Whirlwind

(2) flight and arrival

LIBBY

***

"Lib?" I hear a voice in the darkness and I stir, not wanting to open my eyes yet.

"Hmm?" I roll over to find my dad leaning over me, turning on my side light and placing down a cup of tea.

"Need to leave in half an hour, okay. Rob's downstairs making coffee as well."

I nod as I sit up, wiping the sleep from the corner of my eyes. "I'm up," I croak, my voice raspy with sleep.

He leaves my room, letting me get dressed in the clothes I'd left out last night, to save myself scrambling for an outfit this morning.

I get up and look at my bags in the corner, all neatly packed and ready to go, and compared to how I felt yesterday, I'm calm. The bags no longer frighten me, and they're no longer taunting me, making me feel nervous. Instead, they're smiling at me, telling me it'll all be fine, and these next nine months will be the best of my life so far.

I get dressed quickly, putting on my comfy cropped boyfriend jeans, a long white linen shirt and my Birkenstock sandals, and then pull my bags out the room and down the stairs after packing my chargers, Jughead following close behind. Rob obviously hears the struggle and meets me half way down the stairs and takes it from me, placing it by the front door.

When I wander into the kitchen, amazingly, all the family are down here. And I can't help the tear that rolls down my cheek as my mum hugs me. She looks exhausted after working a late shift so she could be here today, but her bright smile is what will get me through today, despite the nerves building.

"How you feeling?" Mum asks, putting a hand on my cheek, wiping at the loose tear.

"Nervous," I say again, looking at Rob. He nods at me, and gives me a cheeky smile, which boosts my mood a little more. "But cool." I give him a nod and he winks back, holding his thumb up.

"Good girl," Mum kisses the side of my head before taking the coffee Dad is offering her.

"I can't believe you all woke up," I laugh as I take a seat. Andy offers me some toast but I decline. If I eat anything with this nervous stomach I'll be sick.

"You think you'd be able to just slip away without them saying goodbye?" Dad asks, laughing. I shrug in response.

"It's Andy mainly," I joke, scratching his shoulder.

He laughs and gives me the finger, which Mum tuts at but I don't care.

I do get on with Andy but it's Rob I bond with most. Andy's the oldest, nearly eleven years older than me, so we don't have as much in common. Rob's only four years older, so we tended to play together once I was big enough, with Andy supervising or ignoring us.

"So what time do you land?" Andy asks.

"Erm... well flight's at eight and it's seven ish hours... so," I count the hours in my head. "3pm. Give or take the time difference, which is five hours... so I should get there just before lunch?" I had no idea if that was right or not.

"Well that works out nicely?" Rob offers.

I scoff, "Yeah, then it's just up to me to stop myself from falling asleep."

He laughs. "When do classes start?"

"Orientation's tomorrow."

"Tomorrow as in Sunday?" Andy asks.

"Yup. Then classes start Monday."

"But it's still August?" Rob looks at Andy, who shrugs. His mouth drops open with shock and I laugh as I lean over to shut it.