I love taking flights on my own. No one else to worry about, just me and my stuff, music blasting through my headphones. My favourite flights to take are the ones with barely any people on them because, even if their allocated seat is next to yours, they won't sit in it if they don't have to.
This was not one of those flights. I was one of the first to get on and already there were screaming children and complaining ancients. There was no way I was putting up with this shit for twenty five hours. It was possible that some of them weren't going all the way back to Sydney with me, but even so, some of them could be flying to Dubai after our change over in London. A whole hour (well, just over) of at least six children crying – no thank you – I'd just suffered through a week of kids moaning and yelling constantly for my cousin's 5th birthday. Technically speaking, it was tomorrow, but my band had its first gig in two days and I couldn't miss it, so my parents let me go home early.
Trying my best to tune out the people on the plane, I turned my attention to the people walking onto it and wondered who I was gonna be sat with. Thanks to the randomly allocated seating, I was sat in the middle if the row, meaning I would have a stranger on either side of me. I was kind of spacing at the door, not really paying attention to anything – until I heard the excited shrieks of a group of girls on their first holiday together. I watched as they came through, one-by-one, glancing behind them as they continued to shriek and giggle. It wasn't cold out, but it wasn't exactly warm either, even so, each of these girls was dressed as if they were going out in Barbados, or somewhere equally as warm; tight, short skirts or dresses, thin jackets, plunging necklines, chemically flattened hair trailing down their backs, and ridiculously high wedge sandals. Don't get me wrong, they were hot and I wasn't opposed to looking at them (especially since their attire didn't really cover them), but I still thought it was ridiculous. I couldn't help but watch them as they tottered down the plane searching for their seats, praying they would be sat near each other.
They were. They were also sat near me, one of them was sat on the aisle side of my central seat. She was sat down for all of two seconds before she stood back up – great I thought, this isn't going to be annoying at all. Resolutely staring at the back of the chair in front of me, I could feel eyes on me. After sliding mine sideways, I realised why she had stood up. A girl in black, ripped skinny jeans and a black and red flannel, her hair roped back in a ponytail, was stood next to her trying to get to her window seat. I stood up and muttered an apology as she passed me, feeling like a complete idiot.
"S'okay." She mumbled, her black and white Vans backpack catching my shoulder as she swung it off.
Once we'd all sat back down, she reached into the backpack and pulled out headphones and an iPod. I was already regretting my decision to leave mine in my suitcase – a decision based on 'It's only an hour flight, how bad could it be?'
I wouldn't put that on until they've done the safety briefing if I were you." I said to her.
A smile fluttered across her lips as she nodded in, (what I hoped was), thanks, before she turned to stare out of the widow.
"Luce…Luce!" the blonde girl on my right called. "Can you just prod her for her me? I'd do it myself, but I'm sort of falling out of this top as it is," she wasn't wrong; I was kinda disappointed she hadn't leaned over me actually.
I prodded the girl on my left near the top of her arm. Her head snapped round and I gestured to the blonde.
"What?" said Luce.
"I just wanted to offer you a Werther's for take-off, you don't need to bite my head off" replied the blonde.
"Oh, yeah, thanks, sorry." Luce answered, reaching across me for the sweet.
Looking at them, I hadn't realised they even knew each other, let alone were together. Listening to them, I noticed that the blonde was American and Luce was English. As the plane sped up, they both popped the sweets into their mouths and Luce put her headphones on. I glanced at her iPod as she played the music and grinned – she was listening to 5 Seconds of Summer, my band. She locked the screen and resumed staring out of the window