Chapter Text
“Do you have all of your stuff packed?”
“Yes mum, I have everything packed.”
“Okay…that’s good.” There’s a pause on the line as Barty’s mum starts a coughing fit. Barty hates when this happens, it never assures him that she’s getting better. He feels his face contort into sadness as she continues coughing. “I love you, baby,” she says when she’s finally done coughing.
“I love you too, mum. I’ll be there in a few hours.” Barty hangs up the phone and stares at it for a minute. He’s very overwhelmed with needing to pack and making sure he doesn’t miss his train.
A few years ago, Barty’s mum got sick, and then a few months later she got really sick. She’s been passed around from hospital to their home to hospital back home again, but no one seems to be able to effectively treat her. Last year, Barty’s dad must’ve finally gotten sick of trying to take care of her and sent her to a hospital 8 hours away. In the moment, Barty was furious, his mum was (and still is) all he has, and his dad just sent her away so he could be with his new 20 something year old girlfriend without the burden of his dying wife, and Barty still is mad, but ever since he was finally able to move out the past year, he hasn’t had to think about his father or the child he’s dating. He’s called his mum every week and even mailed her various items including random gifts and things she told him she wanted. Barty has only gone to visit her once when she was first sent away, but he’s finally built up the courage to try again, hoping that he’ll survive.
Barty scans his apartment to make sure he has everything when he once again dreads the idea of a train ride. It’s going to be 8 hours long. Just 8 hours of sitting there, doing nothing. Barty is like a puppy, he needs to be constantly entertained, otherwise he gets sad, and Barty needs to hurry and leave so he doesn’t miss his train, so he grabs some random dishes from his kitchen and figures he’ll think of something to do with them, then he’s out the door and on his way to the train station.
He’s pushing past people mumbling apologies to the kinder people and swearing back at the angry people who apparently hate their lives (in his defense, they swore at him first). Barty checks the time on his phone and curses under his breath, he only has five minutes until he needs to be on the train. Luckily for him, he can see the platform, so if he goes fast enough he should be able to make it.
“Shit! Sorry!” He says when he collides with a blonde boy who looks equally as disheveled as Barty probably looks. The boy quickly reaches down to hand Barty his bag that he must’ve dropped in the coalition.
“It”s alright,” the boy says.
All Barty has time to do is say a quick thanks and hurry off.
Thankfully, Barty makes his train with two minutes to spare. Barty got a window seat which he prefers so he can mysteriously stare out it to pass the time. The aisle seat next to his is empty so he sets his bag in it assuming no one will be sitting there since they aren’t already.
Barty’s mind begins to wander and ultimately lands on the boy he ran into. He wishes he wasn’t in as much of a hurry as he was so he didn’t have to stupidly run away from the situation. The boy had sandy blonde hair and blue or green eyes, barty couldn’t tell which. His skin was rather pale and would’ve made most people look ill, but for some reason this wasn’t the case for him.
This is ridiculous.
Barty is never going to see the mysterious, gorgeous boy from the train station ever again, and if he continues thinking about him he’ll only get attached, and that definitely would not be good. So Barty clears his mind and-
“Excuse me,” Barty’s head snaps in the direction of the voice so fast he’s surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “Um, is this your bag? It’s kind of in my seat.”
Green.
They were green.
Like the sea.
Easy to get lost and drown in.
Barty blinks out of his daze and quickly goes to grab his bag, “Sorry, sorry, I just assumed no one was gonna be sitting there, ‘cause no one was there when I got here like a minute ago…” He trails off, turns his head towards the window, and cringes at himself. What is he saying?
“Yeah, I was running a bit behind, otherwise I would’ve been here sooner to put my bag in your seat.”
Barty laughs awkwardly, not knowing what else to do. The train finally starts moving and Barty is relieved. Now he can just sit back, relax, and zone out at the window. No more making a fool of himself.
“Hey, you’re the guy who ran into me at the platform, right?” The boy next to him asks, breaking the peaceful, not at all awkward, silence.
“What? No.” Why did he just deny that? Now he’s gonna look stupid.
Great. Now Barty’s getting laughed at. “It’s okay, you seemed like you were in a hurry, so I didn’t think too much of it.”
“Yeah,” Barty agrees. He was never supposed to see this dude again, what happened?
“I’m Evan,” the boy says, offering Barty his hand.
“Barty,” he says shaking Evan’s hand.
“Nice to meet you.”
“You too.”