Meeting Cage

Plane Ride

"What brought you here?" asks the kind faced flight attendant with a fake smile, to the tall, dark haired, blue eyed, teenage girl in the seat, Isabella. She's in a dark jean jacket, a white tee shirt, black jeans, shitty, drew-on, black and white Vans, and a Casio watch.

Isabella thinks on that for a moment. It's a long, complicated story, she'd rather not tell it to a stranger. "A particularly shitty cigarette," she answers, raising an eyebrow, "what about you, ma'am?"

The actual thing that brought her here was a particularly pushy mean girl, a snarky, overpowering 10th grade boy, and a crushed pack of cigarettes. For now, though, she doesn't want to go into too much detail.

She had spent months packing, waiting for the day of the scheduled flight to Florida to be arriving. She's not particularly excited about it, for she's sure whoever the hell the guy 'Benjamin' is, isn't that fun at all. He'll probably some pushy, disgusting asshole, and this trip is probably going to feel like the last layer of hell.

The flight attendant looks like someone had pissed in her cereal this morning. The fake smile momentarily gone, even as she tries to regain her composure. She gives slight noise, "Huh, okay, kid. I'll leave you to it. Have a nice rest of your flight."

Yeah, sure fuckin' will, ma'am. Bella thinks, as she watches her past to the front of her cheap economy seat. Bella reaches down into a satchel by her seat on the floor, momentarily glancing at her mother, who gives her an uncomfortably pitying smile. Bella scoffs, "What? I was doing my duty as an American citizen. Educating the public."

Her mom, a tall, dark haired, brown eyes, sneery faced woman, looks like she could've belonged in first class Titanic cabins, with a face that long. Shes only 38, but dammit, if she doesn't look older. She's in a dark blue dress, wide framed glasses, and dainty heels. She scoffs, "Don't talk back to me, young lady."

Bella looks over at her, with a blank, annoyed expression, brown furrowed, mouth slightly open. Then, suddenly decides against it, closes her mouth, and turns away.

The plane ride was seven hours long, and by the time it landed, Bella had already had enough of her mother's mouth. They're walking off the plane, down the baggage claim, while her mom is ranting on and on about being a 'good, decent and kind kid' and scolding her about how good she raised her and that Benjamin would not take Bella's bullshit.

Bella grabs her bags a large, beat up, vintage, sticker covered suitcase. It might be from the 80's but Bella wouldn't know. The stickers on it are 'Dirt Road Comedy', 'I Read Banned Books', Stevie Nicks, and some random, underground bands, local, and otherwise.

Bella's mom says, a little hint of annoyance in her tone, "You're uncle's coming to meet us. He should be here in a couple of minutes."

Bella and her mom make their way to the front of the airport.

There he was.