THE RAIN DIDN'T stop falling. It fell all through the night, straight to this morning and is still falling. It's what I'll like to call, the never ending rain. Maybe this is the last rain that's gonna mark the end of the season and welcome winter right after. But you can never tell with our weather.

Over the rain I see Christy park her scooter and sprint into the school building, dressed in a large hooded rain coat, from head to toe. I laugh and follow behind her and its not until we're together in the girl's bathroom that she finally notices me.

"Anna." She slowly stands removing the coat, leaving a poodle of water beneath her and when she's done, I can see that her uniform and hair is still in good shape, dry and comfy.

"Why didn't I think of this?" I ask looking at her in wonder. Although I had an umbrella, somehow my hair is a little damp.

Christy smiles, "because you don't have a thrice your size rain coat?"

I chuckle, checking my face out in the mirror. Some other girls run in - some wet, some dry- to fix something of theirs. After I've crosschecked my face and made sure everything is in order, Christine and I leave. She drops her large coat in the girls locker room and prays that nobody steals it.

"I didn't sleep well last night, turns out there are some betraying holes on our ceiling." Christine explains.

"Shit, that must have sucked."

"It did. The tapping sound of water didn't stop all night--"

I stopped listening to Christine when my eyes land on Ian Maurice. He's walking towards us, probably heading to his locker - above mine - he doesn't see me and has his natural frown on his face. I've seen him a fair amount of time but something about him today knocked the breath out of me.

He has his uniforms!

Every guy in this school wear the mandatory school uniform and I've never seen the boring uniform fit someone so perfectly. Ian's shirt is buttoned all the way with no open or lose one, his collar too is perfect and the only imperfect thing is the lose slanting tie, but even that as it is is perfect. He has a black zip opened jacket over it, completing the whole look of perfection. His hair looked damp, some shiny locks falling over his face.

"Anna?" Christine says tapping my hand, I turn to her and see her wearing a teasing smile. "You're staring. Badly."

I blush and turn back to him. "How can you not stare?" Christine laughs and I realized I said that out loud.

"Bye, try not to face plant anything on your way." She gives me one last pat and walks away.

Our last night phone conversation ended really quick and now I'm unsure of what's going on in his mind. There's no harm is saying hi, is there? And I'm actually going over to my locker too so... I inhale, fueling my legs as I walk closer to Ian.

"Morning."

He glances away from his opened locker to me and back to the locker again. "Morning."

I walk around him so I'll be able to see his face and not the locker door. "How was your night?"

"Good." He answers in a monotone tone and my mood is just about to deflate.

"Mine was great, I find sleeping when its raining to be very wonderful, like a lullaby playing in the background." Ian doesn't reply me and my eyes scan the side of his face that I can see, his chiseled jaw line. I can tell he's still frowning and not the usual one. He's mad. My eyes move to his hair and I notice, they are damper than I thought. Like how a hair would be after shower and a half way towelling.

I chuckle, my hand reaching up to touch his hair. "Did you run all the way--" I don't get to finish because Ian's hand shoot up to clamp over mine just before I can touch his hair. I freeze, staring at his hand over mine, he has black fingerless gloves on and his fingers were cold. I trace my eyes from his hand to his eyes and I find him looking at me too. His eyes are a shade darker, like a really bad storm going on in the ocean.

We don't break eye contact for almost a full minute and Ian eventually let's go of me, letting my hand fall beside me. "Don't touch me."

I watch him shut his locker and walk away before I finally find my voice back. "What's wrong?"

Ian stops walking, his back turned to me. I sigh and walk towards him. "What did I say wrong?"

I see his shoulders drop and I take that as a good sign. "Nothing."

"Then what's wrong. Why are you treating me like this?" I'm tempted to put my hand on his shoulder but I don't.

Ian spins around to face me, glaring at me. I back away and he follows until my back is pressed against a random locker. "Remember that talk about commitment?"

I slowly nod.

"Remember everything I said?" I nod again, "well, friendship or whatever it is that going on between us is a commitment. Okay, I was serious about yesterday. I don't want anything holding me back, I'm already too attached as it is."

His look is breaking me. He looks angry and at the same time, vulnerable. My voice comes out smaller than I thought. "So what now?"

"Stay away from me."

I look up at him. "I can't. I'm already too attached too and maybe you have the ability to erase and forget people but I don't."

Ian jaw ticks and he slams his hand on the locker beside me. I don't flinch and I hear whispers around, reminding me that we're not alone here.

"Ian, I'm not asking for anything. I like you and I just want to see where this goes." I reach for his gloved hand, "You're always saying I'll run away eventually, so you have nothing to worry about, right?"

He stays silent, glaring at him. I gulp and continue. "Eventually-," I keep out the 'according to you part' "-I'd leave. When I do you would need to worry about anything anymore."

His lips tug up slightly and the dark tense look, relaxes. "That's one weird logic."

I smile, looking at his long fingers. "Your fingers are cold."

"Yeah, I was freezing."

