The Longest Night

It had become an art, pretending to read the paper. It had to be perfected so that she could wonder what his name was, what he sounded like, what kind of personality he had, and if she would ever know those things.

Except you’re a creepy weird kid with crippling social anxiety and you should stop. She chewed her lip. No, you’re being hard on yourself. But seriously, stop it.

She looked up at him. She could no sooner stop breathing.

“Catherine!”

A girl was coming right at her, looking young and pubescent-like, even though she knew they were the same age. Brittany.

She was immediately aware of everyone turning to the sound of her exuberant friend’s voice, but she was most conscious of the man turning to look in her direction. Her heart fluttered when she caught his sight from the corner of her eye, but she pretended to be looking at the girl.

“Oh, hi,” Catherine said halfheartedly.

Brittany threw her arms around Catherine in a hug, and Catherine awkwardly tried to let go of her paper and return the gesture out of politeness, but Brittany pulled away before she could.

“I haven’t seen you since high school!” she said, her voice louder than necessary in the LRT station. “I thought you went to Vancouver for schooling or something!”

Everyone had turned away but Catherine saw the man’s eyes linger in her direction just a bit longer than everyone else. He’s annoyed.

“No, I stayed here,” Catherine replied, trying to sound kind and convincing, but she could hear the lameness in her voice. She wanted to shut the conversation down quickly so that the entire platform didn’t have to listen to them. Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’ll be here every morning at the same time.

“That’s cool,” the girl said nonchalantly. “You’re going to be some sort of counsellor for kids, right?”

“Child Psychologist.”

“That’s right, I remember now. I’ve got an interview downtown, and it’s super early, so I have to take the train there today. Hopefully they don’t want me to come every morning at this time, or I’m not taking this job.”

“It’s not so bad in the morning,” Catherine said, thinking Oh thank God. “You could get a lot of productive things done.”

“Huh, well, I wish I had caffeine infused into my genes like you, because I’m not a morning person. At all.” She rolled her eyes and giggled.

The intercom activated, and the bell signalling the arrival of the southbound train sounded.

“Oh, no! You’re not taking the southbound train, are you?”

“No, northbound.”

“Good!” Brittany said, clapping her hands. “We can ride together!”

She watched from the corner of her eye and saw him draw closer to the edge of the platform as the train pulled up to the station. She kept eye contact with Brittany as she watched him board. Was he listening? Does he notice?

“After high school, I just said: ‘To Hell with it’, and I decided to work full time instead of going to school, you know—?”

Catherine nodded, trying to appear interested and absorbed in conversation as she watched him disappear.

He stepped onto the southbound train and tried to fit himself into a niche in between the crowd. The train was always packed this time in the morning. He didn’t need to be at the university for another hour; he hadn’t needed to for the past year. Every morning he arrived early nonetheless and braved the crowds just for moments like this.

He looked over his shoulder through the windows to watch her as the train pulled away. He hung his head, his eyes pointed to his shoes like the rest of the people on the train, but a small smile slowly spread onto his lips, growing broader each second he continued to think on the scene that had just transpired. He had finally heard her name. Catherine. Beautiful.