Only In It For A Minute

“Tash, oh my god, COME ONNNN! I wanna go!” Lucy called from our shared living room.

“Yeah Tash, what is taking you so long?” I heard Lizzie shout.

I was always late, no matter what I was doing I could never be on time and most people were used to it now. My two best friends were perfect examples of this but right now they were growing more impatient with me. We were about to head to the airport to catch our flight to America for our holiday that we had been planning for months.

“Sorry guys! Just give me two more minutes!” I called back to them.

“The taxi will be here any second!” Lucy shouted again.

I checked I had all the right documents and grabbed my suitcase and carry on bag and walk out of my room much to their delight.

“Come on then, let’s get ourselves away from this grotty English summer weather and go get us a tan!” I told them.

Our taxi arrived and we put our suitcases in the boot of the car and it didn’t take us long to get to London Heathrow airport. The excitement whilst we were making the journey was growing rapidly. I just hoped it was all going to be worth it.

Lucy, Lizzie and I had met three years ago when we all started as freshers at the University of Reading. I met Lucy as we shared the same halls of residence and we got along really well. Me and Lizzie were both on the same course, studying Business and Management whilst Lucy studied Art and English Literature. The three of us had just finished our degrees, each of us gaining a 2:1 as a result. We decided a few months ago that as a reward for all of our hard work in the past three years that we would do something we’d always talked about: go to Warped Tour in the summer. The main thing we all had in common was a love of music and I couldn’t think of anything better than spending a summer in my favourite places with my favourite people. We were going to be spending 5 weeks in California, Nevada and Arizona, but our main priority was Warped Tour.

We checked in and sat in the waiting area trying to find ways to pass the next 2 hours. Lizzie pulled out her iPad and started playing random games, Lucy had bought a magazine and started flicking through the pages. I loved people watching. Imagining where they were going, what they were doing and how it might change their life. I watched little kids as their eyes lit up looking out the window as the planes took off. I watched business men and women as they rushed through the airport in their suits. I watched couples sitting together smiling widely. Everyone had a different reason for being here and I loved that about life.

“Flight 0718 to Los Angeles is now boarding at Gate 3,” I heard a woman say over the speakers, interrupting my own thoughts. I looked to Lucy and Lizzie smiling widely who both returned my grin. This was our flight.

“Finally!” Lizzie said, jumping up and grabbing her hand luggage bag and walking off. Lucy and I followed behind. We got on the plane and took our seats. Lucy had the window seat, then Lizzie and I had the aisle seat. In 11 hours time, we would reach our destination and our holiday would begin. I tried to get comfortable in my seat and got lost in my thoughts, eventually drifting off to sleep.

I woke up around 90 minutes before the end of the flight to find Lizzie wide awake and excited next to me. To pass the last part of the journey, we talked about what we were planning on doing after we got home from our holiday but that didn’t last long and we soon began talking about everything we wanted to do whilst we were here. Plans basically consisted of gigs, beach and shopping.

I didn’t realise how long we’d been talking, or how long I’d been asleep before that, but the seatbelt light went on and we soon touched down on Californian grounds. Lucy had woken up as we landed and before long we were off the plane and getting our bags. We went out of the airport and got in a taxi to take us to our hotel for the next two weeks. The three of us checked into our shared room and saw there were two double beds.

“I’m on my own!” squealed Lucy as she jumped on one of the beds.

“Fine, whatever. I’m just so exhausted, oh my god,” I sighed, kicking off my shoes and I collapsing on the bed.

“Well, it is 7pm so it’s about 3am back at home,” Lucy told us. “But you need to fight through this, otherwise you’ll be awake at a really early hour here so don’t even think about sleeping!”

“Fine!” I said, sitting back up and unzipping my bag. I found some clean clothes and decided to take a shower to wake me up, plus sitting on a plane always made me feel dirty.

After the three of us had showered and got ready, we decided to head out and explore for a bit. It was a lot hotter here than home even though it was 8.30 at night and the three of us went out in shorts and didn’t bother taking jackets. We started wandering from our hotel and it didn’t take us long to reach the beach. The warm air around us felt nice at this time of night and the sea looked beautiful. We took our shoes off and began walking along the sand. There were so many other people walking along too, couples holding hands, people walking dogs, others just sat on the sand with friends.

“So, I’m thinking beach all day tomorrow to work on our tans before Warped tour the day after?” Lizzie suggested. We agreed, knowing that tomorrow the weather would be perfect and we would one day closer the the main reason we were here.

We walked, talked and took in our surroundings. It was a world away from where we’d come from. We’d changed lectures, exams and libraries for sun, sea and music.

“Anyone fancy a cocktail?” Lucy asked, indicating to a bar just off the beach.

“Always,” I laughed as we stepped off the beach and put our shoes back on. We walked into the bar and I immediately noticed it was nothing like ones back at home. But that was why we here, something new and different. We walked up to the bar and waited to order drinks.

“Let’s not go too heavy tonight, girls, let’s save it for when we’re not so, er, UK-time?” Lizzie suggested, as we ordered a drink and a shot each.

“So...tomorrow then?” Lucy laughed.

The barman brought all our drinks over and we handed over our money. We picked up our shots, before raising them together.

“Here’s to 5 weeks of carefree fun, here’s to enjoying ourselves and here’s to end of university and the start of the rest of our lives!” Lucy said and we all downed our shots. We each picked up our other drink and looked round the bar.

“I think we’re going to enjoy this,” Lizzie smiled.

We had a couple more drinks before walking back to hotel. It was nearly midnight and it was still warm out. We got back to our room and changed into our PJs before climbing into bed. It was around 8am back at home, yet we were just going to sleep.