Chapter Text
Paul was definitely excited. Excited was the right word, and no, he wasn’t lying to himself about that. He wasn’t nervous. And since he was excited, here he was at the airport, getting ready to leave Hatchetfield for the first time in his life. It seemed only natural that his original flight had been canceled, leaving him even more time to be nervous excited at the prospect of leaving.
So there he sat, twisting and untwisting his hands as he looked around the nearly empty terminal. It seemed like almost everyone else taking his flight had gone home to wait for the rescheduled flight. It made sense; most of the town was within fifteen minutes of their tiny little airport, and he still had another five hours to wait. He knew that if he left the airport, though, he wouldn’t be able to work the nerve back up to return. The empty silence wasn’t doing much to help with his nerves.
“This blows.”
Paul jumped at the sudden voice to his left, looking up to see a girl around his age with a frankly unreasonably sized backpack.
“I get that the flight is canceled. Sure, whatever. It happens. But you’d think that they’d do something to help us out here. A fuckin’ meal voucher, at least!”
He stared open-mouthed at the brown haired young woman that had just sat down next to him. At first he thought that she was talking to someone on the phone - but no, she was definitely addressing him.
Seemingly oblivious to his minor internal crisis, she continued. “Am I right? I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t planning on eating three meals in an airport today.”
Paul gave a hesitant smile. “Yeah… Me neither.”
“I’m Emma,” said the girl, with a returned smile and an extended hand.
“Paul,” he replied, taking her hand and shaking it.
“So, what’s brought you to the airport on this lovely morning-turned-evening-turned-midnight?”
“I’m on my way to tour a college,” he said, suppressing a grimace. “What about you?”
Emma visibly brightened. “I’m heading to Guatemala! I’m going backpacking. Or to “find myself,” if I wanna be pretentious about it.”
“Backpacking? I’d never be adventurous enough to try something like that.”
“Really? I highly recommend it to anyone with problems they’re trying to avoid,” she said with a sardonic smile. “I’ve gone in nearby forests before, this’ll be my first time leaving the country.”
“I tend to avoid my problems by staying at home, personally. I’ve never even left the town before.”
She winced. “The whole reason I do it is to get away from this town. I’m not a huge fan of it, or anyone that lives here.”
“I take it that that’s the problem you’re avoiding, then?”
“One of them, at least.”
The pair sat in a few moments of awkward silence, Emma picking at her nails and Paul returning to wringing his hands, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
“So, uh… do you like film?”
Emma rolled her eyes at the blatant topic switch, but jumped into a tangent about her favorite silent films - Metropolis, Häxan, The Man Who Laughs… apparently, she was a bit of a film buff when it came to silent films. In turn, he rambled about some of the documentaries he’d watched recently.
Paul was surprised at how easily the conversation between them seemed to flow, Emma not batting an eye at his seemingly random topic switches. While they talked, an hour passed as they both grew tired.
“Hey, Paul,” said Emma, nudging him as he started to nod off. “You still with me?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Paul rubbed at his eyes and shook his head. “What did you say?”
She waved her hand. “Doesn’t matter. Wanna get some coffee before we both drop dead?”
Glancing at his watch, Paul saw that they still had four hours to go. He nodded and stood up, offering his hand to pull Emma to her feet, which she accepted with a yawn. The pair walked to the small airport cafe and made their orders - a black coffee and a bagel for Paul and a latte and cherry danish for Emma - and returned to their seats.
“So,” asked Paul between sips of coffee, “If you don’t mind talking about it… What problems are you avoiding here in Hatchetfield?”
“So many, “ Emma sighed, picking at the sleeve of her coffee cup. “I had a fight - another fight - with my parents today. This morning. They want me to be just like my perfect sister, with her perfect grades and perfect boyfriend and perfect life plan. Which is never going to happen.”
Paul grimaced in sympathy. “I can relate. My older brothers all went to college out of state. I don’t really want to leave Hatchetfield, but I’m tired of being seen as the boring sibling, or treated like I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Right! I hate being looked at like I’ve done something wrong for not following a cookie-cutter life plan. I’m eighteen, why do I have to have my whole future planned out?” Emma was getting more heated, gesturing emphatically as she spoke. “It started this morning with my mom getting pissed that I want to take a gap year before I start college, and it just spiraled from there. My parents started bringing up every old piece of ammunition and I got sick of it.”
