One Way Ticket to Nowhere
Tiffany has a one way ticket to nowhere.
There would have been a time where she’d have known what to do about it. Though, she’s a lot more content with living her life the way it is than most would assume.
Since the start of summer, every evening she walks home from work, eyes drawn towards the pink and purple hue splashed across the night sky. She never lingers too long on the thought, but she wonders how small her town would look from above.
When she lays in her bed at night, almost at the brink of dozing off, the last thing she has on her mind are the glow in the stars she’s stuck to her ceiling.
There’s a girl who comes by the shop every so often buying screws, nuts, bolts and every other thing that Tiffany doesn’t expect for a girl to buy.
And sometimes, Tiffany is curious as to what the girl needs them for.
“What are you making with these?” she smiles one day.
The kid looks up at her round eyes and all answering, “Something.”
“Has it got something to do with those aviator goggles?” Tiffany points at the attire hanging loosely around the girl’s neck.
“Close to it,” she curtly acknowledges.
“You’re not secretly building a plane are you?” Tiffany laughs like it’s the most ridiculous thing she’s said all day.
It kind of is.
Her brows crease and she tilts her head, “Huh?”
“It’s a joke,” Tiffany responds, “I’m kidding.”
“It’s not very funny,” the girl manages to softly reply.
“Oh, I mean-,” she says, “Don’t worry, sorry.”
Tiffany hands her, her change and the girl parts her mouth again.
“What’s your name?” she asks, much to Tiffany’s surprise considering her demeanour.
She shows the girl her name tag.
“Tiffany,” she smiles for once, “I’m Taeyeon by the way.”
Tiffany nods, and returns the sentiment, “See you around,” she pauses, “Taeyeon.”
“Yeah.”
In the following nights, Tiffany dreams of glow in the dark stars and cardboard box planes.
Sometimes Tiffany has no idea what to do with herself, especially on weekends. She stays at home, cleans the house, does her tax returns and watches some TV.
Her girlfriends call her up and ask her for a night out to town to which she usually declines. It’s not like she’s a prude and doesn’t like to drink, she’s just the type of girl who’d rather stay at home and share a glass of wine or two with a few close friends instead of in the local bar full of the douchebag jocks she went to high school with.
She takes her car out for a drive, not really knowing where to go. That’s when she spots Taeyeon walking down the side of the road, huge rucksack over her shoulder.
She slows down the car and rolls down her window.
“Hey!” she calls out.
The girl ignores her the first time so she calls out again.
“Taeyeon!”
She jerks her head up at the sound of her name, pulling her headphones around her neck.
“…Tiffany?”
“Yeah, you remember! What are you doing out here so late?”
“Just collecting stuff,” Taeyeon replies again, with curtness and all.
“Need a ride?” adding, “I’m not a crazy stalker or anything.”
“Don’t you need to go somewhere?”
“No not really.”
Taeyeon cocks an eyebrow up, “Really?”
“Yeah, I mean you don’t have to if you don’t trust me.”
She contemplates for a while and opens Tiffany’s front door, “It’s a couple of blocks away just around the corner.”
Tiffany nods and starts driving again.
Taeyeon breaks the silence by speaking, “You have a lot of time on your hands.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re just driving around town.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Tiffany answers, slightly taken aback.
“I know, I never said it was.”
“Ok. So, what are you building?”
“You can stop here,” Taeyeon ignores her.
“Huh? Oh, yeah .”
She looks out the window and spots the old abandoned garage.
“Are you sure it’s safe there?” Tiffany asks.
“It is.”
Not entirely convinced, Tiffany pulls out a pen and a piece of paper, “If there’s anything wrong, just call me,“ handing over the number to Taeyeon.
“Yeah thanks,” Taeyeon mumbles pulling a torch from her sack, making her way out, “Bye.”
Tiffany waves and waits until the strange girl disappears into the shed more curious than ever before.
She doesn’t get a call that night or the next.
It’s totally out of character but Tiffany manages to break into that little shed a few weeks later and gets discovered by a placidly angry Taeyeon.
She blames it on the fact that Taeyeon was being entirely elusive the times they’ve spoken.
“Uh.”
“I think you should leave,” Taeyeon suggests.
Tiffany takes her belongings, apologising as she heads off, half disappointed that she never got to see what was under the bulky covers.
That night she does get a call from Taeyeon.
“I have your wallet. You dropped it on your way out.”
“What?” she replies, rummaging through her bags.
“Do you want it or not?”
“Yeah- Yeah of course!”
“Well,” Taeyeon sighs, “You know where to find me. Come by at noon tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry about last night; I don’t know what got over me.”
“It’s ok.”
“I don’t break into people’s places.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Here.”
Tiffany tucks her wallet into her bag, “Thanks.”
“You’re 19.”
“Huh?”
“Your ID, it’s real right?”
“You went through my wallet?!”
“You broke into my place, I think we’re even.”
Tiffany takes out her wallet again, flipping through it to find any missing items, “So?”
“We’re the same age.”
“Yeah and that’s relevant because?”
“I don’t know a lot of people my age,” she says wistfully.
“Oh. Do you want to?”
“I suppose.”
Tiffany reaches her hand out, “How about we start over then?”
“Huh?”
“We’ll be friends.”
Taeyeon tilts her head and cautiously receives her hand and Tiffany smiles at her response.
“Tell me what you’re building.”
“It’s stupid.”
“I won’t judge you, even if it’s a plane.”
“Why do you naturally assume it’s a plane?”
“You seem like you’d make a good pilot, that’s all.”
“Oh yeah?”
Taeyeon finds Tiffany’s outlandish imagination amusing, so she plays along.
“So if I’m building a plane, will you help me?”
“Are you for real?”
“Would you?”
“Uh, yeah sure, why not?”
Taeyeon smiles and lays her back onto the green patch of grass.
Tiffany turns out to be a terrible assistant and barely knows the difference between a screw driver from a hammer, so Taeyeon makes her wait at the side until she’s done.
“It doesn’t look like a plane,” Tiffany whines.
“Coming from a person who knows nothing about mechanics,” Taeyeon snidely remarks.
“Fine,” she pouts.
Tiffany spends the rest of her time wondering where Taeyeon would go if her plane actually flew.
Taeyeon unveils the covers and Tiffany bites her lip in a mixture of surprise and disappointment.
“It’s not a plane,” she utters, “You lied.”
“Do you actually think I’m crazy?” Taeyeon asks, “Are you crazy?”
“But building a motorbike isn’t embarrassing.”
“It is when you don’t know how to ride one.”
“No it’s not. It’s just different.”
“Whatever,” Taeyeon says, hauling herself over the bike.
“Aren’t you going to invite me to join you?”
“What?”
Tiffany makes her way and sits behind Taeyeon.
“Oh.”
They sit in silence and Taeyeon says, “You were right though.”
“Right about what.”
“I’ll be a pilot one day.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Tiffany smiles, perhaps cynically because she doesn’t know how realistic it will be. But she likes to think that Taeyeon’s heading somewhere.
“So where do you want to go?” Taeyeon asks laughingly, revving the engine of the stationary vehicle.
Tiffany thinks and leans her head on Taeyeon’s shoulder, arms wrapped around her waist.
“I’ll go wherever you’ll take me.”
Taeyeon chuckles again, pulls down the aviator goggles to her eyes and they sit by the motorbike in their small tin shed until the break of dawn.
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A/N For the unniefic 24 hr challenge, using the 'Flight' prompt. :)