THE LAST LETTER

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 17 // 𝑇𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 & 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑁𝑌𝐶

《To be young and in love in New York City (New York City)
To not know who I am but still know, that I'm good long as you're here with me.

I like me better - Lauv》

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We had our early morning flight from Austin to New York. When I had asked mom earlier about going to New York with Lucas, she hesitated at first to let me go to another state alone with him. I know she was afraid because I had never been away from her in the past, but Paul assured her that I was a grownup now and that I needed to understand how it'd be like to be away from home as next year I'll off to college. We both knew that it was a lame reason because he had winked at me while pursuing Mom to let me go, but surprisingly Mom found the reason very reasonable and agreed. I had finally confirmed the fact that Paul was like a guardian angel to me, always supporting me in my every decision. He may not be my Dad but he wasn't less than that either.

Luke and I boarded the plane, and my heart started beating faster than before. It was my first flight ever because there never came a moment in my life where I had to travel by plane, it was always by car, bus or train. We took our seats in the economy class after arranging our bags, and even though I was scared to wits, a part of me was excited too.

I was nervously fiddling with the hem of my shirt when the flight attendant asked us to secure our seat belts. I had no idea how to do that but Lucas leaned forward and helped me to put them. When he was done, he looked up at me and whispered, "Don't worry. You'll be fine. It's not big of a deal. You're rather going to enjoy this whole trip thing. I assure you that." But I was so engrossed in his eyes and his fantastic smell of soap and lemony aftershave that I forgot to reply.

"Grace, you okay?" He nudged and I finally came back to reality and laughed nervously, "Ahh...yes. Yes, I'm fine and It's not about the trip. It's about my first flight."

"Hey, I'm here. It'll be okay." He assured me and with a final caress to my cheeks, he went back to his seat and secured his seatbelt.

I waited with bated breath as the plane slowly rolled towards the runway at Austin airport. I could barely hear the safety announcements; all I could hear was my heart thumping inside my chest as Lucas kept holding my hand the whole time.

Even before I could realize the plane was airborne I sheepishly peeped outside the window and saw myself leaving the world behind. Soon everything that once seemed so significant to me became nothing more than small of dust, and we were flying. All my fear vanished into the clouds as I took in its beauty, feeling as if I was close to heaven.

Lucas kept talking to me the whole ride, to wash away my fear. The flight attendant served us some beverages from time to time. I must've fallen asleep somewhere in between I felt myself shaking and opened my eyes slightly, "Grace, we're here." Lucas whispered, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.

My head had been on his shoulder for four hours; it must have become sore. I quickly got up and brushed myself, flattening my hair and clothes. The flight landed safely, and we took a cab to the hotel after we got out of the airport. It was almost half an hour, and we hadn't succeeded in finding a room as all the hotels were booked for Christmas.

Lucas made a quick phone call to someone; I didn't know until he talked, "Father, yes, we reached NYC half an hour ago."
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"No, I called because no rooms are available at this moment."
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"I'd rather not stay there."
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"You genuinely want to do something about it, then find me a hotel room."
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"Okay, I'll be waiting." Lucas hanged up and I asked, "What happened?"