I'm With You \\ Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Two

Slightly Earlier that Day

Just a few years earlier, she was a completely different person living in Manchester. A person who wore vibrant colors and always smiled. A person who wasn't afraid of anyone recognizing her, never carried a gun around anywhere, and told people her thoughts instead of keeping them separated from everyone.

Now she was the exact opposite of that person she used to be, and lived in London, where nobody knew her, or even knew her name. Nobody.

Zayley glanced in her small pocket mirror to make sure that her hair was completely invisible and carefully put in her brown colored contacts. She was not Zayley Carson, the girl who wasn't on the radar and seemed to have vanished from the planet. She was the mysterious girl in London that no one knew anything about. And she was fine that way.

She grabbed her skateboard from the corner and went outside, beginning her route to the diner on Woodsen Road. As usual, the 80s themed restaurant was packed, even early in the morning, and the counter was lonely with only one person sitting there. The man working behind it (with grey hair and grey sideburns who seemed to always wear the same shirt) looked up when she entered and gave her a small smirk.

"Back again, I see. Will you be getting your usual?" he asked.

Zayley nodded and sat on one of the stools as the man circled around to the coffee machine.

"Your usual?" said the other person sitting at the counter. "How often do you come here?"

"Often," Zayley responded flatly.

The person was a boy around her age, possibly a bit older. He was wearing a blue polo shirt, leather coat, and jeans, and looked as though he'd been recently overworked. And his name was Thomas.

The man with the grey sideburns returned and handed Zayley her coffee in a surprisingly strong and heat-resistant plastic cup. In return, she handed him her money and he just smirked again as she turned and left.

Thomas watched her exit the diner and skateboard away, and he was the first person in London to wonder about this unidentified girl.

"Who was that?" he asked as she vanished from his sights.

"Don't know," the man said. "She comes here everyday, gets coffee, pays, and leaves. Never told me her name or anything."

"Where does she go?"

"Boy, I just told you she never told me anything. I don't know anything about her except that she likes coffee."

Thomas thought for a moment. "Might have an interesting story behind her, don't you think?"

"It's possible," the man said. "Now can I have my pay?"

He glanced away from the door and embarrassedly pulled money out of his wallet, handing it to Mr. Grey Sideburns and getting up. "Uh, I'll just be going then."

Mr. Grey Sideburns nodded and called after Thomas as the blonde boy walked away, "If you find out what her name is, I'll give you a free meal next time you come in."

"Yeah," he called back as he pushed through the glass doors.

The sky was dark and clouded above him, suggesting a rainfall or storm later on. The crisp autumn air blew past as if in a hurry to make other London residents cold. He pulled his leather jacket tight around himself as he scanned the area for a familiar black hoodie.

Floods of people, talking and laughing, crowded his vision. The colors they wore stood out against the grey surrounding them, which made it somewhat easier for him to land his eyes on the hooded figure heading away down a less populated street on a black skateboard. That's her, he thought to himself as she disappeared down the alleyway. Let's find out about her.