As any other junior year student I was more than relieved when spring break came around, even if it was only a week. Since I lived with my grandparents I was more than excited to finally reunite with my dad in Georgia. But flying alone wasn’t exactly my forte.
Already nervous, my uncle dropped me off at the front of the airport and waved goodbye. I hesitantly walked in and went towards security. I’m not a terrorist, but I was still nervous when I had to get my laptop out of my already above capacity backpack. I thought my AP books were going to burst right out (nerd alert!). After a drawn out security check I power walked towards my gate.
As my flight got delayed ninety minutes I huffed and puffed my way over to gate A27 and sat down. I pulled out A Fault in Our Stars and struggled to untie my earphones. I looked around and saw the usual: annoying children crying, inadequate parenting, businessmen on their cell phones, and like two other teenagers. I finally got my earphones in and put the Bastille’s “Get Home” on repeat. I opened the book and read…and read…and read. Damn this guy’s good.
Knowing that my flight would be boarding at 6:00 I checked my phone. It was at 70% and my paranoid mind dragged me to the charging station in the middle of the room and I plugged it in and read some more.
Finally the call came. A young woman’s voice on the intercom beamed, “Flight 101 service to Atlanta, Georgia now boarding at gate A27.” I stood up and started collecting my things. A boy about my age looked over at me across the aisle. “Wow, you’re pretty hot” I thought to myself as I debated taking a secret picture and texting it to my best friend (don’t worry, I didn’t). I bent down to grab my backpack and looked back at him. He was still staring. Now this was getting a little weird. I rolled my carry on and joined the boarding line.
I finally stepped onto the plane and looked around. Crap this flight was cramped and there was a huge line of people still ahead of me; this was going to be a long two and a half hours. I finally sat down in my window seat and reopened A Fault in Our Stars. Augustus was dying.
About five minutes later I heard someone plop down next to me. I turned. It was the hot guy from before. He smiled and said, “Hi my name’s George” and extended his hand. I squealed on the inside but maintained composure, shook his hand, and smiled back. “I’m Emma.” I turned back to my book and he pulled out an AP History test prep book.
“Is that book any good?” I inquired. “I have the Barron’s version.”
“Yeah it’s pretty good. I’m just hoping I pass.”
I smiled. “Same here.”
“So what’s bringing you to Atlanta?”
“I’m visiting my parents. You?”
“I’m visiting my aunt with my parents.” He pointed. “They’re sitting back there.”
“Oh nice.”
“So what part of Jersey are you from?”
“Butler, it’s in northern Jersey.”
“Oh nice, I’m from Wayne.”
“Cool.”
“So is history the only AP class you take?”
“Nope. English.”
“Oh wow history is already hard enough I don’t think I could handle two.”
“Yeah it took some getting used to but I wanna be a writer so English is kind of a requirement.”
“A writer, huh?” I nodded. “That’s pretty cool. I wanna go into marketing.”
“Where do you wanna go to school?” I asked.
“Probably TCNJ, you?”
“Well NYU is my dream school but out of state tuition is ridiculous so I’m not sure.”
He nodded.
“We will be taking off shortly please fasten your seatbelts.”
I took a deep breath as I fastened my seatbelt.
He looked over at me. “Are you afraid of flying?”
“Afraid of flying alone” I laughed.
Our plane started down the runway and I unknowingly grabbed his arm.
“Sorry!”
“No big deal.” He chuckled as he readjusted his sleeve. “So before you said you were visiting your parents. What do you mean?”
I put my book back in my backpack. Clearly I wasn’t going to get any reading done on this flight.
“It’s a long story.” I said.
“Well, we have two and a half hours together.” He smiled.
I sighed. And then we talked and talked and talked. I told him about my mom walking out, about my dad getting remarried, about him moving to Jersey for my sister and me, about him moving back because he got a job six months ago, everything. It took forty five minutes with him interrupting with his silly questions throughout the saga.
I finally took a deep breath. “So what’s your story?”
“I don’t have one. My mom and dad have always been happily married and I’m an only child.”
“So not fair. I just spent like an hour talking about my life and you said all you wanted to say in a single sentence.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Well, I do. You’re a stranger who basically knows everything about me and I know nothing about you.” I took out my iPhone and turned on the Bastille again. I felt his nosy eyes peering at me as I took out A Fault in Our Stars.
“The Bastille, I love them.”
