My Best Friends Wedding [Zarry Stylik]©️

The reunion thing

H,

05/01/2023 - 16h55 - T2 - BRIT251 - Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) - British Airways - Estimated: 16h55

I parked the car at the airport. I couldn't believe I was here. I looked at the building buzzing with life, with people coming and going, and I trembled inside. I've been trembling for the past 48h now. Even though this moment has been in the works for six months. Even though the reason for his arrival has been known since one year prior.

I am nervous. So nervous I could throw up.

I grip the steering wheel looking at the doors welcoming travellers and I want to go. I want to leave right there and then because the anxiety is killing me. My knee trembled inside the car, making it shake slightly. I am lost for words.

Come on now, you can't sit in the car eternally. You must get out.

Looking up I see an aeroplane roaming the skies and I wonder if it's him up there looking down on me. Poetic. Nerve-wracking, but somehow beautiful.

"Okay," I say to myself. "It's just a trip. It'll go quickly. It's just a weekend. With your friend."

I repeat the line over and over.

I looked at my hand sitting on the wheel, I had a ridiculous amount of rings on each finger. Suddenly, I'm self-conscious. Not that he wouldn't approve or would say something foul, I just...didn't want any gimmick between us. I watched all of them carefully, but one has my attention. The one on my index finger with a rose on it.

I had bought it one day after he had insisted on me getting it - almost bought it himself for me. My rings all had meaning, helping me through tough times and when I was nervous, but this rose one...rarely left my finger at all. I don't know why...out of instinct perhaps, I just take all of them off and keep the rose one. The special one. The one he saw and insisted on me getting.

"It suits you," He said, holding it out to me. "A beautiful thing, for a beautiful person."

I kissed the ring, taking a deep breath in.
In a split second, I gained the necessary courage to get out of my car and walk to the main building of the airport. I navigate the sea of passengers, staff, pilots and crew, police, and security as I make my way to the destination: the arrival gate.

Of course, when I arrive there was a horde of people there waiting for their loved ones. I see entire families, drivers picking up their clients, people dressing up as a surprise, and flowers - so many flowers and balloons. It was beautiful.

I looked at the board next to me and my heart sank as I read the information:

05/01/2023 - 16h55 - T2 - BRIT251 - Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) - British Airways - Landed

Right on time too.

"Shit,"

The word comes rolling through my lips with a sigh. I made a quick math in my mind: so, he was to leave the plane, go through security, get his bags, and then come out. A solid...twenty minutes or thirty, depending on how big the line is and how many flights come at the same time.

Maybe, if I run away and claim that I was late, he can catch a cab all the way there?

Would that make me a horrible person?

Yes.

Also, I couldn't possibly do that to him.

So, I take a deep breath and hold my ground, seeing a few people come out. None of them is whom I'm waiting for.