Matilda

five

"You sure you have everything?" Val asks me for the millionth time today.

"I am sure. Now stop making me even more nervous." I say. We're standing at luggage drop-off at the airport, so now it's time to say goodbye I guess.

My suitcase gets transported away from us on the conveyor belt and I say goodbye to the woman behind the counter. Val and I walk a bit to make space for the people behind us in the line.

"So I think it's-" I start and turn around but I get cut off by a huge hug attacking me. Val jumps in my arms, hugging me so tight as if we would never see each other again.

"Val I'm just gone for three months." I laugh into her neck.

"Three months too long." She whines.

"I'll miss you, baby." I sigh. It's the first time since we've known each other, that we don't see one another for so long. It's gonna be a tough one.

"I'll miss you too. You have to promise me that you call every day." She steps back and holds my face in her hands.

"I promise. It's gonna be okay." I try to convince myself.

"Hey what's wrong?" She senses my discomfort.

"I don't know, it's just- I've never been out of England in my life and now I'm going alone without you and I don't know if it's too much you know? Maybe it was the wrong decision to do this in the first place." I tell her, noticing how her eyes drop.

"Millie, are you kidding me? If someone can go oversea alone for three months, it's you. Don't doubt yourself, baby. Just because people didn't believe in you for too long, I'm here now. You've got me, I'm not going anywhere and I'm always only a phone call away, no matter what time it is. You got it?" She tries to encourage me with her comforting voice.

"Thanks." I smile.

"Now go have the time of your freaking life before I kidnap you not to go. And tell Harry I said Hi." She tells me with a wink.

I roll my eyes and turn around. "I love you the most." I call out.

"I love you more." She calls back. I laugh to myself and flip her off because she knows how much I hate it when she says that.

Once I'm through the security control I make my way to my gate. This is all so new, oh my god. The only time I've ever seen an airport is in pictures and films. I couldn't sleep for the past week because of my nervousness and overthinking but hey that's nothing new.

I have about 45 minutes before boarding begins so I have enough time to grab something to eat and drink.

I end up going to Starbucks for a soy matcha latte and a vegan sandwich, expensive as hell that shit but everyone kinda ends up at Starbucks at one point in their lives right?

As soon as I'm on the plane, time runs to my surprise. The flight was about 11 hours long but I slept through half of it so the time went by so fast. For the other half, I just looked out the window. You feel so free when you're above the clouds because you let go of control. You can't control if the plane crashes or not, it's kinda refreshing to not be in control if that makes sense.

I landed half an hour ago, already got my luggage and am now on my way to the cabs and busses. That airport is huge, but not as much as Heathrow so I don't have that much of a problem with finding the way.

When I step into the huge hallway where all the relatives and friends are waiting for ones arriving I also see a good amount of people holding signs up with names on them. Funny, I thought that just existed in films.