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“Look, there’s no way I’ll be able to get back… Yeah, I know that… - Jason, It’s not my fault the flight’s delayed! I can’t control it!”
Reyna shoved her fist into the bag of candied popcorn, leaning back against the grimy window and looking down to the other end of the seats, studying an agitated looking boy whisper-shouting into his phone with interest. The airport terminal was almost too quiet, with only the sounds of suitcase wheels and clacking heels providing a break in the endless stream of Christmas carols blaring out the speakers. Not much else was to be expected, she thought, at 12pm the night before Christmas.
Although social etiquette probably dictated she should stare into her phone, or a book, or pretend to listen to music in order to avoid awkwardly eavesdropping on the boy’s conversation, she thought the scene unfolding in front of her was far more interesting.
“I know you didn’t say that… Can you not?... I’m not being moody. Yeah, I have…” The boy looked up, sweeping the room with dark eyes before settling on Reyna. She met his gaze squarely, unashamed at being caught listening in. He raised an eyebrow slightly, then noticed the small mountain of snack bags and empty cups of chai tea that had accumulated at her feet. She glanced down, then back up with a look that was clearly a challenge; Got a problem with it?
Reyna was never one to overly protest and make flimsy excuses, but if she had been, she would’ve marched right up to the guy and wiped his judgy eyebrow-raise right off his face. She’d been hungry, okay? Seven hours spent waiting for a flight did that to you, and she’d missed dinner anyway. The boy raised his free hand in an open palm woah there kind of gesture, and casually pointed at the stack of empty coffee cups next to a black and white skull-print suitcase on the ground. She relaxed a bit, realising she’d probably been glaring a little too fiercely, and took a better look at the guy as he turned and continued talking. He had pale olive coloured skin that made a stark contrast with his black jeans and scruffy aviators jacket, and dark hair that looked as though he hadn’t bothered to brush it. She noticed he was sitting by the charging port, which had a long cable trailing out of it and into his phone. He’d probably been there for around the same time as Reyna, whose own cheap flip-phone had died ages ago. Definitely some kind of Emo , she concluded wryly. She turned her focus back to the boy, who was arguing with the person on the other end of the line again.
“Yes, I did. No… I was busy at breakfast. Yeah… look, I’m eating something right now,” there was a pause, and Reyna fancied she could hear a tinny scoff. The boy glanced at Reyna again, “I am! What am I-? Oh...candied popcorn, if you must know,”
Emo-guy, as it must have been fairly obvious, was not eating candied popcorn, or anything for that matter. He shot Reyna a very similar look to what she’d given him before, silently pointing out that judging would be pretty hypocritical. He wasn’t wrong.
“Is Hazel there?” Emo-guy asked, breaking eye contact, “Ok. Could you-? Thanks... Hey, Sis, how’s it going?”
Reyna didn’t miss the way the boy’s voice softened slightly, and the small smile that played on his lips as ‘Hazel’ spoke. He seemed to go through the same round of questioning as before (or, at least, that’s what she gathered from the varied answers of ‘Yeah…’ and ‘I already have’), though this time he interrupted before they started talking about food.
“How’s Frank?” He queried, not-so-subtly changing the subject. There was a long pause, and Reyna leant closer in order to hear the response. Call her creepy or rude, sure, but this was her only form of entertainment and damnit, she was bored.
“He’s doin’ alright. California’s… different, but a good kinda different. It’s good to be home though,” A softly spoken, New Orleans accented voice replied, then mimicked Emo-guy’s voice teasingly, “How’s Will?”
“Don’t change the subject,” he said, too quickly and with a red face, glowering at Reyna’s curious look.
“Answer my original question, then Nico,” The voice responded, serious again, “Have you eaten anything today?” Emo-guy, or ‘Nico’ now, looked awkward.
“Doubt it!” a voice in the background yelled, and Nico’s expression melted into annoyance.
“Shut up, Leo,” He grumbled “Tell Leo to shut up, would you?”
The voice did as she was told, though in a more polite tone, then went back to arguing with him about proper nutrition.
“My phone battery is running out,” Nico said abruptly, after about three minutes of back-and-forth, “Love you. Say hi to everyone for me-”
“Hang on, I’ll put you on speaker-”
“No, it’s fine really-” he sighed, “Hi guys.”
A jumbled chorus of greetings and what sounded suspiciously like Miracle on 34th Street playing in the background blared out of the phone. Someone randomly burst into an ear-splitting rendition of Jingle Bells. Somehow, Nico made sense of the noise.
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Nope, the flight’s probably gonna be delayed overnight. Hah, no way am I doing that… why don’t you ask Piper’s dad, he’s probably got-” A girl’s voice protested loudly, slurring her words in a way only Nico seemed to get, “-Not that then… Whatever, Percy, shouldn’t you be stuck under the mistletoe with Annabeth right now? Yes, I ate something! Stop asking!”
