-The Flight-

Mom had dropped me off at the airport a few hours earlier. She had wanted to try and get a gate pass to come and sit with me but I told her that they probably wouldn't have given her one. The truth is, since I was still a minor they probably would have given her one—which she knew—but she didn't push it, knowing that this was something that I had to do on my own.

I sat at gate B3 looking around the airport for probably the last time. Though I would see Renee again, she would be traveling with Phil and I probably wouldn't be coming here for a visit. As the woman picked up the microphone walky-talky thing behind the desk to announce the fourth delay to my flight, memories of waiting here in the past flickered before my eyes. Renee and I used to get here a good hour earlier than we needed to just so that we could walk around and look at people. This airport is big. Not JFK big, but multiple large concourses big, and there's a tram that runs between them. This was what we came early for. We would get in the tram and ride it back and forth, eating candy that we'd gotten from concourse A.

One time airport security told us that we had to stop and go sit at our terminal. We were sitting in the window on the ledge. I guess it's for luggage or something and you're not supposed to sit there, though we didn't know that and we didn't see any signs. I had to nearly drag Renee away from the security guard. We spent about twenty minutes riding on all of the moving walkways that we could find and then went back to the tram until it was time to go hand me off to the unaccompanied minor steward. Man was I glad those days were over.

A man sat down next to me pulling me from my thoughts. He was holding out his phone for me to look at and I could see that he had a text from the airline stating that there would be another forty-five minute delay.

"At this point, if they're having this much technical difficulty with the plane, I'm not even sure I want to get on it. I don't like the way they keep turning the engines on and off." He said, looking at me and obviously expecting an answer.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah. I just want to get home." I responded. The word sounded awkward in this context. Home. This was my home.

I went back to studying the carpet, hoping that he would leave me alone. I was staring at the brown and tan swirling pattern with random planes scattered around that was the carpet in this place when I heard him sigh, get up, and go talk to another passenger.

"Excuse me, miss? How old are you?"

I answered, adding "I don't fly unaccompanied minor anymore, it's okay." She looked slightly relieved as she walked away. That was the fourth airport personnel that had asked me that in the four hours I'd been waiting at the terminal. Apparently I look twelve today or something.

I sighed as she walked away and contemplated the word 'home'. I had used it to that man but it sounded weird. Off.

I didn't like it.

I know this was my decision, but that didn't mean that it was really something that I wanted to do. I would be going off to college soon anyway—making a little bit of my time uncomfortable was worth it to make Renee happy.

The woman who had most recently asked me my age came over the loudspeaker announcing that it would be another two hours, but assured us that at that time, we would have a plane ready and we could leave without incident.

'Without incident'. Apparently six and a half hours of my time doesn't count as an 'incident'.

I sighed and grabbed my backpack, heading off toward the tram just as an airport security officer biked by me.

"You just try and stop me this time." I muttered under my breath so quietly I was sure that no one could hear.

There was a soft chuckle behind me but I ignored it, heading off towards the tram.

~.~.~

A/N: Okay, just a few notes. The brief description of the airport is exactly what I'm seeing now, as I sit at B3 waiting for the flight that I should have been on yesterday. This really is horrid carpet. Also, I'm pretty sure that there's no tram here yet, though I believe that they're in the process of making one. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I used to fly Southwest with my younger sister all the time and on Southwest, if you're over twelve you're no longer an unaccompanied minor and can be in charge of another younger minor. That meant that our first flight from my Mom's to my Dad's, I was twelve in charge of a six year old—flying unaccompanied minor. Luckily I had been flying at least twice a year since age five so I knew what to do and all of the airport personnel were incredibly helpful. Once we had a three hour layover and my sister was getting restless, so we rode the tram back and forth. Then it kind of became our tradition during layovers in airports with trams. We would find a candy store (or get a bag of something from one of the kiosks) and ride the trams and moving walkways to help kill time. It sounded like a very Renee thing to do. =) I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend!