17:01

I tilt my head as Brad tells me his answer to my question which is strangely similar to my own. However, I don't have time to speak out on it as Brad already asks me his next one.

"Christmas or Halloween?" He asks.

"Halloween, without a doubt." I confidently answer.

"Why?" He asks.

"Because it's in my favourite season and I get to be spooky." I smile.

"How did you make that cute?" He watches me carefully with a big grin on his face.

"It's a talent." I jokingly shrug which makes him chuckle. "Okay...um...books or films?" I ask him.

"Films." He answers and pushes his long hair back with his fingers. "Sorry, don't kill me." He jokes.

"Shut up." I laugh. "Why films?"

"I don't know." He shrugs. "I just get into them more."

"Fair enough." I shrug and ignore the look he's giving me as if he's expecting me to rant about his answer. But I'm not going to, I'm controlling my literature rants. "I mean, films are just one persons perception of something, with books you get to imagine it yourself." I shrug. Dammit.

"There we go." He grins knowingly. "There's the rant I was waiting for."

"It wasn't a rant!" I defend myself. "It was an...observation."

He sits back in his chair with that look again and I watch him with a soft smile.

"Digital books or physical books?" He asks me, his fingers playing with the thin white wire of his headphones.

"Physical." I roll my eyes. "I hate digital books, the best part about a book is the smell and the feel of the pages. Digital books ruin all of-" I stop and look at his smug look. "I'm not ranting, you asked a question." I defend myself yet again.

"A one answer question to which you responded to with a rant." He notes.

"Stop." I whine but stop myself when I realise I'm getting into this comfortable state of flirting.

I like Brad, he's fun to spend time with. But I'm still apprehensive due to the fact that I did only meet him today and I'm a rather closed off person. I've already told him more than I would like to and if I continue with getting closer to him, I'm afraid it will end badly.

"Storms or the sun?" I ask him, attempting to stay friendly and not flirty.

"Storms!" Brad answers almost too excitedly, making me raise one eyebrow at him. "I love storms, they're fun."

"Fun isn't a word I would use to describe them." I chuckle.

"Are you afraid of them?" He asks me and leans forward to lean his elbows on the small table.

"Yeah." I shrug, slightly embarrassed to talk about this. "They're scary."

"Is there any particular reason that they scare you?" He asks me and it's as if he knows with the way he's staring at me.

I watch him and nibble at the skin on my lip as I decide whether to tell him or not. It's only a fear, it's not that personal. I sigh and begin explaining.

"When I was younger, I used to sit and watch them, I loved the rain and the noise it made. Then my parents started arguing and whenever they argued there seemed to be a storm outside, so I started to blame the storms I guess? I don't know, I was young. So now I think somehow that's resonated a fear of storms in me." I shrug but a nervous feeling settles in my stomach when I realise I've told him more than I intended to. It's just so easy with him.

"You see, I see storms as happy things." He says softly. "To me, they're like a big distraction. It's like a reminder that no matter how shitty life is, there's more going on in the world than just you, and there's a whole other life out there."

His intelligence shows in his words and I find myself almost gaping at him. I was expecting some sort of 'I'm sorry' or some kind of remorseful pity statement which I absolutely hate. But, once again, he's proven my expectations wrong and said something that I've never even thought of.

"You got all that from a storm?" I try to joke but my voice comes across serious as I watch him, some type of tension beginning to thicken the air between us as we watch each other. I wonder if anyone else can taste the tension in the air.

"I got all that from past experience." He answers seriously, his eyes delving deep into mine and seeing right through me.

I attempt to speak but my voice isn't working very well. I want to ask him what happened in his past, but I feel that this isn't the right moment and I'm way too lost in his eyes to ask. A small flutter tickles my stomach and I recognise that feeling all too well, so I break eye contact and look down at my hands.

"Ticket, please." A monotonous voice makes me look up and I quickly give the middle aged man my ticket.

The balding man examines the piece of card before handing it back to me and taking Brad's off of him. Once our tickets have been checked, he walks away from us and checks the people behind us.

"How did you do that?" I ask Brad once I've built up the courage to look at him again.

"Do what?" He frowns.

"Make me comfortable enough to tell you things about myself that I never usually would."