Reyna watched with amusement as the guy got more and more flustered, finally snapping with a; “Yeah, alright, see you! My phone’s about to die, oh, would you look at that-” He tapped the screen, effectively silencing the loud protests of his friends. He met Reyna’s eyes again, and shrugged.
She got up, and strode over in a few easy steps.
“Mind if I use that?” She asked, pointing at his feet. Nico frowned, then followed her gaze to the charging port and quickly shuffled aside.
“Sure, hang on a moment..” He unplugged his device, and gestured she was free to insert her own. For a few awkward moments, they sat in silence, Reyna fiddling with the cable and crunching on popcorn as the other guy twisted a skull ring round his middle finger in a nervous movement.
“Want some?” She finally said, offering her snack bag to him. Nico began to refuse, shrinking back slightly, but she cut him off.
“Look, I know this isn’t my business, but you haven’t eaten anything in the last seven or eight hours, and your friends seemed pretty anxious about it...”
“They’re family, really. And they’re super overbearing all the time, I’m fine,”
“I get it, but these are really good, trust me. C’mon, do it for the Christmas spirit-” She shook the bag slightly.
“I appreciate it, but I don’t know you, and, like you said, this is none of your business.” Nico cut in, blunt and sounding rather fed up.
Reyna felt her ears turn pink, and she pulled the bag away, cringing inside as her movement crinkled the plastic loudly. The guy turned back to his phone, and they lapsed back into awkward silence. The sound of Mariah Carey echoed across the terminal as she glanced out the giant windows, embarrassed, but not too embarrassed to just get up and leave. She was not going to just give up like that.
“I’m Reyna,” she said, and the boy looked up, confused.
“...Nico,” he muttered, doing the judgy-eyebrow thing again.
“There you go. Now we know each other,”
“I- What?”
“I’m not trying to be a pest, or a creep, but eating’s essential, and this flight’s gonna be delayed for at least another two hours. I’d rather we weren’t just sitting here in awkward silence,” Reyna sighed.
“You can always walk away,” Nico grumbled, but, miraculously, took a handful of candy-coated popcorn anyway. Reyna smiled to herself, and pretended not to hear him.
“So, if we could um, pretend you didn’t hear that entire phone conversation, that’d be great,” he said, after a minute of crunching on snacks, before adding, “These are… pretty good actually.”
“I know, right?” Reyna grinned, “And I totally get the family thing. I’ve got a friend who's a bit like that, though I always put that down to her being a New Yorker. That’s where I’m headed, actually, though I probably won’t make it until Christmas dinner,” She looked ruefully over at the board, still displaying the glaring red DELAYED sign next to her flight. Nico was quiet for a moment, and she turned back to see him watching her with a slightly guarded expression.
“Oh. Too much?” She asked, flustered. She’d never been one to give away personal information like that, or act so friendly to someone she’d just met, but something in her had just wanted to make the kid smile. Mentally, she cursed herself for being so stupid.
“No, it’s fine,” Nico said, surprising her in his sincerity, “Just… same.”
“Pardon?”
“Well, I’m heading back to Long Island to see everyone, and I won’t be back until tomorrow night. So, y’know, same,” He finished awkwardly.
“Delayed flights suck,” She nodded, “I assume ‘everyone’ is the phone people?”
Nico snorted.
“That sums it up,” he said wryly. His phone buzzed on the seat next to him, and he turned it over to see a series of text notifications on the screen. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, and his thumbs flew across the screen at an astounding speed as he sent a string of messages back. Reyna glimpsed the contact name (‘Will’) before turning back to her own flip phone. She drew the line at watching someone else’s device over their shoulder.
“Sorry. That’s um, just my boyfriend,” Nico said awkwardly, stowing his phone away, but Reyna had stopped paying attention, having caught sight of outside.
“It’s snowing,” She breathed, close enough to the large windows to see the glass fog up.
“You act like you’ve never seen it before,” Nico deadpanned, but she could see the smile in his eyes.
“Hey, I grew up in Puerto Rico, excuse me if it’s a bit of a novelty!”
Immediately she felt a wave of fear and embarrassment wash over her. She never told people about her childhood, but all of a sudden, it had just slipped out. She was sure she must look stupid, and her ears were definitely red now.
To his credit, Nico didn’t look phased. In fact, he wasn’t really watching her, staring instead at the large clock on the arrivals and departures board. She frowned, then followed his eyes to the sign. The time shone out at them, bright and harsh.
00:00
She looked back out at the dark night sky, dotted with flurries of snowflakes, dancing towards the ground, and smiled slightly.
“Merry Christmas,” Nico said softly.
“Merry Christmas,” She replied.