Read Online When It Rains: The Umbrella Collection by Prudence Hayes - Free Book Online

I picked up my phone that thankfully still worked, Skylar and I sat up in my room talking about the nonsense that we typically did, trying not to bring up the obvious.   All the while, the silenced phone that sat in front of Skylar constantly lit up and each time it did, it revealed the name Lauren.
      “I have to get going to work at the gallery, but Scott and I are going to the movies later.  If you want to come.”
    Skylar and I, both work at the Emerson Art Gallery.  We paint furniture, canvases, and anything else we can get our hands on.  On the weekends they sell our stuff and we get a cut of the profit.  We both have been working there since Junior High and have loved it ever since.
    “Probably not.   I’m going to just sulk in my room for a bit.  But, maybe, if I’m done in time.”
    “Okay, if you need anything, just call.   Don’t think too much about Lauren and Adam.  They aren’t worth it,” she said as we walked out the room and down the steps. Before I left the room though, I reached into my closet and got out an umbrella with a zebra pattern for Skylar to use.  Even though, it looked like it has stopped raining, she took it without hesitation, knowing that I wouldn’t let her leave without it.
    “I’ll try.   I think I’m still kind of in shock.”
    I shut the door after she left and called for Pops, hearing no answer I preceded up the stairs and into his bathroom.   I looked at my options.  There was plenty to choose from because he and Mike have the same kinds of problems.  I decided upon a sleeping pill, not just one, I took five, and carried them back to my room.  I swallowed one and even though the sunshine was shining its bright afternoon rays into my window, I shut my shutters, put on my pajamas and curled into bed after I placed the remaining pills in my bedside table drawer.
    “You lost a friend, a boyfriend, and your mind!   How bad do you suck at life?!” the voice asked rhetorically.
    I leaned over to my drawer, reached in to grab two more pills and gulped them down my dry throat.   I buried myself in my covers as the tears began and I silently whimpered myself to sleep.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    6
    Is That Him?
     
     
         I slept the rest of the day and throughout the night with the help of the two pills that were left in my drawer and waiting for me to take.  I was sprawled out on my bed; still groggy from the pills.  What woke me was the bight ray of sun that made its way through the branches of the tree, through the window pane and a crack of the shudder that I didn’t close all the way.  My phone was going off throughout the night and each time I looked at it it was Lauren and occasionally Adam.  I eventually had to turn it off.  I turned it back on as I flipped to my back waiting to see what I had waiting.  There were 11 new voicemails and 23 text messages for them both. I didn’t read or listen to any of them for the pure fact I was still angry.  Plus, I didn’t understand why they were calling, they made their choice and it’s the end of it. 
    I got up out of bed and headed downstairs to the kitchen to look for something to eat, but as I looked closer there wasn’t anything around that looked appetizing to me.   I looked into the cookie jar that was a miniature cow where I hid my favorite lollipops and reached in, but it was empty.  Once I realized that I couldn’t have them that was exactly what I began to crave.  There is only one place I can get them, Marty’s Mart.  It’s a little convenience store that is owned by Pops’ friend, Martin Jones.  It took me years of coercing and begging Mr. Jones to finally add them to his merchandise order.  I can happily announce that they now stock the shelves with them.  They are these super sugary lollipops that I used to get as a kid at Dr. Ferry’s office after my checkup and I’ve loved them ever since.
    I took a quick glance out my window to see if there were