Nova

Chapter Five

The metal bullet of death finally landed, and Ian and I waited for all the other, frankly smelly, passengers to exit. We got off the plane just to be bombarded by a cacophony of sorts. The airport was rather small. The waiting area had a uncomfortable arrangement of sticky false leather chairs and a small shop full of obnoxious hats adorned with the British flag. 

"Man, this place sucks" Ian said, suddenly his eyes got wide at the sight of the gift shop, he then turned to me and a big goofy smile spread across his face.

 I knew what he was thinking. I started to tell him that there was no fucking way I'd let him walk around with me while wearing such a ridiculous hat, but he was already grabbing his carry on and sliding through the large crowd of people exiting the plane. I chased after him but got stuck behind an elderly couple attempting to carry their bags. I felt bag and offered to give them a hand, but they just waved me off. Hoping that they wouldn't break a hip or anything, I proceeded in trying to stop Ian from buying that ridiculous hat. By the time I had successfully made my way through the crowds and to the store I saw Ian leaning against the wall outside the shop. He was, of course, wearing his stupid hat.

"How do you like my new get-up" He asked, grinning like some sort of idiot.

"I think its absolutely atrocious and you should burn it as soon as you can" I said as I tried to grab it off his head.  He laughed and put it in his bag. When he reached into the bag he pulled out a slip off paper.

"Check it out Nov. As you were doing whatever you were doing I struck up some conversation with the sales clerk. I told him about how we flew from the United States and we didn't have a place to stay, and guess what! He said he knows of a place. He gave me the number of some guy named Benny and said to call him about a room. Isn't this great?"

It took me a moment to register this information, but once I did I turned to Ian and said hissed, "we know nothing about this guy, for all we known he could be some kind of creep! A lunatic! We can't stay with him"

Ian glanced back to make sure nobody was listening and said very gently, "Nov, I don't want to stay with him either. I mean I could never forgive myself if something happened to you, but what other choice do we have? We have little to no money and we don't even know the first thing about England. I'm sorry but this is our only option."

As much as I hate to admit it, Ian was right. I nodded at him and said "I guess you're right. I really don't like the idea of staying at a strangers house though." 

Ian looked sad for a moment, but instantly brightened up when he realized I was still looking at him, "Well" he said, "I guess we have no other choice but to call him." Ian paused and then he continued, "Nov, can you go get the rest of our luggage, oh, and maybe go to the information desk to get a map and some coupons?"

"No problem" I mumbled as I started off towards the extremely bright sign flashing the word information at me. 

"Excuse me" I said to the lady sitting in the booth. She looked up, sighed and said "Hello, welcome to the London airport. What are you looking for information on?"

I'm not the best at socializing when I sense that the person doesn't want me there, but somehow I managed to mumble something along the lines of "I just arrived, need a map, also where is luggage pick-up?"

The lady rolls her eyes and says "I'm sorry, could you repeat that one more time?"

I panicked and said, no to be correct I shouted, "I NEED A MAP AND WHERE IS THE BAGGAGE CLAIM?"

The lady seemed shocked and quickly grabbed a map. While she was handing me the map she pointed towards a vending machine that looked like it had seen much better days, "Go that way and then take a left past the vending machine to find baggage claim". I sheepishly thanked her and shuffled awkwardly back to Ian, who was laughing his head off. 

"Wow Nov, I see you're really working on those social skills" He managed to say in between breaks of laughter.

"Asshole" I mutter under my breath, which just makes him laugh harder. "C'mon" I say, tugging on his shirt, "You can make fun of me later, but first lets get out bags and get out of here".