Touched

The first few droplets of rain fell. I usually hated the rain, but this time I found myself drawn to every sound it made. There was something strange about it. I looked outside the café window, wondering if it was possible that a person could have the exact same thoughts as mine at the exact same moment. Maybe he or she was someone from the other side of the world – if it was raining there. It wasn’t that a far-fetched idea at all. Maybe it was even him….

“Hey, Sands, are you okay?” Breanne, my constant companion, asked.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just thinking about something.”

“Or maybe someone. Raffy?”

“I’m not as boy-crazy as you are,” I joked, taking a sip of my other good friend, a steaming coffee. Breanne just laughed. What she said wasn’t that far off. I was thinking about Raffy. But I didn’t want to talk with her about him. I knew she wasn’t offended. We had been friends long enough for her to figure me out. She just shrugged, then let out a loud gasp. I glanced at her, saw her panicked expression, and, confused, turned back to where she was looking. I froze. It was Raffy.

I could understand why Breanne reacted that way. It wasn’t everyday that we crossed paths with someone from my past whom I had been avoiding for the past couple of days. I had once loved him and gave my all. It was a nice learning experience for a naïve first-timer of love like me. It was hell, but it was, at the same time, also heaven. Suddenly I was too confused to think. I didn’t know what to do. I turned away, but not before I noticed that he was on his way to our table.

“Sandra.” I felt his presence beside me. I mumbled an unintelligible greeting. I hated myself. Breanne made some lame-ass excuse to escape. Raffy took her abandoned seat.

“It’s been raining for hours.”

I shot him a dirty look. “Even I can tell that.”

He ignored my remark. “I was sitting in a bench somewhere along the Academic Oval in UP when the first droplet of rain hit the ground. There was something odd about it. I immediately thought of you, of how you hated the rain. But today’s different, have you noticed?”

I looked at him. He looked so much the half-angel he was. We were thinking the same thing.

“Yes,” I replied, my voice shaking. He held my hand. He understood what I was feeling.

There was really something peculiar about the rain. Something which we could never explain. Something that no words could express. Something great. It was the first raindrop that touched the ground.