Tonight's Like a Right Hook

One of the most common places that people seem to contemplate life is the shower. It’s not something people thing about just anywhere, everyone seems to have a special place where this thought process begins and ends. With the warm water, hot steam, and complete silence aside from the water hitting skin, it’s the perfect place for many. Felix wasn’t one of these people.

Felix had never exactly been normal. From an early age, she had been used to being shipped off to different relatives houses every other month, and was quite used to the chaos of the airports she spend many hours in. For Felix, it was quite normal to redo her makeup in the bathroom mirror, watching bustling women shoving past each other to get where they needed to go. From spending the amount of time most people spent showering in the airport, Felix learned that while sitting in the hard chairs outside of your gate, you could get some serious life contemplation done.

Therefore that is exactly what the petite brunette did as she sat in the airport in Dublin, Ireland, awaiting her next flight. Ireland was the place that she would always consider home, and oftentimes when she was given time off of work, she would fly out to visit her family. As many times as they sent her away when she was younger, the Irish girl was very forgiving, and wasn’t one to hold a grudge.

She tapped her foot lightly along to the beat pounding in her headphones, watching the sunset through the large windows. While being slightly excited to begin a new job, she was also growing rather nervous. She had never been the type to get along easily with people at first, though once she was familiar with someone it made everything a whole lot easier. Clutching the top of her book bag tightly to reassure herself that it was in fact still sitting by her feet, Felix went back to her contemplation.

When someone began a new job, generally they already had been living in the city for at least a week. Felix thought. When she arrived in Newark, it would be approximately five o’clock in the evening due to the time difference. She would be arriving in the city on Tuesday, November the 1st, and she began work the next evening.

She had been back living in Ireland for nearly a year when she received a call from her past employer, requesting that she return to the United States to take a new job. After having not worked very much during the ten months she had been living at home with her parents and younger brother, the twenty four year old photographer gave in, accepting the job offer. Of all the places in the world she had worked and visited, she had yet to set foot in the state of New Jersey, but what was life without new adventures?

Shaken from her thoughts as her flight was called, Felix rose, placed her bag on her shoulder, and headed towards the gate. After presenting her ticket, she was allowed to pass by, and find her seat on the aircraft. As she settled in to the seat, she was greeted by an overly happy flight attendant, who looked as if she would rather be a passenger on the flight than working it. Felix sighed; she would never understand people who faked their feelings. What was the point of feelings if they weren’t real? If you were miserable, you should have every right to frown; and if you were happy, you should smile and laugh to your heart’s content.

Felix listened patiently as the flight attendants went over the basic procedures that they could probably recite in their sleep, and Felix had been able to recite since she was eight years old. She smiled politely at the woman beside her before setting her gaze out the window, watching her home slowly speed up until the plane took off. As they rose higher and higher into the air, Felix popped her ears, and watched the green island that was Ireland disappear into the clouds that hung dense in the sky.

After having spent much of her childhood on flights, Felix was used to sitting still for hours on end, and as unpleasant as it could be, when she settled in with a good book and some music, she was quite content to read for the duration of her flight. She recalled the many times she had spent sitting in the exact place she did now. The window seat had always been her favourite.

Felix awoke with a start as they landed, music still playing softly in her ears. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she pushed her iPhone into her pocket and her book in her bag before unbuckling her seat belt and stretching. Her knees were stiff from the long flight over the Atlantic Ocean, and it felt good to be able to use the joints again.

After the chaos of customs was over and done with, Felix arrived at the baggage claim, where she grabbed her three large bags and camera case, and proceeded to wait. She looked around at the signs, looking for one with her name on it. As her eyes scanned the many men in suits, all holding small paper signs with only last names printed neatly, her eyes came across a younger looking guy dressed in a New Jersey Devils sweat shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts. The shorts hung low on his hips, the waistband of his boxers stuck out of the top as he stretched, quickly returning to his position holding a slightly wrinkled piece of paper with a name scrawled messily on it.

Olivia O’Conner

Shaking her head, Felix grabbed her bags and drug them over to him.

“Olivia?” he asked, giving the girl in front of him a once over.

Felix was never one to wear sweats in public, let alone go out without making sure she looked at least somewhat presentable. She wore a pair of skinny jeans tucked neatly into her Ugg boots, and a purple Jack Wills hoodie hung over her slim frame.

“Call me Felix,” she smiled slightly, giving him the name that everyone knew her by.

All she knew about the boy in front of her was that he was the captain of the team and she would be staying in his guest bedroom for the duration of her stay in the city of Newark.

“Zach Parise,” he nodded, taking two of the large bags from her hands.