Jayden & Astrid [On Hold]

CHAPTER TWO - YOU HAVE A VISITOR

"Meeting a friend after a long time is what happiness is about."

Things went into a downward spiral once the plane landed. It started with something small. Her seatbelt refused to come undone when she tried to stand up. She had told Noah to go on without her, confident that she could sort it out if she was patient enough-even though she hardly ever was-blissfully unaware that it would take the help of two air hostesses and a bottle of baby oil to unlatch the seat belt. By the time she was free, she had lost sight of Noah. On the journey to baggage claim, her shoelace came undone and she tripped over it too many times before she finally decided to bend down to re-tie it. Then, partly because she had forgotten to slap on the neon green identifier-a giant letter A sticker-she put on all her stuff when she was traveling, and partly because she was getting sleepy, it took a while for her to spot her bags at baggage claim. And as she hurled it down, the scene that kept playing in her mind was the bag toppling out of her hands, bursting open and spilling all its contents on the airport floor. Thankfully, that part didn't happen.

Pushing her hair away from her face, she made her way to a secluded area of the airport. Once again, she pushed her hair out of her face, regretting that she didn't have a scrunchie around her wrist as usual. Sighing loudly, she scanned the airport again. That was when she saw him.

It was funny how much he'd changed but also how much he hadn't changed. He was more muscular. His clean shaven look had been replaced by a 5 o'clock shadow. He still thought it was okay to have shades indoors. Time would tell if he also still thought it was okay to have them on at night. Maybe she was imagining it, but he seemed taller. Although she couldn't clearly remember whether he had changed his hairstyle, his hair was still the same inky black she remembered it being. He was looking around the airport looking for her.

At first, she just stood there. She had imagined this day in different versions, and in none of the versions did she stand frozen in place. She only came unfrozen when her dad turned around and his eyes met hers. At least she taught they did; it was hard to tell with the stupid shades. She did the natural thing, she ran into his waiting hands. He picked her up, spun her around, kissed her forehead, and locked her in a tight embrace.

"I waited so long. I was so scared. I thought that you and mum didn't want me anymore." She admitted between sobs.

"Shh. No. Don't say that." He broke the hug to look at her. "Your mum said she wanted to protect you. I understand what she meant. She didn't want you to experience firsthand what she had to go through."

"But I didn't have to go." She said a little too loudly, drawing the attention of some passersby. She wanted to flip them off for eavesdropping so obviously - they had stopped walking and stared right at her and her dad - but settled on lowering her voice. "I could have stayed. I should have stayed. Or at the very least, come home just once before now."

"I know. I should have tried harder to change her mind." He sighed. "She loved you. I love you. You know that right?"

"I know. I love you too."

"Come on. Let's go home."

🏀🩰🏀🩰🏀🩰

Having been shooed out of the kitchen for repeatedly swiping ingredients, dozing off at the kitchen island, and inability to form coherent sentences, Astrid was draped across the armchair eating a bag of Cheetos and trying so hard to fight off sleep. She had to stay awake; if not for the fact that she would feel bad if she fell asleep on the day she finally came home, then because she would probably awaken with serious discomfort if she slept on an armchair too small to hold her lying position.

She was too close to falling asleep when she heard a near-silent buzz that caught her attention. She turned around to look in the direction from where the sound had come. It was her dad's phone. He had just received a message. Ordinarily, Astrid would have ignored it. Despite being a naturally curious person, she knew enough to respect people's privacy. But the text message had been about her. How could she ignore that?