Maegan
I was jolted awake by the plane landing. I got up and left the plane, grabbed my suitcase and left the airport. In my head, the sooner I could see the city the sooner I could feel like I'd made it.
I took a breath of the London air. I would call it fresh but all I could smell was pollution. It was cooler than South Africa and the skies were grey, but I had never been more happy to see rainclouds.
"You looking for a cab love? Where you off to?" a man in a black taxi pulls over to where I was standing. He had a big friendly sort of red face and he opened the window.
"How much would it cost to get to this street in central London?" I showed him Caspar's address on my phone.
"£45 for that. It's a long way," he said. I looked in my purse. £20 and a stick of chewing gum.
"You know I think I'm gonna get the tube," I said. Caspar had mentioned the tube to me in our phone calls. He chuckled in his big London accent.
"If you want. You got an Oyster card? He asked. What?
"No. Why do I need fish to get the train?" I asked. He really laughed then.
"Look I've got a spare. There's no money on it or anything but you can do that in the station. You know how to do that?" he hands me a blue card that said oyster on it out the window.
"Yeah I think I can manage that. Thank you for helping me," I said gratefully.
"Don't worry. But be careful," he said and drove off to the next person with a suitcase and a vacant expression. I headed to the nearest tube station.
"Hi can you please tell me where I top up an Oyster card?" I asked a woman stood in the tube station looking at the times.
"Over there," she wrinkled up her face like I smelt bad. She reminded me a bit of my mum. No, I suppressed that thought. I'm not gonna think about her.
"Thank you," I said. I put my £20 on and got on the tube heading to Caspar's. I managed to navigate my way to his flat and saw a light on. I called him.
"Hey Maegan what's up?" his voice was happy and it made me feel so excited to see him.
"Hey bro, are you home?" I asked him.
"Um yeah why? Why are you calling me isn't it like 6am at home?" he asked. I laughed.
"Look outside," I said. He came to the window nearest the door and saw me, smiled so big and dropped his phone on the floor. I waved at him and smiled. He held up one finger at me to tell me to wait and then ran to the door and enveloped me in his unnatural tallness.
"What are you doing here it's so nice to see you!" he hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe. No one had made me feel so loved for so long tears sprung to my eyes.
"That's what I need to talk to you about. Can we go inside you're sort of suffocating me," I said. He took my suitcase and I took my bag and he led me up the stairs into his living room.
"So where's mum and dad? They would never let you fly out by yourself, and why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he asked, picking his phone up off the floor.
