24 | can you stay

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CHAPTER 24

"Customers are reminded to mind the gap between the train and platform edge when boarding."

I stepped over said gap with ease, relishing in the feeling of growing both physically and metaphorically closer to my old home in Cornwall.

The majority of the memories I had of my dad were formed in that house and I couldn't wait to go back.

I'd begun to feel increasingly guilty as I noticed my ability to remember him growing weaker, and I needed something to bring him closer to me that wasn't made of parchment paper and dry ink.

Speaking of that bloody journal, I could feel it straining against the zipper of my bag. As if it had expanded and stolen the space from any of my other possessions.

Although I'd wanted to leave it in the apartment it had some kind of weird hold over me, and I found myself placing it in my backpack before I left.

"Uh Gabe... can I get some help please?" Cora said, bringing me out of my thoughts and stretching her hand towards me.

I looked down to see her still standing at the edge of the platform, sweetly hesitant about stepping over the gap herself.

"Sure." I replied, taking her hand in mine. I helped her over the space between the train and the platform and she threw me a grateful look once her feet were back on hard ground.

"Thanks. I haven't been on a train in ages and I didn't want to embarrass myself by falling." She explained.

Some of that went in, but the other part of me was still thinking about what she just did. "You just held my hand. By choice." I informed her, letting a cheeky grin slide into place.

She groaned, but I could see the smile she was fighting. "Don't make it a big deal."

"Okay." I nodded, turning away to give her the false impression I was over it. "I won't make a big deal about how you're obsessed with me."

"Stop." She grumbled, and I broke into laughter. Teasing her was strangely entertaining.

"Okay okay, I'll stop now. Scout's honour." I said, smiling a smile that I knew brought my dimples out.

I was never a scout.

Her face softened and I found that my eyes were now able to move from what had slowly become their favourite spot, onto the scene that surrounded us.

Sleek surfaces, dark wood and electric blues all came together to form the interior of the sleeper train that I'd booked to take us to Cornwall.

I could have easily gone for a normal daytime train, but I knew it wouldn't compare to how beautiful the view of the landscape that stretched between both countries was at night.

The bodies of water coated in a deep blue that stretched further than I could see and reminded me that there was always something bigger than us.

The lonely shacks that interrupted the miles of unkempt farmland, complete with the occasional animal that I formed an instant connection to - both of us should have been sleeping, but neither of us was.

For some reason I knew that Cora would appreciate it just as much as I did, and I clicked on the booking without even hesitating.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also partly motivated by my need to know whether those sexy librarian glasses would make another appearance when she was about to go to sleep.

"Let's go put our luggage away." She said, heading in the direction that the swarm of people had begun to move in, and allowing me to watch the sway of her waist as she pulled her suitcase along in front of me.

We passed through the thin lane between the rows of plush seats, receiving dirty looks from the people that had already settled in.

At the end of each lettered section was an automatically opening door, and we passed through each one to be met with a toilet and luggage compartment.

A, B, C...

"D. This is our one." I said to Cora, pausing once I saw the sign on the door. We made our way to the adjoined rack for suitcases, and I loaded mine onto it.

When she moved to lift her bag herself I stopped her, finding that my chest had puffed out a little. "Let me do it for you."

She took one look at me and rolled her eyes, showing me that fire that I could never look away from whenever it burned within her.

"No thanks, muscle man."

I watched with amusement as she stepped onto her tippy toes to reach the top compartment of the luggage rack.

Almost everybody was small to me, but Cora was in a different league completely. I was guessing based on her petite frame that she wasn't anymore than 5'4.

I wasn't going to ask her since I quite liked my eyes the way they were. There was also the fact that having them poked out probably wasn't the best thing for my basketball career.

She dropped back down to the balls of her feet and turned her head to look at me. "Where are we sitting?"

I took her hand again to show her, knowing fully well she could've just followed behind me and still made it there just fine.

My throat moved with a swallow as I did everything I could to ignore how perfectly they fit together; my large hand sandwiching her smaller one.

I stopped walking when I reached a seat that looked slightly different to any of the ones that Cora had seen until now. It was isolated from the rest of the carriage and painted a crisp white instead of the usual blue.

I turned around to face her with a roguish smile. "I hope it's okay that I only booked one. I was thinking you could sit in my lap."

The look of utter disbelief that fell over her face was enough to get me laughing, a deep rumble that I felt throughout my body.

