The Morning Train

11. Sketches

Jamie arrived at the train station and for the first time in a while saw Casper there too. Jamie called out to him but Casper ignored her, he wasn’t even wearing any headphone or headset so Jamie was sure he heard her. When Jamie tried approaching him Casper just moved somewhere else and continued to ignore her which hurt her but she didn’t let it show.

The fifth time Casper ignored Jamie’s calls of his name she finally gave up and kept her distance sadly. Casper dozed off the whole journey and Jamie could only observe him confusedly. ‘Why is he ignoring me now?’ ‘Did I say something wrong again?’ ‘But I don’t remember doing anything wrong!’

Jamie replayed all of their interactions yesterday trying to find some clues but couldn’t find anything at all. ‘I mean he did leave in a hurry but that’s not strange, maybe he was running late for class’

When they reached their destination, Casper left in a hurry and didn’t notice his sketchbook falling out of his open bag. Before someone else could pick it up Jamie practically dashed to pick it up first but when she got out of the train Casper was already nowhere in sight.

At the backroom of the cafe Jamie was sitting on the couch with Casper’s sketchbook on the table in front of her debating with herself whether to open it or not. She was really curious about the contents of the sketchbook that Casper had hidden from her for too long but at the same time she also has a conscience that wants to honor Casper’s words.

She was still in a dilemma when Gwen entered and sat down beside her.

“What’s that?”

“Casper’s sketchbook”

“Oh, why do you have it? Isn’t he totally against you looking at his drawings?” Gwen asked confusedly so Jamie told her what happened that morning at the train station.

“He’s ignoring you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember saying anything bad this time!” Jamie defended herself.

“Well if he’s ignoring you, you might as well just open his sketchbook it’ll be like a payback to him for ignoring you” Gwen suggested with an evil smile and Jamie thought for a second before smiling mischievously. “You’re kind of right”

Jamie looked at the sketchbook and she could hear her heart thumping loudly. ‘Am I really doing this? Ugh Fuck it! I’ll just deal with the consequences later, I’m too curious’

From the first pages it was just normal sketches of buildings which was expected since Casper was an architecture student, but from the fifteenth page and beyond the buildings switched to sketches of a single person.

Gwen gasped and Jamie dropped the sketchbook in shock.

“Pick it up! Hurry!” Gwen shrieked and Jamie picked up the sketchbook again and they continued to flip the pages. All of the sketches were of Jamie in various angles and below the sketches were dates and something clicked in Jamie’s mind. She went back to the first sketch of her and sure enough it was when they first met, Jamie was standing and leaning on the train doors with her head looking down at her phone.

“OH MY GOD” Gwen exclaimed shaking Jamie left and right.

Before they could say anything the backroom doors opened and in came Larry with Casper following behind him.

Both groups went still and stared at each other, no one was able to move except Larry who was oblivious of the whole situation.

“Boss he asked to talk with you” Larry said to Jamie pointing at Casper obliviously which broke the intense staring match between the three.

Casper looked down at his open sketchbook on Jamie’s hands and promptly left without any words and with an unreadable expression.

“Wha-? But he said he needed to talk to you” Larry confusedly looked at the door to Jamie who dropped the sketchbook in dread.

“You shit! Why did you let him in here?!” Gwen shrieked at Larry while Jamie was still frozen in shock on the couch.

“What should I do if he hates me for opening his sketchbook without his permission?” Jamie nervously asked Gwen.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Gwen asked Jamie incredulously.

“Between the two of you he’s the one who has it worse, his secret was found out by the person he likes herself”

“That was stupid, I shouldn’t have convinced you to open his sketchbook” Gwen said guiltily and paced around the room muttering to herself.

“The person he likes? Who?” Jamie asked genuinely oblivious making Gwen stop and give her a deadpan look”

“Seriously Jamie?” Gwen asked.

“Yeah? I’m asking seriously if that’s what you’re asking” Jamie looked at Gwen expectantly and Gwen just lost it.

“YOU’RE THE ONE HE LIKES YOU NUMBSKULL!”

“What? How did you even arrive at that conclusion?” This time tho one who’s in disbelief is Jamie making Gwen even more irritated and frustrated.

“Ugh! Forget it!” Gwen stomped out of the room leaving Jamie to dwell on the incident on her own. However no matter how many times Jamie thought about it she just arrived at the same conclusion that Casper must have used her as a model for one of his projects and he’s embarrassed that Jamie found out that’s why he walked out earlier.

When Jamie said this to Gwen, Gwen had a look of utter disbelief and told Jamie not to talk to her until she stopped being a numbskull. The result was Jamie and Gwen not talking to each other for the rest of the day.