Take Me To Hawaii

6. Gate Closes 45 Before Boarding

The room looked like something Katie had only seen on inmate prison interviews. Cream walls only filled with four metal chairs and a complimentig table. One of the walls was adroned with a mirror katie was certain to be one-way. Oh no. She panicked. She can't be arrested. She can't have a criminal record! She was supposed to go to Columbia next year. There's no way they'd still let her go with prison experience!

"Wait here." One of the guards said as they left the room. The other stood to the side staring down at Travis and Katie.

After twenty minutes Travis' panic had completely deflated into a boredom. He blew his curls out of face, resting with his arms behind his head, feet kicked up on the table.

"Travis put your feet down!" Katie sighed exhausted. Time had flown through the room at an undefinable rate. Had been an hour? Ten minutes? Katie couldn't place it. Her nerves had skyrocketed thinking of worst and best cased scenarios. Her knee tapped. Any longer spent in this plain, anxiety-inducing room and she worried she'd bite her fingernails down so low none of her nail polish would remain apart from the the smudges over skin from her impatient nature and immediate need to make a coffee.

God she could go for a coffee right now.

Travis continued to ignore her, rocking back and forth on the chair, bobbing his head to silent music resonating in his ears.

"Travis-" Katie warned. He continued to ignore her.

"Oi." The english accent of authority scared Travis causing him to almost fall from the chair. He scramble to grab the table, legs falling to the floor. "I'd listen to the lady if I were you."

The man walked in and slumped into the seat infront of them. He leaned his forearms on the table, his posture towering towards them. He was dressed in a white shirt. A blue tie hanging loose from under his collar.

"I was supposed to go home." He said. He looked at the guard still standing by the door they entered. He shuffled, stepping closer to Travis and Katie, as if he'd be safer beside potential criminials than the man before him. "But instead, I'm dealing with two idiotic teenagers who thought Fun-snaps are safe to bring on a plane!"

He slammed the box down onto the table. It beamed up at them in canary-yellow glory. The red and orange comic-book explosion reflected in Travis' widened eyes. He looked up.

Katie's mouth dropped.

"How stupid are you!?" She yelled at him. Travis cowered under the volume, smacking a hand to his ear.

"I told you to listen to the lady." The man said again. He loosened his tie fully, leaning back in his chair "You're not in any trouble - mainly because I can't be asked to deal with this right now - but someone needed to give you two a stern talking to."

Travis opened and closed his mouth a few times, words seemed to have been taken from him. Maybe he'd packed his brain into the hold luggage and shipped it off to the plane. The man picked up the box.

"This-" He said shaking it "cannot go on a plane! It is an explosive! It contains gunpowder!"

Travis nodded staring into his lap.

"What is it?" The man asked, patronising in his tone.

"An explosive." Katie stayed silent staring at Travis as he answered the man.

"So it can't...what?" He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Go on a plane." The man picked up the box and tossed it into a trash can in the corner. He pulled two pieces of paper and two pens from God knows where, pushing them towards Katie and Travis. "These are to say that you understand what I've told you and you accept the warning. Refusal to sign these will result in additional charges and then we have to skip to the whole 'whatever you say can be held against you in blah blah blah'. You don't want that do you?"