The only other person that had ever gotten me to laugh like that was my dad. Damn.

I decided to put her out of her misery, my eyes still shining with amusement. "I'm just winding you up. Watch this."

My hand moved to the handle of the seat and I pulled it down, watching it expand into the closest thing you could get to a bed on a train.

"Some of the seats double as mattresses." I explained. "Since we're gonna be on this train till about 12pm, I figured you might want to sleep a little."

"Thank you. That's really thoughtful." She smiled.

"No problem. And my one's over there." I said, pointing to the opposite wall.

"Should I get changed into pyjamas or something?" She asked.

I found my jaw clenching involuntarily at the thought of anybody else getting to see her the way I did when we video called that night.

"I wouldn't. Just because we'll have to take a taxi afterwards." I said, lying to her and myself. Although we would be getting a taxi to my childhood home, she would also have more than enough time to change before we did.

"Okay. Come sit with me." She said, patting the space next to her on the white bedding.

I did, immediately met by her scent. She smelled like lemon and something else I couldn't identify, but it reminded me of summer.

The beach. That's what it was. And it was clearly part of some sick joke thrown on me by the universe.

I could hear it now, teasing me. "So you like her, huh? Let's just make things a bit worse by letting her smell like your favourite place in the world."

"What's it like?" Cora spoke from next to me.

I turned to face her, confused. "What's what like?"

"Cornwall." She said. "Since you're not gonna tell me what we're doing there, I feel like I should prepare myself."

I smiled. "It's everything London isn't."

She met my eyes, curiosity piqued. "In what way?"

"It's smaller, for one. Full of fresh air, water and sand. And it made me, so it has to be pretty great." I joked.

"I've seen pictures. It looks beautiful." She said, voice soft.

"It is. But you can't even imagine how beautiful it is until you see it in real life." I told her.

"The train will now be departing from London Kings Cross. Without any delays, we should arrive at Lelant Railway Station in five hours. Enjoy your ride."

As the train moved, the window in front of us was slowly filled with the views that I had been expecting.

Cora watched it with rapt attention but since I had seen it all before, I took more pleasure in her reactions.

The way her dimple came out when she saw a lamb grazing. The widening of her eyes at the size of rivers we passed. The way she slipped on my favourite glasses about twenty minutes in.

And finally, the way she took them off and shuffled a little closer to me when her eyelids started drooping.

As much as I wanted to stay right where I was, I knew the right thing to do would be to return to my own seat.

She had ended up with her head about halfway onto my chest, and I immediately the felt the loss of the weight when I lifted it.

I remained as quiet as I could manage, laying her head onto the bedding as softly as our position would allow.

Her eyes fluttered open regardless, and her hand latched onto my wrist before I could move away. "Can you stay with me?"

I paused, wondering if I had imagined her saying that.

She must have noticed because her voice became a quiet plead. "Please."

I nodded and moved to sit back down, wondering what had happened in the space of about five seconds that had our roles reversing.

The chaser became the chase-ee. Interesting.

And I was realising that I wasn't the only one with an aversion to sleeping, since this was the second time Cora had sought out comfort from me during the night.

What's your story, candyfloss?

What are you not telling me?

My senses were overwhelmed. The hum of quiet conversations from elsewhere in the carriage, the steady jolt of the train beneath my feet and the feel of Cora's hair tickling my skin.

It was all enough to lull me to sleep myself, and I found that I quickly lost consciousness.

- - - -

"I'm open!" Dad shouted, arms spread and stance showing that he was fully ready to receive the ball.

I threw it over to him and fought a smile at the sight of Mum trying to block it.

She didn't stand a chance against Dad and barely even knew the rules of the game, but she refused to let it stop her from playing with us.

Dad dribbled the ball down the court, trying to get to the basket before me.

It wasn't really a court, but we had drawn lines in the sand so it was basically the same thing.

I ran as fast as I could and made it to the basket before he did, preparing to steal it from him.

The trophy on my nightstand from sports day was proof of just how fast I was.

Not to toot my own horn, but the teacher called me a "human lighting bolt" after I won that race, and she's never done that for anyone else.

Dad approached me slowly, clearly still trying to figure out his next move.

I took advantage of that, hitting the ball out of his hands before he could react.

I spun around quickly and took a shot, smiling when it went through the net.

"Did you see that Dad?" I asked him proudly. "I'm gonna be a basketballer one day."

