CLOUDS | hat films

| trois |

My plane left on a Saturday morning a month later. When I say Saturday morning, I mean early Saturday morning. It was 3:45AM when I actually got the chance to sit down in the gate. I huffed as I threw my backpack down next to my carry-on.

Good thing about larger airports- charging ports everywhere! I plugged up my phone and untangled my headphones so I could actually entertain myself. Another fantastic thing about huge airports: free wifi! Ah, gotta love it.

My plane didn't leave for another hour, so I figured I might as well watch something on Netflix. About halfway through my show, I was drifting off, half-asleep already.

Someone in front of me tapped me on the shoulder, snapping me awake. "Sorry to bother you," the girl said sheepishly. "It's just.. you're Io, right? Like, Aelewin?"

I rubbed my eyes. "Uh, yeah, that's me. Sorry. Rough morning."

"I bet," she muttered. "What with the whole moving thing. I totally get it." She paused. "My name's Lea. I hate to ask this, but do you think I could get a picture with you?" she asked, hopefully holding up her phone.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry I don't look the best. I literally got like 20 minutes of sleep last night," I explained.

Lea took the picture, beaming as she looked at the result. "Don't worry, I didn't exactly get much sleep either. It's an honor to meet you. Safe travels!"

"You too," I affirmed, waving at her as she walked away.

Another 20 minutes passed by, and finally they announced my flight boarding. I grabbed my charger and phone and slung my bag over my shoulder. As I found my seat, I sent a quick text to Alex.

I: Morning. About to take off. See you later today.

Smith had volunteered to help me unpack and get settled in. I was definitely thankful considering I hardly knew anyone in the city.

A: Ok, great! Can't wait to see you! :)

I barely pushed my carry-on into the overhead bin, surprisingly without help considering my small height. I took my seat next to the window, buckling myself in and settling into the mediocre seat.

As soon as I closed my eyes, barely paying attention to my surroundings, I heard someone sit next to me and saw a woman with her toddler, who already had tears running down his cheeks. The horror hit me as I realized what he could do for the next seven and a half hours.

This was going to be a long flight.

After a half hour (which felt like days) of screaming from the boy next to me, I finally plugged in my headphones, blasting music to distract me and looked down to the windows, staring at the clouds below.

The past few weeks had been great, in terms of videos. I actually had other people to collaborate with which made my videos much more interesting and funny. I took to playing a lot of Garry's Mod with Alex, Ross, Trott, Lewis and Sips.

Apparently, I'm really good at deception because anytime I was the murderer or terrorist, I almost always won the round, earning congratulations from Alex and Ross and scowls of "fuckin' cheater" jokingly from Sips. We recorded enough footage for my channel to upload while I moved and got settled in.

Turns out Sips had become kind of the stereotypical father figure to me, always scolding me when I would throw innuendos in videos before laughing as he tried to keep up the "responsible" act. It was great, considering I never really knew my real dad all that well. Sips was just someone to look up to.

I fell asleep once again, jolting awake as the wheels hit the ground. I was in England. More specifically, Bristol.

When we actually got to the terminal, the lady with her son had to sit there for another twenty minutes, making sure she had everything, ignoring me when I asked to go ahead. Bitch.

I finally stepped out of the cramped cabin, rolling my carry-on behind me as I clutched the bag on my back. I made my way out of the waiting for gates, trying my best to find baggage claim. I grabbed my phone, once again texting Alex.

I: Hey, you here? My plane just landed. Trying to find baggage claim as I type.

A: I'm next to baggage claim right now, it should be right outside the concourse.. Just look for a ginger man awkwardly searching the crowd! ;)

I smirked, trying to make my way through the crowd, catching glimpses of signs as I finally reached baggage claim. Almost immediately, I saw Alex and jogged over to him.

"Alex! Hey!"

"Oh my god, hi!" he exclaimed, pulling me into a hug. "Can't believe you're finally here!"

I hugged him back before pulling away to look down at the conveyor, already circling bags. "I can't believe it either. This is crazy!"

He grinned for a few seconds before readjusting his posture. "So, uh, how many bags do you have?" he asked.

"Three. One's navy with a bright pink ribbon on it, another one is purple with a green ribbon, and the last one is red with a black ribbon. Red one has my computer parts in it; crossing my fingers they're not smashed to pieces," I explained.

"Why the ribbons?"

"Trick my mom and I used when we traveled- you put a really distinguishing thing on your bag so you can tell which one's yours. It's really helpful."

"Sounds like it," he replied, watching the conveyor intently. He seemed to be better at spotting things than me, because he was already grabbing my purple suitcase and setting it between us.

We finished grabbing bags from the conveyor, and walked out to his car. I began lifting the larger bag I was holding into the trunk.

"Hey, uh, I can get it. Don't worry," he said, easily taking the bag from my hands.

"Don't be crazy. You don't have to do all three of these; it's my luggage," I reasoned.

"I mean, yeah, but you've just done a seven hour flight. I'll get it. You can wait in the car," he said, giving a quick grin.

"Fine," I huffed out sarcastically, instinctively going to the right side of the car.

"Whoa, slow down!" he laughed. "You can't quite drive here yet." I did a mental face palm and moved to the left side, earning a "much better" from Alex.

A few minutes passed, and he slid into the driver's side. "All done," he said, pausing. "Do you.. want to get food? Or just go unpack?"

"Food sounds good," I replied, buckling my seat belt.