This Is My Stop

“Class dismissed, thank you for your time. Your paper on Wall Street is due Friday and it’s worth half of your midterm grade, don’t forget about it”, said my economics teacher.

I had just moved to New York, everything was very confusing to me. I used to live in Chile since I was a child. Everything seemed to move faster here.
As I walked through the halls of the economics building I noticed I was running late for my comic book lessons.
It took me about 45 minutes to Newark in train but the train station was 15 blocks away and it was raining, a lot.
“Oh well, welcome to NY Aubrey… Mr. Way is going to be SO upset…”
As I ran past several streets and almost got hit by a garbage truck I finally made it to the train station, just in time and soaking wet.
“Great day to wear white, you fucking genius”.
It’s been a rather unsettling autumn, sun came out for a few hours but out of nowhere it started to rain, made me feel like if I was home.

Once I was on my way to Newark I tried to look for a jacket that would make my white shirt less see-through, I found a blue cardigan my ex-boyfriend left in my bag a few months ago. The simple thought of him got me worked up, I tried to calm myself down because I wasn’t in the mood to get pissed off, and my Monday was already being dreadful.
I grabbed my headphones and listened to Senses Fail while I admired the beautiful landscape out the window. Suddenly, I felt someone touch my arm.

“Excuse me, may I sit here? I was sitting a few seats away but there’s this couple that just can’t seem to keep their hands to themselves…”
I turned in my seat to get a better look of him; he had long brown hair, hazel eyes, thin pink lips with a lip ring on the left side, a very attractive man indeed.
“Sure, go ahead”, I said in a very (maybe too) excited voice. He laughed and sat silently right beside me.
“Nice shirt, I see you like The Misfits, they’re my favourite band”, he said in a seductive voice.
“Yeah, they’re really good. I’ve been listening to them since I moved here”
“Oh, you’re not from New York?”
“No, I’m from Chile. I moved to New York because of college a few months ago.”
“Wow, that’s very far away”, he said, “Never been there, they say South America is a real wonder.”
“Hahaha, it’s a different universe. It’s hard getting used to change”, I said in a hesitant voice. Maybe I’m giving up too much information to a complete stranger; I should probably shut up…
There was an uncomfortable silence in the background, I had the feeling he sensed I was feeling pretty relentless.

“My name’s Frank”, he said while he gave me his hand.
“I’m Aubrey, nice to meet you”, I reached my hand to touch his. I didn’t help to notice his hands were full of tattoos. Didn’t really look that good at him, he had tattoos in his neck too, “Nice tattoos, Frank”.
He smirked at me, “Art doesn’t harm anyone, huh?”
He started to look at me; it seemed he was looking for any obvious tattoo marks on me, “Do you have any tattoos or piercings?”

That question always got me a little uncomfortable, it was hard to explain. I started laughing nervously while he looked at me, “Yeah… I’m just getting into it. I’ve got 5 tattoos and two.. No… one... Well my nipples are pierced”.
His face lit up, he seemed intrigued about my piercings, “Well that’s new… I’d ask to see them but it would be really rude coming from me”, he looked away but peeked into my chest to see if he could catch a glimpse of them, ”So, where are you going?”
I felt my face was on fire, there was something in me that felt so attracted to him. Maybe it was his eyes, I’ve never met someone with hazel eyes, I think eye colour has always been a weakness to me. My ex-boyfriend back home used to have green eyes, always had a hard time when we made eye contact.

“I’m going to Newark, I’ve got comic book lessons”, I said while I avoid eye contact with him.
He started laughing almost mocking me, “Huh, that’s… Curious”, he said.
“What do you mean? You know, you can be very judgmental, you don’t even know me and start drawing the conclusion that I don’t seem like a comic artist? I’m sorry, this is my stop. Nice meeting you, Frank”, I stood up and made my way to the corridor of the train. I was really upset; I couldn’t believe how much of a jackass this guy was being with me, judging me and everything. Probably blew everything out of proportion because I was really having a crappy day and was feeling slightly homesick. I stood next to the door to leave as soon as the train stopped, looked behind me and the seat I was in but Frank was nowhere around.

Got off the train, and started walking quickly towards the exit doors of the station, I had to get a cab. I had only 5 minutes to get to Mr. Way’s studio. Luckily, an old lady just got off one, as soon as I got in it started raining pretty heavily.
The cab driver was pretty fast, in less than 10 minutes I got to the studio. It was a glass building, about 2 stories tall. On the ground floor there was a museum of artists from the area, one of those my teacher Gerard Way. My classes were in the second floor, I ran so I could avoid getting any wetter. As soon as I got to the second floor I saw a sign that Mr. Way had left:

-I’ll be running a little late, had an emergency meeting with the band. If I’m not here until 5:30 feel free to leave. Sorry, G.-

“This is just fucking great…” I mumbled while I leaned against the classroom door and put a cigarette on my mouth. I got out a random notebook and started sketching stuff. Time went by pretty fast, once I finished my sketch it was already 6:05.

“I better be going, it’s a long way back to Manhattan…” I stood up, put my notebook away and started walking towards the stairs when I heard Mr. Way’s voice down stairs.

“Aubrey!”, he said in a rather worried voice, “what are you doing here? Didn’t anyone tell you I was going to be late and you could leave?”
“Hi, Mr. Way, i saw the note you left it’s just I got in here a little late and just decided to sketch for a while just in case you made it but time went by really fast and... Yeah…” I smiled innocently while he started to change the worried look on his face.
“Well… Can I see your sketch?”, he inquired eagerly.
“Sure”, I said while I pulled out the notebook from my back pack, “Here it is..”
“Well, you are certainly getting better at this, I really like it”, he said while he gave me a big smile.
I started blushing; I had looked up to him for so long; “Thank you, Mr. Way. Uhh… I guess I’ll-“

I got cut off by someone laughing behind me; “Well, so much for a comic book artist. Why did you run away from me like that, you didn’t give me any time to explain.”
I turned around and it was him, the guy from the train, “You… What are you doing here?”
He smirked and winked at me, that was really getting on my nerves; “I happen to know, Gerard. I said it was curious because of that matter, I guessed you were coming up here with him, I knew he was going to be late because he had band practice.”
He had this piercing look on him, as if he were trying to break me. I was as embarrassed as I could be; “I… Well… this is really embarrassing. I’m really sorry.”
“Well, Frank, you should really stop flirting with my students. Aubrey, I’m sorry I can’t stay any longer. I just came by to pick up my lyric notebook I’ve got band practice. If you need anything, feel free to ask Frank, he’s like family to me. Kind of a prankster but a good guy”, he picked up some messy papers and a couple of notebooks from a table in the gallery and approached Frank to give him some commands; all I could hear was “Treat her right, fucker, see you later”.

He was already outside when I heard him scream, “Aubrey, if he does anything t you tell me and I’ll kick his ass. Oh, and call me Gerard, Mr. Way makes me feel really old”.
Frank laughed silently on the background as I saw Gerard leave, for some reason I was really nervous around him.
“Are you going to run away from me again or would you like to go get some coffee?”, said Frank while he studied me.
“Uhh”, my knees were shaking he got the best of me even if he came out as an utter idiot at first, “Well…Don’t get me wrong I would love to have coffee with you but I have to get back to Manhattan, I have a class tomorrow”.
“Well then, it’s your lucky day, I also live in Manhattan. We can have some coffee here and I’ll drive you back.”

Notes

Hope you guys like it, i'm really nervous about doing this.