Unexpected Encounters [B.H.M.]

5

Brian stayed in his chair, silently resting - if not sleeping properly - for more than an hour, leaving me to entertain myself somehow. I managed. I wasn't sure how, but I did. I went to get more tea for myself after a while and I had both croissants I had bought the first time because Brian hadn't eaten his yet either and I was getting a little hungry.

When the croissants were eaten and I had nothing left to occupy myself I reluctantly picked up one of the many gardening magazines by my side and started to look through it. I would take anything at this point, we had been there for nearly two hours and it didn't seem like much was happening here. The initial promise of half an hour, an hour tops didn't seem to be true and if I hadn't known that the receptionist would just not be honest with me I might have gone up and asked for an update. But I didn't bother, instead I was now learning about all the various kinds of tomatoes there were and which of those were best suited for the British soils. Interesting. Not really. Gardening wasn't one of my passions if I was honest, plus I felt even older than I normally did when I read magazines like this.

It was hard to stay focused on the words presented me on the page, my mind kept wandering, I was continuously asking myself why I was doing this to me. Technically I had better things to do, I still had tests to grade and lessons to prepare, but here I was, sitting next to one of the people in the whole world who I admired most. And we had barely even had a conversation yet, because he was too tired and because I was too much of a chicken.

I really needed people to push me in situations like this, and when I was alone I obviously didn't have that. Not even the mental support, thinking about what my best friend would tell me to do really helped. Even though it did a little. Because I knew she'd tell me to just get myself together and make use of this opportunity. Even if it wasn't by talking to him, but by looking at him or something like that. And I knew she had a point, because when would I ever get a chance like this again. But that didn't make it easier.

Time couldn't really be on my side, because the longer I waited the less time I would have to try. So in a spur of the moment I decided to just go for it. Taking a deep breath I turned towards him and just looked at him. He still had his eyes closed, red circles below them. His cheeks were stubbly with a few shaving injuries here and there as it seemed. He couldn't have shaved in a few days though. His lips were slightly chapped, a little apart to allow him to breathe. Even though he was quite pale over all, his nose was a little red, as if he was cold. Hopefully he wasn't cold.

His eyebrows were slightly messy with little hairs sticking up wild in all directions. He should really smooth them out when he woke up. It seemed that messy hair seemed to be one of his trademarks though because just like his eyebrows his curls were in disarray. He had wonderful hair with just the right amount of curliness, but it seemed like it had been a few days since he had really properly taken care of his hair. If I remembered correctly curly haired people rarely brushed their hair - which amazed me - but he could still use his fingers to make it look a bit neater, which it didn't seem like he had. That wasn't a bad thing though, he suited this slightly messy look.

I could see his eyelids starting to flutter - as if he knew he was being watched. Luckily I noticed early enough so I could avert my eyes and hopefully avoid seeming creepy. Instead I pretended I had been busy looking through the magazine stack.

When I could hear him moving beside me I thought it would be acceptable to look at him again, and I gave him a small smile when I saw that he was in fact awake again.

"Was I asleep?" He questioned, his voice husky before he cleared his throat.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "For about a bit more than an hour I think, not sure exactly how long. I thought you might need the rest."