The train ride was rigid for the most part. Here and there it would move side to side, having him jolt awake again. The people around him didn't seem to mind as much. He'd been without proper sleep for a few weeks now. Travelling the tracks had its good and bad points, especially if that's all he could rely on for shelter.

Looking around, he noticed a young couple talking to one another. Their bodies were facing each other. Their arms were intertwined, with the young man's fingers lightly stroking her wrist as they spoke. It all looked unconscious as they were too deeply enmeshed in one another to notice. The eye contact never waivered. He'd look deeply into her as they'd talk and she'd press back with her own quirkiness and feminine wiles.

A few seats from them were another couple. The middle-aged man had his head deep into the paper he was reading. So much so, Benny could only see the top of his hat. The younger looking women had her arms semi-crossed and was looking out the window, her elbow holding her head afloat, nestled against the window pane and the frame. She let out a deep sigh. Her eyes blinked slowly and drowsily. She was thinking of many a scenario in which some stranger would come into her life and whisk her away.

Benny's eyes got heavier as he looked at the second couple. Then as his focus shifted back to the first they lit up a little. All of them were in their own little bubbles and inner worlds. One couple was sharing theirs. That couple reminded him of his parents.

Benny sighed as a heavy feeling lodged in his chest. It had started ever since his parents had passed away. Sometimes it would disappear and be replaced with an emptiness that numbed him more than anything. Those moments were a blur. They raced on and on and many a time he didn't remember where he was when he regained his presence. But the heavier, painful moments, they were too alarming to not notice and to not be aware of.

"Are you reading this?" Asked a soft voice. He didn't bat an eyelid, his focus was in another realm, his eyes glued to the floor before him.

"Excuse me?" She prompted again, her voice a little louder now that she was closer.

"No." He replied softly. He was well in a daze and it just kind of automatically came out.

"No what? No you're not reading it or no I can't."

He had to pause a moment and shake his head before responding, prodding himself a little more awake as the question tugged at him.

"What?" He looked up, curious. He didn't really expect to see what he did. That alone had him sit up straight and shuffle in his seat.

"Uh, uh.."

"It's okay. I'll just leave it. It's not important."

"No... No."

He was usually a well mannered kid although being so introspective and numb lately kind of took away his ability to interact with others, and really care to.

Benny reached forward and took the comic from the seat opposite him. It was a copy he'd picked up between New York and Philadelphia. He'd read it many times. He handed it forward to the girl.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, please."

"Okay but only if you're sure?"

"I am, please, take it."

With a smile she took the comic and sat herself down in the seat it was done occupying.

Benny couldn't help but stare. He didn't mean to.

"It's okay."

"What is?"

"You're looking at my face. Everyone does. But I don't mind."

He didn't know how to respond. He looked down at his hands. He noticed he was fidgeting. Kind of like the first couple had been, yet more out of fear than love.

"I... I'm sorry."

"Like I said. It's okay."

She was flipping through the pages of the comic. She looked well dressed and had a pink headband that kept the hair out of her eyes and off of her face. On the headband was a flower. He wasn't sure if it was real or not. Then he looked down at his own state. Ripped pants. Equally torn jumper. One of his shoes were missing a shoelace.

"Are you homeless?"

He looked back up at her, still fidgeting, this time with the bottom of his jumper.

"Yes." He said with a sense of pride, feeling it well up in his throat, causing him to raise his chin a little.

"Why?" She asked further, still flipping through pages of the comic.

"Well, I have to be."

"You have to be?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

He paused a moment. He knew the answer. It drove him out of his uncle's house. But he couldn't quite intellectualize it. It was a feeling. He couldn't shake the need to be out on his own. A big part of it was shame, really. He was ashamed and he felt he deserved to be alone and with nothing and to have nobody.

Looking back up at the girl, who seemed even younger than he, she was now looking back at him. The first edition of Action Comics was on the seat next to her.

"You don't have any parents?"

His head dropped. That feeling was creeping back again.

"No."

He felt her hand on his.

"It's okay."

Looking back up, she was leaning forward on the edge of her seat, with a smile on her face. He smiled back. It had been awhile since he'd felt genuinely drawn to. It was nice.

"Sometimes, life happens to us. And other times, we have to make it happen ourselves."

She nodded, her own sense of pride showing in her eyes, trying her best to give something to Benny that she herself had been given.

"Wendy?"

A voice called out and from behind where the girl was sitting. He could see an older lady walking down the carriage in their direction.

"I have to go."

The girl smiled once more and for a moment he felt comforted. There had been many a moment lately where he didn't feel anything close. This was also nice.

"Wait..."

Benny reached for the comic. He stood up straight and handed it towards the girl, who had already moved into the aisle. She turned and looked back at him.

"You should have this."

For a moment Benny didn't even notice the burn scars that covered her face. Maybe it was the angle. Maybe something else.

"It's okay. You keep it. I've got my own."

She smiled once more then turned and walked towards the lady who was approaching.

"Wendy. Let's go. Stop annoying that poor boy."

Her mother grabbed her by the hand, a little forcefully, and began walking them both back towards the other end of the carriage. Benny slumped back into the chair behind him and held the thin paper booklet against his chest. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't stop smiling. Maybe she's right, he thought. Maybe I should become my own hero.