No Way To Reach Me

I wrote this story based on the song "Vienna" from the band "The Fray". I always have this vision/ daydream every time I listen to the song.

The train could leave any minute. I have to get there to stop him from boarding it. He needs to know. Our friends feel the same way. There are things that he needs to know from us before he decides to leave or stay. My hope is that after he hears what we have to say, he'll say teary-eyed "I'm staying guys, don't worry", and we can all hug him one at a time. To feel his embrace and continue to do so, would make everything right in the world to me.

Our friends and I race on the expressway, the nearest train station is fifty miles from our town. We bob and weave through cars and are changing lanes quickly to get ahead of the other cars as we pass them by. We have to make it. We have to. He can't leave. Please let us get there in time. We're going as fast as we can, and we can't slow down for anything.

We arrive at the train station. We have to make sure the train boarding at platform five has not left yet. If the train hasn't left and he hasn't boarded yet, there's hope. We quickly run and navigate our way through the station, often bumping into other people and making fools of ourselves. We don't care, we're young and wild people going after our friend to keep him from leaving.

There he is! We made it just in time for him to see us before he steps onto the train. He sees us and stops almost awe-struck that we came to stop him. He sets his bags down as we all gather around him. Everyone starts hugging him but I freeze. I can't move. Everyone is busy hugging him but I stay in the back of our group. It's so strange considering I was at the front in our race here. Now I find myself frozen in dead last.

Our friends begin giving him reasons why he can't leave. I hear "We need you buddy, you support us whenever we need help" or "Who am I going to talk to at three in the morning?" I stutter trying to get the words out, but to no avail. I am silent. And he steps onto the train after hugging all of us, including me. Everyone voices their protest loudly.

Everyone and I watch the train roll away with tears in our eyes. One friend turns to me and asks "What stopped you? You were leading us here and then you got cold feet! What were you going to say to him?"

I stand there with a feeling of emptiness inside of me. I stand silently. Tears slowly make their way down my face. Now he may never know. This is something that had to be said right to his face.

I loved him.



I step off the train after what seemed like a ride that lasted forever. It was nice having all my friends try to stop me. At least now I know they cared. Except her. She was the only one who didn't move an inch. Was she only there to be polite? To keep up the appearance that she DID care? Whatever, it's too late for anything to change now. Still, as I walk under the rainy sky towards Times Square, I can't help but feel as if I left something very important behind at home.

Author's Note

In case you didn't know, the last paragraph is from his perspective. This is my first story that I was able to actually finish. I tried to write one before but I didn't save the text, so it's lost forever. So this is my first finished story.