Over The Ocean

“Sir,” I looked up from my daydreaming and looked at the woman behind the desk. Her hair, a whitish blond, was pulled back into a ponytail. I cursed silently at the smile she gave me. It was kind of creepy, to say the least. Why were all these random women trying to undress me with their eyes? “I’m sorry, what?” I heard my mouth reply without my brain present. “Your flight have been delayed and will be about two hours late.” Well great! That’s just great. I wanted to get home to pick up Nikki at my parents’ and go back to the house and sleep away the rest of the day. “Thank you.” I muttered instead of the things that passed my mind. I hated these things. I felt like a caged animal. I bent down to pick up my bag and guitar and started walking toward the benches. This plane seemed to be empty and probably boring. I sat down and looked out the window for a while when my eyes wandered towards the reception again. In the line there stood a short woman, her long hair in one braid over her right shoulder. When she turned around time stopped, and my breath caught in my throat. ------- I turned from the reception just as I remembered manners. “Thank you.” I smiled at the lovely woman. Stupid weather, now I would surely miss the connecting plane to Los Angeles. I picked up my small bag, as I was able to check in my suitcase at the check-in with Angela, at least that's what her name tag said. I checked so I did not forget anything on the counter or floor. At least she had said it would work out with the ticket and luggage when I arrived in Dallas. I thought about my travel plan. First to Los Angeles, to Josie, then to Miami to Eliza and Herb and then we would drive down along the Miami coast and Everglades Park. I had a week left of my short, but long-awaited, vacation that was squeezed into the gift I received. Not that everything had been given. I earned alot of it myself, but a large contribution was from mom, dad, grandma and grandpa. I already missed Casper but was well aware that he was having a great time with his grandmother and grandfather. Stop thinking about it now, I said to myself as I turned around and saw that there were a couple of vacant seats. One was opposite a really good-looking guy and the other was next to him, the other seats were further away from the gate and I wanted to sit as close to the gate as possible. I forced my feet to the seat opposite the handsome guy and then sat down. I picked up my book and read for about a minute. "Hi." said someone with a dark accent. I looked up and blushed when it was Mr good-looking who talked to me, his blue-gray eyes looked straight into mine. "Hi." I answered automatically, maybe he wanted to ask if I could move? He held out his right hand. "I'm Derek. Derek King. ” "Rosie." I answer. "Or really it's Rosanna, but I'm called Rosie." "Rosie-" he said, as if he was testing how it sounded in his mouth ... I put my handbag in my lap and looked at his clothes, he was wearing a white t-shirt, black leather jacket and black jeans. Not really clothes I would wear when flying. "Let me guess… Europe?" he ask interupting my thoughts “I live in Sweden. But my mum was born in UK.” I answer and smile "And you?" "I was born here in New York, but I live in a small house in LA with Nikki." He says quickly. "Oh." Of course he had a girlfriend! “Do you want to see a picture?” he ask, reaching for his jeans. Before I can answer, he has fished out his phone and pulls up a photo so I nod and smile politely. The picture was taken in daylight at the beach, a smiling Derek was looking into the camera while one of the absolute cutest dogs ever sat beside him. She had a long fringe that was pulled up in a tassel and looked like a rich vanilla icecream in color. "Oh how precious!" I look up at him. "She´s gorgeous!". I meet his proud and big smile. “She’s a Goldendoodle, extremely friendly and nice.” He says as he keeps staring at me. “So, where are you off to?” I say and return the smile. “I’m actually going home, I was in New York, to meet with my manager.” He nods down at a guitar I didn't notice before. “You play?” I respond. “Don’t sound so surprised, I play and sing.” He looks a little offended, but I get the feeling that he's just playing around. “Are you any good?” I inquire, but all my mind can think of is his lips. His lips looks so very soft and kiss friendly. Come on, Rosie, you've just met the man! The more sensible side of me looks over her book with a face full of dissatisfion. “My family and my friends think so. My manager had me coming to New York to meet some important music people, that is why I’m overdressed for a day on the plane, I just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.” “Would you play something for me?” “Now?” he ask in surprise. “Are you shy?” I snicker. “No!” he exclaims and let out a hearty laugh. We change topics and talk about the plane and I tell him I'm going to LA, just like him, and that I'm going to sleep over at a friends house. She moved there three years ago from the UK, before that she lived in Sweden a street from me when we grew up, we talk about a little bit of everything and time quickly passes by. I sit with my hand over my mouth and hold in a laugh as he tells me about when he tried to be gallant and serve his friends the drinks he mixed a few weeks ago. It had not gone well. Then I remember