Laura ran to track 29 at Grand Central Terminal, pulling her suitcase behind her; rushing to catch the 12:10am train.
She had just moved to New York. She had been hired at FOX online as a sports journalist and she couldn't had been more excited.
Laura loved sports. She grew up going to all sorts of games with her dad.
Her parents divorced when she was 8. Her mother and her older sister moved to Chicago and she chose to stay with her father in Cincinnati.
Her mother was an aspiring actress but never caught her big break. She moved to Chicago to return to her theater roots; taking Laura's sister, who also loved performing, with her.
Laura had always been closer to her father. They just had a special bond. She always felt as if her mother was disappointed in her. She knew her mother preferred her sister over her.
Whenever she would go to visit her mother she would hear about how her sister was going to school for performing arts and got cast in some local commercial. Then she would be asked what she had accomplished; to which she would say that she was still living at home with her dad and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati. She also ran a blog where she would write entries about each sports game she went to. Her mother always had the same reply: "Oh, I guess that's nice". Every time.
Laura didn't mind living with her dad even still at almost 23, a recent college graduate.
Sure, she was looking to find something more, but she was content living at home. I mean they had season tickets to both the reds and the bangles so why would she want to give that up.
But she eventually got a call from FOX sports. They said they had read her blog posts about games that she had been to and they wanted to hire her; which means she was leaving the queen city for the big apple.
She had visited the city a month earlier with her dad to find an apartment. And since living in the city was just so incredibly expensive, she chose to live about 30 minutes outside of the city in White Plains. That way she could afforded a better place and ride the train into work everyday.
Her flight from Cincinnati to New York had landed just over an hour ago. All her other belongings had been shipped to her new place already, she just had her suitcase, her laptop bag, and her purse with her.
She rushed to the track, pulling her heavy suitcase behind her. It was 12:08am, she only had 2 minutes.
She had just purchased her train pass for the first month of living in New York before she ran across the station to get to her track.
She ran down the sloped platform and into the first open door of the train she saw.
She sighed in relief as she entered the train, the cool air hitting her sweaty face.
She made her way down the isle of the train and took in her surroundings.
Since it was so late, there were very few people on the train.
There was a pair of middle aged women having a lively conversation, obviously tourists.
There was a girl who looked to be about her age, fast asleep in her seat.
There was a middle aged man reading a newspaper.
And there was a blonde boy who also looked to be about her age; he had his earbuds in and had a journal on his lap, in which he was mindlessly doodling.
She went to sit across the isle from him since he was sitting on the end of the row of seats near the door, which was where the outlets were located. She needed to charge her phone anyway so she just sat there.
She placed her purse and her computer bag in the seat next to her, then struggled to lift her heavy suitcase onto the rack above the seats.
"Here, let me help you." she heard a voice say.
She turned and saw that the voice had come from the blonde boy, who was now standing next to her and lifting her suitcase onto the rack.
"Oh thank you so much." she said. "I know you may not be able to tell, but I'm not very strong." she said.
He laughed.
"Really? No way! I could've sworn I'd seen you on WWE or something." he said sarcastically.
It was now her turn to laugh.
"You're pretty quick to judge. How do you know I'm not a professional wrestler?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Well I guess I don't know that, do I. How do you know I'm not an astronaut?"
"I never said you were."
"But you don't know that I'm not."
Just then the speakers came on and the conductor announced that the train was leaving.
They sat back in their seats as the train started moving.
She plugged her phone in and opened her laptop, typing expertly as the train picked up speed.
He put one of his earbuds back in and returned to his doodles, stealing glances at her every now and then.
A few minutes passed before the conductor came and checked their tickets.
"What's your stop?" the boy spoke up after the conductor had left.
"Why do you want to know? You could be a stalker murderer rapist for all I know."
"Well yes, props for being safe when it comes to strangers. But I was just wondering if it was before my stop so I could help you get your bag down."
"Oh." she said, taken aback by his politeness.
They were silent for a few moments.
"White plains. My stop is white plains." she said, breaking the silence.
"Cool. My stop is north white plains, which is about 2 minutes after the white plains stop." he said, smiling at her.
She smiled shyly back at him.
The train trekked on. When they announced that white plains was the next stop, the blonde boy stood and pulled her suitcase down from the rack.
"Thank you, again." she said, gathering her things and standing up as the train slowed down.
"No problem." he said, softly smiling at her.
She pulled her suitcase onto the platform after the train had come to a halt and the doors had opened.
"Oh and by the way..." the boy began as she stepped onto the platform.
"My name is Ross, and I'm not a stalker/murderer/rapist/astronaut." he said, standing in the doorway.
"My name is Laura and I'm not a professional wrestler." she said smiling.
He gave her one last grin before the doors slid shut and the train began moving again.
Laura stood on the platform, still smiling.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna like it here." Laura thought to herself.
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