once in our seats the train's chimes went off and our trip back to London began.

Paul sat in the seat facing me, Mick went to sit somewhere in the smoking area and Joe was across the aisle to our right, taking up two seats as he prepared for a nap.

The train's moving roughly fast as I observe a girl carrying luggage struggle making her way down the aisle. I think for a second of how funny it would be if she tripped, then as an act of witchcraft, the train comes to a sudden stop and she falls face down on her luggage.
As she's falling she yells out an "Oh Shit!"
Paul looks at me with an amused smirk on his face, Joe does not move a muscle.

"Are you okay?" I ask as I reach for the girl's hand and help her up.
"yea, I'm ok, I'm just clumsy." she says sheepishly
"hey! I know you! You're Lesley right? I remember you from English and Math!"
"Oh, yea, right. Piper?"
"ye thats me" she smiles.

I am astonished. I flew across the ocean and yet I stumble across someone from my Goddamned High School. or should I say, they stumble across me.

"do you uh, do you wanna sit here?" I offer her the seat next to mine, although I regret doing so almost instantly as I notice Paul's observing. I don't know, he just makes me nervous ever since I saw him shirtless. ugh the consequences of having attractive male friends.

"This is Paul, Paul this is Piper"
"is this the boy you got caught with at prom?"
I feel as if my heart just jumped out of my chest and got stuck in my throat.
"No" I laughed nervously "No, Paul is just a friend"
"ohh, sorry about that...he was also blonde" she assures Paul
"It's alright," he winks with a laugh then looks out the window.

There's a couple minutes of awkward silence proceeded by awkward conversation, the usual "what are you doing here?" "oh its so nice to see you, how are you?" etc etc.

Turns out she came here on the promise of cutting a record with her band, but it ended in rubbish and now she's going to London, hopefully to make enough money to fly home.

"And what do you play?"
"Bass guitar"
"Hey, Paul plays that too, right Paul?"
"Yea, I have a band also."
"Nice! Don't you sing Lesley?"
"her name's Candy"
"Candy? And how did that come about?" asked Piper with a slight laugh
"It was Joe's idea."
"Joe?"
"yea, that's Joe" we all glance over at him.

He's sound asleep with his mouth open and his head resting on his arm.
I stare at him for longer than the others, he looks beautiful even as he sleeps. I sigh in admiration, God he truly is angelic.

"So Candy, you used to sing in the school choir right?"
"Yea" I reply vaguely still admiring Joe.
"Say, how'd you like to start a band with me? you know, so we can play and make a bit of cash?"
"You can try, but the music business hardly leaves any money" mentioned Paul.
"True, but I don't have many options, so, what do you say?"
I faced my attention towards them, "sounds fun, I have my guitar and amp in my flat. I could be rhythm and the frontman...or...front-girl?"
we shared a small laugh and continued making plans for once we arrived, which would be in an hour at most.