“Congrats.” I said. And the guilt shot through me right away. Stupid conscience. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
I had nothing else to say. As I continued to read throughout Augustus’s funeral and Hazel’s sadness I realized that I was sitting next to this hot guy, and would be for the next hour and a half, yet we were both completely engrossed in our books. It had to stop. I put my book and earphones away and felt him staring at me again. I turned to him.
“What do you wanna do when you’re older?”
“I want to be a sports agent.”
“A what?”
“Like the guy who gets players their contracts with teams.”
“That sounds cool.”
“Yeah. You wanna be a writer right?”
“Well yes…and no. I want my parents to be happy with what I do and I wanna be able to support them but I also wanna be happy with what I do you know? I wanna be excited to go to work and I want to be able to better someone else’s life. Like when you read a book and you’re so overcome with emotion or it makes you think or makes you happy or it potentially saves your life. That feeling would just be so amazing. To know that I made someone feel that way.” I realized that I had been babbling. I quickly stopped and acted like I had to check my phone. Damn it Emma you never know when to shut the hell up.
“Emma.”
“Mmhmm.” I didn’t want to look up; I could tell my face was red.
“Emma.”
“Yeah?” I looked towards him.
He smiled and put his hand on my face.
“What are you...” before I could finish I felt his lips on mine. He kissed me, softly at first and then harder, like it was all he wanted to do in that moment. Maybe it was because that was my first kiss, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I didn’t want it to end. Finally, he let me go, not that I wanted him to.
He smiled and at that moment I just wanted to kiss him all over again.
“I like that you’re passionate about something, that you care so much.”
“Uhhhh thanks.” I was still in shock but I wanted to punch myself in the face. Thanks? Am I freaking kidding?!
“No problem.” He chuckled. Suddenly I felt comfortable in my own skin. Like him approving of my passion made me feel more confident. I smiled to myself.
“So we have another hour or so together. What do you want to do?” he asked.
“Absolutely nothing.” I said as I grabbed his arm and snuggled into it. I sighed and closed my eyes. In that moment I was the happiest I could be. He laid his head on mine.
We awoke to an announcement on the flight. “We apologize for the inconvenience but our flight will have to make an emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina due to the inclement weather we are currently experiencing.”
“Great. A Delay and an emergency landing.” I rolled my eyes. “My dad is gonna love this.”
“At least we get to spend more time together.” He put his arm around me and I smiled. “By the way you look beautiful while you sleep.” I turned my head away and blushed. He lifted my chin, turned my head, and kissed me all over again. I put my hands on his face and kissed back, pushing myself towards him. Again, we were interrupted by an announcement. “We have now landed and are predicted to take off again within three hours.” I sighed as we unbuckled ourselves and gathered our belongings.
“You should spend some time with your parents. I’ll see you out there.” I kissed him on the cheek and turned to walk down the narrow aisle. I felt him grab my wrist. “I’d rather be with you.” I turned back towards him “Go, they’re your parents. Spend as much time with them as you can, while you can.” Immediately I thought of my dad and felt tears welling up in my eyes and the lump coming up in my throat. I could tell that he saw them but I got on my tippy toes and gave him a quick peck on his lips. “It’s a lot harder to kiss you when you’re a foot taller than me. I’ll see ya.”
Back in the lounge I sat down with all my things again and leaned over to take out my book when my stomach growled. I looked around and saw a starbucks nearby and rolled my eyes. I was a loyal Dunkin customer. As I waited in a line that was longer than my life span I called my dad. It went straight to voicemail.
“Hi Dad. My flight had to land because the weather sucks so I’m currently in North Carolina and probably will be for about three hours. I’ll call you later.” I hung up. The lump was back. I missed him, I really did, but it’s not like I could do anything about it. He had chosen to move, to leave me. Before I knew it there was a tall, lanky, miserable looking guy asking me how he could help me…as if he actually wanted to.
“Can I get a small or tall or whatever you call it passion tea lemonade? Actually, make that two.” The guy looked at me like I didn’t deserve to be on this planet, like I was some cavewoman who hadn’t yet entered the twenty first century. Then he rolled his eyes and said, “Your total is $7.14.” Damn I said to myself as I got out my money. Iced tea at Dunkin is like a dollar.
I turned to walk towards my seat and there he was, sitting right next to my backpack. “Right on time” I said as I handed him the drink. “I wasn’t sure what you would want but lemonade seemed safe.”
“It’s perfect.” He said as he leaned over to kiss me. “So is this like our first date?”
“Yup seems like we’re in the ideal circumstances for one.” We laughed.