Paul nodded. “That must suck, I can see why you’d want to get out of there.”
“Yeah… I spent a long time trying to make them happy. My dad was mad about my girlfriend being a “bad influence” on me, so I got a boyfriend. My mom was mad about me wasting my time, so I got a shitty job. Then she got mad about me complaining about the job, so I quit. My dad called me a quitter. Eventually I got sick of trying to change just to please them, so I started doing my own thing. They got mad about that too. So I’m leaving. I packed a bag, walked out, and emptied my bank account for a plane ticket to Guatemala.”
“I’m sorry you have to deal with all of that.”
Emma smiled. “Thanks, that means a lot. My parents treat me and Jane so differently that sometimes I feel like I'm going insane.”
Paul gave a contemplative hum. “I know we don’t know each other well, but I’m surprised. You seem so carefree.”
Emma laughed at that. Paul was surprised at how much he liked the sound.
“I’m about to be a lot more carefree, as soon as I can board this plane.”
They sat in companionable silence for a while, sipping their drinks and finishing their pastries.
“What about you,” said Emma. “What problems do you have?”
Paul shrugged. “Nothing, really… definitely not compared to you.”
She rolled her eyes and gently elbowed his arm. “Hey, if I just spilled my guts to a stranger, you have to do it too.”
“Alright,” he said, huffing a small laugh. “I’m on my way to tour a college out of state, like I mentioned earlier, but… I don’t really want to go.”
“Why not?”
“I like our little bubble in Hatchetfield. It feels safe to me. All of my older brothers left the state after high school, so… I guess I’m doing it too.”
“Why do it if you don’t want to?” she asked, balling up the wrapper to her danish and tossing it into the nearest trash can.
“My brothers have always been more outgoing than me,” Paul said, quietly applauding her goal. She gave a small mock bow in response.
“Richie took a gap year to travel the country with his friends. Nick moved all the way to Texas for college. They’re confident, do sports, have girlfriends… I’m not really close with either of them. Nobody is pressuring me to fit any mold, I guess, but I know that they don’t get me. Neither do my parents. I want to do something that they’ll all understand.”
Emma gave him a long look. Paul fidgeted, struggling to maintain the prolonged eye contact.
“Will doing something that they understand make them actually understand you?”
He opened his mouth to reply, then paused. “I… hadn’t thought of that, to be honest.”
Emma huffed and leaned against his side. “Lisen, Paul. Take it from me. Doing crap to fit other people’s expectations won’t make you happy. I don’t get it, but if staying in Hatchetfield will make you happy, you should do it. You don’t have to go looking for an adventure if you don’t want one.”
He gave a noncommittal hum in response.
“So… Do you like film?”
Emma snorted. “Nope, not really a fan,” she replied, dissolving into laughter.
He watched her laugh out of the corner of his eye and smiled at the sound. Without missing a beat, they were back to their earlier rambling as though they hadn’t stopped. They found themselves getting off topic, going on tangents, and losing their original points up until their flight arrived.
“Ready?” Emma slung her backpack onto her shoulder.
Paul nodded and rose from his seat, but his forgotten nerves were back full force. They walked to the gate together. Emma handed in her boarding pass.
Paul hesitated.
“You boarding?” Emma asked. She looked like she knew the answer already.
As he looked at her knowing smile, he felt his nerves settle. She seemed to have that effect on him, he’d noticed.
“You know, I think there’s a perfectly good college here in Hatchetfield,” he said.
Emma laughed. Paul inwardly cheered at getting to hear that sound again before she left.
“I’m glad you know what you want, Paul.” She pulled him into an unexpected hug, which he returned. “I’d say I’d like to hang out again, but I don’t think I’ll be back any time soon.”
He pulled back and nodded. “I figured. If you ever stop by, I’m sure you can find me. It’s a small town.”
Her smile softened as the call to board the plane went out. “Bye, Paul.”
“Bye, Emma.”