Anxiety • part 1

14 • Plane

After I hugged my parents goodbye, I made my way to the lugage drop off. I was terrified of how this would go, but I looked forward to the moment the plane would touch down in LA.

When it was my turn I handed her my passport, plane tickets and Piper's passport. She looked at my shaking hands but she seemed to understand once she saw's Piper's ESA documents between her passport.

"Here it says that you required assistance inside the airport? I will get someone for you right away." She said with a friendly smile and I nodded, my mom arranged that because she knew that if I was left on my own, I'd run and never make it to my plane. I put my suitcase on the scale and my backpack too so she could check their weight before I saw my suitcase disappear with the other. She handed me my tickets and explained where I should be and how I would get first access to the plane.

She also explained me all the rules for Piper again before another woman came to stand beside her.

"This is Madeline, she will accompany you until you board your flight." The woman who checked me in said with a friendly smile. I nodded before looking at her.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked me and I looked at her with a smile before nodding, I looked behind me one last time and waved a last goodbye before putting Piper on the ground and walking with her on the leash. "We will get you through security first but it's rather quiet today so I suppose it will be fine? If it's too crowded, we'll figure something else out."

"Thank you." I said as I counted my breaths and focused on the ground infront of me. Piper just ran alongside us happily and excited.

"What breed is she? Or he?" She asked to take my mind off things.

"Her mom is an Australian Shepherd but her dad is an unknown dog. We think it was a much smaller breed as she's rather small for her age to be an Aussie." I explained and she looked at us with a smile. She was carrying Piper's bag and I had my backpack on my back.

"She's adorable." She said with a nod, we went to the side security check and when I saw the sign above it saying it was for old, pregnant or disabled people, I wanted to just go stand in the regular line. But I knew very well I had pills in my bag and I would hold up the line forever. So I just followed her.

Madeline handed mine and Piper's passports to the security guy to check everything while I unpacked my bag, putting aside the medication and making sure everything was according to the rules.

"We have to pat you down as the metal detector isn't functioning like it should." The security guy said before calling a woman over before I could even propose to just go through the ones in the regular lines.

"Is it okay with you?" She asked while Madeline took Piper's leash from me and the male security guy checked her. Which ended in lots of kisses and attempts to jump against him but he was doing his job with a smile and that's what counted.

"It's okay." I said while I took everything out of my pockets. I held it in my hands while she patted me down and my mind was okay with it. We were standing on the side and my back was facing the other people so I couldn't see a single stare or glare.

"It's all good, have a safe and nice trip." She said with a smile when she was done. I put everything back in my pockets and Madeline helped me put my stuff back in my bags.

I carry Piper a lot, but today she'll be happy with her walks when she has to sit in a plane for 11 hours. She can walk around a little and luckily she's perfectly trained to only pee on a puppy pad but it's going to be a long flight.

"Is this your first time traveling alone?" Madeline asked me as we walked to the boarding gate together.

"No, I did it a few times already but just to Belgium so a 1 hour flight. I've been around the world with my family but it's the first long distance on my own." I said before stopping for a coffee shop, I looked at her and she nodded so I went inside to get a coffee.