Before Take Off

1. stranger

PART 1: LONDON

"You'll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You'll need to be that person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things."

I had never done anything reckless in my whole life. I was the golden girl of my class who studied her ass off until she received the opportunity to attend one of the high schools that prepared you for university.

The education system here in the Netherlands was a bit different at some points, a bit more harder and time-consuming for students, than it was in the other countries, in my opinion. As it was very important for me to keep up with my studies, I never had the chance to slack off, let off steam with my friends.

Also my parents, who were from two different parts of the world (my dad was from Boston, and my mum was from Izmir), were very strict about me attending a proper college. So I had crossed them out of my emergency call list years ago since the only issue they were concerned about was my education.

So here I was, grabbing firmly on the straps of my backpack with my sweaty palms, gazing up towards the boarding time monitor screen as I sat in the middle of two seats, shaking my leg up and down impatiently. My heart was rushing as if it was more than ready to jump right off my chest, jump on a plane and never look back. Or maybe I was just having a heart attack.

I had been sitting on this spot for quite a long time now, I wouldn't be surprised if the seat has gotten etched to my ass by now. There were international people passing by, wandering off to different directions, probably heading to their homes and family as I was doing just the opposite. As much as being petrified about my current situation, I was also feeling kind of content. It was the first time that I was starting off to come out of my shell.

"Hello, could you just budge up please?" I turned my head towards the voice with a thick British accent coming from the left.

"Sorry," I muttered under my breath, scooting over so that he could also sit down. It was then I realized that there were plenty of empty seats all around the surrounding area. But of course he was to pick the only seat next to mine.

I had only taken a quick glance at him so that when he spoke up again a few minutes later, it wasn't awkward that this time I gave him the once-over.

"My flight has been delayed so I've got plenty of time to kill but I kind of lack people to chat with," he said with ease, apparently he wasn't the shy kind.

He was pretty tall (6'4 maybe?) with tan skin and sand brown curls. He had captivating dark hazel eyes, almost brown and he had a slight roman nose, which strengthens his facial features. Although he sounded easy-going, his features stated otherwise. He looked like someone that you wouldn't want to mess with.

I realized that I was no longer stomping my foot and my heart rate had slowed down to a healthy pace, so I decided to take his offer and chat. Not because he was perfecting the smoldering look, obviously.

I extended my hand out for him to shake. "Hi, I'm Ayla and I'm considering booking a flight, well-" I glanced at my watch and darted my eyes back at him, with a sheepish grin plastered across my face. "Just around now."

He chuckled slightly, taking my hand and running the free one through his brown curls. "What an unusual consideration and I'm Lewis. It's more than nice to meet you Ayla."

I let our eyes remain locked onto each other for a few seconds before speaking up. "How could you be so sure that I wouldn't accuse you of perversity?" I challenged, raising my eyebrows quizzically. At the end of the day, if I was embarking on this journey all by myself, the only person that was responsible for my safety was none other than myself. His good looks and bright, self-assured attitude could easily be a sham and I also needed to take that option into consideration.

He just shrugged nonchalantly, "Just a lucky guess, I suppose. So Ayla," his dark hazel irises gleamed with a hint of mischief in them. "Considering the fact that we're both stuck here a while, I assume it wouldn't be inappropriate to ask about your story?"

I tilted my eyebrows questioningly, "Sure, ask away stranger."

"Why are you traveling by yourself?"

I took my time answering that question. It was a long story in fact, or maybe there wasn't even a story to tell and it was just me, attempting to be reckless for the first time in my life. Of course there was this other reason, which I couldn't possibly tell a stranger since I couldn't even accept its reality myself. "It's difficult to put it into words actually," I said smiling up at him. "You could just say I'm an adventurous person, a free spirit." Yeah, you're most definitely that Ayla.

"Well," He eyed me from my toes to my head making my cheeks blush involuntarily. Then a playful smirk settled on the corner of his pale pink lips. "How much of a freedom are we talking about here?"

I punched his arm lightly, blushing even more now. "Working your way up to creepy stranger status, yeah?" There was definitely something off about me, as it was quite unusual for me to converse this relaxedly with people that I've just met, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"No no, not at all," He almost exclaimed with feigned panic. He opened his mouth then closed again right before jumping up on his feet, extending one hand down towards me.  "Wanna continue this conversation over some coffee?"

The animated look on his face made my heart swoon just a little bit, I must admit. I accepted his hand with a careless grin, letting him pull me on my feet. "Yeah okay. On one condition though."

"I promise I won't try shoving you towards the washroom." He scoffed.

A laugh escaped my mouth after his comeback and I craned my neck up to look pointedly in his eyes, tilting one eyebrow.

"Okay, tell me already." He gave in with a heartwarming smile painting his face.

"If it'll be your treat," I stated sweetly in a sing-song voice, making him chuckle once more.

"By all means, I mean wouldn't you take me as a generous person Ayla? Now, this is just heart-breaking."

As we made our way down to the coffee shop, I was starting to think that being reckless wasn't that bad after all.

••••
Sooo, that was the first chapter so far! I hope you like it and if you do, let me know that you do haha!!
DO NOT LEAVE YET! I'll be posting one more chapter after this as this was a pretty short one and fingers crossed my story gets noticed sometime in the future.
Thanks for reading guys! -Cina