"Why wear gloves that won't cover up?" I ask looking at him with a smile.

"Would you believe me if I said, fashion?"

I laugh and Ian smirks. The bell rings just then and I stop playing with his fingers. "We're playing a Scrimmage today, you'll be there?"

"Maybe."

"Ian, come on."

He smiles, tucking my hair behind my ear. "Maybe." I watch him leave and I can't help the giant smile that adorns my face for the rest of the day.

**

School slowly comes to an end and our rival school, Payne High arrives with school players. We've been rivals since the beginning of them, always battling for first place, so what's supposed to be a scrimmage turns out to be a little too serious. With all the glares around, the only thing on our mind is to win and Aiden makes sure we understand it perfectly well.

I see Jamie and Christine on our side of the bleachers, ever ready to cheer us on. And then I see Ian, he's seated at his usual spot up on top the bleachers and I can see a couple girls ogling him. He gives me a thumbs up that goes way more appreciated that the simple act should. My mum and Ellie are here too, mum as the principal and Ellie because she loves watching me play and would rather not stay at home alone.

Thankfully the rain has stopped and I'm in my black and yellow jersey with my surname printed at the back and my number '7' boldly printed underneath it. My hair's up in a tight pony and I'm a little nervous because unlike us, Payne high don't have any girls on their teams. But I'm guessing that's their loss.

The match starts and Aiden scores within the first half time. I score the second half time and so does Payne. The soccer match ends in a tie and we've never been more upset. Coach is proud though, he says we did good but need to work on our unity and passes more. Ellie congratulates me and so does Jamie and Chris.

"Anna." I look up from untying my shoes and see Aiden standing right in front of me. He smiles, and stretches forth his hand "Nice game."

I stare at his hand wondering what's up and if this is some kind of Munroe trap but eventually I shake him and Aiden pulls me up, wrapping his hands around me in a pretty tight hug.

"A-Aiden?" I call trying to wiggle out but his hold is quite strong.

"God, I've missed you. Football is the only kind of interaction we have now and it sucks." Aiden says still not letting me go.

I finally manage to pull myself off him and he finally let's go. "Well," breathe. Jesus, what a hug. "That wouldn't be so if you'll be more human than jerk."

He nods raising a hand up in surrender, "I deserve that. I've had time to think and I guess I haven't been making the right decisions. But I'm with Evelyn now and there's really nothing I can do about it but I want to make things right."

I cross my hands in front of me, "And how would you do that?"

"We were friends before we became a couple. Yes, we're no longer together but there's no rule that says we can't go back to being friends."

Really? There's no rule like that? Why the hell not?

"You want us to be friends again?" I ask for confirmation and he nods. "That's not going to be possible Aiden."

"Why not? You're still friends with Finn and you reunited with your friends after being apart. Why can't we do same?"

"Because unlike Finn and Christine, you have Evelyn Munroe. She's not gonna like us being friends."

Aiden rolls his eyes, "Evelyn won't do anything. She won't mind us being just friends. It'll be just like before." He literally pries my hands off each other just so he could hold them. " Please Anna, give me a second chance, please."

I glance back at the bleachers and Ian's there, he's relaxing back with his eyes closed, looking asleep. I know he's not asleep.

"Fine Aiden, Fine." I say in a haste. I want him gone, I want to be with Ian now.

Aiden smiles and kisses my cheek, "Thanks Anna." I watch him leave going to join the friends that have been beckoning him over.

I didn't feel anything. Usual Aiden kisses, hugs and smiles, made my heart flutter but now, it didn't.

"I'm starting to really dislike your ex." Ian says walking towards me.

I smile, rolling my eyes. "I wonder why."

He smirks. "You look good in a jersey."

"You look fabulous in your uniform." I retort freeing my hair out from it's ponytail.

Ian scoffs, "I look and feel like a penguin."

"That's new fabulous. I love penguins."

Ian laughs, "of course you do."

"Thanks for being here. I thought you won't come because of the 'maybe'."

"I'll come. I'll always come." He says then kicks his foot on the grass. "Its great to see you kick ass on a field filled with boys."

I sigh, "Well I didn't do a lot of ass kicking today. We practically lost."

"Yeah but there's always a next time." Ian says and that's the first thing someone's actually said to me that made me feel better.

I smile, looking at the empty quiet field with Ian beside me. "I feel like screaming."

"Me too. I've had it with neck ties."

"I love ties."

"Because you don't get to wear them for hours."

"We're standing on an empty field and we're literally alone." I say looking around the bleachers to confirm that. Ian raises a brow at me. "Why can't we scream?"

He finally sees my point and starts protesting with a shake of his head. "No way. No, that would make us seem like lunatics."

I laugh, grabbing hold of his hand. "And that's a bad thing why?"

Ian let's me pull him, moving us to what I think is the center of the field. "Because you're the only lunatic in this duo."

I roll my eyes, "Ready?"

"Nope."

"On the count of three." I stand sideways him, "one, two..."

Three!