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Chapter One: From the South to Southern EnglandYou have left your home. Packed up, tired of the life you were leading. You laughed to yourself as you and your friends boarded the bus to the airport. You were just going with your local amnesty group on a trip to London. It was a treat, after all the hard work your group had done, you were getting the chance to just have a good time. It’s summer, you’re young and unfocused. You promised to call your mom whenever you got the chance, and though you got homesick sometimes when away from family, you couldn’t be more excited about this three-week adventure.The plane ride went smoothly, but your legs turned to jelly when you stepped out of the airport. You were greeted by the city towering above you, and crowds of people moving through. It was wild to be anywhere so big. Your group gets on the bus to the hotel and you stare with wonder at your brief new home. Morning comes too fast. Late nights are fun, but it almost takes a necromancer to raise you from your bed on any given day because of your night owl tendencies. Blackjack and Fun-employed took up a good portion of the evening, but the real good times started around 12 when everyone started acting like hooligans and dancing all around the hotel room. It was four to a room but you currently had 9 people hanging out in yours. It was a Junior-Senior only trip so the rules were fairly lax. Especially with that only making 15 kids total. 10 girls, 5 guys. Unnecessary details, sorry. Paint a vivid picture they said, they won’t get bored they said. Well now morning has indeed rolled around and it’s time for you to drag your ass out of bed. You are greeted not by the blinding sun that normally leaves you a little dizzy as you start your day, but instead by the calm cloudy sky. As you step into the shower you feel your worries and anxiousness that had set in melt away. You dry off and put your face on and dig through the clothes you packed for something to wear as the other three girls follow their routines. You leave the hotel with your group of 7 and a chaperone to see the sights that London had to offer. In the evening a drizzle finally came from the clouds and as your group walked along the streets back to your hotel. A block before the bottom drops out of the sky and you find yourself trying to see through the rain while also protecting your makeup. You and three of your friends dash under an awning and the rest of the group under a neighboring one. When it looks as though it won’t let up soon, the chaperone just motions for your part of the group to just go in the building you are at, as they enter theirs. As you peel your jacket off you notice how soaked your white tee got. Classic. Your jeans uncomfortably cling to your thighs as you sit down in a lobby chair. The water rolls off the leather and on to the floor slowly. Your friends are all chatting about recent drama from back home. You tune out and let their voices become a hum that accompanies the steady pour of the rain. Back home a rain like this would lull you to sleep as the air becomes muggy and the water hitting the roof becomes a replacement for the cicadas and tree frogs. Here it is more like the bleak chill of fall cutting through the warmth of summer in an unusual manner. But it is still nice. You decide to walk around a bit so your legs wouldn’t fall asleep. It’s a fairly spacious lobby and you wander down the hall as the signs guide you to a snack machine. It’s in a little room with dim lights and surrounded by drink machines. It feels comforting to see the same layout here as school. You peek out of the corner of your eyes as you hear footsteps walking towards you and stopping beside you. It’s a young guy probably and he seems to be looking at the options in the drink machine adjacent to the one you are at. You become so preoccupied by trying to glance at him that your coins slip out of your hand and towards the shoes of this stranger. Your cheeks feel hot as he looks at you and you find yourself looking up towards a very cute boy. He seems your age, and he laughs softly and asks,
“Do you normally find throwing your coins at the floor to be the best way to use a vending machine?” You laugh then and start to pick up your coins, while he helps.
“No, sometimes I like to throw them at the ceiling.” He smiles at that.
“So that’s how they really do it in America. None of my friends over there let me in on these little secrets.”
He then looks kind of interested in something, and asks, “So what part of, the good ol’ US of A are you from darling?”
You die a little inside when he says darling, but keep your cool just the same. “Oh I’m from the South if you couldn’t already tell. Maybe the accent is finally wearing off.”
“If I had to have guessed, I probably could’ve guessed that, and I think the accent is alright.”
“If you say so. So you have friends in the states, but have you ever been there?”
A look of slight surprise appears in his eyes and then is replaced with a look of having gotten away with something. Though you don’t notice this because you are not trained in looking for subtle expression changes that can clue you in on what a person is thinking.
“Yes I have been there a few times you could say, for job stuff you know.” He responds.
“Oh, you might be older than I thought if you travel for a job!”
He shakes his head and laughs, “Everyone thinks I look 16! I walk into a pub and they think I’m a kid trying to pull one over on them!”
“Yeah I get the same treatment. Without a good layer of makeup going on I look 13. It’s a struggle.”
You both laugh a little and seeing as you’ve spent a good five minutes together now decide it’s about time for introductions.
“I’m Y/N by the way.”
It was a lucky moment for him your brain wasn’t making the connections it should have. And lucky for you too because he was feeling at ease for you not recognizing him right away. In a bold move you decide you’d like to continue this conversation.
“Well Tom, do you have a number I could ring sometime?” And he must have been feeling bold too, because he put his number in your phone and you put yours in his.