Making it.

Chapter 3 - We love you too.

I yawn and open my eyes slowly as mom gives me a gentle push forward because the cue for the gate check has moved. Guess this is how sleeping while you are standing feels like.

Only a few more meters and then there will not be a chance for me to turn around and run back to my life here.

The line moves forward again and I can feel my life shifting away into the nothing behind me. My imagination tricks me into thinking that I heard somebody shouting my name but there is nothing to see and nothing to hear except the little beep as another person passes through the check once more.

"Hailey! Just fucking wait!" This time, I am 100% sure that I did not imagine something. I look around and see a few people moving before my best friends stand in front of me, panting heavily.

"What are you guys doing here? I told you to not come." Is the first thing I say when I see them. I wanted this to be as easy as possible for me and now my heart is aching all over again.

"And we said that we wouldn't but now we're here. So, surprise. I know that we are great, no need to tell us all the time." Milli answers in a sarcastic voice but I know that she is not angry at my reaction to them showing up at the airport.

"And we couldn't let you leave for London if we forgot to do our handshake during our last goodbye, duh." Simon adds, implying that this is the only reason they came and I let out a sad laugh. How could we forget to do our handshake?

"Okay. I agree on that." I eventually answer and they move closer to me in order for us to do our handshake.

"Hailey come on we are next." Mom pushes after we finish the handshake.

"Give me a few more seconds, mother." I reply with a roll of my eyes.

"Screw this. I need a hug from you." Milli says eventually and I wrap my arms tightly around her. Simon's arms are close around both of us and I suppress the tears.

"This is not a goodbye forever. This is a see you soon." He tries to keep this moment positive and light and it works- well, a little bit at least since none of my tears spill. I nod and let go.

"I will call you every single day and we are going to talk about every little detail that happened to you, okay?" Milli kind of threatens me and I nod again.

"We will."

"Hailey, let's go now." Mom reminds me and this time I walk with her.

"I love you guys." I say before I pass through the gate check.

"We love you too." They answer and I finally feel ready to get on that plane after hearing those simple but incredibly meaningful words.

To my luck, we had to wait only like half an hour until we were allowed to board the plane. I just focus my look on what passes beneath me outside the window the entire time that we take off. Only when we have been in the air for a few minutes, I take out my laptop and start to watch a few episodes of Prison Break on Netflix. Mom is asleep next to me and I am seriously grateful that I have a few hours to myself without her annoying me by showering me every possible prospect and flyer of London the entire time. At some point the flight attendant brings us our first menu and I decide to wake mom up because she would want to eat something by now, I guess. The food consists of mashed potatoes with a chicken sandwich and some water. It does not taste as bad as I thought it would be and I finish it pretty fast thanks to my already rumbling stomach.

"Don't you want to sleep a little bit as well?" Mom asks after realising that I must have been watching Prison Break for the past ten hours now.

"No, I don't want to get jetlagged." I answer her and she shrugs.