Two

Two

I pull into the airport car park and we slip out of the car. Millie grabs our rucksacks, hands them to us and we put them on our backs. Issie chucks me back my hat and I slip it into my pocket then push my glasses up onto my head.

‘Are you just leaving your car here?’ Lis asks, walking backwards watching the car grow smaller and smaller.

‘Until my mom comes to pick it up,’ I reply.
She turns round.

‘Why did you take it then if you’re not allowed to take it to L.A?’

Gaby laughs, ‘what’s up with the 21 questions?’

‘I’m just asking,’ she pushes her glasses up her head, scraping her hair back as they walked.

‘Well, Flo is using my old car for College now. It’s her first day so she didn’t take the Subway.’

‘Flo?’ She frowns.

Issie laughs, ‘seriously, Lis, how many Flo’s do you know?’

‘Okay, I get your point,’ she checks the time by her wrist watch.

‘Come on, we have to check in,’ Lis starts dragging us to the doors of the airport.

We walk in and it’s infested with people. Like a maze, but instead of hedges, its humans. We move in between them until we reach the check in desk. The lady has grey hair and big, blue eyes, she smiles. Her teeth are brown and one has a black dot on it. I bit my lip from laughing.

‘Put your bags onto her please, one by one,’ she says, he voice is high and flat.

We do as we are told, Issie first, then myself, Lis followed by Gaby and finally Millie. One by one they disappear.

‘Tickets and passports please,’ she continues.

I hand mine over first; she puts the ticket aside and looks at the passport, then at me. She gives it back to me and smiles, she hands me a boarding pass. She does the same to Lis, Issie Millie and Gaby.

‘Have a nice flight, girls.’

We head over to Security in silence.

‘I’m sorry, but, did anyone else notice her teeth?
They were mank,’ Lis speaks up.

We all laugh.

‘I know, they were disgusting, I had to bite my lip to stop from myself from laughing!’

Gabby snorts and we all stare at her.

‘I was wondering why you looked constipated…’

Our laughter rises and everyone passing stares at us as if we’re mental.
We queue up for the ray machine, still occasionally laughing. We arrive at the front and empty our pockets into a tub, Lis pulls off her belt, as well as putting her hand luggage into it and we all take our shoes off. Then one by one we walk through the metal detector. Once clear, we gather our stuff up, walk to our gate and sit down.

‘I felt like I was stripping back there,’ Lis comments, breaking the silence.

‘That’s why I didn’t where a belt,’ Gaby chuckles,

‘I’m going to get a coffee, does anyone else want one?’

‘Yeah, please,’ Lis says, rubbing her eyes. ‘I need caffeine.’

‘Okay, a strong coffee for Lis, anyone else?’

We all shake our heads and she walks off, watching her walk off.

‘Do you think she knows where the coffee shop is?’ I say, slightly concerned.

‘No, but we have an hour to spare, she’ll find it soon enough,’ Lis laughs.

‘I can’t believe we are actually doing this,’ Issie says, shaking her head slightly.

We look over to her; she’s checking her phone.

‘Anything interesting?’ Lis mocks, eyebrows raised and nudging her slightly.

‘None of your business,’ she laughs and puts her phone away, ‘oh look, she’s back.’

Gaby comes into view, two cups of coffee in her hand.

‘Looks like she found it then,’ Millie chuckles.

‘Hey, sorry about the wait, this old bag in front of me couldn’t decide what she wanted.’

I smile.

Gaby hands one cup to Lis and takes the other to her seat then takes a sip and lowers it.

‘What were you talking about?’ she asks.

‘Just Issie’s love life,’ Lis laughs also taking a sip.

‘Jesus lady, when I said coffee, I did want water in this too!’

We all laugh.

‘You need it. Seriously, you have bigger bags under your eyes then the ones we brought today,’ Millie laughs.

‘Ha ha, very funny,’ Lis smirks.

‘What times our flight?’ I ask.

‘5:45, have you all still got your boarding passes?’
Lis says, after taking another sip.

‘Yeah,’ we all show her them, just checking.

I slip my one into my pocket and I hug my knees to my chest.

‘You all right, Astrid?’ Lis asks quietly.

I look to her and nod.

‘Want some caffeine?’ she asks, a smile playing on her lips.

I sigh, ‘go on then’

She hands me the cup and I take a sip. Lis was right; this is very strong, I hand it back to her crinkling my nose slightly.

‘Seriously, Lis, how can you drink that?’

‘After a bit it tastes okay,’ I smile.

‘Are you sure you’re all right, Astrid? You’re not mad at me because of what I said about your mom buying you the car?’

I shake my head, ‘no, promise, it’s not that.’

She frowns at me, ‘then what is it?’

I knit my brow and stare at her, ‘I don’t know I just feel like…’ I pause, getting my words together. I take my eyes off her and examine the rest of the airport. ‘That someone is watching us.’

Lis laughs.

‘You’re right, someone is watching us!’

My head snaps to her.

She’s pointing at a security camera pointing in our direction, I smile at the joke.

‘It was probably just the camera, Astrid,’ she says as I watch it turn another way.

‘Probably.’