Why?

After stepping into the almost empty train, the boy reached a hand out to hold onto the support beam, but the corner of his eyes were fixed on the girl poking her head out of the door.

He watched her hesitate, before quickly rushing across the platform and hopping into the adjoining carriage.

He suddenly felt like causing trouble.

Slowly, but oozing confidence unbefitting of someone with his reputation, his long legs carried him to the double doors separating the two carriages from each other, and stepped through.

On the other side, he stopped for a moment, staring at the girl sitting on the far end. Her head was lowered, and she was rummaging through her backpack looking for something.

She was beautiful no matter what she did. He'd always thought so. But he didn't have much of an opinion past that.

Her ash brown hair reminded him of those fantasy characters from a game or a film. Although the colour was common, her hair was healthy and looked so soft and silky.

She had clear, bright skin, and the most gorgeous body of any other girl in their year. Being a tennis player and tall, she had an athletic slim build, which made her look sexy and well balanced, rather than the 'model-like' skinny look most girls went for amongst their peers.

But that was all. Sure she got good grades, and had some other achievements, but he thought she was otherwise uninteresting. When people spoke to her, she was polite and smiled. She did everything 'right'. She was boring.

As he continued to watch, she pulled out a set of ear buds from her backpack, connected them to her phone and settled down for the train ride.

Her gaze lifted, and she made eye contact with the boy. He could see the faintest flicker of alarm in her eyes, before it was gone without a trace. Her eyes shifted to the moving hills outside the window. It was clear she had pointedly ignored him.

The corners of the boy's lips lifted. It seemed his opinion about her before was wrong - this girl was more three dimensional than he'd thought.

****

Elena, who was putting a lot of effort into staring at the window, dared not move. Outwardly, she acted like she was comfortable and had no care in the world. But inwardly, her entire attention was on the boy standing at the door to their compartment.

She scrutinized him carefully from the reflection in the glass. As it was late at night, the windows formed a clear picture.

She had seen this particular classmate around. Not only was he in her Mathematics class, but as it was a boarding school, they had inevitably bumped into each other in various common rooms and classes over the years. It was unavoidable. They had never directly held a conversation though.

She quickly summarized everything she knew about him. His name was Alexander. He was the child of a Duke and his mistress - rumour was it he was not well received in the family, especially as the Duke had remained married to his wife and had broken things off with his mistress after Alexander was born. He was incompetent in all aspects. He had a bad personality and no friends. And he was a troublemaker.

But his looks were famous - and for good reason, she realised belatedly.

She never took much stock in people's appearances. But that was impossible at this moment. In all the times she remembered seeing him, he was dressed sloppily, and his black hair was messy and hung low over his eyes. That was the rough impression she got.

It was unusual at their school. Being the sons and daughters of the wealthy, many of them took special care of their appearances and the clothes they wore.

Although they had a uniform, the students would find ways to add luxurious watches that changed from day to day, jewelled hair pins that cost hundreds of thousands, or exotic scarves from abroad, to spice up their outfit.

But Alexander would not do any of those things. Whether it was because the rumours were true, and his relationship with his father's family only afforded him a place at a fine academic institution as theirs, and no 'extras'. Or he simply couldn't be bothered.

Today, she thought the latter seemed more likely.

He was wearing a black suit with off black pinstripes barely visible on the fabric. There was no brand name at all, anywhere. Elena had been with the wealthy long enough to know that if there was no brand name, it was probably the best of the best.

His hair was slicked neatly with a side parting, exposing a broad forehead. His jet black hair shone, forming a contrast against his pale, flawless skin. So flawless, even Elena was tempted to jealousy. His eyebrows were particularly graceful, framing his piercingly deep blue eyes. The whole look was striking, but mature.

Elena's mouth opened subconsciously as she scanned further down over his straight high nose to his red, soft lips. The Gods were unfair. Who decided to give a useless individual such captivating looks.

As she watched him, he moved from the doorway of their compartment.

Right until he slumped into the seat opposite her, crossed his legs, and rested his elbow on the window ledge. His eyes never once left her figure.

Elena couldn't ignore him any longer.

