Love at first sight
8:20 A.M.
Mary’s running late again.
She’s checked the time, for about the tenth time within the last minute. The train should be here any moment now. The silence on the platform left her to calm her racing thoughts. None of that what time is it? Or where the fuck are my shoes? Nonsense. It’s one of the few times she gets to relax during the day, other than when she’s drifting off to sleep late at night.
She crosses her arms in hopes of keeping herself warm. It’s so cold on the platform she can see the steam from her breath in the air as she releases a deep exhale.
At the same time, the train arrives, slow and tired just as Mary was at that moment. Around this time, it’s slightly less crowded than it would have been an hour before. The only pro of being late every day.
To Mary’s advantage, she has no trouble finding the perfect seat, her favorite spot. The one beside the doors so she can make a quick escape when the train stops. It’s a damn relief that she doesn’t have to stand the whole ride like she’s done every day last year.
→
It didn’t take Mary long to notice the most gorgeous person she’s seen in her life, sitting across from her. The first thing she noticed was their eyes, warm and dark like a summer night, yet menacing and enhanced by black eyeliner. Mary found their aura to be quite intense yet she felt herself wanting to be embraced by them and imagined that it’d be the most comforting feeling in the world. Her eyes shifted to the rest of them, chipped red nail polish, obviously bleached blonde hair, and ringed fingers wrapped around a coffee cup.
Mary could’ve sworn her heart skipped a beat the moment they made eye contact but, she only looked back for a second. No way in hell would she be caught staring, she didn’t wanna seem rude.
It’s love at first sight she swears but all they’re doing is looking at their phone, and Mary is head over heels.
I have got to pull myself together. She thought.
Maybe she was imagining things but she could’ve sworn that the stranger smiled at her when they made eye contact for the second time. Shit, am I staring?? Mary’s heart was in her stomach, and her chest pounding. It was the most beautiful smile. The kind of smile that was subtle but felt kind and genuine.
It’d be Mary, out of all people, to fall in love with a stranger on the train. She doesn’t even know their name.
This is not an unusual occurrence for her. Mary takes pride in being what one could call: a hopeless romantic. Crushing in the grocery store, at a shop, you name it. But something about this one just feels different. To her, it feels like she’s being attracted by the gravitational force of this person and she can’t escape it. It feels like an inevitable attraction. One look at this stranger and all of a sudden she’s imagining an entire romance with them.
Maybe it’s fate, because yes Mary does believe in fate. Fairytales and love, at first sight, are her forte.
It felt as if her life had flashed before her eyes and she can see it all with this unnamed face right by her side forever. But Mary’s not entirely a fool. She knows how to be realistic when she has to be, and this is one of those times. Right?
As the train’s doors opened, she was pulled further out of her fantasy. She’s at her stop. Ladbroke Grove.
Part of Mary was disappointed in herself. That could’ve been her moment, the moment she often dreamt about, and now she’d never know. I should’ve given them my number. She made her way out of the station unable to stop thinking of them.
What if she had been bold enough to ask for their name? What if they'd exchanged words? Enough to maybe even become friends. It could've been a moment straight out of one of the fairytales she loves so much, a story she'd tell her grandchildren about when she's old.
Maybe she'll see them again. Until then they'll just have to remain a beautiful stranger.
→
3:10 P.M. The same day
Mary finds herself in a convenience store near campus. It's the middle of day and a lot of students like herself are out for a snack or another boost of energy. There's a handful of people in the store she's in, most of them being extroverted high schoolers just excited to be somewhere with their friends.
Just as she's searching the fridge in the back for a drink, she catches a glimpse of someone out of the corner of her eye. It's none other than that stranger she saw on the train that morning.
Now of course Mary hasn't fallen completely in delusion, she passes it off as nothing other than a pure coincidence. How rare is it to see the same person twice in one day? Besides, she thought, it may not even be the same person, just someone very similar.
She quickly glances and is immediately proved wrong. It's the exact same person she saw before. Just as intriguing as they were before.
Mary's heart is starting to speed again, and she holds back a smile from the thought that maybe she will get further entranced by her beautiful stranger.
Just like before she's losing herself in the fantasy of what she and this person could be. She can't be desperate from the start, absolutely not. No, she has to be cool and collected, nonchalant even. She'll pretend that this stranger doesn't affect her whatsoever and she'll go about her day not hoping to see them again.
So while her mind is still intact. Mary closes the fridge, and walks right past them, only sparing a glance that wasn't even returned. Fuck, I didn't even get my drink. But there's no way she's turning back now.
Sirius will be hearing about this later.