If You See Kate

Chapter 10

Before you knew it, it was the night before our big flight. Everyone was crashing at mine and we were going to have a minibus taxi collect us in the morning. I was in my room; triple checking I had packed everything. I was folding my clothes into an organiser bag. Sometimes, even I knew how sad and control freak organised I could be. I was triple checking I had all the booking confirmations and tickets. I had asked everyone about 5 times each if they had their passports and insurance. I had been sent to my room, in my own house, to stop asking them the same questions over and over again. I could hear lots of talking and laughter downstairs. They were probably laughing at my expense. Then I could hear someone moaning and nagging. Well, if I'm up here, who could that be? Oh wait. I know. Priscilla. Of course, when I said everyone was staying at mine, that meant Priscilla too. All I could hear now was her moaning about something. The room downstairs went quiet. No doubt she was complaining about the noise, and how much she needed to get a good night's sleep in her condition. I know she is now seven months pregnant, but every time she mentioned her condition, I just felt it was an excuse for something or other that she didn't like. I was not looking forward to her being on this holiday. After she had clearly left the room, I started to hear talking and laughing again. Obviously, her nagging hadn't worked. 'Well done my friends' I thought to myself. I was folding a top into one of my many organiser bags, when I heard someone walk into my room behind me. The person cam and flopped face first onto my bed. 'Cheeky beggar' I thought. It was Mark. Just lying there on my bed. He may have been in my room once before, but that did not give him permission to come in whenever he wanted. He rolled onto his back, still with his eyes closed.

'Come on in, have a seat, chill out' I said sarcastically. 'It's not like this is my bedroom, which in most cultures is considered a private area, or anything'.

'Shut up' he groaned. 'God, she is driving me mental' he spat.

'Well, what do you want me to do about it?' I said in a childish mocking voice.

'Could you be my girlfriend, and be pregnant with my baby instead?' he said, still with his eyes shut.

I could feel myself blush so badly. The thought was clearly appealing to me. I could feel an excitement grow in my stomach. Stupid Kate. He is obviously joking and there you go getting all excited. I laughed it off.

'If you think she's mental when pregnant, then you probably wouldn't like me when I'm pregnant' I laughed. 'I mean, just look at this' I said gesturing to my bag. Mark sat up and looked at the militarily organised bags. Complete with labels. 'Imagine me organising a forthcoming baby'. I looked at him. He looked from the bag to me and back again. Struggling to hold in the laughter, he blurted it out in a deep cackle.

'You're right' he laughed, 'you're mental now' he fell back laughing again.

'Well, now you see, it's not that bad' I giggled. 'And if all you're going to do is mock me, then you can get out of my room' I said still laughing and pointing at the door.

'No' he laughed hugging around my waist like a toddler, 'don't make me go'. I couldn't help laughing.

'Get off me you great buffoon' I laughed. I gave up trying to shove him off of me. He hung there like a loose belt. 'Fine, you can stay in my room. But you have to be nice to me' I huffed. He soon let go and went back to his sitting position. He looked down at his hands I heard a mumble but I didn't understand the sentence. It sounded like 'I wish you were my girlfriend' I thought, but that was probably just me making things up in my mind.

'Anyway,' I started, changing the subject, 'do you definitely have your passport?'.

'Yes, for god's sake. You really are obsessed.'

'Prove it!' I laughed.

'What that you're obsessed or that I have my passport?'

'Both' I joked. He pulled his passport out of his back pocket. I snapped it from his hands.

'Really? In your back pocket? You are either bound to lose it or curl it in there and it won't work anymore' I laughed. I opened the passport to check it and came across the page with his photo ID. I burst out into what I can only describe as an evil witch's cackle. 'What they hell?' I laughed. 'What is up with your hair?'

'Give me a break' he laughed trying to snatch it back. I was not tall, but whilst he was sitting down, I had a chance of keeping it out of his reach. He stood up trying to get the passport off me. I almost toppled backwards. I was holding the book out behind me and he stretched forward. This time I did fall backwards. All of his weight was apparently balancing on me as well as he fell forwards with me. We landed on the floor with a large thud. He was between my legs and flat on top of me. He was still stretching out to reach the passport and I was still trying to keep it out of his reach. After another minute of fighting, he managed to grab his passport back off me. I think it took until this point for us both to realise what position we were in. we laughed when we realised.

'Get off me you oaf!' I laughed. He rose to his knees and up to his feet. He stretched his hands out to help me up as well. We laughed again and I continued to pack my bag. He left the room making excuses of sorting his bag and putting his passport in a safer place.

*******

The next day we were all in the minibus and arriving at the airport. After getting into the airport and waiting what seemed an age to check our bags in at the desk, we had head into the terminal. The girls and myself, had all gone off shopping and the boys had gone to the pub to start the celebrations. When it was our time, we boarded the aircraft in our allotted seats. I did nothing but stare out of the window. We hadn't even taken off yet, but I loved to have a good look around the airport. Shortly after take-off, Priscilla was up and in the bathroom almost every five minutes. It was a good aircraft with a decent amount of legroom for a change. There was free wi-fi and I was happy because this meant I could watch a film on Netflix. I was watching 'the book of life'. A firm favourite of mine. I loved the voices of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana and Channing Tatum. I could watch the majority of the film without even looking because it knew it so well, which meant I could stare out of the window as well. I felt Mark lean over towards me whenever Priscilla got up to go to the bathroom. I turned my head back into the plane to find him watching the film over my shoulder. I took one of my headphones out, 'may I help you?' I asked.

'I love this film' he smiled. 'Can I watch it with you?'

'Yeah sure' I said passing him one of the headphones.

I started to notice that every time Priscilla went to the bathroom, she took her phone with her. What did she think she was going to get stuck in there or something? And if she did, what difference would it make to have her phone? We're on a plane, she can't text anyone. Although with the free wi-fi I suppose she could WhatsApp one of us. Not that she would send me a message in a million years. One of the many times she went to the bathroom she didn't actually take her phone. I could see the screen light up with a WhatsApp message. I couldn't read it clearly over Mark's lap but it looked like it was from a Simon of some sort. I couldn't make out much, but I could make out some hearts after his name and an 'xxx' at this end of his message. My eyes flew open in shock. What was she up to? She returned from the bathroom and snatched her phone off the table. She looked around to see if anyone had seen the notification. I quickly averted my eyes back to my film. I don't think she noticed that I saw, as she relaxed into her chair.

Mark suddenly leaned over me to the window. It shocked me so much that I squeaked. He looked at me and laughed before looking out the window again. I looked out of the window to see the islands appear. The looked beautiful. We started to guess which island we would be landing on. Even I could feel Priscilla tugging on Mark's shirt to make him sit back down, but we both ignored her. As Mark was leant over me, I thought I would take this opportunity to take in a few more details about him. He smelt gorgeous. He was wearing his Giorgio Armani aftershave. His hair had been recently cut into a slightly neater style. His green eyes were prominent in the light from the window. He had no idea about personal space, so I could feel his chest resting on across me. We watched together as the plane began its decent.