v // Lost in Airplanes

There was something about airports that made Dolores feel . . . different. She didn't know if it was because of the excitement, the crowd of people in it or the thought of everyone supposed to go somewhere. Whether it was because of work, vacation, or to visit their family. One could never truly know where. But there was something about the whole ordeal where she could just be someone else.

She had been to airports before, of course. The Reyeses had visited Turkey once. Alanya was warmer than America and their hotel, Club Dem, was one of the best places she had ever visited. The other times she went to the airport was usually to follow the rest of her family to the building, giving hugs and bidding them farewell until the next big gathering.

She wanted to travel again. But, her parents weren't that rich unlike Ylva and Kieran's family. Not anyone important, and she didn't mind that they had more important things to spend money on.

Currently, she was standing in the duty free, staring at Kieran's back as he was picking out a souvenir enthusiastically. He had simply said, "For a friend," and went to the keyrings, leaving her to stand with the handbags, because they had already checked their luggage in. She was actually doing this.

Why he wanted something from America to give to someone else was beyond her.

She had nodded and brought her phone up from her pocket. She pressed Snapchat, made a dramatic face, and captioning it, MAKE ME CHANGE MY MIND PLS BRIDGY LAST CHANCE I BEG YOU!!!

To which Bridget had returned two minutes later with a pitied look (in a hilarious way, of course), saying sorry pal, you brought this on yourself:/

She sent her a picture back, showing her the middle finger. I hate u.

Bridget sent her a picture of her niece, playing with her toys. she hates u2.

Dolores laughed at this and put her phone back into her pocket, turned her face up to Kieran again, who was patiently waiting for her to notice him. He showed her a keyring, and flashed his thumbs up and down, as if to ask her her opinion of it. He seemed so excited about what he had picked up.

She smiled encouragingly, and sent a thumbs up. It wasn't anything special, just a keyring that said, in all caps, California in different shades of blue. It was cute, though.

He grinned like an actual child, and she wondered if he knew how cute he was. Especially because of how enthusiastic he was acting. Absolutely adorable.

"So," Kieran started when he was back again. "Our flight's in thirty minutes. Having any second thoughts, Dolly?"

"I did," she honestly replied. "But not anymore. Ylva is covering up for me and I've finally quit B&W, so there's no turning back. Besides, I want this. Thank you for asking me, though." She was grateful that she was doing this with Kieran and not anyone else.

The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth at the reminder that she was originally supposed to do this with Ylva.

She had made a promise to herself to not feel sorry. Because she wasn't exactly in a place to do so.

"Of course," he smiled. "We should probably head to the gates. Unless you want anything from this expensive place . . . ?" he trailed off, scrunching his nose at the keyring in his hand.

"I'm good, thanks."

She had decided it would be a good idea to save her money for shopping and, of course, in case of an emergency. She didn't think reckless spending was anything for her and she wanted to save up some extra money for college, too, in case she ever needed it (her parents would be exactly five hundred and one miles away from her when she was attending Stanford, which meant they might help her out a bit. Doubtful, though.). Mrs. Henning had paid her well and two years of savings was no small feat.

"Wait, isn't every duty free expensive, though?"

He shrugged. "Good point."

They had started walking now and the tingles were everywhere. She had to admit that seeing the gate made this more real than ever. It was nauseous, exciting, and insane all at once.

"We're really doing this," Dolores commented. "I had a feeling you were going to yell 'issa prank!' any moment now. Guess I was wrong."

Kieran shook his head, smiling. "Where would the fun in that be? The plan was, of course, to yell that sentence once we were actually in the airplane, over thirty thousand feet off the ground." He shrugged, "You caught me."

She had to roll her eyes at that, but a smile threatened to leave her lips.

They were now close to the gate and sat down on the seats in front of it. She sighed. "Sorry for sharing my anxiousness about this."

He waved his hand, nonchalantly. "Don't think about it."

She nodded, glancing at the window outside. Her view was filled with several airplanes flying through. Some were safely on the ground, some had just taken off. She was going to sit in one of those. And it petrified her.

Lost in thought, her eyes darted to Kieran, who was also in his own bubble with closed eyes. There was something about the way he sat comfortably with his legs extended and crossed, that seemed peaceful.

"I hate the food they serve," he confessed out of the blue, eyes still closed. "It almost makes me throw up everytime."

Dolores laughed shakily. "I've tasted it. Good? No. Edible? Yes."

"Barely."

