Chapter Text
Max checks the boarding pass again. Seat 14A. Then she looks up to row 14. The middle seat is occupied by a blue haired girl, wearing a dark blue beanie, looking out of the window, as that is the most interesting view she has ever seen.
Great. Just great. To move on to seat 14A, I have to ask her to get up and make space for me to move through. God, I really don’t want to do this.
Max’s heart is beating faster and her fingers become sweaty.
“Uhm, excuse me, you are …” Mid-sentence Max stops. Her voice is so tiny compared to the loud noises, the airplane already makes, that she couldn’t even her herself speaking.
“Is this moving forward or what?!”
“If we don't leave on time just because someone is too stupid to find their seat, I'll miss my connecting flight!”
“What is even the problem?”
The tension among the passengers boarding behind Max increases. She can feel the impatience of the other people, accompanied with the noise of people putting their bags above their heads. Conversations about which electronic devices are held, a father asks his wife or girlfriend to remember to get some toys for the kids out as well. Other passengers are adjusting to their seats, some read the safety cards, others are already testing out the headphones. Here and there, the clicking noise of the seatbelts can be heard. A baby is crying and soft elevator music is playing in the background.
Max takes a deep breath, counts to three and says: “Excuse me?”
The blue-haired girl is not reacting. Just now, Max notices the earphones, she is wearing. Which explains, why her head is bouncing to a noiseless rhythm, her fingers tapping the beat to it.
Max wipes her hands on her jeans. Her boarding pass is now completely crumpled and slightly damp because her sweaty fingers are clinging to the piece of paper. She's already anxious enough about the flight itself, why is it so difficult to get to the seat?
“Hello?!” The woman behind Max is yelling, as if she is not only stupid, but also deaf.
She has been so loud, that the blue haired girl is looking into the row now, frowning slightly. With a slow movement, she is getting one earphone out.
“You sitting here?”
“Uhm … actually. Yes. 14A.” Max points the window seat.
“Sure, why didn’t you say anything.” The girl smiles and moves her legs up to her chin, to let Max through.
“Finally!” A woman yells, as Max moves through to her seat.
“Thank you.” She says and smiles at the girl, but she already put her earphone back in and is nodding to the rhythm again.
Max sits down, places her stuff underneath the seat in front of her, as advised, gets adjusted with her pillow and blanket and gets out of her shoes and puts the airplane socks on.
Now that she has settled in, panic is setting in about the upcoming flight, building a nest inside of her chest, not thinking about leaving at all. She clings to the armchairs, breathing faster and closing her eyes. The noise, the other people are making, is raising her nervousness.
At some point, all the passengers are seated and the flight attendant is walking up to the front to demonstrate the safety procedure. The girl next to Max looks up and down the aisle. “Uh, perfect!” She unfastens her seatbelt, to move to the seat next to the aisle and sits down comfortably, as she now can occupy one and a half seat. She is watching the demonstration with glowing eyes, smiling all the way through, as this would be just another great television episode. Max decides to study the safety card and tries to shut out the images her brain thankfully produces.
A plane is even safer than a car. At least, that’s what I heard. Nothing will happen. You will get in the air, fly to San Francisco and then land. Safe and sound. There you will take your first big step as a photographer. That’s, what you always wanted. Your dream comes true. Come on, it’s so worth it. Right?
The buzzing of the plane is setting in and Max gasps, when it starts to move. The girl next to her shoots her a look, but Max is too afraid to look back. Her fingers tighten around the armrest, so the white colour stands out. She avoids looking outside of the window. It makes her fear even worse, when she sees, how the world becomes smaller and smaller. For most the of people it is the best part of flying, but not for Max. It is just terrifying to see, how tiny they become, the further they fly upwards. As if nothing matters, because they are just a tiny piece in the chess game of the universe.
She is closing her eyes, breathing in to her nose, out of her mouth, but it is not working.
“Shit,” she mutters.
“You alright?”
Max turns her head to see, that the girl, who is now sitting cross legged in her seat, is looking at her with a concerned expression.
“You are a bit pale. If you have to throw up, let me know beforehand, okay?” She contorts her face.
“No throwing up,” Max breathes out. “Just … freaking out.”
The plane moves even faster now and the noise is becoming louder. Max is closing her eyes, but it makes the noise even worse, so she is opening them again and tries to focus on her breathing rhythm.
“So … you are afraid of flying?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
The girl looks at her for a second with an expression that is difficult to interpret, then she stretches out her arm and covers Max’s hand with hers. It is warm and feels good. Something to focus on.
The plane is speeding up, and then there is that one second, where you feel the little bump, right before it leaves the ground and is up in the air. The part, Max is most afraid of.
“Hey, did you know, that a T-Rex has up to six litres of snot in its head?”
“What?” Max turns her head around to the girl in confusion.
She just shrugs. “Yeah, I know. Pretty wild, huh? It’s already sad enough, that they have these tiny arms everybody makes fun of and then a brain full of snot? Poor things. I mean … is there even space left for a brain? No wonder, they had been so aggressive all the time.”
“Well …” Max frowns and starts to think about it.
“Looks cute, when you crumple your forehead like that.” The girl says with a grin.
“What?!”
Now she laughs. “I think, it works.”
“You mean … you charming me?”
She squeezes my hand and removes it from mine. “No. Actually me distracting you, but I take the charm as well, thank you.” She indicates a bow.
Max frowns, but looks out of the window and realises, they already broke through the clouds. I … totally missed out on the bump. I totally missed out on … the scary part. Thanks to the girl next to her.
Max looks at her again. She is busy with tapping on the screen in front of her, not realising, that she is observed. She got out of her hoodie and reveals a huge tattoo on her arm, which contains blue butterflies, a skull, red ribbon and also thorn leaves. Wow. That must have hurt a lot. I would love to take a picture of it, but … I can’t ask her. That is too personal and too … out of the blue. She will ask, why I take pictures with an old-fashioned polaroid camera and I really don’t want to explain it. Most of the people don’t understand.
“Thank you.” Max says and the girl looks to her.
“For what?”
“For … distracting me. It really helped.”
The girl grins. “At your service. By the way –“, she reaches out her hand, “I am Chloe.”