Shine

5 Months Later

I was hungry. No, not just hungry. Starving. I had been walking down the streets of London with Liam for around two hours now, and I was growing impatient.

"Oi, can we stop for a bite to eat?" I asked him as we were nearing a small restaurant.

"Come on, mate. You can't wait until we get back to my place to eat?" Liam replied with an eye roll.

I gave him a pointed look. He knew there was no way to win this. He sighed, and we walked into the restaurant. It wasn't too crowded, it being the early afternoon on a Tuesday, so having some privacy wouldn't be a big deal.

Liam and I sat down at a table towards the back wall, and picked up the short-list menus to decide what to get. I quickly skimmed the laminated page until a movement two tables down caught my eye. It was a girl. Her face was blank and pale, but still so beautiful. Her brown hair was piled on top of her head and she wore a thick, baggy sweater. The other girl sitting across from her was talking, but she didn't seem too interested, just staring blankly at her friend as she tried to have a conversation.

Is she okay? I thought to myself.

As if she had read my mind, she looked up and our eyes connected. I couldn't tear my eyes away. Her eyes seemed so lifeless, tired and glazed over as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Luckily, she was the one who pulled her eyes away, as she went back to looking at her friend who was still mid-story.

I could hear bits of their conversation, trying my hardest not to ease-drop , but I just couldn't help myself.

"And so we ended up at this party and-hey. Are you even listening?" The girls friend asked. The brunette didn't reply, she just shrugged her shoulders and her friend sighed. "Jen, come on. I'm really trying to help you, but you just won't let me. You won't let anyone help you. It's been five months. I'm your best friend, so if you can't talk to me about what happened then I don't know who you can talk to."

The brunette shrugged her shoulders again, What had happened to this girl? I found myself wondering.

And then she spoke, "I just can't talk about it yet. It's still too soon." Her voice was quiet and raspy, quite sexy given the proper circumstances.

Liam waved his hand in front of my face, "What's up, mate? You alright?" He asked.

I blinked, slapping his hand away from my face, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just- that girl. The brunette over there, the one in the sweater." I motioned to her table. Liam turned to look at her quickly and then looked back to me with a smirk.

"She's rather fit, isn't she?" He said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"She is, but that's not what I meant. She looks so sad. I wonder what's wrong." I replied.

Liam shrugged, "Don't know, mate. Not really our place to pry."

But I wanted to pry. I wanted to know. I was drawn to this girl like a moth drawn to a light. I got up and made my way over to her table, not wanting to wait another second to introduce myself.

"Hello, love. I'm Ni-" But I stopped. Because when she looked up at me I was met with the sight of her tears streaming down her face. She took quick, shaky breaths and got up from her table, hurrying past me and out the door of the restaurant.