My Garden || Dreamwastaken

29

  I shook my head and looked at myself in the mirror, letting out a deep breath. I ran my fingers through my wet hair and looked at the towel still wrapped around my body.

  "Stop having a staring contest with yourself or you're gonna be late." Joey's bored voice came from the bathroom counter.

  I rolled my eyes and moved the phone so it faced the ceiling. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm moving." I started to pull the clothes that I had set out onto my body.

  "Well move your ass quicker. You could literally be a zombie and he wouldn't care. Stop stressing out." He laughed. "You don't wanna make Riley late either."

  I pulled my hair out from under the sweater I had put on. "Not planning on it. I'm just excited. I didn't sleep like at all last night."

  "He didn't either, dumbass." He pointed out. "You were literally on the phone with him."

  "I know." I picked up my phone and brought Joey with me as I went over my packing again. "You just have no idea how excited I am."

  "You're right. It's not like you've been telling me how excited you are for the whole two month wait." He remarked sarcastically.

  "I'm sorry." I really did feel bad that he had to deal with my bullshit. "Thank you for dealing with me."

  He shrugged. "It's part of the job description. I'm here for the whole ride. Plus, I can use you for another banger tweet."

  I rolled my eyes at him. "You doing that now?"

  Joey shook his head. "No. Soon."

  "That's not menacing at all." I snickered and placed the two bags onto my bed. "I think I'm all set."

  "Now you wait for Riley to hurry up her ass." My phone buzzed and he perked up. "Speak of the devil?"

  I walked over and looked at the notification, a smile breaking out over my face as I read it. "Yeah. That's her. I love you, stinky. I'll talk to you later."

  "Love you too, bitch." He blew a kiss at the camera and hung up.

-=-

  I didn't think I'd be able to sleep on the flight, but I was sorely mistaken. I spent nearly the whole flight with my head rested next to the window, sound asleep.

  I woke up as we were landing and recomposed myself. I tried my best to fix my mess of hair, but got distracted by the view out of the window. It was in times like those where I loved flying, watching the approaching buildings that looked like an ant's society from the air. It could make your problems feel so small and insignificant.

  I was getting more and more impatient and nervous the closer that we got to landing. I wanted to get off of the plane right that second and run to Clay's arms, but at the same time I never wanted to leave my position in my seat even as the rows in front of me began to exit the plane. I was afraid of how things would be between the two of us. It was our first time seeing each other in the context of our new relationship.

I picked up my backpack with the straps of my ukulele's case tied around it. I wouldn't have brought it if Clay hadn't asked me to, but I was lucky it was a small enough instrument to not cause a problem.

I took my suitcase and tried my best to just lay low and not be near many people as I left the plane. My insane social anxiety and my fear of COVID worked together to make airports terrifying. My general nerves were not helping the situation as my eyes darted from person to person.

I took my phone out and typed in the code to unlock it, not having the luxury of Face ID with my mask on. I went to my messages with Clay and saw he had already texted me.