baggage claim // l.h

fourth • nina

Home.

Nina was truly and earnestly puzzled with the word. It had lost a meaning a long time ago. Surely anyone would agree with her logic, because packed boxes that never seemed to get unpacked and semipermanent wallpaper chipped away any meaning of home she could recall, and uprooting every few months made every new place feel unwelcoming; just slabs of cement and brick, and thin walls that she couldn't ever become too familiar with. It was awfully cold.

Which was why Nina had tried her best efforts to find a home in London, as far away as possible from the fragments of neighborhoods she knew back in the United States. She's braced her fears to turn a new leaf, away from the unfamiliarity of her odd brother and fretful grandma.

Clearly that plan, and any others she might have concocted at the time, were sloppily thrown out like a piece of chewed up gum out the cracked window of a car; slyly and carelessly meant for no one to realize it'd been done at all. And she almost wished she'd tried to make it work.

Which is why it was so hard to hold her phone with shaky hands, pulling up the familiar contact name, and hitting the call button. The phone gave three rings, and the dark ball in the pit of her stomach grew desperate to break free. It was on the fifth ring, just as she was about to hang up, that Nina heard the gruff voice on the other end.

"Hello?" The familiar male voiced.

Nina chewed on her thumb, short of words to say, so she settled for, "I'm here."

She could hear creaking, as though someone had sat up in bed, "Here where?"

"New York." She breathed out, as her eyes flitted around the crowded arrivals area. The air outside smelled fouler than she remembered, but it oddly comforted her. Less petrichor, more smog.

"Nina," His voice sounded shaky, a mixture of confusion, annoyance, and concern, like he hadn't expected her to call; much less as him to pick her up. "Where are you?"

"My flight just landed, JFK. Terminal four." She looked down at the journal in her other hand, biding the time until he would come for her.

She heard the sigh on the other end of the line, "Nina stay right where you are."

The phone switched to a static dial tone, and she was left with the strangled breath choked up in her throat. Figuring it'd be more than a few minutes, Nina rolled her red suitcase to a seemingly quiet corner, propping it up against a cement pillar.

She gingerly sat down, like a posed doll, crossing one leg over the other and letting her thigh rest against the luggage tags she hadn't bothered to check. Nina momentarily closed her eyes, hoping she'd be one step closer to glueing her life back together soon.

If that was even possible.

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A/N: Luke chapters coming soon, it is way longer and gives some answers. It's currently being edited, and I would like to hear some feedback on what's been published so far :-)