Station 429

the night of kendall

the night of kendall

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She came back on Friday, but this time she beat Foster. Also, Misty was there, which surprised her. I don't completely blame her. Not everyone got Misty on their first impression. There always seemed to be this feeling that she didn't like someone because they were new, like said person was treading on her territory. It was only because she was hard to read.

Colleen felt this feeling tremendously, so she was a little nervous as she walked toward where she was standing by the massive, inoperable train, which had been stuck there since the shut down. Misty heard her coming and turned around from the open train car door to greet her. "It's Colleen, right?"

"Yeah," Colleen said, "and you're Misty."

"Right." Misty looked unreal with her pale skin, dark, perfect eyebrows, and purpley- white hair. Colleen almost felt intimidated. "I'm glad you decided to come back."

"It's cool what you guys have going here," Colleen said. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"Oh, of course you're not. It's kind of what we do here," she assured.

Colleen's eyebrows creased. "What do you mean?"

Misty's lips twitched up a little bit, in a kind way of course. "We have a theory that hurt people get drawn here, if that makes sense."

"Kind of."

"Okay, well basically we just take people in if they find the station and if they've been through struggle. We just hang out and try to get our mind off of things. Sometimes we talk about what's on our mind if someone really needs to, otherwise it's really chill."

Colleen nodded, then looked up at the huge, gray train they were standing next to. "I've never been this close to a non-moving train before."

Misty looked behind her. "It's kind of weird at first, isn't it?"

As Colleen was about to respond, a voice not belonging to either of the girls spoke over her, "Wow, Misty got here before me." It was Foster.

"It happens occasionally," Misty said with a shrug.

He came and stood right next to Colleen, to which she buried her hands in her jacket pockets. "Are we meeting in the train tonight?" Foster asked.

"We can if you want," Misty said.

"We should. Colleen hasn't been in it yet."

So that was that, and they stood there waiting until everyone arrived. Colleen was the last to enter the train, and Foster offered his hand to her after he got in, which she took, and pulled her in.

Inside, the train has red carpet and yellow walls, which was a stark contrast to the dark atmosphere outside that night. It's basically the brightest thing in the station at night, even without electricity to light up the inside of the train car. This train in particular was built for long trips, so the seats are soft and comfortable and are the same color as the carpet. The kids had pulled out a lot of the seats to make it roomier, and detached the rest of them so they could make a circle with them.

Colleen could only imagine what it looked like in the light, but still got a pretty good sense of how it looked. Foster caught her looking around, amazed, even after she was seated in between him and Kendall. "Do you like it?" he asked.

"Are you kidding?" she said, "It's amazing."

"Yeah, it's pretty old. It was built around the time the station was. That's why it has the bright color scheme."

Colleen nodded and Foster kept watching her expression until Kendall said to Colleen, "Hey, I'm Kendall. I didn't get the chance to properly introduce myself."

Kendall had one of her many skateboards from her collection with her, as usual. Her hair was light brown and wavy despite the lack of humidity in the air, which Colleen could only dream of having. Her hair would not hold a curl, and she sometimes despised it. Kendall wore light skinny jeans, gray Vans, and a hoodie- the perfect outfit for a skater.

"Hey," Colleen said, "I'm Colleen."

"So, I bet you're wondering about my story."

"Actually I wasn't. I'm not one to butt in to other people's lives." Colleen was getting the hang of being extremely blunt with these people.

"Well, I'm going to tell you about it anyway."

"Only because you have a big mouth," Owen said abruptly from next to Kendall.

She gave him a glare and said, "Excuse me, but just because I'm loud it doesn't mean I have a big mouth."

"She loves to proclaim her story to everybody," Owen said to Colleen, seeming to have a death wish.

"I do not!" Kendall yelled.

Foster tried to intervene by saying, "Why don't you just tell her already."

"Well I would if Owen would shut up for two seconds." She gave a pointed look to Owen, who only threw his hands up in surrender. Kendall then turned back to Colleen. "So, my parents got divorced when I was in middle school. But it wasn't a normal divorce because they were both addicted to alcohol, so neither of them could take custody. That was back in Iowa, my home state, which was boring as hell might I add."

Then she just stopped talking and looked at Colleen, who was a little confused. Then Owen asked the question in Colleen's head, "Are you gonna tell her who you're living with?"

Kendall didn't respond to Owen, and instead continued her story. "I had the option of either living with my Aunt and Uncle, who live in Vermont with my annoying three year old twin cousins, or my grandparents, who live here in New York. It wasn't really a choice- either be annoyed by my cousins for the rest of my life or come here, which seemed to offer more entertainment anyway."

"Do you ever miss them?" Colleen asked.

"Who, my parents?" Colleen nodded. "Well, yeah," she said, softening up a bit, "even though they were drunk half the time. If I got to go back and see them, I would in a heartbeat because they're my parents and I love them, just like they love me."

"But they didn't even try to get sober so they could keep you in Iowa," Colleen pointed out. "It's kind of hard to believe they love you that much, isn't it?"

"That's true," Kendall agreed. "But sending me here was, in their minds, the best way they could show their love for me."

"Still seems like the cheap way out."

Kendall shrugged. "Hey, it beats trying to fend for myself out in Iowa. Plus, I got to meet all of these freaks."

Kendall then asked Colleen for her story, and Colleen told her. Kendall simply said, "That is some serious bullshit," then went to bickering with Owen, as they usually did.

Foster had been listening the whole time, keeping a careful eye on Colleen. He could tell she was drowning in her thoughts from the way she her gaze had found a spot on the ground and stayed there after her conversation with Kendall ended. She looked dazed, and he wanted to ask her about it, ask her what she was thinking about, but he knew better. So there he stayed for the night, quiet amidst the sounds of unlucky teenagers, waiting for an invitation to come in.

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dedicated to nova (@settle-) because her writing in candy hearts is flawless and makes me smile every time i read it.

song is a thousand miles by vanessa carlton (covered by boyce avenue).

hey so i'm not one to ask for votes and such a lot but if you guys like this story pleeaase leave me votes/comments. it's such a confidence booster and lets me know someone is out there enjoying this. if you leave a good comment/feedback i'll dedicate a chapter to you too;)

-abby xx