New beginnings were never easy, Felix knew that. He was waiting on the bus that would take him to the airport, where he would take a flight to America. At first his parents insisted on bringing him to the airport by car, but Felix wanted some time alone before stepping on the plane. He waited by the bus station for about 15 minutes, overthinking his decision. It had all happened so fast, 2 months ago he got the chance to go to America for his last year of high school, and here he was, all packed up. But he wasn't ready. How could he be ready? He didn't know anyone there, and he wasn't the most sociable person. 'It'll be fine', he thought to himself.
Shortly afterwards he heard nearing engines and he looked up to see that the bus to the airport had arrived. He grabbed his suitcase and stepped inside, luckily the bus was pretty much empty. There was an elderly man in the front, and a mother with her kids in the middle. Felix sat down at the back of the bus and put his luggage on the seat beside him. He sighed and got his earphones from his backpack, the drive to the airport was about 20 minutes. He listened to 'Lorena', one of his favourite tracks by one of his favourite artists: Sorrow. He closed his eyes and drifted away on the music, which made him feel better. Suddenly, he felt something touch his leg. Felix opened his eyes and looked up to see the mother of the two children standing over him. He had apparently fallen asleep.
'We're at the airport young man, looking at that suitcase I suspected that this was your destination', she said friendly.
Felix looked outside, they had indeed arrived.
'Thanks for waking me up Miss, this is indeed where I have to get out', Felix responded.
'Don't worry about it'. The kind woman smiled and walked away, her children staring at Felix while they followed her back to their seats.
Felix got out of the bus into the cold air. 'at least it'll be warmer in America', he thought to himself. The bus drove off behind him as he walked through the mechanical doors of the airport of Goteborg, probably one of the ugliest buildings he had ever seen. It was shaped like a box, had too many windows and looked unclean. Felix hated it, he was glad he didn't fly often. He made it past all the security, checked in his bags and 10 minutes later he took a seat at the gateway for his flight. He felt tired and almost fell asleep, when he got a call from his mother.
'Hey honey! Is everything alright?'
'Yeah mom, I'm fine. Just waiting till I can board the flight', Felix said.
'that's great, are you sure you have everything with you? You don't mind you had to go by bus on your own did you?'
Felix rolled his eyes and laughed. 'It's all good mom, it was my own choice. And yes I have everything, for the 100th time'.
'well alrighty then! I'm sure going to miss you Felix…'
'I'm going to miss you too mom, and dad as well. But I'll call every other day at least!' Felix said.
'I'm glad ,it's going to be weird to not have you around but we'll manage!'
Felix noticed that people around him were getting up, apparently the flight was ready to be boarded.
'Oh, boarding has started, gotta go mom. Love you!'
'I love you too dear, we'll speak later!'
Felix showed his ticket to the plane's stewardess and walked over to his seat. Luckily the seat beside him was free, so he had all the space he wanted. He looked around and saw that the plane was about half-full, or half empty, depending on your mind-set. For Felix it was definitely half-full, he was suddenly very excited about the coming year, but he had no idea why. He felt like someone was looking at him, and he turned his head. He looked right into the eyes of a girl sitting 3 rows in front of him. She quickly looked at something else when Felix saw her. She looked about the same age as him, and there was no denying that she was beautiful. She was skinny, but not skin over bone, and she had long brown hair that fell over her shoulders. Felix snapped out of it, realising that he had been staring at her for almost 30 seconds. He never had much luck with girls, and this one was out of his league anyway.
The plane started riding and not much later it was soaring through the sky. Felix turned on his music again and looked out the window. They were above the clouds already, the sun was going down and it was beautiful to see. It was late however, and Felix fell asleep quickly. 7 hours later, he was suddenly awoken by loud music in his ears. He jumped and almost hit his head. With his heart beating fast he concluded that he must have laid on the volume button of his phone or something. He then realised again where he was, and excitement made him jump again. He looked out the window but was disappointed when he saw that they were still above the clouds. Nevertheless, they were almost there, almost in America. He stretched his arms and legs and went to the bathroom, passing the girl from earlier, who was sleeping. In the bathroom, he threw some water in his face to wake him up and used the toilet. He was on his way to his seat when he noticed the girl had woken up. Felix looked at her and she looked back, so he swiftly diverted his look and walked on. He was blushing heavily when he sat down once again.
