She had missed the last train.
Kaisha had ran onto the platform, holding onto the strap of her bag, to keep it on her shoulder, her hair flowing out behind her as she desperately tried to reach the train doors in time. But as her feet touched the platform, the train doors closed tightly shut and the train slowly rocked forward, moving away from the station and leaving her behind.
"No!" She yelled in frustration, reaching up and grabbing hold of her hair, tugging at it. She had nowhere to go, and it was already dark outside. She was meant to be on that train, that was the whole plan. Leave early, and get to the train station on time. But David had insisted on driving her to the station, and he didn't know which way to go, turning the wrong way time after time, and taking her increasingly further from her destination.
She could always walk back to David's, but it was late. Walking through the city late at night wasn't something she wanted to do. She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, clicking it on. She stared blankly at the 'low battery' sign, flashing in front of her before the phone switched itself off, the screen turning black.
"Why?" She asked no one in particular, sighing as she put the phone back in her back. She didn't have much choice, it was either to walk back to David's or to spend the night in the train station, waiting for the first morning train to roll up to the platform.
"No, is it gone?" Kaisha spun around at the sound of a man's voice behind her. He was panting as he ran his hands through his hair, his cheeks red. He had obviously also run to try and catch the train.
"It left a few minutes ago," Kaisha offered the information. "I watched it go."
"That's just perfect." Kaisha looked away and back at the tracks, as if a train would suddenly arrive and solve all of her problems. "Do you have somewhere to go?"
Kaisha turned around to face the man again. "My friend has a place near here, but it's a half hour walk at least, and my phone's dead."
"I wouldn't want to walk through the city in the dark," the man said, pulling his phone out of his pocket again. "I just came from my girlfriend's house, I could give her a call. I'm sure she'll be able to drive you to your friend's place."
"Oh, I don't want to cause any trouble." Kaisha started, but the man waved away her concerns.
"Don't worry about it," he held up his phone to his ear again. "Artiann? Are you still up? Yeah, I missed the train. That would be great, thanks. There's a woman here too, and the closest person she knows here is a half hour walk away. Could we drop her off too? Arty, you're the best. I love you. See you soon."
Kaisha felt strange listening in to the conversation, so she turned away and stared at the rails again.
"She'll be here in about fifteen minutes, she said. Do you want to go and wait at the carpark?"
"Yeah, that'll be great. Thank you so much," Kaisha jogged over to him, and they walked in silence out of the train station. The lack of people gave it an almost eerie feel, and Kaisha shivered as the sounds of their feet on the floor echoed around the walls.
"I'm Mark, by the way," the man said, and Kaisha looked up at him.
"Kaisha."
"Do you come here often? To the city, I mean, not to an empty train station."
"Not really. The only person I know here is David, and he's busy a lot with work."
"That's the friend who lives here?"
"Yeah. What about you? You mentioned a girlfriend?" she looked up at him as a smile spread across his face.
"Yeah, Artiann. She's amazing. We take it in turns to commute to the other's house. I'd usually stay over, but I have a business meeting early tomorrow morning." He sighed. "Looks like I won't be getting there for that."
"What if you took one of the early trains?"
"I'd still be late. Even after the train ride, I have to get a car back to my place, change, and then get the bus into work. By the time the train arrived, the bus would already be leaving."
"I'm sorry." Kaisha said, not sure what else there was to say.
"Why? It's not your fault." he pulled open the door and held it, waving his arm to tell Kaisha to go through first. The crisp night air filled her lungs, and she pulled her coat closer around herself, shoving her hands into her pockets to protect her fingers from the cold.
"She shouldn't be long," Mark said, watching as Kaisha shuffled her weight between her feet, trying to stay warm. Winter was cold enough already, without standing around outside at night.
A pair of headlights shone across Kaisha and Mark, and Kaisha looked up at the old car pulling up in front of her. Mark ran around the front of the car, climbing into the passenger seat, telling her to get in. She opened the back door and sat in, awkwardly closing the door behind her.
"Hi! We'll do introductions in a minute, what's the address of your friend's place?" The woman in the drivers seat asked. Her hair was tied up on top of her head, and she was wearing pyjamas, with a jumper over the top.
Kaisha rattled off the address and the woman imputed it into her satnav. As the robotic voice started giving directions, and the car pulled away, the woman looked at Kaisha through the rearview mirror.
"Sorry about that, I would very much like to get back to my bed as soon as possible," she stated and Mark started apologising to her. "Oh, be quiet. What was I meant to do? Leave you out here? Anyway," she turned her attention back to Kaisha. "What's your name? I'm Artiann, Arty for short."
"Kaisha. I'm really appreciative that you could drive me back–"
"You're as bad as Mark. It wasn't like I was going to hang up the phone and leave you to fend for yourselves. Besides, a thirty minute walk isn't a particularly long drive. Look, it says we'll be there in five minutes." She gestured towards the satnav. "Anyway, I like being helpful." She added.
Mark and Artiann started a conversation, and Kaisha fell silent in the back as she stared out the window, listening to them. Evey other sentence ended with one of them laughing, and they teased each other endlessly. It was the kind of relationship Kaisha had always dreamed of, but had never quite found.
"Okay, we're here!" the car rolled to a stop and both Mark and Artiann turned around in their seats.
"Thank you, both of you, so much. You saved me from a horrible walk." Kaisha said and Artiann smiled at her.
"No problem, now get inside and get warmed up. Tell your friend to make you some hot chocolate. You look like you need it." Kaisha smiled at Artiann and climbed out of the car.
"Thank you, again."
"Don't worry about it, Kaisha."
Kaisha closed the door behind her and walked up to David's door, aware of the fact that the car was still there. She knocked, and waited. A light clicked on inside, and the door opened, flooding Kaisha with light and giving off a wonderful feeling of warmth.
"Kaisha? What happened?"
"I missed the train. Can I stay over?"
"Of course, come on in." David moved aside and Kaisha stepped in, glancing over her shoulder, but the car was gone.
"Can I have a hot chocolate?"
And done!
This one is quite long, but I don't think it matters too much. I quite like it, actually!
Thank you to the lovely people on Twitter who named Kaisha and Artiann.
That's all I have for now.
Bye!
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