Off To Juilliard

Manhattan

"Hello passengers, this is your pilot. Please buckle your seatbelts we will be landing shortly." I blinked my tired eyes and nudged Maddie softly.

"Mads, we're landing soon." I said. Maddie immediately sat up straight and grabbed my shoulders.

"Chloe!!!! This is it! Eep! I can barely contain myself!" She said excitedly. I laughed lightly.

"Maddie, if this is you containing yourself I don't know what you would do when your not." I say smiling. 

I felt the wheels of the plane land on the hard concrete floor as the plane rolled to a stop. I felt butterflies in my stomach and Maddie started jumping in her seat. 

"You are now free to move around the plane." 

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in and immediately unbuckled and jumped out of my seat bumping into someone and falling back into my seat again.

"Oh my gosh are you okay?" I heard a masculine voice say to me. I look up into the bluest eyes I'd ever seen. They looked into mine and I felt shivers up and down my spine. It was one of those moments that you only read about in books or saw in movies, but this was actually happening to me. 

"I'm uh..." Was all I could say.

"Ouch Chloe you fell on my..." I hear Maddie say behind me. "Hello..."

The boy offers me his hand and I take it timidly. 

"I'm Tommy." He says, "sorry for almost trampling you there." He says with a light laugh.

"It's uhh.." I stammered, "I'm Chloe." I finally said slightly laughing at myself. 

"I'm Maddie!" Maddie said excitedly. He smiled warmly at both of us and shook both of our hands politely but never losing eye contact with me. 

"Ehhem." Said an annoyed woman waiting behind Tommy Maddie and I giggled and Tommy apologized sweetly. 

"Nice meeting you girls." He said and took his bag and walked down the isle towards the exit. 

"EEEEP!" Maddie said jabbing me in the sides. "He is sooooo cute!!! He totally had the hots for you Chlo!" 

"Yeah right Maddie." I said disbelievingly, "it doesn't matter anyway, it's not like I'm ever going to see him again." Maddie just rolled her eyes and shrugged. 

I got out of my seat for the second time and popped the overhead compartment open getting my carry on suitcase out then Maddie's. 

Once we got off the plane I looked around and breathed in deeply. I could smell the churros and the salted pretzels of the airport. People everywhere were rushing to their flights and shouting through their phones. 

"Come on Chlo!! We're gonna be late for orientation!" Maddie said pulling my arm. "We need to get to baggage check!" 

I was practically tripping over my own feet Maddie was pulling me so hard. Then I actually did trip. I braced myself for the hard tile ground, I would probably have a huge bruise tomorrow. Before I hit the ground a pair of strong arms caught me. I opened my eyes once I realized I had closed them to see a very familiar masculine face looking down at me. I felt the shivers that I'd experienced only a few minutes before fall down my spine. 

"How come whenever I see you you're always falling down?" Tommy said laughing. I smiled at the coincidence.

"Gosh, I have no idea. Maybe it's the fact that you keep pushing me down." I say laughing. 

"Hey! I didn't trip you this time." He said smiling.

"You can't prove anything." I say, "who's to say that you don't have telepathical tripping powers?" Telepathical tripping powers? Really Chloe? He laughed at my remark and set me up straight. My arms immediately missed the heat his hands put off.

"I guess I can't." He said still laughing slightly. "But even if I did, I would never trip someone as beautiful as you." 

I felt heat reaching my cheeks, and I was obviously smiling like an idiot. I had no idea what to say. I hadn't noticed we'd been standing so close until Maddie fit her way I between us. 

"Chlo! Hello!" Maddie said obviously stressed. "Orientation starts in ten minutes." She pushed my bag towards me almost making me fall over again. "Tommy you're really good looking and all, but we really need to go." Maddie said pushing me out of the airport. I waved behind me at Tommy and fell out of the doors. 

Maddie and I filed into a taxi and quickly buckled in. 

"I told you." She stated, trying to hold in a smile.

"Told me what?" I said, confused.

"You know what." She said no longer trying to hide her smile. I was utterly and completely confused. It must have shown because Maddie rolled her eyes at me and shook her head. "So naive. Tommy duh. He does like you!" This time I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up, he does not." I said smiling to myself. Did he really?

We stayed quiet the rest of the drive. The anxiety was killing me. I looked out the window at my new home. New York, wow. Everything was falling into place. My new life was only a few minutes away. 

The taxi rolled to a stop and Maddie and I quickly unbuckled our seatbelts and opened the heavy doors of the taxi. We looked up at our dorm and I sighed deeply. Maddie smiled at me and made her way to our waiting luggage. She gave the taxi driver some money and I walked over to her. 

"This is it Mads." I say quietly.

"This is it." She said looking the the campus that laid ahead of her.