The steady hum of mechanics of the train was somewhat comforting to Taylah Reshner, as a senior in high school her main use of travel had been the trains and the occasional audible clack of the wheels going over a particularly old bit of rail and the robotic voice announcing what station came next were all sounds that she had become accustomed too. Train rides were her favourite time of day, while yes she had to sit on a slightly uncomfortable chair for an hour, that hour was by far her favourite. Every trip was an adventure with new people to meet and conversations just waiting to happen. Each week she would make an effort to speak to at least one person on the train, last week she’d met an exchange student from Australia. Their conversation had ranged from how different their accents were to the bad reputation of Vegemite, recalling their bickering a smile spread across her lips.
“How can you eat that stuff? It’s so horrible,” Taylah had asked in disbelief remembering the horrid taste when one of her high school friends had dared her to try some
The exchange student laughed at the horrified expression on plastered on her face, “How did you eat it? Did you try anything with it?”
“I had one spoonful and I spat it out-” She cringed as the Australian cut her off
“That’s where you went wrong! You’re not supposed to eat it like Nutella, it’s better to have it on a sandwich or some savory biscuits and you only use a thin layer”
A sheepish smile spread across Taylah’s face and she gave a shrug, “My bad”
They’d talked non-stop for nearly 40 minutes about Australia and how different things were than in London, things they called by different names and quirky sayings.
Being absorbed in her thoughts had caused the trip to go by much faster than it usually did, soon Taylah’s station would arrive and she had yet to speak to someone new. In a curious way she raised her head to study the fellow train goers, while the train was not as busy, as it had been years ago when she first began to travel by train there were still the odd few scatters across the carriage. A man seated a few seats down sat with his arms crossed glaring daggers at the passing landscapes. A mother sat with her son trying to keep him in the seat instead of running up and down the middle of the carriage. Sitting across from her was a boy that she’d seen many times, they caught the same train out of the heart of London but never talked to one another.
As if to hear her thoughts, the boy looked up to see the girl that he had often wondered about. Each week he would see her go and talk to complete strangers, sometimes their conversations would go for entire train rides and other times they would only last for a short time before the person would have to get off at their stop.
He often wondered why she had never chosen to speak to him, they were around the same age judging by the school uniform she was wearing, a simple navy blue skirt paired with a crisp white blouse and matching navy tie. Did she avoid speaking to him because he was intimidating? Although he couldn’t really point fingers considering he himself hadn’t worked up the nerve to speak to her.
The train ran over a particularly old bit of track causing it to shake the carriage making her bag spill over, books littered the ground and Taylah raced to pick up her things when another set of hands began to gather her stuff. The saying many hands make light work turned out to be fact because in no time her possessions were all safely tucked back into her backpack – with the zipper done up this time.
“Thank you,” Taylah offered the boy a warm smile, which earned her one in return
“No problem, I’m Damien by the way” Heat had crawled up his neck dusting a light pink shade to his cheeks as he offered his hand for her to shake
Accepting the handshake with a soft mirroring blush, Taylah replied with her name.
A curious look crossed Damien’s face, “Do you always talk to random people on the train?”
A grin lit up her face making her let out a soft laugh and a shrug, “You never know who you’re going to meet,”
THE END
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Original image used for the cover: http://cliparts.co/cliparts/8Tx/n5G/8Txn5GzGc.jpg
