Gold, love and mint tea (Yuzuru Hanyu )

33 - Experiences

It's not hard to spot people about to miss a flight. They're weaving between on-time travelers at a speed somewhere between a power walk and a sprint, or they're elbow-dancing their way to the front of lines. They look panicked, maybe red-faced. Their suitcase's wheels probably won't cooperate for portions of their journey, sending it flailing behind them as they move as quickly as their heavy baggage allows.

I was usually not one of these people, always choosing to be compulsively early and spend hours at the airport, because for some reason I find them relaxing. No one knows me, no one can bother me and above all I can shut my phone off to stop its notifications from incessantly nagging me and be able to claim that I didn't have mobile service in the terminal.

This why I should have known that by agreeing to let Chris and Roman sleep over at my apartment the night before our flight to Canada was a monumentally bad idea. I thought that at least she would have all her stuff packed and that wouldn't delay us in the morning but I had not taken into consideration that it would take us twenty five minutes to wake her up and that she would spend another thirty in the shower.

The three of us are now running through the airport at the crack of dawn, Chris bumping into people while Roman and I were trailing behind her shouting out 'sorry' and 'excuse me' to said on-time travelers. As we finally come to a halt in front of our gate, heaving and sweaty, I exhale with relief when I see that we haven't missed our flight.

"Good morning..." the flight attendant greets us with a practiced smile as I show her our boarding passes "We were just waiting for you, please go ahead. Your seats will be to your left once you board the aircraft."

"Brilliant!" Chris smirks, dragging Roman towards the plane "I knew we weren't gonna miss the plane!"

"Thanks..." I grumble to the lady, rolling my eyes in Christina's direction "The only reason we're late is because your damn ass couldn't be bothered to wake up on time!"

"Oh Darianka, love! I know you like my arse but please be discreet about it!" she laughs, winking at a cute flight attendant as we enter the plane "No need to advertise that to everyone!"

"Shut it Chris!" I huff, pulling them to the left when I see that they're heading in the wrong direction.

"Where are we going? Our seats are that way!" Roman protests, frowning at me when he sees me heading towards three business class seats.

"And that is the reason why we did not miss the flight!" I exclaim with mock enthusiasm, shoving my carry on into the overhead compartment with may more force than necessary "I had my dad upgrade us to business class when it became clear we were running late. That's why they waited for us..."

"Bloody awesome!" Chris says with a satisfied sigh as she plops down in the aisle seat.

"Woah! But that must have cost a fortune, I'm not sure that the federation will cover that!" Roman starts protesting once again. At least one of my friends has a sense of modesty...

"Don't worry it's on me... My dad used miles anyways and he has a ton of them... Travels all the time..." I mumble while searching through my backpack, trying to find my headphones. When I finally dig them out of the depths of my bag I toss it onto the window seats before turning to Roman and flashing him a tired smile "Do you mind if I take the window seat? I really can't deal with her for the next twelve hours..."

"Go ahead... We all know that you hate the middle seat regardless of how annoying Chris is being..." he says knowingly, grabbing Christina's legs to let me pass through.

"Thanks Rom'!" I giggle at the sight of Chris silently trying to free herself from his grip "You truly are the best!"

"Don't I know it!"