Everyone was sleeping soundly, despite the rain falling from the sky, except for one. One pair of ears heard the water drops pelt against the dirtied panes of glass that lined the windows of a run down house. As the water fell from the sky, brown eyes blinked, and a body stirred. A young girl stepped out of the bed and walked towards a window. She wasn’t anything extra-ordinary, medium sized, with unremarkable features. Brown hair brushed against her covered shoulders, and her lithe figure slipped into the shadows. A lightening flash illuminated her porcelain-like face, complete with the white face powder and dramatic eyes she usually showed. Taking a deep breath, she climbed and jumped out her window, and landed in the unkempt grass beside the house. Under the night’s sky she slipped out of her home she loved, and under the rain’s downpour, she allowed herself to relax.

The rain flowed down her face, and washed her make-up away. Her salty tears intermingled with the fresh water droplets streaming down her face; a welcome feeling, one that rarely was experienced.

She rarely cried, except for when her mask wasn’t needed. The lone tear she had at her home was the most she had shown anyone. When she was angry, sad or frustrated she held back her tears and used humor to contain her raging emotions. It was on these rare times, when she could hide it well, that she let all those times finally go and she would cry.

She stood in the rain, hearing every sound of the raindrops as they shattered into the ground around her. She felt each one as it touched her skin and soaked her clothes, brushed along her cheeks and weighed down her hair. In the rain she touched her face, a face that was now devoid of makeup due to the rain. Her fingers briefly touched her high forehead, fell down her small nose, brushed up against her high cheek bones, traced through the patterns the rain and tears had made down her cheeks, and finally came to rest at the base of her neck. It was comforting to know that it would always be the same, not yielding to time’s never-ending strain.

She loved the rain, although no one would ever know that. People always said she resembled the sun more like it. It wasn’t surprising that “sunshine” was a name everyone called her by. But the rain, it gave her a different mask. One that would caress her while she cried, while it

She laughed, a sound that showed more bitterness than mirth. She loved the rain, although no one would ever know that. People always said she resembled the sun more like it. It wasn’t surprising that “sunshine” was a name everyone called her by. But the rain, it gave her a different mask. One that would caress her while she cried, while it allowed her to release the emotions she hid so well during the day. She could drop the smile, and drop her worries.

When she was finished, she composed herself once more, pulling down the demeanor that was undeniably herself. It wasn’t a cover, and it wasn’t a façade. Her confident, chipper act wasn’t an act at all, but who she really was.

Just, sometimes, even a sunshine has some rainy days.