You darted to your gate, just as the flight attendants were closing the doors to the tunnel to your plane.
"Hold on!" You called, catching the attention of a male flight attendant with little to no hair and beady eyes. He walked back up to the podium with his counterpart and held his hand out expectantly. You scrambled to give him your boarding pass. The man took it from your hands, shooting you an unimpressed glare. After thanking him and retrieving your boarding pass, you quickly sprinted down the tunnel, your long, auburn curls flowing behind you, your backpack knocking against your back in an unpleasant manner. Tearing down the air plane aisle, you quickly located your seat, glancing back quickly at the flight attendants, who seemed disgruntled because they were unable to administer their start-of-flight greeting. You relaxed back in your seat, noticing the boy sitting next to you. He had beautiful golden waves and dark brown eyes that seemed to hold the secrets to all the world's questions. He noticed you staring and smiled.
"Hey. I'm Kyle."
"Ramona. But everyone calls me Red."
For a little while, you and Kyle made polite small talk. He inquired as to why you were on a flight to Bali, for which you responded that you were taking a gap year and Bali seemed a good place to start. He explained that he was going with some friends in his fraternity, but they couldn't find seats all together when they bought tickets. He pointed them out to you in the crowd. Sitting two rows behind you was David, and across the aisle from him was Theo. Way up front near first class was Eric, and at the back, already passed out, was Johnny. Apart from the sleeping guy, they all seemed like noisy douche bags. Kyle was cute though, so you decided to keep your opinions to yourself.
Two chimes rang around the plane and the captain spoke out an announcement for all to hear.
"Welcome to Delta Airlines, we're very sorry for the delay, there appears to be a little bit of traffic on the runway. We will be taking off shortly, thank you for your patience and have a good flight."
The airline's safety video came on to the little screen in front of you, but you weren't paying attention. The words 'taking off shortly' stressed you out. You had never been a good flyer, but this flight was longer than any you had been on before. You felt your entire body tense up as you lay your head back on the headrest, shutting your eyes and gripping the armrests tightly in the process. The plane began to lurch forward and what had first felt like butterflies in your stomach now felt like someone with exceptionally long nails drumming their fingers on the inner lining of you stomach.
"Hey, you okay?" You heard Kyle's kind voice over the rumbling of the plane and instantly relaxed your muscles a little.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, I just get a little nervous during takeoff," you gave him a weak smile.
"Its OK, you're gonna be fine, trust me," he placed his hand over yours and gave it a quick squeeze. Somehow, the words 'trust me' coming out of his mouth put your mind at ease. He fished around in his bag for a minute, before pulling out a small pair of white earbuds and his phone. He turned it on and placed the earbuds in my ears. The soothing sounds of Coldplay vibrated through the tiny plastic wires and you felt your body relax. He turned your hand around so your palm was facing his and he laced his fingers through yours. With one last reassuring smile from Kyle, you felt the plane speed up, then abruptly lift onto the air. Your stomach lurched and you instinctively squeezed Kyle's hand. And then, it was OK.
After a long flight and an extremely pleasant conversation with Kyle, you touched down in Indonesia. Everyone exited in the plane, and you and Kyle walked through the tunnel together, his frat house buddies following closely behind and hooting every few seconds. After reaching the terminal, Kyle pulled a pen out of his pocket and began to write something on your hand. You looked down and saw a string of numbers. You looked up and saw Kyle walking away towards his friends, but still facing you.
"That's my number. You should call me sometime, yeah?"
You smiled and nodded.
