Red and Rainbow Flags

A mini alarm system went off. It wasn’t really loud per say, it was just echoey. It got cut off by an announcement.

  “I’m sorry, but due to the hurricane passing through and to ensure the safety of our passengers at this time, all flights will be cancelled. To further make sure everyone is safe, everyone is now in lockdown of the airport. Thank you!” The speaker cackled.

   The last word faded out as it echoed all around the room. Voices of strangers I didn’t know whispered all around, trying to keep calm. A child began sobbing in the back, as multiple adults shushed her.

  The lights flickered on and off as the power struggled to stay active. The Wi-Fi was already down, and I was using my hotspot that was slowly sucking up all my mobile data. 

 Dang it , Now, I was stuck next to this cute boy, and my flight to Florida was canceled. I mean I wasn’t arguing! This guy was cute, and the only reason I was even going to Florida was to move in with my friend.

   I took a closer look at him. The cute boy was a few inches taller than me, with dirty blonde hair and pale skin with a perfect dimpled smile that would make you happy on the worst days. His faint freckles were just barely visible in the dim lighting of the lounge. His dark and forest green eyes were stunning, so stunning that I’d bet a million dollars that they’d glow in the dark. His tanned skin blended in with his rounded nose, which had a band-aid lying in the middle of it.

   His legs were put up on the seat in front of him, and his left hand was propped up with his phone in it. His hands had fingerless, black gloves on them. He swiped through instagram, looking through random blogs to pass the time. He was wearing a baggy green jacket, with a white shirt and black jeans. His shoes were some lime green vans. When the announcement came on, his calm expression immediately got replaced with a look of concern.

  “No, no no no no no! My mom is going to kill me!” 

   Without thinking, I asked, “What's wrong? Are you ok?”

   I immediately regretted it. Embarrassment filled me from head to toe, as I felt my face flush bright red. He looked me up and down. 

  I was wearing a blue hoodie, with gray pants and shoes that lit up sky blue whenever you took a step. My clout goggles were propped up on my forehead, and my thick, dark brown hair was getting in my face. I had pale skin, brown eyes and very faint freckles. 

   I looked down in embarrassment.

  After a few moments of silence, he asked me, “Why are you asking me? Why do you care?” I felt my face turn an even brighter shade of red and tears build up in my eyes. Cute boy already hated me.

  Great first impression George, just great. I thought silently.

 “Sorry…” I mumbled.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Starbucks. I decided that maybe I could make my escape, and get out of this awkwardness.

  I stalked off to it, still in shame because of my weirdness. I went up to the cashier and asked, “Can I please have a caramel crunch frappuccino?” 

     She nodded. “Anything else?” 

   “Yes.” A semi-deep voice said behind me. “Make that two.”

   I turned around. It was the nameless cute dude.

   The cashier nodded. “Anything else?”

    “Nope.” Cute dude began pulling out his card.

     She pushed some buttons on the register. 

    “That will be 2.80 please.” She said in a squeaky voice. 

      He swiped his card. Once it got accepted, she went away to go and get our drinks ready.

    “I’m sorry…” he apologized, and I knew by the genuine look on his face that he really meant it. “I’m just really stressed out right now. My parents are…having some…” He hesitated. “Issues.”

    “I’m sorry.”

    “It's not your fault.”

     I just stood there as the lady brought us our drinks. She didn’t say a word, but she walked away to deal with some other person. 

    I couldn’t help but to feel sympathetic towards him. The drink felt cold, as it was supposed to be. I took a sip.

   I closed my eyes as the sweet, sticky caramel sauce filled my mouth with little pieces of brown sugar mixed in it. I opened my eyes again.

   I wish I could say that I wasn’t falling madly in love with this boy that I just met, the boy who just bought me coffee, the boy who I didn’t even know his name. I wish I could say I wasn’t gay. 

   We neared the exit of the Starbucks. 

  “So, your name is?” He asked me, looking me up and down.

   “I’m George. You?” I felt my hand creep up to the side of my neck, squeezing it out of nervousness.

   He nodded. “Clay.”

