After Hours (𝟏)

3. Harmony

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Rainy found herself mentally cursing the infuriating child stuck behind her and fell back against her seat harshly with the hope to get him to stop kicking the back of her chair. He had been at it for the last half hour and slowly yet surely she was losing her mind.

She had taken the window seat with Elijah in the middle and Aunt Lisa on the other side of him. Though the seat beside him was currently empty due to Lisa arguing with the flight attendant to move her to a spare window seat, of course, after her drunken self had caused up quite the commotion, they had reluctantly agreed to letting her have a window seat.

The second in-flight movie began, and as Rainy settled in to try and watch it, she felt herself being lunged forward again.

Cramped conditions. No leg room, even for her short frame she was squished. A perky hostess flitting up and down the aisle, pushing a trolley with a mandatory squeaky wheel, throwing packets of impossible to open peanuts in every direction. Babies screaming, kids running riot, parents ignoring said kids. That was it.

She desperately needed to take a well-deserved break.

"I need to use the, uh, restroom. Yeah the restroom, be right back." She muttered getting up from her seat quickly, though she didn't seem to get very far when she collided into a pair of sprawled out legs. "Eli!"

Elijah let out a half snore, his blue-green eyes snapping open at the sound of his name only to see Rainy staring down at him angrily.

"Huh?" He murmured cluelessly, the wonderful sight of stringy drool hanging from his chin.

She gave him a look of genuine repulsion, scrunching her nose up. Standing in front of him, she placed one hand on her hip and huffed. "Have you been sleeping this entire time?"

"No." He exclaimed in a defensive tone that made her roll her eyes.

Rainy had been talking to him the entire plane ride thus far; she had been so busy staring out the window to even notice that he had been fast asleep. Now she understood why he hadn't been responding, she just assumed he had been so engrossed in what she had to say that he simply didn't have time to respond.

She mumbled a resentful 'whatever' and shoved his legs to the side so that she could get through. As she walked down the aisle, she spotted the man she was dreading having alone time with, hanging out at the back of the plane. He was nearing the bathroom with a magazine glued to his hand and reading glasses on.

Perfect.

As he entered the bathroom, she made a silent prayer hoping he'd somehow forget to close the door. Hot on his heels, she followed him all the way down the aisle and waited for a few seconds. She respected his privacy enough to let him use the bathroom, well that and the fact that she definitely did not want to see his thing.

"Times up," Rainy said to herself, grabbing ahold of the door handle and pushing it down. Just like that, the door flung open. She beamed widely, slightly stunned that she had been right.

Men really were useless.

"Excuse me?"

Her professor froze mid washing his hands, the sound of the water still running filled the awkward silence as he looked into the mirror to see who the intruder was.

"Oh great, it's you." He sighed sarcastically in relief, turning the tap off and reaching for a paper towel to dry his hands off with. "You know I still haven't received that essay from you yet, it's a good thing you found me when you did."

Was he being sarcastic?

When she didn't get the hint and leave, the frown lines in his forehead only got deeper. A small hiss of annoyance left his lips as he threw the paper towel into the bin. "Can I help you?"