Activity

Okay! This is a completely random scene that’s still kinda rough-draft-ish.

Trains were late, queues were long, and tempers were short.

Sarah tried to ignore the crowd of irritable commuters and listen to the music blaring from her earphones: a heavy drumbeat and a warm voice as rich and smooth as melted caramel. All too often, the song was interrupted by high-pitched, grating words of “apologies for any inconvenience”, or else an announcement that the next train would be twenty-two, no, twenty-three, no, twenty-two minutes late.

For goodness’ sake, who even cares? Sarah tried not to roll her eyes the fifth time the electronic voice changed its mind.

When the announcements paused for a few minutes, she tried to ignore a middle-aged man on her right grumbling down the phone at someone who was probably his wife but might not be much longer if he didn’t do something about his temper.

Sarah rubbed her heavy eyelids with one hand as the song ended on a low, quavering note. Her face and hand were equally wet, though the hand was colder. She shifted the backpack that cut into her shoulders through a soaked denim jacket. She would take the bag off, except someone might trip over it on the overcrowded platform. Hopefully it was more waterproof than her clothes, so her notes and half-finished essays would still be legible when she got home.

Someone nearby had coffee, she could smell it on the wet air. If only she’d got one on the way here; even holding it to warm her hands would have been more than worth the money. Sarah sighed and hit the replay button on her phone, glaring at the speaker when it dared apologise again.