falling for you

parting is such sweet sorrow

We've actually had to hurry a bit because somehow, even though having arrived 10 minutes early and having collected our luggage in a very fast manner, we still managed to be late for the bus. Thankfully, we all walked a bit faster and made it to the bus stop just in time for the bus, which made all of us sigh in relief because the alternative would have been to wait for the next bus and probably result in us missing our flight or running to the next bus stop in hopes of catching the other bus that could have taken us to the airport. The bus took us through the crowded streets of the city, driving past the train station from which we took off to Howth from, past the Ha'penny Bridge, which we walked over so many times of this trip and past the Writers Museum, which Elliot and I had so many cheerful memories of, I sat there reminiscing about our trip, missing beautiful Dublin already. Elliot sat right next to me and seemed to be occupied with his own thoughts, as well, which is why I didn't bother him with a conversation as we had already spent all morning talking about everything and anything. Also, I caught him very off-guard with my sudden kiss in the lobby and I wanted to give him some time to process this.

When we arrived at the airport everyone started to get a bit frantic, running around, trying to keep an eye on their luggage, checking for the fifth time in a row whether their passport and plane tickets were still there. During check-in, we've had to wait what seemed like endless hours but in the end, we made it through to security. Realising that the lady at the check-in seemed to have booked us all into random seats, we all started to be quite pissed and the big swapping of places began. In the end, I got an aisle seat somewhat next to Elliot, as he sat in the aisle seat in the row next to mine and some student gladly took my place at the far back of the plane. Our already kind of unnerved mood even worsened when we found out that our plane was going to be delayed by half an hour and the perspective of boring and absurd waiting in the boarding area made me sigh exhaustedly.

The "Giggly Girls" on the other hand did not seem to be disappointed by our prolonged waiting time. On the contrary, they actually seemed to feel very excited about it, quickly getting a postcard out of their bag and huddling together on the floor very closely. They kept staring over to Elliot and me, who were sitting together on one of the benches and reading in our books but I could not help but notice their excited gazes followed by some intense chuckling whenever they saw us noticing them looking at us. After some serious scribbling on the card, they eventually got up and walked over to Sophie, a student of Elliot's, who followed them back to their original seat and leaned over the card, as well. From then on, the giggling got only more intense, occasionally interrupting the girls' whispered conversation. Damn, was I curious what these girls had written on this postcard and I hoped that I'd figure it out sometime.

I was almost certain that I never felt more relieved when we were finally able to board the plane. The long waiting time had only made my body ache more from sleep deprivation, since what we had done last night, despite it being absolutely amazing and breathtaking, had left me getting less sleep than I actually needed in the end. Elliot had been weirdly quiet during the whole waiting process and I had simply blamed it on his tiredness as well but now, as we sat down on our places in the aisle of the aeroplane, I recalled what I had found out last Sunday, his damn fear of flying. I felt genuinely sorry for him and when everyone finally took their places, occupied with themselves, and the plane started to move, I decided to simply take his hand that was shivering once again. He looked so concerned and I simply couldn't help but worry about him, although everyone was able to see it right now due to our unfortunate places. I genuinely had no other choice than to try and support him, to show him that I was there for him, even though it only was for the time of take-off. Elliot had been in his own mind the whole time and didn't notice me getting closer to him, but after the initial reaction of surprise he gladly took my hand and turned a bit more towards me. During take-off, he grabbed my hand very tightly and worriedly looked into my eyes, seemingly close to an anxiety attack. I did my best to keep him sane, stroking over his hand with my thumb, telling him "Babe, don't worry, soon we'll be in the air and then everything is gonna be okay..." over and over again. He couldn't reply anything except thankfully looking at me with these fucking attractive forest-green eyes of his. He seemed to get more calm and tired when we finally reached travelling height and after I let go of his hand, both of us soon closed our eyes, overwhelmed by the lack of us sleep that tortured us, drifting off into our own thoughts and dreams during the rest of the flight that would take us back to Brighton.