"That," Dolores replied, "is absolutely true."

They fell in a comfortable silence once again. She decided it would be a good idea to take a sip from her Pepsi, which she had bought from a random restaurant half an hour ago after going through the TSA.

She hated this waiting. It was fifteen minutes till the gates would open and half an hour till the plane would take off.

She couldn't help but to chew the inside of her lips in anticipation, a bad habit she had gained ages ago. Ma always complained about this habit saying, "Dolores, you look like you're malfunctioning." Which, she had taken as a big offense, but Ma didn't know any better. She doubted Ma knew what the definition of malfunctioning was.

She brought a notebook with her, in case she needed something to keep her entertained with. Dolores had decided that fantasy would be her new thing, since young adult had failed her. And, in case inspiration ever came up, she had her laptop with, to type everything down.

Dolores pondered over how Ylva was doing since her flight was tomorrow and what was on her mind, knowing her best friend was doing this . . . absurd thing. Knowing her, she'd be like, "What a fucking backstabber." But then again, she didn't know her completely. There were parts in both their lives, which they had been oblivious to.

She snapped quickly out of it. She wasn't supposed to think about this.

"Hey, Dolly?" Kieran shook her gently, and she opened her eyes (she hadn't realized they were closed). "Gates are opened now."

She was startled, but quickly stood up-rather disoriented, picking up her black duffle bag and yawned. Looking at her watch, it said six pm.

"Let's do this."

She had never been more sure of anything, so she gave him a curt nod, in which he returned with a slight smile, and walked to the woman standing in front of the gate.

"Boarding pass, please?" The tall woman kindly smiled, her hand eager to get a hold of. Dolores handed her boarding pass-which was put into her passport, to her, and watched as she scanned both of them, before ripping a part of the pass off. She gave both back with the same smile. "Enjoy your flight."

"Thank you."

She waited as Kieran had to face the same as her (her stomach was on fire now) and when he was done, he picked his hand carriage, and winked at her. They walked further and two guards stood there, wanting to see their boarding passes.

"Safe flight," the guard said kindly, right after checking Kieran and Dolores' boarding passes,

"Thank you," Dolores repeated, returning the smile.

She took a big breath when the air around her shifted, once she walked into American Airlines. Several flight attendances were standing there, their smiles meeting their ears, telling her to have a nice flight.

"Where are we seated?" Dolores asked Kieran once they had passed the stockpile of flight attendances.

"Seat forty six A and B, it seems," he replied, after she had given him her boarding pass.

"Is that near the window?"

"I think so."

She walked, searching for the right number. She saw different kinds of faces as she stepped further, everyone different. Some excited, some emotionless, and others mad at their child for running in the aisle.

"Here it is," Dolores enthusiastically said as she stared at the seats. She looked hopefully at him. "This sounds stupid, but can I sit near the window?"

Kieran grinned, gesturing toward the seat. "It's all yours."

She smiled gratefully as she lifted her duffle bag higher, meaning to place it in the overhead bins, but Kieran told her not to sweat it, so she gave it to him so he could do it for her. She watched as his arms automatically flexed as he picked the bag up and stared at his biceps and admired them for a second before realizing he was turning back around to her. Dolores quickly turned her eyes away before he could catch her staring.

She sat down on her seat, noting that the window was closed so she pushed them up, only to see other airplanes either moving, prepping to take off, or just standing still. A tiny man was loading bags into a plane.

She felt Kieran sitting down beside her and turned around to face him. In the background, she could see people moving down the two aisles. Now that they were seated next to each other, nearly face to face, she could see his features better. He looked exhausted. The bags under his eyes had always been there, so she didn't know if it was the lighting or something else, but they were more prominent than before.

He closed his eyes (he usually had a habit of closing his eyes when talking) and breathed steadily. "I actually hate airplanes," he explained. "They're fine enough, but I just really dislike them."

"Is there a reason for this?"

He shrugged, eyes still closed. "Not sure. I'm scared of heights, so that explains a lot."

Dolores turned to stare at the screen in front of her. "So you're ready to sit in a plane that will take eleven hours and sixteen minutes to fly, despite being scared?"

Kieran shook in laughter at her question and turned to her. "Damn, you've done your research," he said. "But yeah, no-I've managed to fly here with no problem, haven't I?" She didn't reply, and he didn't wait for one as he just stared ahead of him. "Anyway, granny loves it when I'm back home. The reason for why I'm so rarely back home is partly because of this fear of heights, which is such a shame, or else I'd visit more often."