   Oh, so mr. not-name has a name. I thought to myself.

   He then proceeded to walk back to the lounge, taking a seat beside my stuff.    

   Of course he did. It wasn’t because he cared about me, it was because his stuff was next to mine. 

   He pulled out his earbuds, and plugged them into his phone. I watched him awkwardly as he opened Spotify and pulled up his playlist. I was reading the songs over his shoulder and blurted out, “Oh! I love that song!”

  Clay glanced over at me with a look that seemed to say, “Why on earth did he say that?”

  Wow, way to go George. You definitely impressed him. My sarcastic inner voice screamed at me. But then, to my suprise, he offered me an earbud. 

  Take that inner voice!!

  I stuck it into my right ear, and the lyrics blared into my ear. Sometimes all I think about is you…

 “Late nights in the middle of June…” I muttered in sync with the audio. 

Clay must’ve heard me, because he looked at me and said, “Heat waves been faking me out!”

  I grinned at him and I felt something on my hand. At first I thought it was the side of Clay's empty Starbucks cup, but then I looked down and realized it was something else. It was his hand. He was holding my hand. 

   I’m pretty sure it was an accident, maybe him misplacing his hand, or potentially reaching for his cup to get up and throw it away, but he was holding my hand. My face was burning, making me feel like I couldn’t breathe, but at the same time it felt so right, and comforting. 

   After the song was over, he turned off his phone, which was now at twenty percent. “So, what do you like to do?” He looked over at me. 

   Date cute, kind boys like you. I thought to myself. No, that's not actually what I like to do. That's weird. And cringe. Well, I mean, I would date him, and I would like it, but-you know what, never mind.

  What I said was along the lines of I enjoyed playing video games. He asked what kind of video games, and I responded with, “Minecraft.” And he burst out laughing. He sounded like a tea kettle, whistling when it was boiling. 

   “Hey! What’s wrong with Minecraft?” I asked defensively.

   He just shook his head and put his hands up in surrender.

  “I like to play it too.” My eyes widened in surprise. We had something in common! 

   No, no George stop. I shook my head to myself. Stop, he doesn’t like you back. Just friends is good enough. 

   But no, just friends wasn’t good enough. I loved this man, and yet I was stuck getting friendzoned.

  We continued to get to know each other, and do stupid things such as throw popcorn into each other's mouths, doing stupid internet challenges, and racing across the airport. Of course, we were careful not to bump into anyone. Although people stared at us weirdly, probably wondering why we were so crazy when a huge storm was raging outside, I had a blast. 

   We took a polaroid photo in front of a stupid vending machine down the hall, and then signed each other's photos, saying that we would keep them. We even exchanged phone numbers. 

  Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into a whole day. When I checked the time, I realized it was midnight. Holy crap, I’ve never stayed up this late.

   I caught my breath, since I was finishing a race. I walked to the lounge, leaning along Clay for support. I was so physically tired, I couldn’t stand up straight. Not that I was straight-but still, you get the point. 

   We kept on laughing, laughing so hard that tears crept into the corners of our eyes, and our faces were red. I’d never felt more happy.

   I went to one of the couches in the lounge, and laid down on it. I sighed, chuckling a bit more before finally catching my breath.

   Clay laid down beside me, on the same couch. I blushed a bit, but really, I was too tired to care. 

_~…~…~…~…~_

   Clay woke me up by pulling me into his chest. His chin rested on the top of my head, and Clay's jacket smelled of mint and coffee. His arms were wrapped around my waist, and I knew this wasn’t intentional, it was just the way he slept. 

   We were sleeping together. 

  Sure, it was an accident, probably just the way he slept, but I couldn’t help it. I blushed really hard.  

 Wow, I get flustered really easily. I realized, thinking through all the events that had happened. I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep again. And I did.

_~…~…~…~…~_

 I woke up again at 7:00, according to my phone. I groaned a bit and realized Clay wasn’t there. I also realized that his jacket was wrapped around me, like a blanket. I saw a sticky note stuck to the couch, and it read;

Hey,

I went to get coffee. Brb!

