Denial [ n.s] EDITING

Chapter 65 - Seat Belts & Salt

Chapter sixty five,
Lea.

Day 7.

"This is it," I say, staring out of the airplane window, it wasn't bright blue skies and white clouds seeing as we hadn't taken off yet, but still. "This is finally happening," I turn to Hannah, untangling her earplugs.

"Yeah," she says, "it's, something"

"Hannah please stop,"–stop treating me like I'm about to break down at any moment. Stop acting like I'm extremely fragile. Stop acting a certain way around me, "–caring so much. I said it then, I'll say it now, I'm okay,"

"Just three days ago you were crutched on your bathroom floor, crying so much, it made it hard for you to breathe. I actually thought you were going to pass out from that, and now? You're okay? Please stop feeling like you have to have a magical armour of strength around you, Lea. Everybody gets hurt, everybody gets vulnerable,"

"Yes, and when I'm hurt and vulnerable, I'll know that you'll be right there beside me, along with bags of Cheetos" screw those ice-cream stereotypes, right?

She sighed, "what ever you say, Scott"

NYU Campus

"Looks like this is us," Hannah says before shoving the key into the door, "this is our home for now,"

"Apparently so," I say, dropping every bag that was in my hand.

We wouldn't have to stay in the dorms full time, seeing as Hannah had distant-yet close enough relatives in the east village. Even though I'd be going back to Los Angeles during holidays and midterm breaks; that'd always be an alternative in case we got sick of the dorm life.

Day 14.

An entire week of being in New York; mainly on campus. Three days of classes; in which I was late for the first one, thankfully Miss Loren was understanding enough to even let me in. To be fair, it was a minute and thirty two seconds late.

I've also come to realise that Hannah and I have zero classes together though that may change seeing as it's still the ad drop period. God knows Hannah's not one with the greatest attention span; regardless of her intellectual abilities.

Hours, days, weeks went by quickly without me being able to even fathom a second of it. Hannah and I had explored almost every inch of the campus; as we were taking on Manhattan one step at a time. After all, we did have the rest of the semester; or university, to explore.

Mom called once, or several times. Though it was me calling more often just to check up on her. The sleepless nights I had made me thank my lucky stars for the time difference that was merely different at all.

She knew though, she knew I wasn't one to get homesick. Sure, I did in Gloucester but she knew I could handle this. Definitely with Hannah by my side, too. She believed in me more than I ever possibly could.

Day 37.

Hannah and I eventually found a group of people who were much like us. It wasn't a shocker that NYU would be a building filled with people from all around the globe. It makes us realize how close we actually moved.