Boop boop! New story! I actually still have my other story "No Sound Without Silence" but my muse was begging me to write this ASAP. I just really had to write it down. I have like an original version of this with OCs of mine (Everything Has Changed by OreoandMint on Wattpad, if you're wondering) but this is really CS material. So Imma bring this up to the altar of CS, aye? Enjoy! :)
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lying on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
The sound of coins clinking against a tin can.
That was all she wanted to hear amidst all the other noises around her. Couples chatting with each other. People shouting into their smartphones. Heels clicking against the floor. The train reverberating throughout the subway station.
There were tons of other noises she could recognize with her ear, but she didn't care about those. All that mattered to her was one sound. One small sound that would surely be easily drowned by all the chattering and yapping, all blasting at the same time. But with the years of experience of sitting on the floor of subway stations waiting for the contact of metal against metal taught her to mute out everything, and just let her mind focus on one single sound.
Clink!
Everything went back to her senses as she opened her blue eyes quickly, spotting something gray. Was that a hoodie or a beanie? Before she could see the guy, he disappeared into the crowd.
People walked past her, all oblivious to the dirty slum girl sitting on the cold hard floor of the station. Not oblivious, just ignorant. She knew that. Again, it didn't matter to her because all her attention was on the tin can she was holding.
Emma tilted the can to peek at the contents. A few dimes, most of them are nickels. There was only one out of the ordinary loot she got.
A dollar.
Panhandling was not her thing anymore. Well, it was never really her thing. Emma never really wanted to beg on the streets for their loose change since she already had a stable job in the local supermarket. It was just a pastime for the dull Sundays now that she finally got a job which was a relief. If it was any other day from her past years, then she would really be begging for money because she didn't have anything, after all, and stealing wouldn't be able to sustain her living.
She considered shoplifting again, but she knew she was never going to do that especially when he... Nope. Don't mind her.
Her job as a cash registrar was only for Mondays to Saturdays. She intentionally left Sundays open because she couldn't afford to lose her scholarship. That sole day was for studying and doing assignments only. Though sometimes she got those rare days when she could just relax and do whatever she wanted because they had no assignments and she already studied. She used to hit the streets in her thrift shop clothes and shaggy piece of cloth with a dash of makeup on her face to make her look dirty. She wasn't scamming people. Well, maybe she was, but the point is that she didn't intend to beg people of their money. It was just something to past the free time that she had.
The moment the school bell rang, she would dash out of school to catch her shift at the supermarket until closing time which was around midnight. The thing about working in a grocery store was that there were dull times. A lot of it actually especially on weekdays. It gave her a lot of room for a textbook or a notebook to refresh herself on their lessons. And there were times when the line just didn't seem to get any shorter. Usually that's on Saturdays.
Times such as this.
Emma could see from behind the register that her line had 3 people with big carts full of food and this first guy who had a bunch of items on a basket. She quickly busied herself with scanning the items. She didn't even look up when she greet the guy the usual line, "Thank you for coming. Hope to see you again!" She wasn't one for the friendly type anyway. She got the job not to make friends, but to earn herself some cash.
It was when she heard the sound again.
Clink!
She raised her head. People rarely gave tips. When they do, it still really shocked her because if she had the money, she also wouldn't give any tips.
It was against the rules to accept tips, but a little something once in a while wouldn't hurt, right? It was just a dollar anyway. She turned her head to thank him, only to find he next customer dumping items on the counter. She tried to look for the guy, and saw him just walking out of the store. Eyes wide, she tried to get a better look at the guy, but he's too far away and his back was facing her. With a confused smile, she returned to serving the next in line. Emma might have not seen his face, but she did see that gray beanie.
It wasn't a coincidence really. At first, she thought it was just a coincidence because a gray beanie was fairly common. It could have been another person and not the guy at the station. She knows it wasn't because the thing happens almost every week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes thrice. All the arrows pointed to one guy.
Gray beanie guy.
He always comes in line when she's so busy, leaves a coin on the metal counter, and goes away without looking back. And he always gets away before she could raise her head to look at the guy properly. Well, as soon as he leaves, he just doesn't look back. Thus Emma never saw his face.
Not today because she swore she would look at every customer that stood in her line. After clearing a middle aged woman with a crying kid, she got a whiff of a familiar scent and a flash of gray. And she knew it was him.
She slowly raised her head, and her eyes widened in surprise as she found herself looking at those bright blue eyes behind thick rimmed glasses. She knew this guy.
"Hi." she greeted him.
He smiled softly. "Hello."
Ugh, stupid, stupid. Stupid Emma. The guy had been giving you tips and all you're gonna say is "Hi"? She should go back to her job, but goodness, those blue eyes. They just looked so beautiful. Never had she seen such beautiful eyes. She just had a whole new experience to looking into someone's eyes. It felt like she could just look into those eyes and just feel safe-
Wait, what?
At the same time, he glanced at the line forming behind him. "I think you need to get the line moving." he said with a smirk
That snapped her back to reality as her mind refocused on the task at hand and wanting to remove that smirk of his face. If she was being honest, that smirk felt weirdly out of place in his geeky state of thick glasses, baggy hoodie, cargo pants, and an old pair of Chucks. Well, not that she wasn't awkward too, but at least she didn't look geeky. People just called her geeky because she was smart and top of the class and all. And they didn't know the difference between geeks and nerds.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry." she rambled in embarrassment. Because she did not just make eyes with him. She was just caught off guard, she told herself.
The whole time he was waiting for his items, she kept her eyes down, avoiding those piercing blue eyes. But she could feel his eyes burning holes on her head as she worked in silence and in speed. The only time she decided to look at him again was when she was handing him his shopping bags.
"Thank you. Come again?" she sort of asked.
He just smiled and fished his hand into his pocket, producing out a dollar coin. He set it onto the metal counter, the sound echoing in her ears. With a small smile, he gave her a wink which increased his awkward rating in her head.
"Of course."
With that, he left. But damn her heart because somehow even with his awkwardness she definitely did not feel that connection.
Yey! They met! Really though Colin in eyeglasses? *faints* It's unfair how I wear eyeglasses and look like a dork :P Anyway, what do you guys think? Reviews, reviews! More reviews means faster update time! :)
Song : You Found Me by The Fray
