finding you again; closed.

"I can't come home this weekend, mom." Emily sighed as she waited for the go ahead to cross at one of the busy corners on one of the numerous busy streets in Manhattan. "No. My district doesn't have spring break until next week. I have this...thing with Grace next Friday, so I'll be home Saturday." She paused, waiting for her mother to answer. You would think she was an eighteen year old girl in her first year of college, and her first year away from home, but that wasn't the case. Emily was twenty-five. She moved out when she was eighteen and left the small Massachusetts town she'd grown up in to study at NYU. She was a music teacher in one of the elementary schools in Manhattan. She'd been living on her own for seven years now, and yet her mother still felt the need to call her at least twice a day to check on her. Granted, she was the baby of the family, she had three older brothers, so she supposed she could see why her mother would worry about her so much, and she knew that she only meant well, but it did get annoying sometimes. "Alright, yeah. Listen, I have to go. I'll call you tomorrow. Tell grams I said hi when you go visit her." Her grandmother had been in and out of the hospital a lot over the last couple of years, but it was beginning to seem like a much more permanent thing now. "I love you too. Bye." She slipped her phone back into the pocket of her jeans before crossing the street. Once across, she began looking through her bag for her metro card, which she was almost positive that she had stuck back in there this morning, though this wouldn't be the first time that she'd misplaced the damn thing. In fact, she had a habit of losing a lot of things, though she liked to think that she just put them in really safe places so that she wouldn't really end up losing them. It was kind of a major bullshit excuse though. And she knew it.

Spencer stepped outside of his apartment and ran a stressed hand through his hair. Quickly he dug in his pocket for his lighter and lit up a cigarette. After a long drag he exhaled with a sigh. He felt as though he had been awake for days. His entire body was exhausted and he wasn't even sure what day it was. It had been that way for the past several years. Everyday, the same old thing. He looked out in the street and frowned, nothing had changed. Not bothering to finish the cigarette he'd just lit, he tossed it in a bucket and starting walking towards downtown. With his hands shoved in his pockets he watched everyone around him. There were so many people here in Manhattan. He wasn't sure why he had even chosen to stick around this big city. After a few blocks he looked up to see a woman digging through her bag for what he assumed to be her bus pass. He wasn't sure what exactly made her so special until she glanced up. Spencer stopped dead in his tracks. "Mya?" His mind whirled around the idea before he shook his head at himself for even considering the thought. He'd lost her a long time ago. Still, Spencer stood watching the woman from just a few feet away.

Emily was certain that she'd put her metro card in her purse that morning. In fact, she was positive that she had considering she'd used it to get to work that morning. And she was almost positive that she'd stuck it back into its slot in her wallet straight away, though it wouldn't be the first time that she'd lost the damn thing. It was a general habit of hers. Losing things. She tried to take precautionary measurements so that she could prevent situations like this from happening, but clearly God, or whatever celestial being up there, wasn't on her side today. He or she was probably having a good laugh right about now. "Yeah, real funny." She grumbled to herself as she continued rummaging through her purse. As she did so, she couldn't help feeling eyes on her. Looking up, her attention shifted to the man just a short distance away from her. His gaze was fixated on her, and he wore an almost shocked expression. "Don't tell me you've never seen a person misplace something before."

Spencer snapped out of his daze when the woman spoke. "No. I mean yeah. I mean- Sorry, I didn't mean to stare." He took a few steps in her direction, not really sure why, or what he would do when he got close to her. He was still baffled by the fact she looked a hell of lot like Mya. He smiled at her as she continued to dig around in that endless bag of hers. "Would you like to just use my card?" He wasn't sure whether you could do that but he offered anyway. Really he just wanted a reason to be near her, a reason to talk to her. "I'm Spencer by the way," he added quickly with another smile.

Emily raised an eyebrow, though she couldn't help being at least slightly amused by the stranger's ramblings. "It's alright..." She trailed off slightly, going back to digging through her purse for a few moments, hoping that pesky metro card of hers would turn up. She realized now that digging through her purse in the middle of the sidewalk probably wasn't the best idea. She wasn't exactly paying attention to her surroundings and some lowlife could've come and snatched her purse from her or something, but sometimes she didn't think things completely through, and now was one of those times. The man's later words kind of surprised her, causing her gaze to shift back over to him. "Emily..." She said, pausing for a few moments before continuing. "Do you always offer to let complete strangers use your metro card?"

Spencer watched the way she reacted to him, not quite able to read her. She may have looked like Mya, but it was obvious this Emily didn't have Mya's personality. Maybe that was what really drew him in. For once something had captured his attention and kept it longer than a few seconds. He wasn't ready to go back to the boring, repetitive life he had just moments before. He smiled again, trying to come off friendly, hoping to make a good impression. "No, but by the looks of it, you're not going to find yours anytime soon. A good deed never hurt anybody." He looked away from her and at all the people passing around them. He wondered what the odds were that she caught his eye on this busy sidewalk. He returned his gaze towards Emily.

His behavior honestly struck Emily as rather odd. Maybe it was because she wasn't used to someone simply wanting to do a good deed. This was New York City after all, there was usually some sort of a catch. If there wasn't, well there really never wasn't one, people usually didn't give a damn. They were only looking out for themselves and that was it. But something about Spencer's words and body language seemed genuine. She felt as though, even though he was still a complete stranger, she could trust him. "There aren't many people here in the city trying to be good samaritans." She said, allowing a small smile to grace her lips. "It'd be pretty foolish of me not to take you up on your offer, though you could totally be conning me right now, and I could end up regretting this later on. After all, I don't really know you personally, you could be an axe murderer or something, but desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose." Now she was the one rambling.

Spencer laughed at her conclusions. He knew he wasn't acting at all like you would expect of a city guy, but then again he wasn't a city guy to begin with. "Well, I suppose I am one of the few good samaritans here. And I can assure you that I am not an axe murder." He raised his hands as if in surrender, "See? No axe." Spencer smiled knowing she had accepted his offer and pulled his card from his pocket. Still, seeming such a careful and wary girl, he wondered how he would ever be able to talk to her after this. Surely he couldn't just ask for her number or address, that would certainly scare her off and that was the last thing he wanted.

"I suppose you are." Emily said, a small smile gracing her lips. She knew that, either way, she was jumping to conclusions. He was still a complete stranger to her, so she really didn't know if either of her judgements would be correct. She watched him, letting out a quiet laugh when he showed her his hands. "Alright, you're not an axe murderer. However, that doesn't make you any less of a stranger to me." She wasn't changing her mind about accepting his offer, she was merely stating a fact.