depressing as the bleak future of the weather sounded, Jeff decided he was going to take full advantage of the momentary lapse in downpour and head down to the beach.
His little home sat on the beach in a long line of other similar houses. The beach was public which was sometimes a pain in the summer, but it was still nice to be just a walk away from the water. The high tide stayed well away from his back porch, and there hasn’t been a hurricane strong enough to tear the house down since he’s lived there. Knock on wood.
The beach was abandoned save for a few of Jeff’s neighbors out getting a run in. There was a kid, probably early twenties, down knee deep in the ocean with the wind blowing right into his face. Although he was just looking at the back of the stranger’s head, Jeff didn’t readily recognize him which was out of the ordinary for how close knit the town was.
“That can’t be enjoyable,” Jeff said as he approached the kid with his hands in the pockets of his khaki beach pants that made him look more like a tourist than a local.
The kid looked back at Jeff, eyes squinting presumably from the salty spray coming in off the water due to the wind. “I’ve never seen the ocean before, so I figured I’d come down since it stopped raining.”
“It’s not all that special, huh?”
“I like it,” the kid said with a bit of a shrug. He walked back out of the water and onto the sand. His flip-flops were in his hand and his jeans were rolled up to his knees.
The air had changed and there was a feel in the wind that blew in that gave the warning that a storm was getting ready to open up. Jeff looked up, the sky was covered in menacingly dark clouds.
“The rain’s gonna pick back up. I wouldn’t wanna be caught out here if I were you.”
“Hopefully it holds out until I get back to the hotel,” the kid shrugged and looked up into the sky.
Jeff frowned. “The one in town? That’s at least a fifteen minute walk and—”
Thunder snapped and both men flinched, and as if the thunder had opened up some door in the sky, it began to pour. There were no sprinkles or steady increase, it was just full on downpour.
“My house is right over there,” Jeff pointed back to the white house and yelled through the rain.
The kid followed him without so much as a second thought, and they jogged up the beach and in through the back door, both shaking like dogs in the kitchen once they were inside. The rain beating down on the house was brutal the wind was whistling past the windows. It was almost eerie.
“Thanks. Yeah, that would have sucked walking back into town with it raining like that,” the kid said as he took a seat at the small kitchen table.
“It happened to me enough when I first moved here that I became a pro at knowing when it’s going to rain,” Jeff leaned in to the fridge and pulled out a couple beers, “I’m Jeff by the way.”
“Jensen.”
Jeff slid a beer towards Jensen and popped the top off of one for himself. “So, what brings you here?”
“Spring break,” Jensen nodded, “my friends are kind of history buffs so they’ve been driving along the coast seeing the sights. This is the cheapest hotel we could find, so it’s kind of our home base.”
Jeff grimaced and gulped down some beer. “That sounds awful, actually.”
Jensen shrugged. “Yeah, well, it could be worse.”
“Shouldn’t college kids be in, I don’t know, Miami or something?” Jeff said with a cocked eyebrow.
“I did that my freshman and sophomore year. I figured that I’d try something different this time around. I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff so I guess it ain’t all bad.” Jensen was full of shrugs and seemed to just go with the flow.
“What’s your major?”
Jensen sighed. “Business.”
“You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“Well, if it wasn’t so late I’d change it. I don’t see myself as a business guy.” Jensen was studying his beer as he spun it around on the scratched-up and coffee ring stained surface of the table.
“What do you want to do then?”
A little chuckle left Jensen. “Good question.”
“So what do you do?” Jensen asked as Jeff came back to the table from pitching his empty bottle into the trash.
“I’m a writer.”
“Is that a good job?”
“Only if you’re lucky,” Jeff chuckled.
“Are you lucky?” Jensen asked with a crooked grin and a cocked eyebrow.
“Lucky enough, I guess. I got a couple books out and one on the way.”
“Anything I woulda read?”
“Probably not,” Jeff shook his head.
Jensen wrinkled up his nose. “Think I don’t read?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Their little episode of banter was amusing, and they both started laughing at the same time. Jensen finished off his beer and denied a second when Jeff offered, saying that he ought to head back to the hotel soon and the rain had finally lightened up. They said their goodbyes, and Jensen thanked Jeff for giving him shelter during that crazy rain.
Jeff walked back to the guest-room-turned-office where a bulky typewriter sat on a white writing desk. A day-old cup of coffee sat half finished on top of the first draft of Jeff’s novel; a brown coffee ring stain encompassed the first word and half of the second word in the title.
He edited and typed until he couldn’t anymore. His eyes hurt and his brain was shooting blanks on the next corrections he needed to make. At 11:34, he collapsed onto his bed with the big down comforter and fell into a deep and well needed sleep.