I swiped my subway card on the scanner and walked past the turnstile. It was around 4 PM; my last class of the day at my New York art school had just ended. I was a senior and would be graduating in the spring. I walked to the platform and leaned against a wall, waiting for my train. I brushed my raven black hair out of my face to look at the clock on the wall, the turned up the volume on my iPod. Helena by My Chemical Romance blared through my headphones. My Chem was my favorite band. I started thinking about how my day had been. It was actually pretty good. I had gotten an A+ on my self portrait assignment. The red line pulled up and the doors opened. People rushed to get on, and I tried to squeeze in with them. When I finally boarded, there was only one seat left, next to a young man with crayon red hair. He was looking down at the floor so I couldn't see his face. I sat down just as the train started moving. I suddenly felt like drawing, so I took out my sketchbook and a pencil and turned off my iPod so I could concentrate. I started drawing a somewhat realistic portrait of Mikey Way. I was almost done shading. I guess whoever was next to me was watching me draw, because he suddenly said, "That's really good. Is it Mikey Way?" I thought I recognized the voice from somewhere, but I couldn't place it. I smiled but didn't look up.
"Yeah," I replied, "I'm really into My Chemical Romance. Are you?"
"I guess," he replied.
"I drew Gerard one time, too. Wanna see?" I asked.
"Sure," he replied. I flipped a few pages back in my sketchbook, to the best portrait of Gerard that I'd ever drawn. I tilted the book slightly so the man could see it. "Damn..."
I laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment," I replied. I still hadn't looked up at him yet. I flipped back to the Mikey page and resumed shading.
"What's your name?" the man asked me.
"I'm Shay. And you are?" I replied, finally looking up at him.
He looked up, too, and said, "I'm Gerard."