She nodded, noticing how he didn't mention anyone other than his grandmother.

"I get that," she softly said.

She'd visit her relatives too if she had the chance. Not that they were anything too special, but she enjoyed cousin Marilou, who surprisingly enough was the only tolerable one of the whole bunch. She got the automatic A+ in Dolores' book for when she was sleeping in the mattress in her room, complaining about everything wrong about the infamous gatherings the family held.

Unhealthy environment? Yes. Lack of air? Definitely. Was this enough for them to die? Absolutely.

Marilou liked to call herself an empie which was a ridiculous word she had made up. A mix of emo and hippie, but that didn't make sense to her, because she searched up the definition of hippie and got "the taking of hallucinogenic drugs" as an answer. There was a period where Dolores thought Marilou took drugs, so she asked her, only to get a laugh back.

"Sis, I just reject a lot of conventional values."

Dolores had stared blankly at her while she explained the definition for empie. Basically, she listened to a lot of softcore punk and liked to do things that made sense to her.

Weird.

A voice came from the cockpit, the same voice belonging to the pilot. Heavy breathing was heard. "Ladies, and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking."

She stared at Kieran with panic. A good kind of panic. A panic that showed him how excited, terrified, and every emotion out there she could possibly feel at this moment. Most of all, disbelief. Was she finally doing this? Is she really going to do something so insane?

Kieran studied her face with a mischievous smile and offered his hand to hold. She couldn't help but grin, sliding her hand in his. "So, Dolly Reyes, are you ready for the biggest adventure of your life?"

The voice of the captain was still speaking in the background, but right there and then, there was only the two of them sitting there (oh, and also a boy sitting on the other side of Kieran who looked like he could murder anyone who looked at him) and reassuring each other that things were going to be all right.

Grin still in tact, she replied, "As ready as I can ever be."

That was the last thing she managed to utter as the plane started to move, listening to what was left of the captain's speech. And while they got comfortable as the plane readied for take off, she regretted nothing.

And maybe that was a good thing, because there was no turning back.

"I don't know how to tell you this. . ." Tension was (somewhat) thick in the air, and Dolores couldn't help but stare weirdly at the face in front of her talking. "But this was a mistake, and I never intended for it to go this far, but this was a horrible prank on my side." Dolores rolled her eyes at Kieran. "Kidding."

"You don't say."

It had been ten minutes since they were steadily in the air, and the seatbelt sign had turned off. The first thing Dolores had done was go to the tiny bathroom (after walking past Kieran and the dude with the murderous stare) and hyperventilated. She had put light makeup on, but all she wanted to do was throw water at her face to make her snap out of it, despite it ruining what she'd done.

She had put her long, brown hair in a ponytail, seeming much more awake, and walked back to her seat.

"Kieran?" she said as she watched him with his earbuds in, humming to a song he had chosen from the screen in front of him.

He spun his head to face her, removing one of the earbuds, leg shaking in anticipation. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

He nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, just nerves. In an hour or so, I'll be alright."

She turned to her own screen after that, experimenting. They had several films here, including Star Wars. Once again, she glanced at Kieran, and it was obvious that everything here was wrong.

She poked Kieran, getting his attention again. "Do you want to watch Modern Family with me? I hear it's a good show when you need to get your mind off things."

Kieran shrugged, "sure."

She put on the first episode (after giving him the other earbud, but not before checking if it was clean, because that would be pretty embarrassing), the one where they meet the entire family. Halfway through the episode and many laughs later, she turned to him again to see if he had calmed down. She seemed to have succeeded because all his focus was now on the show and not his whereabouts, so she sighed in relief. He stared intently on the screen, amusement evident in his face.

When the second episode ended forty seven minutes later, Dolores laughed, tears in her eyes. "I can't actually believe I haven't watched this show earlier."

"Same here," Kieran agreed, all traces of stress gone.

"So hey," Dolores coughed. "I wrote that list super quick while we were watching the second episode. You remember? All the stuff I wanted to do in London?"

He nodded once.

She picked up the paper, and showed it to him.

"Anyway yeah, that's what I have."

She could hear Kieran shake from laughter after reading the list, and she wondered what the reason was. "You're such a tourist."

"What?" she smiled, not taking what he said to heart. "I'm just writing down the stuff everyone goes to when they visit. My friend Bridget visited some of these places too, and she told me they were great. Except number three and six. Those were my own ideas."

