𝙈𝙄𝙓𝙀𝘿 𝙐𝙋 ➪ 𝙈Å𝙉𝙀𝙎𝙆𝙄𝙉 𝙄𝙈𝘼𝙂𝙄𝙉𝙀𝙎 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔

37. HELLO AGAIN, STRANGER [T.R]

[You are Valentina]

[TW - SLIGHT MENTIONS OF ANXIETY]

"Stupid traffic, why did I have to go to see that one stupid guitar shop before coming here? I could have been on a flight back home now if I wasn't so confident I had a long time till my flight." Thomas murmured to himself in Italian as he walked through the extremely busy Parisian airport.

Måneskin had been performing a gig here and now they were going home however on the way to the airport with the other three and the team he decided he had loads of time so he left for a guitar shop in Paris that he's always wanted to visit and told the others he'd take a taxi to the airport. And he did however it was rush hour and the traffic was horrendous, worse that Rome. Well, people were a lot busier here.

So now here he was, waiting for the next flight to Rome. But he was lost. No one he's met, except airport staff who were no where in sight, spoke English.

Eventually he gave up and just took a seat on one of the many seats in the middle of the airport mayhem and decided to just listen to the people passing by and hoping someone spoke English, preferably someone who knew the airport well so that they knew their way to his gate which he can't find anywhere.

He sat for a few minutes but most people who passed him were middle-aged, busy and talking through their phone in fast French. They were formally dressed and looked very serious. He was scared to approach those people, especially with his anxiety being at it's fullest. He felt his hands shake, why on earth would he get out of that car? He could have been on a plane with his best mates right now but no he had to fuck that up and now he's alone in an airport full of people minding their own business and going about their lives.

He moved the rings on his shaking fingers to other fingers as a way to calm down and forget about what's happening.

He sat for a few more minutes and as he was about to just get up and look for some airport staff a girl around his age sat down one seat away from him. She was also talking through her phone in fast French which sounded almost angry but he hoped she'd hang up soon. And she did. He sat for a bit just building up courage.

He was anxious to ask a complete stranger for directions especially in English but he managed to eventually build up the courage and turned to her, clearing his throat. She turned to look at him and smiled slightly.

'Oh my God,' Thomas thought as he looked at the girl. 'This girl is beautiful.'

She had chocolate brown hair, beautiful light tan skin and stunning green eyes.

"Uhm, do you know the way to, uh, gate 13?" he asked in English, his voice shaking a little as he spoke but only at the beginning.

God, he hated talking to strangers alone.

"Ah, yeah, I do. Wait let me just remember." She said, an accent extremely similar to his in her speech. She looked around. "Mamma mia." she muttered. Then she turned to Thomas.

But before she could say anything Thomas spoke.

"Do you speak Italian?" he asked in Italian. He had heard her muttering and just took a wild guess.

"Yes! Oh my Gosh. Do you?" she asked in Italian but continued. "Nevermind, don't answer that question obviously you do. Oh, my Goodness. How good. You don't understand how much I kissed speaking in Italian."

"How come?" He asked.

"I've been living in Paris for the past two years for university and I have one more year left and all I hear is French. It's such a fast language. Everything seems to sound the same while in Italian it's all different. I missed speaking my native tongue." She said.

"You seem to be doing just fine with the French from what I heard a few minutes ago." Thomas said and the girl smiled gratefully. "You sound just like every French person I've heard the past few days. Speaking very fast. I can't even differentiate the words from one another it just seems like you're all saying one long word."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Going back to your question, for gate 13 you have to go straight there," she pointed ahead. "then go up the first escalator you see and then go left and keep following the signs, they'll show you where to go."

"Thank you so much." Thomas said and stood up. "Well, it was very nice meeting you..." he trailed off as he realised he never asked the girl for her name.

"Valentina." she said, smiling.

"Ah, Valentina. Well, you have helped me tremendously." Thomas said, smiling back at the girl.

"Nice to meet you too, Thomas. Have a safe flight." the girl said and Thomas walked away.

'I am so stupid, why didn't I ask her for her Instagram or number? I can't go back now, that would be creepy' Thomas thought. 'Hey, she said she spoke Italian. Maybe she's going to be on the same flight as me? Maybe she's from Milan though, that flight is almost the same time as mine. Shame if she was then I would never see her again.'

He found gate 13 and sat down, he was the first on there, yes there was still over an hour until boarding but he wanted to make sure he was early and didn't miss his plane again as the airport staff were extremely kind enough to offer him a free new flight back to Rome as they knew the traffic at this time was very big.

One hour later, he was the first to board the plane with a small line of people behind him, probably more were going to come soon as the staff had started boarding before the allocated time since the plane had arrived earlier. He walked onto the plane and found his seat.

'Dammit, it's in-between two people' he thought as he looked at his seat. The plane had three seats on each side. Unluckily he got the middle seat so he'd be sitting in the middle of two strangers but it was better than waiting till the middle of the night for the next plane to Rome. This was the only free seat left on the plane.

He put his bags away and sat down in his seat. Well, this wasn't going to be a good flight.

He sat for a few minutes and when no one was arriving to take the seats on either side of him he relaxed. Maybe they were like him and missed their plane.

Said to fast, someone walked up to his row and started putting their bag away. He tried not to look at them but turned.

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding. It was the wonderful girl from earlier, Valentina.

She put her bag away and looked down at Thomas and smiled.

"Well, hello again, stranger." she smiled.

Valentina took a seat and they started talking straight away and before they knew it they were already landing. They had brilliant conversations, not even a second of silence between them. They had so much in common that it was crazy. They had laughed so much, both having a very similar sense of humour.

It was incredible how you can meet a stranger one minute and then the next it feels like you've known them since forever.

What a crazy world we live in.