"Call Australia" was not what I was expecting when we checked in for our flight. I thought we were going to go back to his apartment in Florida and we would wait out this pandemic on the beach. I felt almost embarrassed for myself and the airline workers who had to actually call someone to check if he was for real. We did eventually get to board after almost missing the flight and getting dirty looks from patrons.
The flight from Denver landed in LA and we had to make our connecting flight. I stood silent as we had the same issue at the gate. I turned my back to the airline worker that sat on the phone to where only Gaege could hear me, "Should I do an Australian accent to hopefully make this go by a bit faster?" I asked through my mask.
"You can do that?" He whispered back.
"I don't know," I chuckled, "but I've watched enough of your australian youtube friends so I could probably imitate it pretty well." He giggled at my statement then kissed my forehead through his mask.
"I apologise Mr. and Mrs. Gibson. It was my mistake. Go right ahead," the airline worker spoke as she hung up the phone.
"We're not married but thank you," I said in my best accent which sounded a bit off. As we entered the tunnel, Gaege laughed at me and I laughed with him.
"That was awful," he said through his laughter.
"I realise that," I laughed with him, "Guess I need to keep working on it."
"You have about two months." We received dirty looks from the few people that were aboard the plane as if we didn't belong. We had seats across the aisle from one another.
"So you never told me," I said to him as I sat in the aisle seat to be as close as possible so the others wouldn't have to hear our conversation.
"Told you what?"
"That we were going to Australia."
"I thought you would have gotten that from the covid test the night before. Consider it a graduation present from me and the boys." I gave him a look.
"I thought your twitter post about going to pet Milky was a joke."
"I mean, Kinda. Oh and we are going to have to quarantine for a full two weeks once we get there."
"Like, live in a hotel room and never be able to leave for two weeks?"
"Exactly."
"Oh how fun. Do you get cabin fever?"
"I don't know but we will see."
We landed and had to take another covid test then we were privately escorted to our isolation. There was one person at the front desk and it seemed like there were absolutely no other workers. It was quiet and empty but the room was nice. He received a video call once we settled in. I sprawled across the cold duvet on the bed as he unpacked and talked on the phone. He sat on the bed next to me and set his hand on my butt as he continued his conversation with Mully and Josh. As the conversation went on he laid down next to me and rolled over to where he was slightly squishing me. The small window with us in it made me smile when I looked.
When the call ended, he laid his phone down on the bed and put the rest of his weight into me as he relaxed his body. "Gaege," I said with a struggle. I got no answer. "Gaege," I spoke again. This time he pretended to snore. I let out a groan and he laughed and rolled off of me and stood to set up. "You squished me," I said in a pouty tone.
The view through the large corner window was of the city scape. The road beneath had few cars and it was all so different from back home. Although it was day time, the sound of relative silence put me to sleep.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes as my body started to wake up. I was unaware of how long I had been asleep but when I became conscious again, I shot up. I was being stared at by two life size cutouts of Grant and Eddie. Gaege caught my reflection in his computer screen and turned around to see what had startled me. "Sorry," he giggled as he stood moved them into the bathroom.
"How the hell?"
"The boys brought them so we wouldn't be lonely," he responded in a childish voice. "They also left some chips if you want them. They are on the table over there."
"Oh hell yeah!" I said as I scooted out of bed and he went back to his spot at the desk. I noticed as I walked across the room that he was on a discord call and I waved Hello to all of them. I could hear the chatter through his headphones but not enough to understand everything they were saying.
Time seemed to slow and the only normality in this strange setting was the sound of Gaege and his yelling. By the time the first provided meal had arrived at the door, it set in. This was going to be a long two weeks of wasting time by sleeping and watching tiktoks and that was exactly how it was spent. I slept at least 14 hours a day as my body progressively altered to the time zone and for the times I was awake, I played animal crossing on my switch and watched tiktoks. Gaege did mostly the same but the time he spent wake he was recording or watching tiktoks with me.
I couldn't watch him play games if he recorded because I would give commentary so I usually slept through it since it was always decently late anyway and when he was done he would always cuddle up close. In such confined spaces and all of his yelling, I was surprised I never got tired of it. It was nice during the day because they boys usually brought us real food and they fed my caffeine intake every now and then. On the last night, Gaege broke down his set up and made sure everything was packed away before we would be picked up in the morning. That night, I was ready get the hell out of that hotel room and finally have space to roam.
