Let's Go Home

1|The flight

Chapter 1| The flight

Arial Winston boards the plane in economy class. If she had it her way, she'd be in first class, but going home to her parents was an in the moment decision. She'd received a card from her mom on her birthday, which was two weeks ago, but only read it two days ago. She had then realised that she hadn't seen her parents for several years. The occasional Skype calls, monthly phone calls and cards was the only communication between them. That made her upset so in the spur of the moment, she booked a flight home. The only flights available were in economy class.

She tries to find her seat but comes to find a man sitting in her seat. She hikes her handbag higher up her shoulder and used her hand to move her Raybans from her eyes to her head. The man takes notice of her standing there and radiantly smiles at her. Her anger fades a bit and her eyes soften before she realises he's sitting in her seat still.

     "You're in my seat," she says in a tone that's a mix of polite and demanding. It the tone she uses with her employees.

     "Nope, I'm pretty sure this is my seat," the man says still smiling, but the smile seems mocking this time.

     "Listen I have no time games," the polite part of her tone has completely disappeared, now it's just demanding, "Get out of my seat!"

     "Sorry Miss, but this is my seat." He replies still smiling but his tone of voice has changed.

     "Look here, I am tired, my feet hurt because of these stupid heels, it's bad enough that I have to sit in economy class because this is the only plane going to the stupid small town because my mother has been guilt tripping me,  despite me not being home since my graduation!" Arial yells out to the poor unsuspecting man but letting out her frustration feels good.

The man looks stunned as his ocean blue eyes widen and he runs a hand through his dark hair. Realising what she just did and said, blood rushes up to her cheeks as she is embarrassed. She looks around the plane and is happy to find that is isn't that full yet. The only people on it are too busy in their own worlds to take notice of a yelling spoilt brat.

     "I'm sorry," she rushes out to the man. She looks back down at her ticket,  which is really just to avoid eye contact. She looks up at the seat numbering and sees that he is indeed in her seat.

     "Okay, well this is my seat," he takes out his ticket and shows her that they have the same seat number on their tickets. She in turn shows him hers.

     "Well seems like they're either overbooked or there was a typo." The man says, "I'll sort this out."

He disappears down the aisle and Arial decides to put her carry-on in the overhead compartment. The man returns about five minutes later with a flight attendant in tow. The flight has a bit more people on it than it had before.

     "We apologize for the misunderstanding, Miss. The airline had made a mistake on one of your tickets. One of them should be 27A whereas the other should be 27F, both window seats. As an apology from the airline your drinks for this flight are free," the flight attendant says perkily before she leaves down the aisle.

She settles down on the other side of the aisle knowing that asking the man to move again would be unnecessary.

Free drinks? Great, I'll need a little liquid courage to survive this Christmas holiday.

●●

Arial Winston finds herself outside the small scale airport of her home town searching through parking lot for her mother's minivan. She fails to find it and gets anxious.

What am I doing here? Who is to say they want me home after five years?

Just as her internal doubting session was about to going into full swing, a sleek white BMW stops in front of her. The car, though quite ordinary, looks quite expensive. She squints and and is surprised at what she finds. Her mother in the driver seat and a young man in the passenger seat. She can't make out his facial features but deems that unimportant for the moment.

Her mother excitedly jumps out of the car.

     "Arial! Arial, my baby," her mom hugs her tightly, "I missed you so much."

Arial's eyes sting and fill up with tears as she felt wetness seep into the material of her clothing.

     "I missed you too, Mom!" She hugs her Mom back equally tight forgetting what it was like having the motherly touch.

They both pull back, with tears in their eyes.

     "When you told me you were coming home, I was bursting at the seams. I'm so happy you're home even if it's just for the holidays. I missed you, my baby," her mom gushes.

She feels terrible about not coming home sooner.

I had my reasons.

Somehow these reasons seem insignificant after seeing the happiness in her mother's eyes.

     "Let's go home, Mom," she smiles at her mom and then grabs her luggage. She gets into the car at the back and looks to the front to find the young man.

     "Hi, I'm A-"

     "Arial, I know," reponds the man when he turns around she find herself looking the attractive guy she shouted at on the plane about the seat misunderstanding.

A/N

New book: Short story. Reason, I just want to complete a book for a change., instead of being caught up in my complicated ideas and of course laziness.

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Carla Michaels.