Apologies if this chapter is a little slow; I just wanted to introduce the characters. Things will start getting more interesting after this, I promise!

"So that's two large cappuccinos?" The waitress asked us as Sophie reluctantly looked away from me to nod at her.

"Thank you," I muttered as the steaming drink was placed in front of me. I didn't realise how cold my hands were until I wrapped them around the cup and felt the warmth flooding through me. Looking over at Sophie it again hit me that she had saved my life today, my eyes glistened with tears and embarrassed I quickly lowered my head. There was no fooling Sophie though and I felt her hand close around mine.

"Sian, are you alright?" She whispered to me sounding concerned. I raised my head and tried to smile at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just kinda hit me that I could have died today…" I let my voice trail off, worried that I'd burst in to tears in the middle of the café.

"Well, I couldn't let someone as beautiful as you get squashed right in front of me now could I?" She looked shocked, as if she couldn't believe she had actually just said that. I stiffened and realised she still had hold of my hand. I quickly withdrew it and busied myself heaping sugar in to my coffee. A look of hurt flashed in Sophie's eyes but it was quickly gone. She had just called me beautiful. I don't know what scared me more, that, or the fact that a small part of me was ecstatic about it.

"So, I saved your life and I don't even know your last name!" She joked, hoping to dispel the moment of awkwardness that had just passed between the two of us. It worked and I smiled back at her.

"Powers, Sian Powers" I replied as she smirked at me.

"What's wrong with that? I think it's a pretty cool surname!" My defensive response made Sophie laugh, I noticed how her whole face lit up when she laughed.

"Nothing, there's nothing wrong with it. It really suits you actually." She replied and I felt myself relax. I realised I hadn't asked for her surname.

"So what's your last name then?" I took a drink of my coffee as I waited for her to answer.

"Webster." Sophie Webster, it was perfect I thought, just like her. I shook my head, where were all these thoughts coming from?

"Erm Sian" Sophie's voice caught my attention.

"You seem to have a bit of a foam moustache going on." She laughed as I turned bright red and quickly wiped my upper lip with a napkin.

"Tell me about yourself." She asked me and I was a little taken aback by the directness of her question.

"What do you wanna know?" I replied, slightly confused.

"Anything."

"Okay then. Well I'm 17 years old, 18 in two months. I moved here with my dad a couple of years ago." I grimaced at the thought of my dad and Sophie looked at me questioningly. I don't really talk about my dad to people but I felt that I could tell Sophie anything.

"Me and my dad have a very hate-hate relationship. He doesn't give a damn about me and I'm glad to say I feel the same way about him." My voice hardened as I was saying this and I was pretty sure Sophie didn't want to hear this, but now I'd started I couldn't stop.

"He goes out drinking most nights, stumbles in at ridiculous hours and I'm the idiot that cleans up after him. I hate him!" I exclaimed. I was shocked by my sudden outburst , shit, Sophie must think I'm a complete freak. She asked me about myself and I went off on a rant about my dad, I felt like kicking myself. I glanced at Sophie and it surprised me to see concern in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I've dominated most of this conversation, you must think I'm really rude." I said to her.

"I don't think you're rude." It was a simple statement but it made me stupidly happy to hear Sophie complimenting me. She gestured for me to continue speaking.

"There isn't much more to say really, I'm in my final year of college and I cannot wait to get out of this place. I'm hoping to go to uni, my favourite food is cheese on toast and my favourite animals are penguins." I blurted out the last two statements without even thinking and I felt myself flush a deep red. She started laughing and I felt my blush intensify.

"Well, what about you then, what's your story?" I asked her, diverting the attention away from me. She immediately stopped laughing and took a big drink from her coffee, stalling.

"Not much, moved here with my parents and sister a few weeks ago from London and I'm starting college on Monday." Was her answer, when she didn't say anything else I plucked up the courage to ask her questions.

"So, you're 17 as well then?" She nodded once.

"And you moved from London, why did you move from a place like London to Manchester? Not that there's anything wrong with Manchester but if I had the choice I know where I'd rather be." I shut up realising that I was rambling and waited for her answer.

"We had to leave London. Personal reasons." Was her reply and I got the feeling she didn't want to discuss it further. I opened my mouth to ask her another question but she interrupted me.

"That's enough about me; don't want to bore you with my life history." She tried to make a joke of it but I could see in her eyes there was more to it than that. I didn't want to upset Sophie so I decided not to push it.

She plucked a napkin off the table next to us, pulled a pen out of her bag and wrote something on it. She handed it over to me and I realised that it was her phone number. Sophie had given me her number, a warm fuzzy feeling spread through me and I smiled at her. She smiled back and then quickly stood up.

"I have to go, sorry. Thanks for the coffee and I guess I'll see you at college." She said apologetically and started to walk away.

"You're welcome and thanks for your number!" I called to her, she turned around, gave me one last smile and then she was gone. I sat back in my chair, shocked by the abruptness of her exit and I recalled the strange glint in her eyes when I had mentioned London.

What was Sophie hiding?

Well, that chapter turned out to be a lot longer than I had planned! Once I'd started writing I couldn't stop!

Feel free to review, I'd appreciate it and I'll try to update fairly soon :D xx