Camilo's Journey

Chapter 2:

Camilo wakes up mid flight. He has to remind himself where he is before he lets himself accidentally shift at being nudged by an airline hostess.
"Do you want something to eat or drink darling?" She asks sweetly.
Camilo cringes, darling? how young do I look? He almost tells her he's sixteen, not a kid but decides against it, he's too tired.

"Uh, no thanks." He mumbles and turns to look out the window. Right now, he wants food from home and they won't have that here.

Right now they are gliding through the sky, through white fluffy clouds that look good enough to sit on, maybe even sleep on glide past Camilo's eye line.
"Wow." He says a little too loudly and the guy next to him turns to look at him quizzically.

"First time flying." It's not a question, but I statement. Camilo nods anyway.
And that's about it.

People stare, Camilo thinks it might be because he's still wearing his clothes from home. He doesn't care he's proud of where he came from. He sticks out his chest and proudly shows off his, dark blue this time, ruana.
This gets him more looks from his American counterparts but he'd take any distraction right now from the ache in his chest of already missing his family.

He finds what he assumes is the taxi bay his mama told him about, after collecting his suitcase.
He tries not to look like he's struggling and he is totally not about two seconds away from crying because he has slammed the suitcase into his shins a couple of hundred times.

But a nice older couple call out to him and insist on helping him with his suitcase and flagging down a cab for him. He thanks them and tries to pretend he doesn't need the help but the lady sees past it.

"You can accept help, it doesn't mean you aren't capable of great things." Her accent strong, Camilo can't place where she's from but he gives her a smile. "It's my son's first time away from England." She says suddenly gesturing to a boy who looks about his age.

He looks so shaken that a gust of wind might blow him over. He's covered in freckles from head to toe and his hair is curly and red like some of the ruana's Camilo has at home.
The boy waves at him timidly as his father helps him with his suitcase.

"Where are you headed?" His voice is barely above a whisper but he shares the accent with his parents. And Camilo finds himself blushing and he doesn't understand why.

"The Arts academy in New York." Camilo pulls the pamphlet out of the front of his suitcase and shows it to the boy. Hoping to take attention away from his face.

His eyes widen in what Camilo can only describe as giddy excitement. Why does Camilo feel the same way when the boy says;

"No way! Me too!" And then he calls out to his parents and tells them he'll be fine now. Maybe Camilo likes that any nerves that this boy had have halved since he found out he wouldn't be on the journey alone.

"Camilo." Camilo introduces himself to the boy with an outstretched hand which he takes and immediately turns as red as his hair.

"S-Spencer, but Spence is fine." He says with a smile. Camilo laughs and Spencer looks startled.

"Please don't shorten my name, it's not half as cool as Spence. Although.. my mama does call me 'milo." He says and Spencer's smile returns.

Spencer's mum mouths a thank you to me, like Camilo wasn't in just as much of a state before her and her husband offered to help him. He just smiles and nods as he gets into the cab beside Spencer.

"Where's home for you?" Spencer asks him, the mix of his soft tone and accent do things to Camilo's heart that he doesn't think are normal.

"Colombia." He tells him.

"Wow, you are so brave to have come so far on your own. Without my parents I wouldn't have made it this far." He says dropping his head, Camilo watches as his red curls fall over his face.

"I don't believe that for a second." Camilo says confidently, he knows Spencer is out of his comfort zone and despite Camilo being in the same place, he wants Spencer to feel believed in.

"Well that's because you don't know me." Spencer says with a light smile. "I have a fear of flying and I have pretty bad anxiety and am prone to panic attacks." He says like he's ashamed of it.

Camilo doesn't know much about any of those things but he knows they are hard things to deal with at least. He makes a mental note to do some research.

"Actually, having to deal with all of that and to have made it this far, even with your parents' help is very brave." Camilo finds himself telling Spencer in an uncharacteristically soft and sweet sounding voice that it makes him clear his throat and say Spencer's a badass. Which at least makes Spencer laugh. What is happening?
"Snap out if it, Camilo!" He tells himself silently.

But Spencer continues to do things to Camilo that he didn't think were possible and he's not sure he likes. He find himself opening up and telling him that he misses his family. He steers clear of the magic stuff, but other than that he's more honest with Spencer then he has ever been with anyone and it scares Camilo.

He decides he needs to get away from Spencer as soon as this cab ride is over.

"I'll miss my family too, it's okay to admit that. I won't tell anyone." Spencer says with a mischievous grin. Which pulls a smile out of Camilo.. damn it! Maybe Camilo can let himself enjoy Spencer's company, even if it is just for this cab ride.

"Did you want to hang out for a bit?" Spencer asks him when they get out of the cab. His eyes look hopeful and Camilo hates that even though he'd like to say yes, he freaks out and says no and makes an excuse that he's tired even though he knows his tone isn't convincing.

Spencer looks disappointed but he shrugs to cover it. There's an mistakable sadness in his eyes though that makes Camilo feel like the worst person in the world. But somehow he manages to take off quite swiftly after that.
He knows he's a coward.