Prologue

~Prologue~

I barely remember my journey there. An hour car ride followed by an eight hour coach followed by three hours of waiting and topped off with an eight hour flight. I don’t really remember how I felt until my plane landed and I was giddy and giggling and wanted to get out instantly. All I can remember of the car ride was my mum asking annoying questions like “Are you sure you want to do this?” or “Are you going to be safe and comfortable at their house?” In terms of my memory of the coach, I recall falling asleep, waking up, falling asleep again, waking up again and this continued until I eventually arrived at the airport. When I was waiting for my gate to be called (since I arrived at 07:00 am and my plane was scheduled to leave at 10:45 am) I looked around Gatwick airport, (which is basically a massive shopping centre/mall by the way) I brought breakfast from star bucks and when I was eating my Panini two men sat right next to me on an empty bench that could fit ten people and got as close as possible which scared me a little bit.

That plane ride, oh the dark memories of my horrid adventures in that flying death trap. I was sat in a middle seat- of course I was, why wouldn’t I be? I had two women next to me, one I’d guess to be a similar age to my mother, with long dark brown hair, a light Canadian accent and a fur coat and the other (in the window seat) in her late sixties, early seventies with short white hair and a thick Canadian accent. The lovely woman in the window seat unfortunately needed to pee every 35 minutes, so I could never get to sleep and the other lovely lady kept falling asleep, laying right against me... I was pretty uncomfortable. Then to make my first plane ride truly memorable, they brought out the “afternoon light snack” for everyone about an hour and a half before landing. What could it possibly be? Pizza... PIZZA?! Not regular pizza... lactose free, vegetarian, low fat pizza which smelled so bad, you cannot even imagine it. So of course, with my luck: I throw up. I threw up just before meeting the love of my life. Yay.

When I arrived in Toronto I was so excited, I knew I was going to be the happiest I had ever been in my entire life. Of course I had to go through fifteen minutes of questioning at border control as it was my first flight abroad and had to explain why I, a seventeen year old girl, was flying to Canada alone to meet their boyfriend they have never met previously. Then after the stressful border control encounter, my suitcase was the very last bag to come through to baggage re-claim which scared me for the thirty minutes I was waiting and worrying it was lost. I also feared Ben would think I wasn’t turning up or that something happened to me as I was so much later then my flight was said to arrive.

I slowly walked through a completely white corridor into the arrivals hall, wheeling my suitcase along, unable to see him. I was stood still for a good thirty seconds near some empty seats when he tapped my shoulder, I mumbled “oh my god” and barely got a chance to lock eyes before a huge smiled arrived on my face and he hugged me so tight I finally fully-felt what I need to feel all along; loved. He picked me up span me a little and we kissed; it was as we predicted an awkward first kiss where our faces just kind of smudged together but considering that was the closest we’d ever been to kissing before we were utterly satisfied. We said our his and our first I love yous of course giggling along with them and then he took my suitcase from me and we walked down the hallway together to find his parents. I wanted to hold his hand so bad but I really had no idea how to go about it. I was surprised by how much I spoke for those first ten minutes, I talked about the journey, asked how he was and I was very proud of myself. Mainly because I originally foresaw our first conversation playing out like this:

Him: Hey

Me: Hi

Him: ...

Me: ...

Him: ...

Me: ...

 

After finding his parents and deciding I wasn’t hungry so we did not need to stop at Subway like we had previously discussed, we all got into the car and I couldn’t stop smiling. I was sat next to Ben with literal centre-metres between us and I was in his family’s car driving to his house to spend Christmas with him. It was real.

I don’t think any words could quite explain the feelings I had that point. I was mesmerised by him; his presence was already so influential on me. I felt warm and I was flushed, I couldn’t keep eye contact so my eyes were aimlessly dotting around as I, inside my head, compiled something to say. “I’m finally here” I squeaked, or something along those lines. I could feel a shimmer of nerves flow down my body. He’s looking right at me, almost the entire car journey. We talked a fair amount in that journey, talking about how happy we were to be together and talking about my journey and his waiting. We were cuddling, a few little kisses, and it was so sweet and perfect. For the second half of the journey we even held hands the whole time, wiggling our fingers and occasionally giggling or writing letters on the other’s hand with one finger. 

Author's Note

Working progress