| subway

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   [ setting: subway/ subway station ]


         January 14, 1993


            He nudged her elbow.

     Nothing.


               Maybe a little harder.


          Still nothing.

            He leaned towards her, the intentions of whispering her name standing in his mind. But the train shook to a halt, shaking everyone and everything inside. Including Felicity.

And just before Lennon could finish the first syllable of her name, do her eyes shoot open.

        Blood shot eyes revealed. Lennon was still a few inches from her face as her eyes gaped at his. She looked at him, a disturbing aura settling down on her. Her eyebrows knitted together.

    He drew himself back from the pair of brown eyes that looked to be very unsettling as they gazed at him.

     He pursed his lips and nodded;


             "This is our stop."


             She didn't seem to budge. Her eyes wandered around her surroundings as if she had forgotten that she was on the subway train with Lennon to get to the other side of the city.  Her bottom was still attached to the now-warmed-up-seat she had been sitting on for a while now.
Her lips parted, peeling themselves off each other;


           "I feel like shit."


         The people were beginning to flood out the subway train and onto the platform where the train had stopped.

She didn't look good, Lennon thought.

         As the New-Yorkers flooded out to the station platform one by one, he examined Felicity.

      The red beanie she had been wearing was loosely flopping towards Lennon, her arms wrapped around herself as if the coat she had been wearing wasn't enough to keep her warm.

            Her cheeks stood as alibis for they were barely even one shade of red.

Although she was wearing a coat and a beanie, it's still all too cold to go out, he thought, it'll get warmer later, hopefully.

"C'mon."

Lennon said, fixing the beanie that sat on her head. He held her hand, it was cold. He was holding frost. He started unwinding the grey wool scarf that was coiled around his neck. As the cold atmosphere rushed towards him, he began to bandage the scarf around the tiresome girl's neck.

"I'll count to three, okay?"

      She nodded in response. She held onto his shoulder, as if it was the last thing she was clinging onto.

          "One."

  Her legs were prepping themselves to stand.

         "Two."

      Her bottom still only a few inches from the seat she had been seated at.

         "Three."

She finally stood, holding onto Lennon's shoulder for support.

           "Thank you."

    Step by step they made it out to the station platform, where it was as cramped as it had been back on the train, only that a person is not as close as they should be to man who hasn't taken a shower in days.

     "You sick?"

         Their shoes clicked on the hard asphalt, like everyone else walking around. One foot in front of the other, Lennon thought. 

"You could say that."

         She groaned.

      She looked even more tired, the bags under her eyes looking as if they had gotten heavier. Her hand was still gripping on his shoulder although he was quite a very much a few inches taller than her and it was rather a challenge for her to reach his shoulder.

"It's gonna be alright." He reassured her.

She began to loosen up. And before getting to the stairs that lead to the broad grey skies, she slipped her arms off of Lennon's shoulder and tried to stand independently.

"You keep thinking that Lenn-o."


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