Fake dating (hamzah the fantastic)

chapter 4

Over the next few days, Hamzah informed me of everything I needed to know for the vacation.

"Like I said, the flight's on Saturday," he said over the phone. I was sitting on a bench on campus. It was a dreary Tuesday morning, about a day after the party.

I sipped my coffee and said, "Yeah, I remember."

After the party, I had thought a lot about me and Hamzah's relationship. Obviously I was doing him a favor for pretending to be his girlfriend, but we had developed some other kind of connection. I sort of considered him...a friend.

"We'll be in Miami for a whole week. We stay in a joint house that's on the beach. So there's a lot to do, shopping, swimming, going out to eat, whatever. Then the flight home is the next Saturday."

"Wow," I said. "This is really awesome. Are you sure I don't have to pay for anything?"

"Nope, unless you're going shopping or we split the bill at dinner. But you probably don't have to worry about that."

"Cool," I said. I still couldn't believe how I got roped into this whole thing. I was kind of worried about having to act like Hamzah's girlfriend for a whole week straight...but it couldn't be that hard, right? I already kind of like the guy.

"I'll pick you up to go to the airport at 10 am on Saturday. Is that okay? The flight is at 12:30 and we wanna be there early so we can get through security and stuff," he said.

"Yeah, that's great, thanks.," I said.

So for the next three days I planned and packed. I made sure to bring my nicest stuff and called my mom to let her know. I told her that my friend was taking me. And I made sure to tell her that Mandy was going to be there so she wouldn't worry. She was excited for me.

And to be honest, I was really excited. This would be my first time in America since I left six years ago. I wondered if it would be any different. I had been to Florida a few times when my dad was alive, I remember it being super nice and sunny.

Anyway, Saturday finally came and I woke up feeling super jittery. I made sure to clean my apartment a little and went through my checklist three times. Then someone knocked on my door.

I opened it, and there stood Hamzah, in a gray hoodie and jeans. He was smiling and said, "the secretary let me come in!"

I laughed and we walked together to the elevator and out the lobby. The car ride was actually kind of nice. Hamzah let me play some music on the aux, and we even talked. I think he could tell I was a little nervous because he kept trying to joke and talk about things other than the vacation. But either way, I enjoyed the conversation. We mostly just talked about stuff going on at school and he told a bunch of funny stories about kids in his classes.

Once we arrived at the airport, Hamzah explained that everyone else except Mandy and Martin took earlier flights so they could get to Miami faster and have more time for the vacation. So it was just me, Hamzah, Martin, and Mandy on the same flight.

The security and check-in went fine. I did get a little scared at the TSA line because all the workers kept shouting really loudly. But it was fine. Hamzah even bought me a coffee to bring on the flight.

When we got in line, we met up with Mandy and Martin. Me and Mandy hugged each other and began talking excitedly about the vacation. She was talking about this new bathing suit she bought when it hit me that maybe I was a little scared of flying.

My stomach felt like a bundle of nerves when I scanned my ticket. I walked down the tunnel and entered the plane.

"You're sitting with me," said Hamzah. I nodded and sat down. "Are you okay?" he said when he sat down beside me and noticed my expression. "You're not gonna like, throw up or anything, right?"

He said it as a joke to lighten the mood, but that only made me feel more nervous, I hate throwing up.

I guess my expression worsened, because his face got all defensive and he said, "I didn't mean to scare you. You're definitely not going to throw up."

Then the announcement came on from the pilot. He basically said that the flight was 3 ½ hours long and we weren't going to make any stops. But then he said something really scary, that we needed to have our seatbelt on when the plane was taking off.

"Oh my gosh, I don't know how to put my seatbelt on," I said, grabbing Hamzah's sleeve. "I'm gonna die." 

"No you're not," he said. He reached over and grabbed both straps of the belt on either side of me. "Look, it's like a normal seat belt. You just connect them-" he clicked them together, "and tighten this strap." He pulled on the strap and the belt tightened to fit around my lap.

I couldn't help but blush a bit because he was so close to my body. "Thanks," I said.

The take off of the flight was probably the most terrifying thing I've ever sat through. I squeezed my eyes shut and closed the plane window, but even then I could still feel when the plane lifted off the ground, and it was horrible.

Once we reached high enough, the crew said we could take our seatbelts off. But I did NOT remove it. No chance was I dying this way.

Once we landed, the nerves in my stomach died down a bit. I guess I was just mostly scared of being 30,000 feet in the air. The flight wasn't so bad, but about halfway through we experienced some turbulence, which I do not want to talk about.

Anyway, we got off the plane without being trampled by all the busy people. Mandy and Martin both had to use the bathroom so that left me and Hamzah waiting alone for our bags at the conveyor belt.

We stood there in silence until I said, "Hamzah, why are you doing this?"

He looked at me confused. "What do you mean?"

I sighed. "It's just like...we met only a week ago and you're literally taking me to a different country to your rich beach house."

"Have you ever thought of the possibility that maybe I like you? Like maybe I want to get to know you more and become your friend? Like that's why I brought you?" He said it teasingly, but his words were serious.

"And to get back at your ex," I added.

His face fell a bit, "right," he said.

"Right," I said back.

But what he said stuck with me for the rest of the way to the beach house. It warmed my heart. All my childhood I had been bullied and never really made any good friends. I kind of developed bad social anxiety because of this and things only got harder when my dad died and I had to move to an entirely different country where I didn't know anyone. So I guess the thought of anyone wanting to be my friend is unheard of to me.