You practically held your breath, scanning the crowd of passengers who were exiting from the plane that had just landed and entering the airport lobby: A young boy with a red baseball cap holding the hand of a smiling elderly woman; a teenager with earphones and an apathetic look on his face; a gentleman in a suit caring a briefcase like it was a part of his hand, along with many others.
Oh, come on! Where was—
"Do you see Will yet?"
You turned at your friend Britney's voice. She was, as usual, examining her perfectly-manicured, pink nails as if wishing she were someplace else.
"N-no. Not yet," you said, turning your eyes back to the flood of people.
"Just...be cool," she said without looking up.
"What do you mean?" you asked.
"I mean," she said with a not-so-subtle hint of annoyance. "Don't go all crazy—you know, like you used to."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," you said quietly.
Britney sighed, then lifted her gaze from her nails as if it took tremendous effort, staring up at you from behind thickly-mascaraed eyelashes. "Like when Will left for the Maze Runner tour," she said slowly, as if you had a hard time understanding English. "Remember? You totally fr-eaked out, crying and making a scene." She rolled her eyes, going back to studying her nails. "People were staring."
You remembered you got a bit teary-eyed, and hugged Will slightly longer than you probably should have, but he was going away for months and you knew that you would miss him terribly. Which, you had. These past weeks without Will had been horrible; it seemed as if as soon as he left things started going wrong. But you hadn't remembered making a scene, like Britney had said.
Then again, there were a lot of things that Britney started correcting you about once Will had left. Such as not exclaiming happily when your favorite TV show came on—there was no need for that noise. Not smiling for no reason after you finished Skyping Will—yes you're happy but you don't have to show it all of the time. Not thanking the people who served your food at restaurants—it's their job for goodness sake! She had rules about a lot of things, but mostly about not showing unneeded emotion—especially not in large quantities. That was a big no-no.
The little boy with the red baseball cap was now pulling the old woman, probably his grandmother, along, pointing excitedly at the Cinnabon store nestled between a Subway and a bookshop that were inserted into the walls of the airport. You smiled, watching the elderly woman take out her wallet as the little boy clap his hands in delight. For a fleeting moment you had the sudden urge to tug at Britney's sleeve and point to the adorable scene. But as soon as it came you remembered that Britney would consider it an "unnecessary showing of emotion" and quickly smothered the bubbling joy, which required averting your gaze from the boy and his grandmother. Britney glanced up at you, as if she knew what you had almost done, but looked away before you had the chance to make certain.
You turned your attention back to the few stragglers that were walking into the airport, looking for Will's familiar face.
Where was he?
It was probably good that Will wasn't there yet. It gave you time to "calm down and breathe" as Britney would say. No need to get all emotionally hyped up about nothing. But Will wasn't nothing. Still, Britney wouldn't care. Unneeded emotion. Will knew that you loved him, so you didn't need to tell him anymore. You guessed that's what Britney would say.
You glanced over at her. She was no longer studying her nails, but instead was holding a compact up to her face, studying her reflection in the small mirror while dabbing her cheeks and beneath her eyes with powder. Then her gaze lifted just for a moment, and she saw the elderly woman receive the two drizzled rolls, handing one to the little boy. He smiled as if it were Christmas morning before shoving the enormous bun as far into his mouth as it would fit. The elderly woman laughed as she wiped the frosting-smeared cheeks of the happily-munching boy and they continued on in the direction of the bookstore. You looked at Brittney, and for a fleeting second thought you saw the slightest hint of a smile touch the corner of her mouth, but she was back patting her cheeks and gazing at her reflection before you could tell for sure.
