Finding You - LGBTQ+ Fiction

Chapter Three

The neon lights of the airport blind my eyes as soon as we walk in. The bright bulb in the pavement turns the airport into a sci-fi scene where the villain is about to kill the main character and needs a little attention to feed his ego – making the set even more dramatic and dark.

It's 4 am, and our flight to Mallorca is at 7 am; we are so early thanks to Daisy, who has chronic anxiety for every journey we go to. Last summer, we planned to go to the lake for the weekend, and she got so anxious that we were there at 8 am. We had to catch a less expensive night bus, but I was sleep deprived compared to her snoring for the whole journey.

We look around to see where to take our luggage before going to the safety controls. After 20 minutes, they insert the numbers of our flights on the 'destination panels' and highlight the line we have to spend the next 3 hours in. Maybe Daisy was good at dragging all of us this early.

While we walk, slowly with a switched-off brain because of how tired we all feel – besides Daisy – I sneak my look towards Seb, who seems to be completely normal as if these past 2 weeks he hasn't been completely MIA from us, from me. His eyes look tired, with visible black faded purple under-eye and his hat covering his hair and face from the extremely bright neon lights.

If you've lost your earrings, you can for sure find them with these lights.

I haven't spoken to Seb yet about what it's happening to him, and I'm unsure if I will do it anytime soon. I am too scared of what is about to say, and I don't want to ruin the holiday for Jack and Daisy. At the end of the day, we've been planning this for the last 2 years, worked and got money from our part-time jobs to pay for this trip. I hope he will be the one coming to me to talk like he always did if he has any issues.

Jack and Daisy are arguing over the suitcase scale as Daisy goes over by 5kg with her clothes – that's on not being organised.

"Daisy, they will make you pay with this extra weight! Just take some clothes off and put them in Rachel's suitcase!" Jack hysterically says, making everyone turn to look at them like they were the crazy couple with 5 kids going on holiday with no plan whatsoever.

"I'm sorry, my suitcase is exactly 20 kg so I cannot help you... you should have planned what you were going to bring instead of coming to mine, jumping on my bed, complaining that the clothes I was bringing weren't 'slutty summer vibes' and then eating my dinner because you were too hungry to leave me some" I say all in one breath, and I am impressed with myself for even being able to do that; I guess the sax helps.

"There's no need to be so sassy, Rachel. Jack, it will be fine; the scale on their machines is always broken anyway! Guys, we don't have to worry at all," Daisy, all happy and smiley, say to us while closing her suitcase and leading us to the queue.

At the check-in point...

"What do you mean I have to pay a fee because my luggage is over the weight permitted? I cannot believe this! Your machines are clearly broken!"

And here we go, we are all waiting for Daisy on the side of the line to send her suitcase and finally move to the gate as soon as possible, but she decided to start an argument with the hostess about the weight of her luggage, refusing to pay the fees we all knew she was going to pay. One thing about her is that she is very animated when she is frustrated, and she isn't holding back any of it, even being in public and talking to blessed hostesses who travel and work way more hours than we will ever do.

"Okay, fine, I'll pay the fee! I cannot believe I am paying because your machines are broken!" An exhausted Daisy, ready to swing left to right her white flag, 'I have lost a battle I would have lost anyway' and frenetically ran to us. Jack begins laughing under the bandana he placed on his mouth to hide from Daisy; however, he miserably fails as Daisy sees him with her X-Ray eyes and slaps the back of his neck, causing the echo of a bang to wave across the huge welcome hall.

As we lost some time because of Daisy, we ran to the security check, and luckily we passed it with no issues but still with a furious Daisy. What a great way to start the trip... luckily me, and Seb aren't arguing just yet.

Jack and Seb look at the panel, and we follow them as they shout the number of the gate we have to go to.

Step by step on the ladder, we get onto the plane and find our seats; Seb was supposed to sit next to me, but he is sitting next to Jack instead, making Daisy my beautiful chair-friend for the next 3 hours of the plane. Seb knows I am terrified of flying, and he always helped me calm down when we went to Europe with his family 4 years ago. I feel distressed that he isn't here comforting me.

Daisy noticed my facial expressions change, and as a good – spectacular – best friend, she already knew what I was thinking about. She passed me the right side of her earphones and pressed play on our Spotify playlist.

The plane was taking off the UK ground and going to our next destination: Mallorca.