Love, 

    Clay

   I blushed in spite of myself, and I looked up to see a very tall Clay with two coffees in his hands.

   “Hey, you're up! Last night I saw you were shivering, so I gave you my jacket.”

   It certainly made me warmer, I stupidly remarked to myself.

  “Yeah, thank you.” I grinned. I wanted to keep his jacket forever, but I knew I had to return it. I gave it back to him as I gratefully accepted the hot coffee he was holding. The steam was coming out of the plastic cup. I took a small sip, and allowed it to burn my tongue a little.

    Clay sat beside me, gazing out the window. That’s when I realized…

   “Hey um…no offense, but you never did tell me what was happening with your parents. It’s ok if you don’t want to tell me…”

   I mumbled afterwards something along the lines of “sorry” and “I was just curious”. 

   He looked at me, and said in the most heartbreaking tone, “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.” Clay’s expression looked pained, as if he was thinking about it right now. 

  Wow George, you idiot. Why would you say that? You made things ten times worse!

   I then decided to do what might…well, it might’ve made him feel better. He began to stand up, and I stood up with him. I grabbed the edge of his jacket and pulled him in close. 

   I kissed him. Right then, right there. In that airport where thousands of people might’ve seen me, but I didn’t care. The sunshine was on my face, blinding me momentarily, but I could care so much less. I closed my eyes, whereas I felt him searching for some kind of explanation as to why I kissed him. 

   He didn’t pull away. I felt as though he was just standing here in shock, and just as I jinxed it in my head, his lips left mine.

    “No. No, no. I have a girlfriend. I was just trying to be nice…”

 I felt my eyes well up with tears of shame and sadness. 

   “Oh.”

    I turned away so I wouldn’t have to see his devastated and pained face.    

   “Sorry.” I muttered somewhat bitterly. It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t jealous or saddened.

   “George, wait…”

   I walked away, going to a different couch far, far away from him. I moved my stuff.

   The speaker then jumped online to announce, “We are pleased to report that here at Sunshine Airlines the flights are back on. Please go to the front desk to find out your rescheduled time and flight number.”

   I was really happy that the flights were back on. I went up to the front desk, the humming and buzzing of people murdered my ears. I went around everyone as cautiously as possible, in fear that I’d see Clay. 

   Cute boy.

  “Excuse me, I was scheduled to fly to Orlando, Florida.” The lady smiled and nodded at me. I looked down at her name tag. It said that her name was Jessica.

   “Oh yes, you're rescheduled for eight thirty. The gate number is twenty six. Have a nice day!” 

   “You too.”

_~…~…~…~…~_

 “Flight twenty six, you may begin boarding the plane. Thank you, and have a great flight!” The speaker logged off. Well, goodbye to Clay forever. I never did know where he was flying off to.

  I lined up behind the group of people to board the plane. Clay deserves better anyways. I wish I could've said that I didn't care about my embarrassing rejection, or even that he had a girlfriend already. But I did. 

  My phone pinged with a text message. 

      Turns out, it was a text from Clay. It read;

    I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to react that way. I hope we can still be friends.

   My fingers flew across the keyboard almost immediately. 

   Yes, we can be friends still! I’d love that! My thumb hovered over the send button. 

  No. I think as I shake my head to myself. I thought about everything that happened during the past two days. 

  How he’d bought me coffee and then left after learning my name.

  Red flag.

    How we’d become friends almost immediately, and how he flirted with me, and turned out to have a girlfriend.

   Red flag.

   I deleted the text and write this instead;

   Red and rainbow flags don’t mix. Without thinking, I hit send. 

   I took a deep breath and boarded the plane.

_~…~…~…~…~_

AUTHORS NOTE

   HA! You were expecting Clay to be gay, weren’t you!? HA HA, GOT YOU! I’m so evil! BWAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAA! Also, I know its not a ‘home’ alarm, but its an alarm nonetheless. Soooo yeah, sorry if you were looking for a home alarm.

   (Yeah I know, he probably should’ve been gay. I mean, some random ‘straight’ guy would just freaking cuddle next to some boy that he’s just met. Sorry)

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