runaways ➳ ashton irwin

II

The week passed by quickly and before I knew it, it was Tuesday morning. I had bought Ashton another umbrella the previous day and needed to get it to him. 

I walked down the steps of my house and into the kitchen where my mom was frying some breakfast. She laid a plate of bacon and eggs onto the counter and I dove right in. 

"Indy, I don't know if you should take the train to school anymore" She said, her back facing me. 

"What!? Why not mom? Its so much faster than taking a car and I like listening to my music on the way" I said, shocked. I had been taking the train for the past four years of high school. 

"There was an incident yesterday on the number 17 stop where a guy was so drunk and infuriated that he punched another guy so hard, he ended up in hospital!" She gasped. My mom gets so paranoid about every news story out there and it interfers with my independence. 

"Mom, this was probably at like, three in the morning. Nothing is going to happen to me when there's a bunch of people on the train on their way to work" I laughed, finishing my bacon and eggs quickly. 

"Why do you have an umbrella in your bag? It's not supposed to rain today." She said, noticing the top of the umbrella peaking out of my school bag. 

"Just in case" I said quickly, almost too quickly. "Um-gotta go, see you later, love you" I grabbed my bag off the counter and walked out the door in an instant. 

*

The school day passed quickly and before I knew it I was headed to the train station. I was a little nervous and I had no idea why. I plugged my headphones into my ears and walked up to platform six. There weren't too many people around but I couldn't see Ashton anywhere. The train pulled up soon after and I got into the second carriage and took the same seat as last week. What if he wasn't coming? Was he in another carriage? 

Just as the speakers announced that the train would be leaving in two minutes, the double doors opened and Ashton walked straight in. He looked stressed, a frown etched into his face. He looked around for a spare seat before locking eyes with me for a second and sitting down on the seat closest to him. Okay? 

He pulled out his blue headphones and plugged them into his phone. He wore one black glove with the fingers cut off and the same drum sticks peaked out of his full bag. A blue bandana sat on the top of his head and he wore all black. He looked at me again before looking away a millisecond after. What was that all about? He was the one talking to me last week, telling me he would 'see me next week' and here he was, completely ignoring me. 

Whatever, I thought to myself. If Ashton wanted to pretend we've never met then that's fine with me. And here I was thinking it was kind of cool that I made a somewhat-new friend on a random train. But whatever, I have plenty of other friends. 

*

Ten minutes had passed and Ashton still made no effort to even acknowledge my existence. I was fine with it and continued to listen to music and watch the world pass by the clear glass windows. Trees passed by in a blur before it started slowing down. Why was the train slowing down? We didn't get off until my stop which was definitely not in this area of town. I could see people start to  turn their heads and listen to the speakers. I pulled out my headphones and heard a lady talking into the intercom. 

"Hello passengers, there has been some technical difficulties which we are trying to work through as of right now, so the train will be delayed. We have decided to stop all carriages completely for safety reasons. Feel free to get off the double doors and roam around the area for the next thirty minutes, it should be up and running by then. Sorry for the inconvenience." The intercom shut off and complains were heard throughout the carriage. People complaining, yelling, and some getting off.