Adrien couldn’t believe the sight before him. The tears. The shaking. The silent sobs of a name long forgotten, dying on her lips. The faded paper with the arrival date still clenched in her gloved fingers. The way her knees gave out as the last train pulled out of the station and the hope of his return finally left her.
It was dark now, the station empty except for the two young adults, one clad in a designer coat, the other in a hand made jacket. He swallowed his heart and wrapped her scarf more closely around his throat as he approached, going to gently wrap his fingers around her shoulder.
He’d heard before that she’d come every 5th to the train station to wait for him to arrive, but he hadn’t believed it. It had been two years since the fashion tour had started. Two years. He’d doubted anyone would still be waiting for him, let alone at the same platform that he had said goodbye to her at.
He remembered the tears slipping down her face, her makeup running like black rivers across her flawless skin. Her lips pressed to his in feverish pleads for him to stay. He remembered his own tears, and his father having the gorilla pry him off her as the train was about to leave.
He remembered the look of the broken girl, standing at the platform as their trip finally began.
And here he was again, his fingers skimming the soft material of her coat, pulling her, now longer, pigtail back away from her shoulder as her teary eyes looked up at him. He saw her eyes widen as his smile did the same. He saw the awe in her eyes, and the way her lips parted.
Then her hand was coming up and his heart skipped a beat. He was excepting her to throw herself into his arms. He was expecting her to grab him and pull him down to her, lavishing him with kisses and drenching his shirt in tears.
He wasn’t expecting her slap. He wasn’t expecting the way she threw his arm away from her and scrambled up and away from him. He wasn’t expecting the fear in her eyes or the hitch in her teary breath as she tried to form words.
He didn’t expect the way his heart shattered as she finally spoke, “Who are you?”