She pursed her lips, and faced him fully. She thought about leaving her ear buds in, but decided against it in the end.

This classmate clearly had a purpose for coming here.

Her eyes left his for a moment while she stowed the buds into their case, and when she lifted her face, she pulled an amiable smile and directed it politely at the boy across from her.

But the boy did not return her smile. Instead, he cocked his head to the side slowly, and his lips opened.

"Why?"

....

Elena was shellshocked.

"Excuse me?"

Instead of responding, he looked away, focusing instead on the open top of her backpack.

"Nevermind. The other carriage was full, so I came here. We're going the same way anyway."

Elena frowned. What was wrong with this guy?

At least that part of the rumours seemed to be correct - he has a terrible personality.

She was sure there was no way the other carriage was full. She had made this trip back and forth every Saturday for months now. It was never full, so the probability of that happening today was slim.

Added to that, he had walzed in, asked an incomprehensible question, and then acted as if he'd never asked to begin with.

Elena was someone who was difficult to anger. But somehow she felt the irritation creeping in easily.

Maybe she should just ignore him for the rest of the journey.

But before she could make a move to do so, his eyes returned to hers, and she froze.

"Elena Quinn"

His voice was deep but smooth and youthful. Hearing her name from him made it sound far more pleasant than it usually did.

"I'm interested."

With that, he shifted in his seat, moved his gaze to the passing scenery, and said no more.

'What the ****?' Elena thought, before coming to her senses. He didn't mean what she thought, right?

'Please don't be interested!'

She didn't want to be associated with such a crazy!

Even if he was good looking, she didn't need it!

Luckily for Elena, the boy didn't make any extra effort to look her way or talk to her for the rest of the journey.

After a long stretch of silence, she had put her buds back in, and listened to music for the remainder of the trip, occasionally casting surreptitious glances in his direction.

He had set her on egde. She wasn't worried about him spreading rumours of her secret trips in disguise, but his words earlier had caused a sense of foreboding.

She had enough on her plate as is. And no good can come out of spending time with wastrels.

She just hoped she had a choice in the matter.

****

When Elena made it back to her dorm room, she was slightly confused. Relieved, but confused.

After the train arrived at their stop, Alexander had simply stood up, and left the train, leaving her with neither a goodbye, or a nod.

What was with the ominous words then!?

'Oh what was the point of expending all this mental energy on a nutjob', she chided herself.

Soon it would be summer break. There were only four days left of school. By the time the new school year starts in September, she was sure he would have totally forgotten about their brief encounter on the train.

Summer holidays were especially long at their school. As it was a private institution and they didn't follow government schedules, they would finish up a whole two weeks before the rest of the country. That meant it was a whole 9 weeks of holiday.

Elena lived in Holly - it was a borough in City A that used to be up and coming among the middle class back in the 80s, but it had quickly fallen out of favour again due to the increase in crime in the area.

There was no way any of the students at her school would be caught dead there.

And that probably included the boy the from the train. Even if he was the lowest of the low amongst people at this school, it was still far far above the people who lived along her street.

Even after Elena had made many friends over her years here, the only fast friends she had made would never visit her home.

It wasn't anything like they didn't want to.

Although it had been difficult in the beginning - as a scholarship student, Elena was gawked at like a zoo animal by most of her classmates - over time, many had learned to respect her for her success and good nature. And some even broke down their prejudices against the poor and opened their hearts fully to Elena.

But the same couldn't be said for the parents of her friends. Although wealthy and up above the masses, through experience and age, they knew exactly where Elena stood on the grand stage. Most of her friends probably thought she was simply from an average middle class family and happened to be talented - but their parents knew.

Where she lived was no place for their precious children.

She wasn't bitter about it though. Her main objective wasn't to make friends or anything like that. She needed the resources this school had to offer so that she could stand on her own two feet. And rather than climb the social ladder, she intended to climb the economic one!

Friends were an added benefit she appreciated but didn't expect.

At any rate, right now she was grateful for her home situation. She could stop worrying about the boy from the train. There was no chance of walking into him over the summer break.

Completely clearing her mind of the whole ordeal, she hummed gently as she got ready for bed, and within the hour, she was asleep.