FicWad

London was lively on a Friday night. Lights flashed, streaking club entrances, people stumbled and girls giggled, falling into each other on the sidewalk drunkenly, colorful drinks in their grasps. Everyone was young, smiling and seemingly careless. It was a beautiful sight for sore eyes indeed. By now, her brother had probably found the letter. She quickly blocked the thoughts from her head, of all people she left behind, she hadn't wanted to leave him. But like most things, it was an 'all or nothing' situation. The bag was beginning to ache her shoulders, she'd have to find a place to stay the night soon. A bench would suffice. A shiver shot down her spine and she shuddered, her teeth chattering noisily as she tried to pull her sleeves over her hands,

"This end isn't safe at night sweetheart" an anonymous voice came from nowhere, Lorrelei opened her eyes, turning around on the damp wooden bench and looking up, meeting the dark eyes of a tall stranger. Messy brown hair, a black hoodie, jeans and scuffed white trainers. She shrugged, "what'd you do?"

"what do you mean?" she replied quietly, the unfamiliar face sat down at the end of the bench, forcing Lorrelei to move her feet, the boy slouched and she decided that his age was around eighteen to nineteen. Usually, she would be able to determine what kind of person someone was by the look in their eyes but not him, she was struggling to meet his for longer than three second bursts of contact. It was strange. Just seconds he had been in her life and already he sent an intimidating vibe straight to her, like he was dangerous or at least had a few dark skeletons in the closet and yet-
And yet he intrigued her.

"I mean, did you runaway or were you kicked out?" Lorrelei narrowed her eyes at him,

"What makes you assume that either one of those is the reason i'm here?" the boy shrugged, taking a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and offering her one, she slid one out sheepishly, placing it between her lips and he leaned over, holding a naked flame to light it for her before lighting his own and blowing smoke into the night sky, watching it fade away before he spoke again, sighing inwards,

"well, is it one or the other?" she nodded, tilting her head up at the stars, blowing out smoke in rings, the boy laughed lightly, "which one?"

"when you first see me, what thoughts first rush into your head? Do you think i ran?" she met his eyes and they bore into her own, making her feel self conscious as she swiftly looked away.

"You ran" he concluded simply, pulling his hood up with his free hand. They sat in silence and Lorrelei was left wonder why the first question he asked hadn't been her name. That was the norm, right?

She looked at him again as he stubbed the cigarette butt out and sighed, putting his hands in his pockets and turning to her, just in time to see her quickly look away,

"You planning to stay here all night or would you rather a roof over your head?" he asked, standing up but keeping his eyes on her, Lorrelei bit her lip,

"where?" he took a key out of his pocket and dangled it in front of her, then her jerked his chin to the right,

"come on" without another word, he turned and started walking. Lorrelei hurriedly gathered her bag and stumbled to her feet, following the nameless guy without even questioning the fact that some guy she had only just met wanted to take her back to a house in a city she'd never been to in her life.