"Or in the olympics. I haven't decided yet." I added, causing both of my parents to break into laughter.

"Aiming low, I see?" Dad teased.

Mum looked at me fondly. "I don't think Gabriel could aim low even if he tried. He loves a challenge. Everything else is too boring."

"See Dad? Mum gets it." I laughed.

I loved days like this.

When it was sunny and we got a ball out.

And then sat and talked about nothing.

I never wanted them to end.

- - - -

"Gabe, wake up." A voice said. It seemed to be coming somewhere outside of the groggy bubble I was in, so I took no notice.

My mind was still trying to grasp hold of the fact that for the first time in eleven years, I had dreamt about something other than the day of the accident.

What the hell?

"Gabe. People are starting to leave the train." The same voice from earlier spoke, shaking me slightly this time.

What train?

Oh.

Bugger.

I scrambled off the bedding and took a glance at Cora. She looked pretty much how I felt.

A little ruffled and sleepy, but there was a gleam in those eyes that revealed her excitement.

Fresh air filled my lungs, and I could already feel the difference. "We're here."

She nodded. "I got our bags when you didn't wake up the first time I called you." She said, gesturing to where our suitcases were balancing against the train's walls.

"Thanks." I smiled. "I don't know what got me sleeping like that. I usually can't."

My jerk knee reaction was to panic about how, although it was in the form of a passing comment, I had revealed to her something that nobody else knew.

Strangely enough though, that panic didn't come.

If anything, I found that it actually felt good to get it off my chest.

I switched my attention back to the train journey, scheduled to end in five minutes according to the chart online.

The train shook. Not only because of the tyres rolling over the wooden tracks, but also because of the energy of the people it held within.

I could feel it rolling off them in waves, everybody practically buzzing with anticipation.

The train slowed to what felt like a stop, but nobody moved until the monotone voice came through the speaker and confirmed it.

"We have now arrived at Lelant Railway Station in Cornwall. Thank you for boarding with Virgin Trains."

The swarm of people split, everybody heading for the multiple doors that were spread along the carriage.

Cora was next to me and we shared a look before we left the train.

I couldn't fight the smile on my face as I reminded her to, "Mind the gap."

"Thank you so very much." She said with mock gratitude, rolling her eyes playfully.

To be honest though, I had only been partly joking and the hand that wasn't occupied by my suitcase found Cora's, holding her as we stepped off the train together.

A small gasp left her lips.

The pitch black of the sky was illuminated by the stars that you could never see in London, manufactured light blocking them from view.

I had found that every place I'd ever been to was special in it's own way, but there was nothing better than how Cornwall looked at night.

"It is beautiful." Cora breathed from next to me, and I knew she was enjoying the same view that I was.

"You alright?" A burly man asked us from a little way away, voice coated in that heavy Cornish accent that I hadn't heard in so long.

My mum didn't count since her accent had been mangled with that of a Londoner from when she used to live there.

A couple of years after the accident she had moved back here to be closer to memories of Dad. I had done the opposite, agreeing to school in London and only visit Cornwall periodically.

I remembered that I was yet to respond to the guy, so I did. "Yeah, thanks. Just looking for a taxi."

He patted the roof of the sleek black car he was standing in front of, a lopsided grin stretching over his face. "Then it's your lucky day. I happen to have one right here."

I took a closer look and sure enough, there was a clunky orange 'taxi' sign at the head of the car.

Cora seemed to be following my lead, so I made my way over to the taxi driver and thanked him.

"Where are ya headed?" He asked, bending his large stature until he was behind the steering wheel.

"14 Forest Grove." I replied, strapping my seatbelt across and watching Cora do the same in my peripheral vision.

Our suitcases bounced in the boot of the car as we made out way down the winding lanes, beautifully deserted compared to London traffic.

"You guys here on holiday?" He asked breezily, making conversation as he watched the roads.

"You could say that. We're here to visit my Mum." I replied, noticing Cora's eyes widen beside me.

"We're here to what?" She asked in disbelief.

"Don't worry. She'll love you." I assured her.

"You don't know that." She pressed.

"Sorry to interrupt." The taxi driver's gruff voice filled the car. "But we're here."

I wonder why Gabe's dream has changed... hmm...

Also I don't know if you guys picked up on it, but when Gabe's mother was talking about him 'liking a challenge', she was referencing Cora and she didn't even know it.

It's like they were meant to be ;)