He glanced at the paper again. "Warner Bros studios? You a Harry Potter fan or something?"

Dolores leaned back in her seat. "It's one of the things I enjoy, yeah."

"And number six? Drink real tea? With a big r?"

"Always wanted to drink some."

He laughed. "Right. By the way, can I borrow your pen? I have something to add too."

Dolores shrugged nonchalantly, giving him her pen. While he was writing, she took the liberty to glance outside from her window. It had been around two hours since they had taken off, which meant the time was eight pm and only nine hours left to go.

"Here you go," she heard him say. She took the paper and stared at what he had written.

She scoffed, pointing at what he had written. "I am living. This list is me living."

He shook his head. "I mean," he started. "Don't get too caught up with it, alright? You might be so invested in this list that you forget that these two weeks are meant for fun."

She nodded slowly. He had a point there. She had a habit of getting too caught up in something meant for fun, that in the end, she'd get bored. That was obviously not what she wanted here.

"Can you remind me of this when it looks like I need this advice?"

Kieran smiled. "Sure."

"Thanks."

"Of course," he replied. He glanced at the time. "Do you want to snooze off a bit? I think I'm too tired to stay awake at this point. I couldn't sleep last night."

Dolores nodded. "Sure."

She looks ahead and sighs, once again immersed in her worries. One quick glance to Kieran for no reason, she sees him offering his shoulder and there's just something so casual about the way he does it. She raised an eyebrow curiously at his shoulder and peeked hurriedly up at him again.

He looked at her expectantly, his eyes scrutinizing her.

If Dolores' melanin had allowed her to blush, she absolutely would've. She would also have widened her eyes, but with Kieran's gaze literally boring into her, she didn't want to seem nervous. Especially not when her heart was beating a hundred miles a minute.

Fine, so maybe Kieran happened to be extremely handsome, but that didn't necessarily mean she had a thing for him. Well, of course not. So why was heat creeping up her neck and her cheeks feeling hot?

The answer was simple. She was developing a nasty fever. Yes, exactly.

So she leaned into his shoulder while trying to find a comfortable position with her blanket tucked around her, and waited for sleep to come. Sadly, while Kieran was fast asleep, she had to sit there for at least an hour more with closed eyes, before she could finally get into her much beloved nap.

She had slept for three hours, which was admirable since she wasn't really tired when she went to nap. Kieran had woken her up, telling her that they were going to get served the "disgusting food" now, and she groaned. Who served food this late, anyways?

"I only like the bun they serve. It's edible."

Dolores nodded, going for the bun, completely ignoring the salad, fruit, and the sandwich on the side. She opened it up with her plastic knife and added some butter into it and took it in.

"Not completely disgusting, not completely good," she commented. She wanted Ma's pan de sal right now. "Edible," she agreed.

She drank her sprite, happy that there was something good here.

"Right now, I want to eat the sandwich granny makes."

She looked outside the window again. It was completely dark now and the clouds were gone, but she could still not see anything. Loud baby cries could be heard in the background and all she wanted was for it to stop, since her ears felt like they were ringing.

She finished her bun and stared at the sketchy sandwich in front of her. Picking it up, she decided to try it to see if it really was that terrible. She chewed, and honestly, the taste made her want to throw up. Nausea filled her and she quickly put the sandwich back.

"Yep. Not eating that. I'm definitely finished now."

"I told you so."

"Hey," the grumpy dude sitting beside Kieran said. "Can you quiet down? Someone's trying to enjoy it here." He pointed at his screen where he was watching Jumanji.

Dolores widened her eyes. "Sorry."

She glanced at Kieran and met his eyes. He was on the verge of laughing, so she gave him the same face back, since it was a rather funny moment to the both of them. They had officially pissed off their seatmate.

She moved to whisper something in his ear. "We should put that in the list of things we've accomplished."

She could feel him chuckle at the joke.

She went back to her screen, "Well, unless there's anything else, I'm going to binge the entire season four of Black Sails in next eight hours."

"Go for it, Dolly."

Dolores thought this trip would be awful (disastrous, in fact), but it hadn't even properly begun and she still wanted this time to last forever. So she quickly picked up her phone and said, "Smile for the camera."

Kieran grinned, peace sign up in the air.

It would be a fun story to tell everyone one day. But maybe not her parents. She absolutely didn't need a recipe for disaster.

I hope you enjoyed! A vote and some feedback is much appreciated :-)

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What would be your to-do list if you ever visited London?