Blue Eyes and Thick Thighs (n.j.h)

Chapter 1

I'd always struggled with body image. My whole life, I was always bigger than all of the other girls. At first, I didn't even realize it.

It started off with, "Ew, you're fat!", in the first grade. Which slowly escalated to, "Die, fat cow," in twelfth grade.

Kids got more and more cruel as they got older, so you could imagine my joy when I finally made it through and graduated high school. And when I did, I decided to get as far away as humanly possible from my home town. Like, overseas far.

It was my choice to move to London, with my two best friends, or should I say my only two friends. When we finally got the chance to leave, we snatched up the opportunity before it could be taken away from us.

Of course, there was no game plan. We just wanted to get away, and that's what we did.
-
I entered the airplane, carry on in hand, Cheyanne as Emily following closely behind me. We squeezed through the small, crowded aisles of the coach section of the airplane for some time before we finally found our seat, near the restroom in the back. We shoved our bags into the carry on compartments above the seats and then plopped down in the the uncomfortable, fuzzy material, blue chair.

"Seventeen hours in this seat is going to kill me." Emily mumbled and she rummaged through the purse in her lap.

"Only if we crash." I said sarcastically, earning a laugh from my two friends, and a dirty look from the old man in the row in front of me.

I bit my lip, trying to hold back laughter as I leaned back into my seat.

A few minutes later, a flight attendant came out to give us the safety speech and then the seatbelt light flashed on. I secured the belt around me and tugged on it to make sure it was fastened properly.

I was a bit uneasy as the plane took off, being as it was my first time in an airplane. But when we got into the air, and we were free to take our belts off and move about the cabin, I was fine.

I thankfully managed to get the window seat, and the view from up here was like nothing I had ever scene before. The tiny buildings underneath the view of the clouds made me realize how small I actually was in this huge world. Much smaller than everyone made me feel on the outside, but just as small on the inside.

I pulled out my laptop and my phone, thankful that we decided to be fancy and spring for the airline that had free wifi. I took a picture of the view from my window and smiled at how well it came out.

I plugged my headphones into my computer, placing the little blue earbuds in my ear, deciding to listen to some music for a little while, seeing that Cheyanne and Emily were busy doing things on their electronics as well.

I turned on my music on shuffle and the first song that came on was "Clouds" by One Direction. I smiled to myself, giggling quietly at how fitting the song was for the situation.

I got a little restless and pulled my purse into my lap, deciding to look through my things. I pulled my passport out and flipped open the little booklet, looking it over. It had a picture of me, and some information about who I was, including my birthday. I was eighteen now, as of only a couple weeks ago. My friends and I had decided to wait until I was at least eighteen to leave the country. I was always the baby of the group. Last to turn eighteen, will be the last one to turn twenty one. It was kind of annoying, but I didn't complain much.

I tucked my passport back into my bag and continue to search through it. I was happy to find an unopened pack of Starburst chewing gum, opening up the wrapper and discarding the trash into my already mess of a purse. I opened the little flap and food a piece from the pack.

"Can I have some?" Cheyanne asked immediately as I did so.

I laughed a role my eyes, handing her a piece and leaning over, offering Emily a piece before she could ask, which she happily took.

I placed the pack back in my bag and continued to look through the bag, sorting through old receipts and clothing tags. Eventually I got bored with this and put everything in my purse, putting it by my feet on the floor.

We were only about 2 hours into the flight at this point, and I sighed, looking around the cabin at all the sleeping passengers. I hated being the only one awake while on trips, it was no fun. But I couldn't wake up the entire cabin, so it was something I had to deal with.

Maybe a nap was a good idea, though.

I left my headphone in my ears, but turned the music down so it was only gently playing in my head. I rested my head agains the window and let my eyes close, eventually able to drift off to sleep.
-
When I woke up, I looked at my phone in my hand and clicked the home button, looking at the little white numbers at the top of the screen.

'1:37 am' it read. I'd slept for a while ten hours. How was that even possible? I never slept that long.

Unfortunately, we still had a whole five more hours on our plane ride before we reached London. I rubbed my tired eyes, looking over at my best friends in the seats beside me. They were both awake now, playing on the laptops an phones once again.

"I gotta pee." I mumbled sleepily to Cheyanne beside me, who sighed heavily when she had to make room for me to scoot past her into the aisle. I made the short walked to the bathroom and locked myself inside, looking at myself in the mirror. I did my business and sighed, relieved that I now was not filled with urine. I watched my hands and looked myself over in the mirror again. My hair was a mess and my eyes had fresh bags under then from the long nap I had taken. I sighed as my eyes trailed down to my stomach, touching it gently. I couldn't see my skin, but I knew what I look liked under my sweatshirt. Ugly.

I shook away the thoughts quickly, rubbing some water on my face to wake myself up before leaving the bathroom and making my way back to my seat.

"Four more hours." I mumbled to myself, relaxing into my seat once again.
-
A few more hours passed and it was almost six in the morning. I felt blissful, watching the beautiful sunrise from my window as we flew over the beautiful English countryside. My favorite part of the whole flight. I took a few pictures of the sight and it wasn't long before we were landing.

It was around six forty five in the morning when we grabbed our things and climbed off the plane.

"Ahhhh." I exhaled slowly, after breaking in the fresh London air.

"Home." I said softly, smiling at my two best friends who stood on either side of me.

"Home." They agreed.