Jared hadn’t been expecting the rain. His umbrella hung morosely from the back of his desk chair where he’d left it that morning, and his legs shrieked in agony as he pushed himself to sprint faster. Streets zoomed past, with streetlights and headlights flashing at him from puddles as he splashed through them at breakneck speed, desperate to reach home.

“Two more blocks,” he muttered between labored breaths. His clothes, like the clothes of every man in Libertania, were made of organic microfibers that disintegrated upon contact with acid. The relative acidic neutrality of rain made the clothes perfectly safe to wear on rainy days, or so the companies claimed. In reality, however, the garments only degraded more slowly in rainwater, which did little to comfort the high school student after suffering nearly fifteen blocks of torrential rainfall. He could already feel the cold sting on his skin where patches of his shirt and pants had been eaten through.

The young man couldn’t afford to stop and survey the damage, however. His mind conjured female eyes gazing out of every window and dark alleyway, and he half-expected a car to stop, depositing a woman in front of him with the sickening swish of an elegant raincoat. Fortunately, no such woman appeared, and the staring eyes proved to be illusory. As he rounded the corner, Jared felt a wave of relief and gratitude wash over him, warming his chilled body.

The chill was promptly reinstated as a sole female figure swung into view. Jared’s childhood friend Melody was standing in front of her family’s one-story house, her umbrella tilted back against her shoulder like the illustration on a box of salt. As Jared skidded to a halt, he realized that she was standing directly between him and the front door of his home with a watering can.

“H-how’s it going, Melody?” Jared asked. He could feel the rain shredding more fibers of his clothes as he struggled to keep his voice from cracking.

“Pretty good, just watering the flowers in your garden.” Melody fiddled innocently with a piece of her long, blond hair and smiled. She flipped the umbrella around so that she could cross her arms beneath her chest, drawing Jared’s attention with practiced ease.

“In, in the rain? I think they’re getting enough water.” Since the girl only stood a few inches taller than him, Jared hoped that his downturned gaze would be less noticeable.

“You know what they say, go big or go home! Hee hee hee.” The chuckle shook a few raindrops from her pink umbrella, generating a kaleidoscopic, shimmery effect from the artificial lace around its edges.

“Speaking of going home, I hope you don’t mind if I get past you?”

“Go for it, bro!” She stepped aside, and Jared’s relief seemed to inflate his chest like a balloon. He reached for the door handle and-

“It’s locked.”
                “Are you sure?” She feigned a frown, but the corners of her eyes were still creased upwards. “Maybe it’s just stuck. You may as well step aside and let a woman handle this.”

“Thanks,” Jared muttered, but fear had returned to the pit of his stomach. “You’ve always been better at feminine stuff than I am.”

“And don’t forget it,” she replied with a wink, then turned the doorknob and pushed hard, making the door shake in its frame. Still, it held firm, and she seemed to sigh. “I think it really is locked, though. Don’t your mother and sister leave a spare key under the doormat or something?”

“They stopped doing that after the house a few doors down got broken into. They installed a security system, too, remember?”

“That’s right! I com-pu-letely forgot about that!” She giggled. “And it’s not like you can give a man the keys to your house. That would be like letting your hamster drive the car.”

“Gee, thanks, Melody. Maybe the hamster’s a good driver! You never know.” Jared lightly punched her on the shoulder. Touching women was usually frowned upon, but he and Melody had an agreement. They were old friends, and old friends didn’t always follow the rules.

“Well, seems like one little hamster is stuck outside on a rainy day. Wanna wait at my place until the rain stops?”

Jared would have preferred to step in front of a moving car, driven by a hamster or otherwise. An automobile accident, at least, had a higher chance of survival. He opened his mouth to make an excuse, to plead with her.

Nonetheless, he gazed at Melody in the rain, her pink raincoat shiny with water and her umbrella resting snugly against her shoulder like a soldier’s rifle, and the edges of a low-cut red top barely poking out around the neckline of her rain jacket. Even as Jared wondered if that rain jacket had been specially designed to ensnare men in his exact situation, he couldn’t help but become transfixed. Melody, after all, could have shrunken him down at any moment, as there weren’t any laws against shrinking down a man in public. Melody’s intentions, he decided, might be benevolent after all. Still, he hesitated, and Melody stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout.

“C’mooooon, J-bear,” she whined, her voice sickeningly sweet. “We neeever get to hang out anymore.”

“Fine. I guess we can wait at your house until Mom comes home.”

“Yay! I’m so happy!” Melody squealed, her arms wrapping tight across her chest. “C’mon! C’mon!” And without another word, she grasped his hands and dragged him onto her family’s lawn, then through the front door, allowing the watering can to fall to the ground with a clatter. For all the delicacy of her wardrobe, Melody’s grip was strong, and Jared realized that she could have dragged him into her house at any time if she so desired. He decided to think of this as a good sign.