The whirling winds of passing trains fill the eerie subway with life as hordes of humans walk in unison, stepping on and off the metro system. The sounds of shoes clacking against the tiled floor describe the monotonous tone of everyday life: unpleasant and in succession.
However, the sea of grey emits a ray of shining light. From the crowd stood a young man who stuck out like a sore thumb. His clothes were covered in blotches of color, and his hair was a fluffy mess of twirls, like a bristle brush gently laid against a canvas. His cheery smile and unapologetically brazen attitude brought him closer and closer to the edge.
He hums along to the melody of a song that plays on repeat in his ears, listening to his voice vicariously through the notes. With each beat he stepped on time with, his fate drew closer and closer. He swung his walking stick around the ground, unaware of the impending doom.
Two pairs of glistening eyeballs illuminate the dark abyss. Like a coyote ready to pounce, it lunges at breakneck speeds at the vulnerable prey, systematically breaking them down. His walking stick ricocheted off the metallic beast, snapping in half with immense force. However, before the train could sweep the man's head clean off, a hand emerged from the sea of onlookers, grabbing his waffle-knitted shirt and pulling him into the crowd.
"Woah!" The man flew into the ground, diving into the sea of early morning commuters.
"Watch where you're going, dummy!" A female voice spoke to the man. "God, can't you realize how close you were to getting hit by that train?" She had a decisive grip on the man's shirt, still clinging to him as if they were still in danger.
"Woah!" The man was caught off-guard by the sudden movement. It felt as if a jerk of force had pushed him forward. "What happened?" He threw his headphones off his head, slinging them by a cord around his neck.
"You were about this close to getting beheaded by a train, moron." The woman let go of his shirt as she described the severity and closeness of the incident, her fingers mimicking the tiny gap between his head and the guillotine that whizzed past his head.
The sounds of metal screeching against the rusty, dilapidated rails merely confirmed her claims. The man squats down and reaches for his cane, his fingers wiping across the dusty, dirty floor, picking up debris on his fingertips. "Where's my cane?"
"Cane?" The woman crosses her arms and looks down at the man with a raised eyebrow. Upon further inspection, she realised the man was wearing a nametag that read 'Nathanial Bridgers' with a school logo engraved on his shirt. "Hey, you're from New Valley High too?"
"Oh. What gave it away?" Nathanial turns his head up to face in the general direction of the woman. In an instant, something clicked in her head. She looked back at the man, yet her gaze was not reciprocated. It felt like she was staring into a glass orb. His cloudy and grey eyes emitted a shining ray that pierced hers.
"Your uniform." As the two of them converse, people come and go, ignoring their little chat to move on with their lives. Waves of people get on and off the train, paying not a single glance to either of them.
"Oh, I'm guessing you're from New Valley High too." Nathanial turned his face back down and continued searching the ground, running his fingertips gently over the floor.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." She laughed nervously. "It's actually my first day, I just transferred here from Oklahoma." She squatted down, picking up the cane that was to the left of her. Her hands trembled as she reached for the cane, requiring her to use a great deal of determination to grip the cane tightly. "Here." She held the cane up to the man's face, mere inches away.
"Thanks." Nathanial turns his head up and reaches his hand out with caution, grabbing at air. "Oh, there." After a failed attempt, he reached his hand out again and clung onto the wooden stick.
"You're blind, aren't you?" She asked with intrigue as she scanned his facial features, his pale grey, cloudy eyes being his most unique facial feature.
"You're right. What gave it away?" He stands up, wiping his fingertips on his jeans. "Was it the eyes or the walking stick?"
"Both." She smiled, yet he couldn't see it. "Oh, my name is Emma Quinn. You can call me Emma, but my friends call me Em." Emma stands up and sticks her hand out for a handshake.
The two of them stand in silence as neither of them makes a move. "Oh right, you can't see." Emma chortles. "My hand's out." She moved her hand back and forth, creating a slight sound to notify Nathan.
"Oh!" Nathan smiles in awkwardness as he reaches the wrong hand out to shake her hand. Both of their back hands rub against each other, back to back, as they can't coordinate a proper handshake.
She giggles as she looks at the clock on the wall. "We're going to be late. I don't want to make a bad impression on the first day of school."
"Oh." He chuckles under his breath. "Don't worry too much about it. They don't really care if you're late. It's just a slap on the wrist." He slings his bag over his back as he holds his half-broken cane in his other hand. "Oh, you can call me Nathan, but my friends call me Nat." He said it, mimicking what she said earlier in a playful tone.
Emma looks at him and realises that he's quite tall. She's 5'8, a pretty respectable height for a woman, but Nathanial towers over her. He stands nearly two heads taller than her. His prominent features were his cloudy eyes and the freckles that were below them. His thin lips were covered in bruises and cuts, and his nose was thin and brittle. His curly hair was nearly pushed to one side as the rest hid in his beanie. His clothes were covered in blotches and splashes of colour, ruining them yet giving them a unique look.
"Right." She said, not listening to a word he just said. "Let's get going." Emma walks past Nathan and steps onto the train, looking back at Nathan to join her. "Let's go to school together."
Even in the raging ocean of people, Nathan could make her voice out clearly, each word resonating inside his head. "Sure." He stuck his foot out and stepped onto the train.