'damn it Felix, why do you have to be so awkward all the time', he thought angrily. 'just walk up to her and ask her name and start a conversation, for fuck's sake!'
A sudden feeling of determination came over him. 'What can I lose?', he thought. 'We will never see each other after this day anyway!'
So he did it. He walked up to her and asked her name.
'My name is Gaby, what's yours?' she said with a smile, picking up her bag from the seat next to her, offering Felix the seat. He sat down and smiled at her thankfully. He went for the obvious question:
'I'm Felix, nice to meet you. So, where are you headed?'
'Back to the homeland', she said with an accent that Felix didn't recognise. 'Canada.', she said when she saw his confused face. 'I was on holiday in Sweden on my own for the first time, I must say it's a very stunning country! Where are you going?', Gaby asked.
'Ah I see, Canada! I always wanted to visit there someday. I'm heading to America myself, I'm spending my last year of high school there'.
'That sounds an awful lot cooler than Canada', Gaby said laughing
'Haha it depends, I don't really know anyone there so I must say I'm a bit nervous for it.', Felix said
'Trust me, it's great, you'll be just fine', Gaby said and Felix felt his cheeks getting red. He looked for a way to change the subject and noticed that she had her headphones connected to her phone.
'What were you listening to?', he asked
'Oh, nothing really, you probably don't know it', Gaby said.
'You'd be surprised'.
'I was listening to this Slovakian band called Fallgrapp, they make very hipstery electronic pop music', Gaby said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice
'Are you kidding me? I love Fallgrapp, I discovered them recently and I've had their album Rieka on repeat for ever!', Felix shouted. People around them throw mean looks at him but he doesn't care. This girl actually listens to similar music as he listens to?
Gaby seemed equally surprised as Felix. 'Wow, I've never met someone who likes them as much as me, that's so weird! What is your favourite song?'
'That has to be Origami, or maybe Vlasy', Felix said
'Yeah those are amazing, I think my favourite is Ice Cliff though, I love the shifting rhythms in that'
Felix continued his conversation with Gaby for another 2 hours, when he was told to return to his seats, as they were getting ready for landing. He felt like he made a new friend already, but then he remembered that Gaby's destination was Canada, not America. He felt a little sad about this, but his excitement to finally set foot in America canceled that out quickly. When the plane had landed, all passengers got off and Felix looked for Gaby in the mass of people. He quickly spotted her and ran over to her, as she was already walking to her next gate.
'Hey, Gaby! Wait!'
'Hmm? What's up?' Gaby said as she turned around. She smiled when she saw Felix and put down her bag. 'Sorry Felix, I'm really in a hurry for my next flight to Vancouver…'
'I know, I know', Felix said. 'I just wanted to ask you for your number, in case you wanted to talk about hipstery electronic music sometimes'.
Gaby laughed. 'Yeah of course! I'd love to!'
Felix gave her his phone and she adds her number. They say goodbye to each other and Felix watched her walk away. He felt happy, inconsiderate of the people around him. Back in Sweden he didn't have a lot of friends, not good friends at least. Not friends that he could talk to about anything, who knew his deepest secrets. Felix simply didn't have a friend like that. And for some reason he thought Gaby might not have a friend like that either.
He picked up his luggage at the airport and walked into the capital city of the state Missisippi, Jackson. He was amazed by its beauty. Old buildings, large squares and trees on the side of the roads. 'This is way better than Goteborg', Felix said to himself. He made sure he had some American money and then got on a bus to a suburb of Jackson, where he had a room at the campus of the school. It wasn't a long drive as Jackson wasn't a very big city, but it was pleasant. Felix felt a bit strange due to the time difference, but mostly he felt excited. He was still nervous, that's true, but mostly excited.
