Last Train out of Hornsby

The wind ripped through Hornsby station like it was designed as a wind tunnel and not the last metro station on the northern line. It whipped up newspapers, lolly wrappers and cigarette butts. Anything lighter than a chip packet was fair game to the rampant, billowing gusts. Two girls came down the concourse arm in arm, giggling in confidence to each other and onto platform one. Squiddy looked up at the oncoming laughter from a couple of late-nighters brave enough to public transport it this time of night.

He smiled to himself; someone else’s laughter can be so damn infectious. Something made him look again, a double take, at the girls as they walked nearer to him, towards the platform seating, it can't be, he thought to himself and rubbed his eyes as if that would help. The reality of his situation washed over him like a thousand waves. His inner dialogue told not to squander this chance. "Kailey?" He asked as the girls neared. At the sound of her name the girl on the lefts face lit up like a Myers xmas window "Squiddy! Oh my God," she exclaimed. She dropped her friend’s hand like a hot potato, leaving it to dangle at the end of her wrist. She up and practically jumped into Squiddy's surprised arms and wrapped around him like a four limbed limpet. "I'm so sorry so so sorry." She repeated, almost mantra like "I'm so sorry, so so sorry." Squiddy just stood there dumbstruck covered in very pretty girl. He returned the hug to the best of his ability given the tangle he was in.

"Hi Kailey," he mumbled, "you look different with clothes on," he blurted out aloud. Numbed as he was by this moment sprung upon him (but what a moment it was becoming). Humbled by the feelings that now washed through him to his very core and out the other side. Every single second he had spent thinking of Kailey since she stepped half naked out of a lake nearly two years ago flashed through his mind like a lightning war and over in a microsecond. This was beyond lust and the pleasures of the flesh. This was a purity all of its own. She smelt nice, she felt nice, she was warm and hot. The smell of her hair and her breath down his neck. Nothing wrong with her stuck all over him like a rash on glue. This was a wish come true moment for young Squiddy; Kailey’s brief appearance all that time ago was his private little glimpse of a future he could have. It was his the whole time to choose. And not one day since then did he not think of her, smiling when he whispered her name to himself so many thousand times since then.

There was no forgetting the love he felt for this young lady. He carried this as his burden of the heart every single day since the lake. And here she was attached to him, a writhing mass of tanned arms and legs. She reluctantly hopped down and stood her own ground. Squiddy took this as his cue; reaching into his pocket he pulled out the stone Kailey had left him at Myall Lakes all that time ago. "I still have the stone you left me," Sorry Squiddy - some other place, some other time heart Kailey still legible in the same ink it was initially written with, it was her turn to be dumbstruck "You kept this?" She asked, turning it over in her hand. "I had to," replied Squiddy, "it's the only bit of you I had, a stone that you wrote on for me that and a vision of you indelibly burnt into my brain forever!"

Kailey smiled and turned to her friend and said "Elena, this is Squiddy, Squiddy Elena." Squiddy offered his free left hand to Elena who hesitantly accepted it. Kailey stepped in and hugged him again and said "I'm so sorry my dad made us leave early that morning. All I could think of was how awful you must have thought I was!" Squiddy stammered, still in shock still in love still in awe of the timeline shift that brought Kailey here back to his world on this night "I I I nu never thought I'd see, see you again," He continued on, this time with his stammer under total control, he coughed into the back of his hand and continued… "I'm waiting to wake up any minute now this is not real!"

Kailey leant over and pinched him on the upper arm "Wake up then sleepy!" She said and smiled, gesturing to Elena and said "My sleepy prince Squiddy." She cupped his arm where she pinched him, leaned in, looked up at Squiddy with baby seal puppy dog eyes and said "Some other time some other place..." if he didn't kiss her then this would end up an entirely different story filed under something completely something else. He kissed her and it was a good kiss, it was a kiss worthy of two or three minutes of good Hollywood film. Jeez even bad film will catch a good kiss. Elena pretended to gag and rolled her eyes but neither Kailey or Squiddy saw. They were creating a moment that will fuel a lifetime of how I met your mother moments, the stuff of Xmas tales and heartfelt deep and meaningful barbecue banter.

Elena clapped and cheered, she has known Kailey since prep, her happiness for her best friend was genuine. Reluctantly they broke apart and stood face to face holding hands smiling, eyes of diamonds and glass drinking in the other. "I have carried that stone with me everywhere, every day since the lakes because I told myself one day I would find you and that we would be together. I swore to it on that stone!" Squiddy said in a “made it so” tone. She looked out of her jostled auburn hair at Squiddy as his words sank in and the warmest smile brought a glow from somewhere deep inside. She was fucking radiating man! She was more than hot, she was heated and the internal flames that burned within her, they made her growl deep within her chest. She kissed Squiddy again and the held his face in her hands and then she purred like a cream fed kitten and said "Not letting you go this time!"

"Where are you headed?" She asked, "Wahroonga" he replied, "Elena and I were headed home to Lindfield...you wanna come back to ours for a………" An announcement over the station PA cut off the rest of her sentence "The last train from this station will run all stations to Town Hall in ten minutes" An empty train pulled up to the platform one of Hornsby station. The caged clock above the seats showed it to be 11:49. He didn’t know it right there and then but from this point on Squiddy would never be alone again. "Hell yes!" Squiddy replied to Kailey as he walked to the train, opened and held the carriage doors for Kailey and Elena. "Ladies…." he bowed and swept his hand to gesture for them to enter.

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Chapter Three: Pleased to Meet You