As If We Never Said Goodbye (JENLISA)

strangers in a strange land

Three weeks.

Twenty one days.

Five hundred and four hours.

Thirty thousand, two hundred, and forty minutes.

It took just this.

It only took this for the brunette with the beautiful eyes to steal her heart and captivate her soul.

Three weeks.

She took a deep breath as a gust of cold wind carried brown autumn leaves to her feet. The blonde tied the laces of her All Star as a group of kids ran past her laughing, their parents running after them moments later. She sat precariously on a wooden bench, running her fingers along the worn slats, deep cuts covering almost it's entire surface. She ran her fingers over the marks as if reading braille, the writing staring back at her.

When Lisa told her best friend Chaeyoung four years ago that she was leaving Bangkok, she figured she would be taking a trip to New York or catching a plane to California. She never imagined she would be sitting in a crowded train station more than nine thousand kilometers away from everything she knew with just a backpack on her back and a train ticket.

She took another deep breath, smelling that fresh coffee and cigarettes, making her already nervous stomach turn. She ducked her head trying to free her head from all the raging thoughts.

Why am I here?

She reached out her hand and reached into the warm pocket of her sweatshirt, pulling out her worn out train ticket. She ran her fingertips over the writing on the small piece of paper.

"Gare de Lyon, Paris to Venice, ." Lisa spoke quietly as if she hadn't spoken of her fate a thousand times in the past twenty-four hours.

Why did I think this was going to be a good idea?

And alone?

She was only nineteen for God's sake, not old enough to go discovering the world. But she had to get out of Bangkok. And if she thought about it further she knew it was an adventure she had to face alone. A part of her wished her parents hadn't let her go so easily, asking to take this trip was a way to test their love. She hoped that maybe they would finally show concern for her well-being. But that clearly wasn't the case, or she wouldn't be sitting alone on a wooden bench in a crowded train station at eight o'clock at night.

Lisa looked at the large clock mounted on top of the platform, showing that in five minutes her train would depart. She enjoyed the last few moments of fresh air before having to board the train and remain there for ten hours. She just prayed for all that is most sacred that she didn't have to share a cabin with scandalous children or an overly excited traveler wanting to talk the entire way. She put her backpack on her back again and headed to the end of the train, hoping to find an empty cabin away from the mass of families taking their hyper children on a weekend trip.

Lisa went through three cars until she found an empty seat. She slung her backpack off her back and tucked it under one of the two beds there, before lying back on the soft sheets with a sigh of relief. It seems like she hasn't slept in days. Since Chaeyoung dropped her off at the airport, she hasn't left her mind free enough to rest.

She took her headphones out of her pocket, listening to a woman's generic voice announce something in French as she puts her favorite playlist to play on her iPod. She curled up on the bed and closed her eyes, letting the sound of the guitar and the vocalist's soothing voice soothe her. She felt the train begin to move as she digs her head deeper into the pillow, fully intending to sleep the entire trip.

Time passed as the cabin was slowly swallowed up by darkness, the buildings disappearing and all you can see are the green hills and small towns. The soft sound of Dallas Green soon caused Lisa to fall asleep for the first time in nearly thirty-six hours.