"Fate." He shrugs with a grin.

"Shut up." I laugh loudly at him, him laughing along too, with the crinkles by his eyes and his dimple visible.

And then time flew by faster than I expected.

17:23

"You've never been to DisneyLand?" Brad gawks at me.

"No." I shake my head. "It's not that big of a deal." I roll my eyes.

"Yes it is, Madison." Brad scolds me jokingly. "You've never lived."

"You're exaggerating."

"I am not!" He argues. "I'm taking you to DisneyLand and you don't really have a choice." He insists.

"You're going to take me in the next half an hour are you?" I chuckle with a raised eyebrow.

"No, in five years from now when we're hopelessly in love with six children." He teases.

"Six?" I raise my eyebrows. "You've got no chance." I play along with his teasing.

"Nothing about being hopelessly in love?" He teases me even further and I have to admit I love the flirtatious look on his face.

"Oh, well that was just too ridiculous for me to comment on."

"That's more like it." He laughs and pushes his hair back with his ring clad hand.

17:37

"So, tell me about your friend that you're travelling all this way to meet up with." Brad leans back in his seat and watches me curiously.

"Oh, okay." I adjust myself in my seat. "Her name is Ally, she's very confident and intimidating, but she's so lovely when you know her." I smile.

"What does she do?" He asks and I'm surprised he genuinely wants to know all of this.

"She's a photography student at the Royal College of Art in London." I tell him.

"What do you do?" He asks.

"Take a wild guess." I chuckle.

"Literature?" He asks.

"Yeah, at Birmingham City." I nod slowly.

"Is it hard being so far apart?" He asks me and I suddenly feel like I'm in some sort of therapy session.

"I mean, I guess." I shrug. "We still talk daily, we just don't see each other."

"So why did you move?" He asks and I realise.

"Hey! Don't do that!" I scold him.

"Do what?" He asks innocently.

"Try and manipulate me into telling you why I moved here, you don't need to know." I say forcefully because some things need to be kept private.

"Sorry." He holds his hands up in surrender. "It's intriguing me."

17:48

"So what do you do?" I ask him. "Do you go to University or are you just pursuing music right now?"

"I have a job." He grimaces. "The most boring job in the history of jobs, so I'm trying to get a stable music career so I can get out of it."

"What is it?"

"I work in some shitty office for some dead real estate company, where all I do is staple things together and print out copies." He huffs and frowns.

"Sounds thrilling." I laugh. "Why don't you just leave?"

"I can't, I need some sort of income." He groans.

"I mean, if you hate your job, it's better to quit and be poor than to be rich and miserable." I shrug.

"I guess..." He watches me carefully with his teeth between his lips.

"Not to brag, but I'm always right." I joke and flip my hair off of my shoulder.

"Well, I'm not going to argue with that." He laughs and watches me with that look again that I'm really starting to like the look of.

17:55

The train pulls to a stop and we both gather our things together and stand up, Brad retrieving his guitar and returning quickly. We wait for everyone to slowly shuffle off of the train until we finally get off of it ourselves.

We both walk in silence through the busy Euston station, making sure we're still together until we get outside of the station and we're standing on the familiarly busy streets of London.

"So..." Brad says. "Where are you headed?"

"She only lives a few streets away, so I'm walking. What about you?" I bring my arms around myself to shield myself from the cold breeze.

"Getting a taxi." He frowns and looks down at his feet.

"I'll see you around, then." I smile at him before turning around and making it halfway down the street.

"Hey!" He calls back to me.

I turn around with confusion and walk back to him.

"Do you think I could...get your number?" He apprehensively asks.

"My number?" I raise my eyebrow with an amused smile. His nervous behaviour is quite cute but I won't tell him that.

"Yeah..." He looks at me with glistening eyes, a sudden wave of confidence somehow coming over him.

"For platonic use only right?" I slightly smirk at him as I indicate for him to get his phone out.

"Of course." He flirts and hands me his phone.

I quickly type in my number and hand it back to him, a grin taking over his face when I do.

"I'll see you around, then." I smile and turn around.

"Yeah, see you around." Brad calls to me as I walk away from him with an annoying grin on my face.