Afraid to love

Chapter 1

"What if you start singing?"

My eyebrow quirks up as I send her a bemused glance,

"You're dreaming, Nina"

"It will distract them," she whispers hurriedly, "and if you also start dancing-"

"I'd rather pay ten fines than sing and dance on a train," I whisper back, pulling her towards the next carriage,

We freeze when we see two ticket inspectors making their way towards us. They're closing in on us from both sides of the train,

"Pretend you're hurt" she says,

"Huh? What do you-" I don't even finish my question, the inspector's voice cuts me off,

"Ladies," I look up at him, feeling like the biggest criminal in the world, "tickets please" he says,

"Tickets?" I repeat, he nods politely, "Oh, yeah, uh, tickets... of course," I mumble, biting on my bottom lip, I push my hand into my purse, searching for the ticket I know I don't have. I can't believe we got ourselves into this mess. Nina thought I bought the tickets and I thought she did. We only realised we were ticketless once the inspectors walked in.

"Ouch!" Nina cries, I look over at her, "Ow!" she cries again, my hand goes to her arm,

"You okay?" I ask,

"Are you all right, ma'am?" the ticket inspector asks,

"No, no!" she says, her hand lands on her chest, "I don't feel good!"

"Take a seat," the panicked inspector points to a seat, Nina stumbles towards it, breathing hard. My eyes follow after her. Stunned, I've come to the realisation that she's acting. Badly. Very badly. I have no idea how the ticket inspectors believe her,

"I need fresh air," she says,

"The next stop is in less than two minutes," the inspector assures her,

The two minutes that follow feel like the longest two minutes in my entire life. Finally, the train doors open. The ticket inspectors help Nina walk to the exit and to the nearest bench. With my head bowed I exit the train too, not coming near her until she convinces the inspectors that she's okay, and they leave.

"You're crazy" I say, walking up to her. Though I want to, I'm unable to hide the huge grin on my face,

"I'm a genius" she corrects,

"I could strangle you right now. My hands are still shaking!"

"Be thankful I saved you from a hundred dollar fine"

"You should be an actor"

"I was good, wasn't I?" she gives a crooked grin,

"I'm glad you're feeling better sweetie," an old lady says as she walks past us, she was on the same train as us. Nina smiles and nods, but once the lady leaves, we both start laughing. What a way to start our new life in North Sley.

We follow the map on our phones all the way to the building. It's three-story, crammed right between two larger buildings. The university is within walking distance and the theatre, where I will be spending a lot of my time, is only a thirty-minute bus drive plus a short walk. Location couldn't be better. It's sharing the space with two male strangers that I'm not so sure about.

"We're on the second floor" she says, we walk in, at the entrance is a narrow staircase,

"No lift I assume,"

"Nope, there's no way we'll get these up there," she nods at our luggage consisting of two large bags.

"If we managed to fool the ticket man with your acting skills, we can definitely get these up" I haul my bag up the first step,