The story of train rides and butterflies

petit_papillon

by petit_papillon

Story

I looked up from my book and almost had a heart attack.

The guy who had just passed me sat down in one of the empty seats across from me.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”, I thought to myself. I spent like 150 € on a train ticket to get out of town and free my mind, to get away from the situation, to get away from everything and now my “problem” is literally sitting on the same train as me.

It’s been 3 months since the breakup, but seeing him here right now makes my heart almost explode in my chest. I can’t even describe why I feel this way. Is it fear? Excitement? Shame?

He looks up from his phone for a moment and our eyes meet from across the room. “Fuck, he saw me”, I mutter to myself and turn away my head in shame.

I feel my heart beating even faster and all the suppressed feelings of the last months coming up again in one fell swoop. I jump up from my seat and lock myself in the train toilette.

As I take a deep breath, I feel tears on my cheeks. After taking a few minutes to clear my head, I finally return to my seat. As I sit down, I hear a similar voice next to me, “How are you?”.

“G-great, thank you”, I hesitate to answer. “Can I sit down?” – “Yeah, sure”.

“You look great,” he says. “That’s a lie, you jerk,” I giggle through my tears.

“I have something for you, I found it in my apartment. I really want you to have it”. He opened his hand.

“Remember this?”, he asks, “it’s the bracelet you wore on our first date. You snuck it in my backpack, so you could see me again”, he chuckles. “I want to give it back to you, but I added a little butterfly keychain. It represents a new beginning.”

I smiled as he put the bracelet around my wrist.

Shortly after, we reached his stop and he got off the train. I stayed for another hour before finally arriving at my destination.

As I stepped out the door, I was knocked down by a young man. I fell to the ground and the contents of my bag were scattered everywhere. Before I could say anything, a hand was right in front of me offering to help me up.

The sun blinded me, so I couldn’t make out a face. The only thing I noticed was a butterfly tattoo on his wrist.



© petit_papillon 2023-08-24

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Emotional, Hoffnungsvoll, Inspirierend