I sigh inwardly, and flick my finger across the screen of my phone aimlessly, the upbeat music in my head sharply contrasting my drab surroundings. I shouldn’t have gotten here so early.
The airport is pretty high up on my list of Most Hated Places (the bus being number one: why do people have to stare so?), and it’s also on my list of Places To Avoid As Much As Possible. To top it off, I’d read my flight time wrong and am now stuck in this place with 3 hours to spare.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-social or anything. I have tonnes of friends, and I love being the social butterfly that I am (I have 726 Facebook friends…I know. I’m amazing), but I just don’t like being alone in public; people are so…I don’t know…strange, and different, and just so weird.
I ducked my head down quickly after a cursory glance around the room, and grabbed for my phone, it’s still 6:37, 24 minutes to boarding; the waiting room was filling up now. I reverted back to texting 7 people at once, as I always do in situations where I feel threatened (there was now a rowdy group of college kids in the room). I grimace as Chloe starts loading me with her relationship problems crap, but not because I hate listening to my absolute-best-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world’s pretentious relationship….because I felt somebody take the seat next to mine.
Has he not heard of personal space? It’s a thing.
It was like my thoughts were pushing me away from him, and surely enough, I was leaning as far away from him as possible while still trying to console Chloe and also get some gossip out of tight-lipped Ethan (work friend).
My eyes watered slightly; it must be my position, and the crazy things Chloe is saying. I can’t believe she’d actually say that Nathan, her One True Love from two weeks ago, is a-
“Hi, do you have any gum,” I forcibly suppressed the impulse to clamp my hand to my mouth. I can’t believe I just did that. Now he’s going to think I’m some needy friendless loser…
I don’t even need gum.
He looked at me for a second, no doubt judging my forwardness….What if he thinks I’m hitting on him?
I try to calm my panicky insides as he smiles and reaches into his pocket. Why am I so panicked anyway? It’s not like I haven’t seen a guy with as nice a smile as his before…
“Ahem…” his expectant look reminds me that I’d grabbed his gum without a sound of acknowledgment, and I break out into a nervous smile.
“Sorry…thanks,” I say, feeling my grip on the device in my hand loosening.
“Nah..” he waved me off indifferently, “so…SF huh? What’s it like?” gesturing vaguely to the tag on my carry-on.
“It’s…well crowded,” I get out the first thing that’s on my mind while I admire his nice, vague eyes. Hmm..nice smile, nice eyes….there’s no other way to describe him: he’s nice. “and a bit crazy. Just your typical city…I guess.”
“Really?” he feigned interest, “You’re good at this aren’t you? My name’s Sam by the way..”
I feel my heart skipping a beat, and try to stop it. I can’t fall for a random stranger, but a nice random stranger who teases?
“Not good at what?” I shoot back, “Nice to meet you Auden…..I’m Delilah by the way“
“Conversation…duh,” he quirks an eyebrow, “Have you ever talked to anyone without an introduction before?”
“You make it sound like a good thing!” the indignation in my voice was at it’s peak, “Stranger Danger right?”
“Cute,” his smirk wasn’t even that nice, and I was starting to regret talking to not-so-nice Sam after all.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I deadpanned, this is why I don’t talk to strangers. They’re so unpredictable.
“No limits, just epiphanies,” he breathed, and I felt my eyes widen. Why would this person know my favorite quote? Why would this person imply that I don’t live life? Wait, how did this person know that I don’t live life?
I narrowed my eyes as I deadpanned, “Wait are you implying?” I feel so vulnerable right now. He couldn’t possibly have known the effect it could have on me.
“Nothing…” he looked genuinely confused….must be a really good actor, “I was just telling you my favorite quote..”
I try not to smile as he looked at me with his deep brown eyes (I wish my eyes were deep brown…my shallow green eyes are about as deep as a puddle). I was suddenly glad that I’d met nice Sam after all.
My eyes start to water slightly; it must be all the inappropriate staring.
I blink, and realize that I’m still looking at Chloe’s latest text. It’s 6:37, 24 minutes to boarding.
Suddenly someone takes the seat next to mine. The seat Sam had been sitting on a few minutes ago.
I looked up; it was Sam.
The words “no limits just epiphanies” resound through my head as I ask him for gum. This time, I push Chloe, Ethan and 762 others out of my mind, and decide to live in a social hemisphere outside of my phone.
(Image from Flickr used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license)