Oh Baby, I'm a Fool For You

“Flight 812 is now boarding, flight 812.”

stood up from the creaky orange bench in the New York airport and slung my heavy black carry on over my shoulder. I fell into the slowly accumulating line of people who were waiting to board the plane to London. My old black Vans squeaked annoyingly against the linoleum floor as I tapped my foot, impatiently getting closer and closer to the grinning stewardess.

“Well hello there, miss, may I have your ticket and passport please?” she asked, holding out one perfectly manicured hand.

I reluctantly handed them over, trying to avoid eye contact, knowing how bad my photo looked.

“All right, Miss Martin, here you are, have a wonderful flight,” she said in her high pitched voice, placing my things back in my hand.

“Thank you,” I said softly, and walked through the tunnel to get to the plane. My ticket read “34 C,” which unfortunately was in the middle section. I had to sit in the middle. I took a deep breath, relaxing my sense of claustrophobia, and eventually got to my seat, happy to be one of the first ones on the plane, and pulled a book and my iPod out of my carry on and sat down.

I opened the book, a murder mystery, and a photo and a piece of paper fell out. I unfolded the paper, chuckling at a poorly drawn person, who I suppose was me. The drawing had the same long brown hair that was nearly always pulled into a loose ponytail. Besides that, there were no similarities. I mean, what can you expect from a four year old?

“Hey Kaya, I bet you’re on the plane right now. Jonah and I just wanted to send you off on your big trip to London in style, but we figured that security would take away a talking Transformer toy. Give us a call when you land. We love you! –Veronica and Jonah.”

Veronica was my older sister, only by four years. Jonah was her little boy, who worshipped the ground I walked on. They were the most supportive people in my life. My family… Let’s just say, its complicated. I went to college to study cosmetology, and ended up doing hair and makeup for movies and plays. One of my teachers was so impressed with my work, that she was sending me to London to do a movie.

“Excuse me?”

I looked up, and came eye to eye with the most handsome man I had ever seen. He was tall, with a very natural looking tan. He had shoulder length, semi wavy brown hair, and small brown eyes. His nose looked straight at first, but I noticed that it had a small bump near the top. His white button down shirt was slightly unbuttoned, revealing a muscled chest.

His brows furrowed as he switched his bag to the other hand. “Hello?” he drawled in his thick English accent.

I was staring. “Oh, geez, I’m sorry!” I exclaimed, standing and barely avoiding him.

He chuckled at me and walked past, glancing at his ticket and sitting in the middle right by my seat. I awkwardly sat down, picking up my book again.

He nudged my arm. “Is this yours?” I looked down to see the photo pinched between his thumb and forefinger. It was a photo that was taken no more than 36 hours ago of Veronica, Jonah and I.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him and putting it back in the cover of the book.

After a couple minutes, he spoke again. “What’s your name?”

I looked up from the new pages of the book and stuck my finger in it to keep my place. “I’m Kaya, Kaya Martin.”

He extended his hand over the armrest, and I took it loosely. “Nice to meet you, Kaya, my name is Ben.”

“The same goes for you,” I replied, the grin refusing to leave my face.