I walk into the airport with my belongings packed. My parents were tearing up. My dad hugs me.
"I can't believe my little girl is grown up and moving out. Honey, you don't know how proud I am of you." He says and kisses me on the head.
My mom hugs me tight. I hug her and tell her I love her. She hugs me tighter and won't let me go as my flight gets called.
"Mom, I'm going to miss my flight. You have to let me go."
My mom loosens her grip and wipes her tears. I walk to the plane and find me seat. I took a few deep breaths and try to relax once the plane starts. My anxiety starts getting worse so I take out my pills the my physiologist prescribed me and got some water to take two of them. I gulp them down and then put in my head phones and close my eyes.
I wake up later from the speakers on the plane. We were 5 minutes away from the airport. I got butterflies in my stomach and felt like I was going to pass out. I didn't realize how nerve racking it would be to be this far from home.
The plane lands and everyone gets off. I get my bags and walk off with them. The airport was packed. I never do good in big crowds. That's when my anxiety gets worse. I took some deep breaths again but I couldn't do it. My heart was beginning to race and my throat was getting tighter while I tried to gasp for air. I had to wait three hours until I was able to take more pills. I couldn't stand it. I needed them. I'm not addicted to them or anything but sometimes I take them when I should wait longer. I try not to but my anxiety gets worse and I need something to calm me down. I've never told my parents though. So I ran to the bathroom in a panic and dug through my bag until I found the little bottle of pills at the bottom of my bag. I grabbed two more and swallowed then ran out so I could get out of the airport as fast as possible so I could finally breath again.
I pushed through people without caring or even apologizing. I was almost at the door when I ran into a really tall brown haired boy. One of my bags dropped and so did my phone.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" He said.
"No, it's my fault" I said trying to catch my breath.
He was picked up some of the things that fell out and helped me. I looked up to thank him and froze. He gave me a look that basically said "why are you staring at me?" And after a few seconds I finally broke my stare.
"I'm sorry," I said shaking my head. "You.... just look... really familiar." Then it came to me. It was Shawn Mendes.
"I'm sorry I ran into you... I'll just-" he stopped me.
"Hey, don't worry about it. Let me help you with your bags. I'm on my way out anyway. I just came back from being on tour." He smiled.
"You don't have to-"
He took two of my bags and I started walking with him. He opened the door and gestured me out. I didn't know people this famous were so generous to people like me. He even offered me a ride to my new apartment. I felt bad to have him take me.
"Actually I have an uber coming." I lied.
"Oh, you don't want to ride with uber drivers out here. Trust me, they can be crazy."
"Well..." I was playing with my bracelet on my wrist. It's a nervous habit.
He looked down at it and seemed to notice so I stopped and he looked up again.
"Don't worry about it. I don't mind at all." He said and smiled at me again. His smile was so cute! I couldn't say no so I went with him.
On the drive Shawn let me listen to whatever I wanted but I said I'd rather just sit in quiet. I was too nervous to do anything. So, I sat in silence and looked out the window. I turned my head a little. I wanted to look at him. His eyes were beautiful even though they were focused on the road and his hair looked amazing with those soft brown curls. The one thing that really got me were his lips though. The way they were shaped and how he bit down on it when he was really focused while driving.
"So where are you headed?" He finally said.
"I have an apartment not too far from here."
"Did you come back from somewhere or did you just move out here?"
"I just moved out here from Pennsylvania." I said a little shyly.
"Oh, you're going to love it here. I know it's pretty far from home but I had to deal with that too. Moving from Toronto to here was a big change."
"Yeah, but you knew people out here from being famous."
"Yeah but I wasn't really close with any of them. You'll meet people though. It's easy. You seem like a likable person."
That triggered some flash backs of high school. I remembered being in the bathroom at school in tears from girls calling me a slut and saying I used my anxiety disorder to get attention from guys and get them to feel bad for me and that's how I got them to sleep with me. I've actually never slept with anyone before. People were just rude. Of course I wasn't going to bring that up though.
"I guess so..." I said hesitant.
We pulled up to the apartment complex. He helped me carry my bags in. My place was huge. It was absolutely beautiful. Shawn set my stuff down.
"Hey, do you need me to help you unpack?"
"No, I can do it myself. I'd hate to hold you up. You just got back. You should go spend time with your friends and relax."
"I'm not doing anything."
"No, it's fine. Don't feel obligated to help."
"Alright. And I'm sorry, I never got your name."
"Anna"
"Alright, Anna, if you're up to do anything later I'm free."
My heart stopped. Shawn Mendes was asking me to hang out later. I kept my cool.
"Yeah, uh... here's my number." I gave him my number. He thanked me and said he'd text me later tonight.
I tried to not freak out. I could barely breath and felt really dizzy but this time it was... in a good way.
