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→ AJ sat down in the window seat, stowing her backpack under the seat in front of her, plugging her headphones into her phone to listen to music.
The plane wasn't scheduled to leave Maui for another twenty minutes, so AJ tried to pass the time by peering out the window; taking in the view well she still could.
Although this was not the way she preferred this trip to go, and this was definitely not the way she wished to remember her only trip to Hawaii, AJ was going to miss the pleasant air and smell of coconuts. She knew as soon as she reaches Edmonton, she'll wish she was back under the sun, no matter what took place there.
Her mind roamed as she gazed out the tiny circular window, staring as planes landed and took off. The young girl swung her head around as someone stumbled clumsily down the aisle, the man's suitcase bumping against the seats as he sought to locate his spot. The young man hesitated in the aisle in front of AJ, glancing down at his boarding pass before nodding his head stiffly. Putting his backpack, phone and boarding pass down on the vacant seat beside AJ, he picked up his small carry on smoothly and shoved it up in the cabinets above their section in one swift motion.
As the man with lively blue eyes and blonde - slightly ginger coloured hair plopped down beside AJ, he offered her a lopsided grin. The girl returned his gesture with a small, tightlipped smile, her eyes drooping as she let her head settle back against her seat, returning her attention to the beautiful view.
Soon enough, the flight attendants finished their formal procedure, and the plane took off. The boy beside AJ squeezed the armrests nervously, his lips pursed as the plane reached thousands of feet above ground.
"Not a fan of flying?" AJ observed, announcing her observations simply as she stuck one headphone in her ear, letting the other dangle.
The boy turned to face her with a timid smile, his cheeks flushing in slight embarrassment. "Not a fan of heights, actually."
Nodding, AJ tried to sympathize. "Yeah, I'm not a fan of closed spaces. Or snakes. We all have our things."
"I hate spiders too," he shuddered slightly. "And when those two are combined, oh god..." This provoked both of them to snicker.
"What do you mean, combined?" AJ asked, craving to find out more about his fear of spiders and heights, combined.
"My girlfriend - ex girlfriend, lives on the forty something floor of her apartment building, and when I was over there, she pointed out this spider that was hanging from the balcony. She told me to kill it, and because it was a big spider - like I'm talking huge, I told her I couldn't reach it, which is also true. She didn't take the hint, so she grabbed a chair, yes a chair, and set it on the balcony ledge, and expects me to kill it. She expected me to get up on this chair, lean over the edge on the forty-fifth story, to try to kill this spider."
AJ exploded into a fit of laughter, imagining this playing out almost brought tears to her eyes. "Well?" She quizzed, battling to take a breath, "did you get it?"
The man's eyes widened not trying to mask the smile on his face, "hell no! I hate spiders and I hate heights. That's all my fears combined into one. No, thank you."
"What'd your girlfriend do?" AJ asked, genuinely engrossed in this story and how it ended.
"Ex... bu-" The man mumbled awkwardly, rubbing his palms on his shorts.
"Oh I'm sorry, I meant ex," the girl explained, the boy meeting her gaze again.
"It's okay, really. She uh, she was mad at first, but I refused to do anything. I told her 'if it gets you, it gets you'." The two chuckled quietly, falling silent for a moment. "So uh, why do not like snakes and closed spaces?"
AJ chuckled and brushed the back of her neck nervously. "Well the snakes thing is quite simple. When I was ten my neighbour chased me around my backyard with a snake. From that day on, I've been terrified."
The boy furrowed his eyebrows, an unimpressed expression on his face. "That's just mean."
AJ shrugged, "yeah, but it's all good, we're best friends now."
The man's expression melted into a softer one, grinning somewhat at the thought. "Who wouldn't want to become friends with the person who chased you around with the thing you fear most?"
Giggling slightly and nodding her head, AJ continued. "Exactly. Now as for closed spaces, this ones interesting. I was at a hotel in Vancouver and as I was in the elevator, it broke down. Luckily my friend (the one who chased me with a snake) was there, so it wasn't too bad. But after two hours, it felt like we were slowly dying." AJ paused, chuckling from her over exaggerating. "It got pretty squishy in there, so we climbed through the vent. That was not fun. We got lost. Th-that, yeah, that was not good." This time, the blue eyed man laughed, harder than anyone else who had heard the story before.
"I'm sorry," he turned his laughter into coughs, "thats terrible. Really, it is. I shouldn't be laughing."
AJ shrugged it off, nodding nonchalantly, "no, its not terrible, it's funny as hell. Trust me, I know. I could barely make it through telling that story to my parents the first time. It didn't help that we were coming back from the bar so we were a little tipsy."
The boy chuckled, "oh yes, I'm sure. Just a little."
Nodding, AJ let out a snort as she returned her attention back to the window, looking out to see nothing but blue sky hidden behind the fluffy, white clouds. After approximately three minutes without talking, the man cleared his throat awkwardly, causing AJ to swivel her head to see him already staring at her.
"I- I'm Connor," he started awkwardly, running his hand through his hair, then scratching the back of his neck nervously, out of habit.
AJ offered a grin, taking her other earbud out of her ear. "I'm AJ."
