Otto's pov:
"Where are you headed?" The man sitting next to me asked.
"Oh, um, LA. I have a friend who lives there." I replied, not used to making small talk with strangers. "What about you?"
"I got a connecting flight to somewhere up in Nevada," he shrugged.
"Oh," I said, trying to be polite. "That's nice."
"You've clearly never been to Nevada."
I wasn't sure whether to be amused or offended at his bluntness, so I just turned away from him, hoping the conversation would die down.
"So what're you planning to do while in LA?" He persisted. "I've been there a few times, I can give you a list of some cool places that most tourists don't know about."
"Oh I'm not there to be a touris-"
He cut me off, "Yeah, sure, okay. Do you have a pen somewhere? I think I remember the address of a laser tag place. I swear like no one knows about it except for the locals. Tourists usually just come in to go down to the beach or go to Hollywood or something."
I pulled a pen from my backpack, trying to decide if laser tag was something that anyone even did anymore.
He handed me a piece of paper and told me the address, making sure that I wrote it down correctly.
"Good," he said once I'd let him double check my spelling of the street.
We didn't talk for the rest of the flight.
"Ladies and gentlemen we are now beginning our descent, please put away any computers or large devices at this time, our flight attendants will be coming down the aisle with garbage bags to collect any remaining trash that you may have. Thank you for flying with us today, we hope to see you again soon."
Once we'd landed the man turned to me one last time. "It was nice meeting you."
"Oh," I replied, contemplating whether we'd actually met or if we'd just had a one sided conversation. "You too. My name's Otto, by the way." I added.
"I'm Travis," the man said, unbuckling his seatbelt.
I smiled at him politely before tossing my backpack over my shoulder and standing up to leave.
He was nice.
Strange, but nice.
.....
I made my way out to the parking lot beside the airport. It was a sunny day and there were quite a few cars parked in the lot, all waiting to pick up passengers I assumed.
It didn't matter though. I immediately spotted Awsten's bright purple hair, although it was more faded now. He had stepped out of his car and he was holding a hand over his eyeline, blocking out the sun as he squinted in my direction.
Excitedly, I ran towards him, throwing my arms around him roughly. He laughed and hugged me back, both of us stumbling over our footing as we tried to regain balance.
I didn't let him go though. I held on tightly, letting his scent overpower me. He smelled like mint and shampoo and coffee.
I dropped our embrace after a few minutes, looking him up and down. He wore pale blue skinny jeans and a gray 5 Seconds of Summer sweatshirt with sleeves that went up to his fingertips. His hair was slightly messed up from our embrace, but he still had on his soft smile that lit up his whole face.
"I think," I said, setting my backpack onto the asphalt. "I'm falling in love with you."
Awsten said something quietly under his breath. I didn't pick up on any of it except for the last bit. "I did, I did, I do."
I didn't know what it meant but it must have been a good thing because his arms were quickly flung back around me. He buried his face into my neck and whispered softly, "I must be pretty important to be number one on your list."
I was confused for a moment but then I thought back to the text I'd sent him two days prior.
"'Pretty important' doesn't begin to cover it."
"Awwww," he said in a mocking tone, but I could tell he meant it.
"Thank you," he said more seriously this time. "Thank you for choosing me back."