our conversation from earlier. ”So do you want to play something for me?” He smirks and looks towards the gate before looking back at me. “How about, you come with me to my place in LA and I’ll play for you then?” While the alarm bells should have rung in full, I did not feel afraid or threatened. I had just met him but I knew this was a man who would definitely not hurt me. Yeah, that’s what every serial killer victims all said “Oh I felt like he would never hurt me”. "Are you asking me out?" I ask him. "Please let me show you my city Rosie." He looked me deep in the eyes and gave me a heartfelt smile. “You know nothing about me!” I exclaimed without thinking. It is quite stupid to ask a stranger to accompany you home. He stopped smiling and thought for a minute or two. "Are you a rapist?" I chuckle and shake my head. "Do you want to kill me?" he ask. “No.” I answer. “How old are you?” he ask “I’m 21.” “I’m 22. When’s your birthday?” “The 9th of October.” “Mine’s 30 of March, see I now know all sorts of things about you. Just FYI if you don’t want to come with me I’ll have to follow you, because I need to know more about you.” He leans in while he's talking. "Well…" I say while thinking, I would be going to LA anyway and I could always call and ask Josie and she knew or ever heard of Derek King. "I have to make a phone call first." "Then you have to do it fast, because we're boarding in five minutes." I check in surprise at the clock which confirm that he is right, we've talked almost two hours! People start to gather at the gate. I walk a bit away from Derek and dial Josie's number. Three signals goes by before she answer. "Hello?" "I'm sorry, did I wake you?" I ask because she sounds really tired. "Yeah, but I should really get up." She says, sounding like she is waking up. ”No, stay!” I hear a complaining voice from her background. "Josie, who’s there?" I ask, she said she lived by herself. "It's just Trey. He's my very hot and sexy neighbor. " "Right…” I pause for a few seconds and hear shuffeling “Am I disturbing?" "No, not really-" she begin to breathe a little faster and if Im not mistaking there is a little more going on than I want to know- at least right here and now. I turn around and look back at Derek as he sit on the bench looking at me. “Josie! Focus! Do you know of someone named Derek King? I just met the guy at the airport, we've talked for a while now and he asked me back to his place in... ” ”What!” she yell. I hear Trey, I suppose, grunting so she's probably pushing him away. “Oh hell no. I'm so jealous of you- If you do not at least kiss him I'm going to K-I-L-L, kill, you!” “Wow, wow, wow. Remember the two-and-a-half-year-old chaos I left and have to get back to, at home? That's really not fair to any guy. And yeah he’s cute and totally hot, but… ” "Yeah, show him your but!" "Really." I roll my eyes and sigh. "Is he safe?" “He’s a hot pussycat. He’s extremely friendly and nice, blah blah. I have a friend who almost got into his pants… ” “Wow, that sounds like a really good story but I'm sorry my plane is boarding now. Bye, Josie! ” “Don’t forget to bring him by my place and, please, please, please, get inside his pants!” she say with way too much eagerness. I look down at the phone in my hand, like it would somehow feel with me, I shake my head and put it back in my bag. I reposition my handbag on my shoulder and walk back to Derek. ”Well?” he says. ”Sightseeing or the beach..?” I pick up my bag and walk over to the flight attendant who is checking tickets. When she’d scanned mine, I'm allowed to border, I then find my seat and sit down. I look out the window and lazily follows the instructions about emergency exits and safety precautions, I had already flown twice in the past week so it was pretty fresh in my mind. Where to run in case of a crash and that the oxygen masks were above us, how to put them on and so on. Then seat belt sign turned red and soon after the plane started to roll out of the terminal. Now there was a good four hour flight ahead where I would, hopefully, get some sleep so I could face whatever Los Angeles had to offer when I arrived, but it was still almost ten hours away. I soon drifted of thinking about the last time I had been with a guy. It was so long ago, over three years ago. In the end he’d been a complete as, that night he’d been in a carcrash. The last words I said to him was “Get out and leave me alone!”. The regret hade been killing me over and over. If I’d said something else or done something else, maybe just maybe he would’ve stayed in with me and not gone out with his friends that night. All of them lost their lives, the crash was horrible. One of them had been in coma for about a week, before his body gave up. The doctors said that, had he pulled through he’d most likely never recovered. His spine was broken and there were bleeding and swelling in his brain. But Arvid was dead before anyone got there, the doctor and cop that talked to me and his dad said that he’d died instantly. Broken neck. I missed him terribly. I shook my shoulders, despretly trying to shake the burning sadness, a lonely tear fell from my eye. I flinched as it landed on my hand. I noticed that we were already in the air and that the belt sign was off, I looked for a flight attendant and asked for a pillow, then I curled up next to the window and fell asleep.