Touched by Demons, though I fall into grace.

I'm not going to tell Frank about my past yet. I'd rather come up with a few pieces of airtight evidence. Some change dated to 2005 has resurfaced, and I could show him my ID. Of course, you can just get a fake ID, but that would be going through too much effort to lie to someone.

He's given us the Saturday off and asked Jordan to keep things going smooth. She, being the girl she is, said yes, and Frank and I are now shopping at a comic store. In 2007, I could never find any good comic books from the '60s. Time travel has its benefits.

Frank appears from behind a shelf, holding a copy of Dr. Strange. "I heard that these 'Marvel' comics are supposed to be fantastic. There's a whole bunch of them back here. Wanna come and see?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there!" I delicately push a copy of Negative Man back into the D section, then following him to the next aisle.

"Look at all of this! They have like 10 Avengers comics, 7 Spiderman, and 3 Hawkeye, whoever that is. And look! Like 20 copies of Ultimates. The guy who writes these--Stan Lee--must have a lot of his time on his hands."

I agree, picking out an Ultimate Thor #3, then turning to Frank. "I think they discontinued this series. I haven't read this edition yet, so I'll go ahead and buy it."

He nods, picking out a copy of Ultimate Armor Wars #1, then we begin walking to the checkout. He buys, as per usual, and then we sit around and talk for a little. That is until thunder breaks our banter. We both shut up, looking at each other for a brief moment, and then bolt.

"It was sunny when we walked here!" Frank groans as we exit the double doors to see a practically flooding street. "Well, it is May. I'm quite frankly surprised that it hadn't rained yet this week."

"Here. They aren't hardbacks, so I'll go ahead and do this..." I say, taking his comic and sticking it in my rucksack. He shrugs it off and assumes a racing position.

"We're running home. In 3... 2. 1. Go!"

We both take off, giggling as our feet splash through the rain. He jumps onto the sidewalk, and I do the same. I've never been a runner, though, and apparently neither has he. Soon enough, we both break down in a tired mess, holding onto each other to keep us from falling.

"We still have 4 more blocks to go." I pant.

"Your point being?"

He takes off running again, and I closely follow him. Before I know it, we've passed three blocks, and I've started wishing that I wore a hoodie today. Several cars have flipped us off, but that's part of the fun of being young.

I pick up my pace a bit, passing him a single block away from his house. The rain has fully soaked through my outgrown hair, and it's becoming a sort of bother. Frank is worse, though: His jacket is completely drenched in rain, and his sneakers are soaked through the fabric.

"Hold on! Hold on..." I mumble, coming to a stop in the cul-de-sac outside of his house. He does the same, and I put my hands on my knees. My breath comes out in heavy pants; it takes me a minute to catch my breath.

"It's fucking pouring." He points out the obvious.

"No shit."

I straighten up, just now seeing how close my lips are to his. I can perfectly see the raindrops gathering on his face. All the things that I never noticed before are coming to life in my eyes. For example; how his hair can completely cover his eyes if he lets it. Or the way that his shoulders heave after he's been running.

"You look different with wet hair." I say.

"Shut up." He jokes, reaching up for my neck.

I don't know if I expected it. But I'm grateful that it happened.

He pulls my lips to his, and I freeze. He does, too. Then he pulls away, and I frown.

"I'm so sorry—Are you sure that you—?"

I cut him off by pressing my lips to his once more. I feel his hands gripping my waist as we kiss. To match his touch, I drape my arm around his neck.

The kiss sent chills down my body. Even though my eyes were closed, I knew how perfect he looked with his eyes closed, completely relaxed, in the middle of a thunderstorm. Speaking of which, lightning flashes, and I break away.

I look around the cul-de-sac, half expecting to see a house on fire. Thunder follows the lightning, and I jump at the noise.

"Do you wanna go inside?" Frank asks, intertwining our fingers. I blush at the contact, nodding. "Alright, then. We'll put on What's up, Doc? and eat some popcorn. That sound okay?"

I smile. A really wide smile that could light up a room, if we weren't standing in the middle of a storm. We both start running to the house, and he types 4376 into the garage door opener. Not releasing my hand, we walk into the house, and he throws his jacket onto the kitchen table.

"My brother and I used to lay out towels on the furniture and watch TV after playing in the rain." I say as I sit on the couch.

"Well, this is gonna be way better. Because 1: We have popcorn. 2: Are we together?" He smiles, tossing a bag of popcorn kernels into the microwave. 30 seconds later, he takes out the bag before the timer goes off.

"Well, it depends on how you look at it. We just kissed. Does that automatically make us a couple?"

"We live in America in 1972. 'Homosexuality' is still considered a mental illness."

"I already have enough of those."

"I know, right? Every time I do something that people consider to be even remotely queeny, they just pull out the good old 'Aye! You're a switch hitter, ain't 'chu?'"

He accentuates his Jersey accent on the last bit, and I laugh. He sits next to me, setting the popcorn on the coffee table. The movie begins, and it takes me a moment to readjust to the 1972 quality. The advertisements start playing, and I feel Frank draping his arm around me.

"Smooth." I say.

"Some people say that putting the moves on you is my only real talent."

I laugh, leaning into his touch. He kisses my hairline, and I softly smile. The last month of my life has been one of the most stressful, but falling asleep next to Frank makes up for all of it.

Notes

nearly died in a tornado the other night. good thing i was at an open mic night and not at the house that a tornado was literally one mile from. still almost died though the roads were flooded with like 6 inches of water can we get an f to pay respects