Dil felt Phil's presence behind him at the ticket booth. He expected he was there to just be with him before he went. As Dil took his ticket and walked away Phil didn't follow. Dil looked around and Phil was buying a ticket of his own.

"Where are you going?" Dil asked curiously, especially since he hadn't told Phil which train he was getting.

"I don't know either," Phil almost smiled. "I just bought a cheap ticket". Dil looked at him enquiringly, wondering what he was thinking.

"When's your train leave?" Phil asked.

"A few minutes," Dil replied, leading Phil through the ticket machine that checked they had paid to use the trains.

They walked together through the empty walkway to the train lines. Dil studied his train ticket while Phil had put it in his pocket.

"Are you really going somewhere? I mean, why did you get a ticket?" Dil asked.

"Erm…" Phil muttered, not really knowing himself, "I think I wanted to be here when you go, check you get the right train." Dil suddenly felt Phil was towering over him. He wasn't that much taller than him, but he was older, by a year and a half, and probably wiser too. The way he had the air of mystery was unusual, Phil was acting confident yet confused at the same time. Which made Dil quite nervous.

"You know I can take care of myself," Dil told him, "I have done for a while now."

"Oh, yeah of course," Phil said, feeling guilty again about leaving Dil to look after himself. Dil thought putting Phil in his place would make him feel better, but now Dil felt guilty for telling off Phil.

The friends walked silently again, reaching the end of the walkway they could see the rain still falling.

"My train comes in two minutes," Dil informed a shaken Phil.

"You really going again?" Phil asked cowardly.

"I have to, I can't stay with my parents," Dil replied. The boys walked out into the open, and then stood together under a thin rain shelter that couldn't keep them both dry at the same time.

"Why not? Your parents still love you," Phil said as he ran his hand through his wet hair, sorting it so the drips didn't drop directly under his eye.

Dil sighed and looked down at his feet. "Mum hates me."

"That doesn't mean she wants you to go away. I mean, she doesn't completely hate you." Phil said, but Dil looked back at his strangely. "I was speaking to your Dad this morning."

Dil understood better, he wondered how Phil could know so much.

"Dad's great, but Mum…well…she just ignores me most of the time now, doesn't want to know me," Dil told Phil.

"But she was still worried when you weren't there, believe me I remember the interrogation she gave me when I came back from the streets," Phil replied with a small laugh.

Dil couldn't laugh in return though; he was still bemused by what Phil was saying about his mum.

"And look, a few years time you can move out legally, with your own home," Phil said, still trying to convince Dil to stay.

"With no education? Great job I'll be able to get now," Dil said with self-pity. But that didn't matter to Phil, Dil almost sounded like he was thinking about staying.

"Dil, you come up with the weirdest but interesting ideas, you'll invent something great with that mind of yours and be rich!" Phil said.

"So you agree I'll have no education?" Dil asked.

"No, well, you can go back to school now, the school can understand your situation," Phil said practically desperate.

Dil didn't say anything, as if he was considering the possibility of staying. Gradually a noise got closer from the distance; Dil looked up and saw his train entering the station. Phil turned and watched the carriages slow down, ready to take his friend away from him, again. These were his last few seconds to convince him to stay, and so he did the only thing he had left.

Phil leant forward, took Dil's sorrowful face and kissed it. The shock quickly passed and Dil kissed back. When they opened their eyes again the train was gone.

Dil gulped, partly confused, partly excited, and unsure what to say to him.

"Can't you stay for me?" Phil asked. Dil looked around the station, looking at anything but Phil's questioning eyes.

"I think I'll have to," Dil said, avoiding the point that he wanted to stay now, "my trains gone."

The End.