Treasures

The wind was sharp, cutting through Archie’s skin like knives and, as soon as he stepped out of his flat, he instantly regretted throwing away the balaclava his friend, Kyle, had gotten him last year on his birthday. But it had been a while since he had shaved, so at least his chin was feeling a bit of much needed warmth. The only thing keeping him going was the thought of how warm the inside of the train station would be.
Archie was in hurry to get to work, he had woken up late after spending all of his night on Netflix and eating caramel corn; which made him bloated and much to his dismay, have to wear his fat pants. So it was just his luck when as soon as he reached the station, the kind lady selling tickets told him that the 8:30 train to downtown London had just passed. After much cursing, on Archie’s part, and lots of bewildered stares, from other folks, the lady informed him that another train would be arriving in another half hour and that she’d give him a ticket if he’d just “Stop cursing and causing a scene”. To which Archie complied because even though he was stubborn he wasn’t very fond of people looking at him like he just escaped a mental institution.
Since he had time to kill, Archie decided to indulge himself, buying some coffee from the random coffee shop that was conveniently tucked into a corner of the station. Once he found a bench that wasn’t already occupied with other human beings, he sat and tried to enjoy his drink as much as one could when they were getting the roof of their mouth burned.
Just as he was beginning to get into the heavy guitar riffs that were playing in his ears, he was about t-minus 10 seconds away from head banging his little heart out to Black Sabbath, his iPod decided to die. At that moment he was pretty much forced onto someone’s rendition of a mainstream acoustic song that would usually make him want to stuff his ears. But whoever was playing was certainly doing the song some justice; it was at least tolerable to listen to without making Archie feel like stuffing his ears. He decided that the only reason why he was getting off his bench and walking towards the sound was because of the lady who decided to sit down beside him with her infant who wouldn’t crying, and not because he maybe liked it.
Of course, there was a crowd formed around whoever was playing, so he had to elbow his way to the very front right just as the person began a new song. Of course the person also happened to be the boy who had barged into Otto’s, what feels like years ago, trying to find a gift for his aging mum. He had been on Archie’s mind that entire night, thinking about the way his green eyes lit up and Archie had to pinch his thigh several times in order to get some sleep and stop feeling like a sap with a heart. Of course, the boy decided to look up at Archie just as he began singing. And of course, he didn’t look away until the song ended; completely serenading him with his deep, slow voice.
The crowd quickly dispersed when they realized the boy wasn’t going to play anymore, too busy staring intently at Archie, whose palms were starting to cramp up at how intense this all felt.
“Hello” the boy said and placed his guitar back into its case. Archie stood there quietly, much like an awkward tree, he wasn’t really trusting his voice to speak up, but gave a simple head nod once he noticed how long the silence had actually gone on for.
“What brings you here?” Archie asked in an awful way to try and be casual. He was slowly forming and deforming his hands into fists by his sides to try and get rid of the cramping, to no avail. This boy, he should really stop calling him boy, he’s more of a very young man, was too pretty for his own good and didn’t seem to know what his head of flouncy curls could do to a person. What Archie really wanted to ask was whether his mum had liked her gift, what was their favorite song on the vinyl and, most importantly, if they danced together in the kitchen.
The ‘very young man’ suddenly stood and Archie had to restrain himself from asking him to sit back down because he felt his façade slowly melt away. Curse his genes, why couldn’t his family tree come from a long line of basketball players? The young man stopped a couple inches away from Archie and offered out his hand, “Hello, I’m Harry” he said, “Just wanted to introduce myself properly”. He then took a big step back and Archie took a big breath of air, “And to answer your question, I like to perform here on the weekends. It’s fun and I get to make a bit of extra cash” Harry proceeded to open up his guitar case and gesture towards the huge pile of bills he had collected inside. “What brings you here?” he then asked, his tongue poking out from the corner of his full pink lips, eyes wide and expecting for Archie’s answer.
Quickly, Archie looked down and decided to try and count the amount of chewing gum that was littering the station’s floors. “Uh, I have work. Was supposed to be on my way there now but I got here late and missed the 8:30 train”. Harry made a noise from the back of his throat in a way to show that he really did feel for him. “What’s your other job then, I mean, if you only do this gig thing for fun and extra cash?”
“I actually don’t really have a job” Harry said and took a seat on top of his guitar case, Archie felt relief that he was back to being the taller of the two, “I kind of just couch hop between friends, I’m trying to make it big as a singer. But it seems like there are either too many one man indie ‘bands’ or I just really suck”. He booted away a pebble with a sort of sad look in his eyes resembling a puppy that had suffered a kick.
If Archie had compassion for others he would’ve offered up his guest bedroom, it was only ever used by Kyle when he was too drunk to drive home from the pub that was located across the street of his flat. But he needed to keep himself in check, sure, Harry had the face of an angel but just because he was pretty didn’t mean Archie was about to change his whole view on the world and stop being a cold-hearted mongrel. “You certainly do not suck, mate” Archie punctuated his statement with a slap on the shoulder that was meant to give Harry some hope; “I ventured away from a crying infant to come listen to you play”.
At this, Harry gave him a blinding smile that made him feel like the pebble from moments ago. “Hey thanks a lot…”
“Archie”
“Yeah, thanks again, really means quite a lot, Archie” he said, his emerald eyes gleaming and making Archie want to throw himself in front of the train that was fast approaching. Until he noticed the train’s ‘Downtown London’ sign at its front.
He pointed at the train that had just stopped, “Well it’s time for me to go, I guess” he said and reluctantly backed away from Harry who just had that same stupidly wide smile on his face. Dozens of people were passing by them to try and get a seat inside, but Archie only really seemed to notice Harry. Sitting there, insanely long legs crossed on his guitar case with a mess of curls atop his head. Archie pinched his thigh, gave a sad excuse for a wave and turned around. Before merging into the herd of people he heard Harry yell out, “I’ll drop by Otto’s again soon!”
He bit back a smile and pinched his leg one more time to solidify his thoughts, ‘Stop being a little pansy’. Too bad it’s against the law to smoke on a train because he was in desperate need of a Viceroy at the moment.