Captivated: Chapter 2

Tavarious sat in one of the cheap, plastic seats awaiting the call for his flight to France.  Finally, he was going to be able to meet up with his parents. After their careers had taken off—mom had become a painter, father a writer—they had decided things would be better for him if he went to boarding school. What they failed to mention that while at boarding school in California, his parents were going to move not only out of country, but across the ocean! Did his parents not know how much the thought of crossing the ocean frightened him? Whales lived in the ocean! Whales that picked on poor helpless, defenseless creatures like the walrus! That’s right! The walrus!  Let’s stop now before Tavarious gets into that rant—it’s more like chapter six material. So, Tavarious was sitting there with his sketchbook, trying to keep his minds off the flight that just had to go across the river, when a much disorientated girl came into the sitting area. He raised his head, his pencil poised in mid-line of a girl’s delicate finger, curling around a lover’s lock of hair. He watched as the blonde hair girl walked right by him and took a seat behind him.
“Stupid Paris. Stupid Kevin. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID,” the girl crossed her arms across her chest, perturbed.
Tavarious twisted himself in his chair, putting an arm against the back of the seat. “Are you going to be okay?”
“No!” she snapped, looking at Tavarious with narrow eyes. Though, he did note she would have very pristinely blue eyes if they were not raging mad. They looked like the ocean in the mist of a hurricane, and he hated the ocean.
“Whoa…sorry for asking,” he held out his hands, trying to make her calm down, relax, and if she felt like killing someone, he might have a chance to protect his face if he held out his hands like this. “I’ll leave you alone then, jeez…”
The girl’s eyes widened slightly as if the realization of her actions sunk in. Tavarious suspected he probably looked like a wounded puppy—the girls seemed to fall for that look every time.  He did his best to suppress a grin as the girl sighed and seemed to relax some. “Sorry, just…”
“Long day and it’s not even over yet?” he offered.
She smiled. “Yeah…something like that.”
“Know the feeling.” An awkward silence proceeded afterwards. Tav shifted uncomfortable in his seat, gazing down at his drawing for a moment before looking back at the girl, realizing that she had turned her attention to gazing at a young man in a wheelchair. “The name’s Tav, by the way.”
She blinked, turning her head to gaze back at him. “Oh,” she blushed slightly as if embarrassed for assuming the conversation had ended moments ago. “Andi,” she replied warmly.
“Well nice to meet you, Andi.” He offered out his hand. She looked at it apprehensively for a moment as if taking it might be swearing to some oath of airplane buddy promise that she did not know if she wanted to make—especially with him. What if shaking his hand meant that if the airplane was to go down and it came down to having to save his life or hers because of her accepting this handshake she would have to sacrifice her own life for his? She was thinking craziness again. She sighed; she really needed to stop doing that. Her parents were starting to worry about her. Someone of her age and status should not go around accusing people of such things and having such fantasies. For the past three years, they have been trying to convince her to grow up. For the past three years, she has been growing increasingly more immature. Kevin was supposed to be the “cure” to this immaturity. Andi was supposed to settle down now like her mother did…
“Andi?”
“Hmm?”
“My hand’s not going to bite you…I might…but my hand won’t,” he grinned at her, teasingly.
“Sorry. I sometimes get a little sidetracked by my thoughts…” She blushed, shrugging her shoulders before taking his hand, giving it a gentle shake. “It’s nice to meet you, too Tav…”
“So…going to France…” Tav was trying to make a smooth transition into conversation, but he was just never very good at the whole “coming up with something to say to a complete stranger” sort of thing. He usually would do something stupid that made the girls giggle, and he would just play his moves from there.  At this moment, the opportunity to do something stupid to impress anyone was not presenting itself.
“France? Damn. Thought this was the terminal for Ireland,” Andi snapped her fingers, though there was a sarcastic tone to her voice. Tav raised an eyebrow quizzically. She sighed, “A sort of an inside joke between me, myself, and I.” Andi let out a stiff chuckle. Tav appeared like he did not understand, though was trying to pull it off like he has been there.
“Oh…Right. I see.” He blinked a few times and once again another awkward silence fell between them. Maybe this is why no one talks in airports. Obviously everyone basically knows where the people are going or the ones that no one knows are well too busy to talk. Tav sighed. Andi shrugged. And that’s when opportunity presented itself.
A group of scantily clad women made their way pass where Tavarious was sitting and sat at the opposite side of the room. They were giggling and dancing to a beat that did not fit the relaxing music that was playing…somewhere. No one was quite sure where the calming music was coming from, but no one really paid attention to it. Who would when exotic girl dancers are sharing the same air as you? At least in Tav’s case. Andi could careless. In fact, she had turned away from Tav entirely and was looking into a world that only she was invited to, though her eyes were looking in the general direction of that same guy in the wheelchair.
Tav’s eyes were glued to only one of the dancers. She was not exactly physically dancing to her own beat, but fire danced within her eyes. Her outfit complimented this flame within them—red silk with rhinestone gems placed in a spiral fashion, drawing attention to her chest. Tav always hated when women did that. They wore shirts that just called attention to that part of their anatomy, and then when they noticed he was staring, they would get mad at him. So far, though, this girl had not realized he was staring—or that all the boys in here were hoping they had a seat by her on the plane. Instead, she was lost in the flame of her lighter, flicking it on, watching the flame twirl around, and then flicking it off again. Tav watched as mesmerized by her actions as she was towards the fire.
“Excuse me, little darling,” a security guard with a heavily southern accent addressed the girl with the lighter. She flicked the lighter off, again, before gazing up at the long, lost cowboy of the West, noticeably annoyed.
“Yes?” her voice was bittersweet, batting her long eyelashes in order to swoon the guard right from the start. Tav could not help the wolfish grin that tugged at the corner of his lips.
“No smoking. You’re gonna have to put that lighter away, missy,” the guard’s fingers wrapped themselves around his belt loops, tugging upwards in a manly display. The girl seemed more disturbed by the uplifting of his beer belly than impressed. Her eyebrow quirked upward, skeptically, at him before she shrugged her shoulders.
“Sure. No problem,” she shoved the lighter back in her bag, smiling up at the man with that same sweetness that had been in her voice. The man smiled back at her—it was hard not to—and gave a nod of his head, pacified by her willingness to cooperate. Tav could only imagine the thoughts going through the security guard’s mind at that moment. For some strange reason, it angered him. As soon as the security guard turned his attention away from the girl with the lighter, sure enough, she had it back out and was flicking it on and off again. Both she and Tav became entranced by the flame. Strangers somehow connected by just a little spark.
The connection was broken, though, when the time arrived to board the plane. Tav tried to hook on to a familiar face—flame girl or that Andi person—but they were lost in the hustle and bustle. He sighed, afraid of having to cross the ocean alone.