“So where are your parents?” He pointed to a distant corner. “I told them there was someone I needed to be with.” I smiled and sipped my drink as I looked around. We were basically alone, every other passenger was sitting by the windows, and I liked it that way.
He held my hand. “So remember when I told you that ‘I don’t have a story’?”
“Yeah.”
“Well maybe I lied.”
Suddenly I was interested. “Okay. What do you mean?”
He sighed and sunk back into his seat, still holding my hand. “Well, I’m not an only child, or at least, I wasn’t. My brother committed suicide two years ago. He was sixteen. I mean we all knew he was depressed but we didn’t know it was that bad and one day we just found him, on the floor of his room, with blood all over his wrists.” I saw tears in his eyes and I held his hand tighter, unsure of what to say, how to make him feel like that wasn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. “Anyways, it took my parents about a year to ever smile again and now we don’t ever speak of him, like he’s some sort of Voldemort.”
I chuckled and wiped his tears. There was a pause. “Thank you” I said finally. “I can’t imagine how difficult this was for you, but thank you.” I gently turned his face towards mine and kissed him softly. I felt him smile as I moved away.
“I love you.” He uttered as I turned to grab my drink.
I stopped in my tracks. “What?”
“I love you. I love the way you smile, the way you make snarky comments, the way your lips feel on mine, the way I just met you but feel like I can tell you everything. I love you Emma. And I know it’s sudden and I’m only seventeen, but I love you, not puppy love, real love. Everything about you.”
I couldn’t breathe. I literally felt like I couldn’t breathe, like the waistband on my sweats had shrunk, like the room had gotten fifty degrees hotter. Okay Emma, breathe, just breathe. This isn’t the end of the world. A hot guy who you have feelings for just said he loves you, no biggie, not like you just met him like two hours ago, not like you’re seventeen or anything. I took a deep breath.
“Okay.” I said nonchalantly. He looked taken aback but he didn’t say anything. I put my earphones in and opened A Fault in Our Stars. Avoidance was key. The moment when you first wake up and don’t remember anything is the shortest yet most amazing thing you get to experience in a day. At least, it was until I recalled that a short time ago I had okayed the guy who had just told me he loves me. I guess I dosed off because I was awoken to “Flight 101 to Atlanta will now begin boarding” and an empty seat next to me.
As I boarded the plane and sat in my seat, I didn’t know what to expect, but when I saw George walking towards me I smiled, “Hey stranger.” He smiled but didn’t say anything. Before I knew it we had taken off and my earphones were back in with a book in my lap. I finished the book and not only did I feel a huge void in my heart afterwards, but I realized that there was no guarantee that I would wake up tomorrow, that I should cherish the time I have with my loved ones now (thanks John Green), and that is anything ever happened to George I would regret not admitting my love for him. So I put my book away, wrapped up my earphones, and snuggled up to George, who was acting like he was completely into this AP book. “I love you too” I whispered. He kissed my forehead and we sat there in a beautiful silence.
When we finally landed I was conflicted. I was sad to know that my time with George was basically over, but I was excited to see my Dad. When the flight attendant announced, “We will be arriving in Atlanta soon. Thank you for flying United” I wanted to cry. I sat up and stared at him, wanting to take in every single detail of this exact moment. His bright blue eyes, the smell of his cologne, his sexy smile, and the way he looked so breath taking without even trying. The plane landed and I just sat there looking like a creep who was staring at him.
“I guess we have to go.” I said sadly.
“Yeah I guess” he said.
We walked to the gate together holding hands. Finally I turned to him and kissed him, probably for a solid minute before I said “I love you” for one last time and walked away. He said it back without hesitation and I turned to leave.
“Bye George.”
“Wait! Emma!” I heard him running up behind me.
“What’s up?”
“How am I supposed to ever see you again if I don’t even have your number?”
I scribbled my number on a starbucks straw wrapper that was in my pocket and handed it back to him. As I turned to leave my phone rang.
“Hey just wanted to make sure you didn’t screw me over or gave me the wrong number.”
“The trust in our relationship is invigorating.”
He laughed and I took a deep breath. Half of me wanted to turn around and go running back to him and hold on for dear life.
“Call me again tomorrow?” I asked.
“You bet.” And he hung up.
Safe to say he called me three days straight. We stayed on the phone for two hours daily, and I’m pretty sure my dad and his aunt hated us.
As I spoke to him, night after night, I felt more and more like Hazel- falling in love slowly, and then all at once. ∞