Summer Days and Subway Rides

Prologue

     She likes to take her time. She was used to people walking quickly and aggressively around her, to show their frustration at her intentionally slow pace. It is all too easy to get caught up in the hectic mess that is everyday life, and to keep from losing her sanity, she did little things like this. Walk just a little bit slower to observe her surroundings. Make time to talk to a new person, maybe say something nice to them on the street. Ride the subway. And sometimes, all of them at once.

     She used to ride the subway aimlessly. Quite silly, if you ask any other person who has ever had to step foot on one of those trains. Most individuals only venture into those tunnels if they have somewhere to be, which they always do. However, as anyone who has ever met the girl knows, she liked not having anywhere to be. But that summer she realized that, sometimes, it's perfectly okay to have a destination. She became acutely aware of the fact that she had always separated peace from chaos; to her it seemed impossible to find peace in something that was busy. But she failed to realize that in certain instances, the exact opposite is true, and when it is, peace and chaos come together like all the perfectly oiled gears of the train wheels, and you can find relaxation and simplicity in busyness and complexity.

     This realization hit her like a train collision that summer. She was towards the middle of the downtown 1 Train line, halfway to South Ferry, and it was crowded. Of course, it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon, so anything other than a busy crowd would have been surprising to her. She was sat in on of those two person seats, found at the front and back of each car. No one was sitting next to her, oddly enough. Then, at 59th St, another girl stepped on: she looked around quickly and frantically for a seat, with little hope that she would find one at that time and at that stop. When she spotted the empty seat next to the girl, she quickly strided over and sat down.

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a/n: Hey pals! This is my first ever story that I really hope to finish and actually have on here for a while. I know so far, everything has been really short, but I swear all the other chapters won't be. Also, if things are a little bit confusing, i know that as of now everything is slightly vague, but I will be writing in a lot more detail in all the chapters after this. these were just kind background/intros/etc, which is also why they were written in third person omnipotent narration. Right now, I'm like 99999% positive that the other chapters will be in 1st person POV sooo yeah. Just another quick note, I know that most o you probably know nothing about the new york subway system, so in every chapter,I'll include a map, so you can kind of get the idea of where in the city everything takes place. Anyway, please read, vote, comment! I'd love to hear your input or critiques, so long as they are nicely put. Thanks so much pals!! -Grace <3