Chapter 9

(Nova's airport outfit above. Sorry, I couldn't find a black girl wearing something similar to this😔)

I don't fly much, I really can't even remember the process of getting checked in at the airport. We just checked in our bags and Ethan leads me to wherever we go. I'm way too tired to even think. I don't remember having to bring my passport last time I flew, but maybe since I haven't been to the airport in so long, things have changed. We ride up the escalator and get in line where they have a drug detection dog to make sure you're not bringing anything illegal on the flight.

"This is the last thing before we can go to our gate." Ethan tells me, I nod. He gives me a weird look but I just ignore it, yawning.

"Next." The man with the dog says. Ethan pats me to go first and I do.

"You're just going to walk in a straight line down to where the tape is at, okay?" He instructs and I nod.

I don't know why I get nervous, but I do. I don't even do drugs but this shit has me acting like I'm suspicious. I walk in a straight line until I get to the the tape then turn around. The man nods at me and I wait for Ethan. Once he's done, we go up the escalator again, and start looking for our gate.

"So, I am a liar." He says as he looks around.

"What do you mean?" I frown.

"You know, I knew you were tired. But I didn't expect you to be this out of it. Do you even remember the questions they asked you about where you're flying to?" He asks, amused.

"Nope, I assumed you were getting asked the same questions so I just repeated whatever you said. I'm exhausted." I scrunch up my face.

"Hmm, interesting." He grins, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Oh, here's our gate." I look around, there's only a few people in the airport and they're at gates further away. Maybe this isn't a big traveling season, or maybe it's just so early.

He leads me to one of the areas and we sit down in two free seats. He keeps his arm around me and I lay my head on his shoulder. I look at the screen that says what times the flights are departing but I don't see any going to New York.

"Ethan I think we're at the wrong gate." I sit up, frowning.

"No, we're at the right gate." He looks at me, a smirk taking over his lips.

"No, we're not. All of the flights listed on here are going somewhere else. We have to go find our gate." I stand up but Ethan grabs my hand.

"We're at the right gate." He says again. I blink at him. Does he think I'm dumb? None of these flights are departing to New York.

"Ugh, none of these flights are even going anywhere in this country."

"Look at your ticket." Ethan let's go of my hand.

"What?" I shake my head. "What are you talking about? You said we're going to New York."

"Look. At. Your. Ticket." He repeats. Actually, he demands which makes me frown.

I decide to just look at the stupid ticket so I can prove that we're at the wrong gate. I pull it out my pocket. Gate G33, Departure: 7:30am, 1st CL, Destination CA to......I blink. What the fuck.

"Ethan...." I don't take my eyes off of the ticket. I must not be seeing this right. "T-this doesn't say New York." My voice shakes.

Is this man kidnapping me? Why did he tell everyone we're going to New York if we are definitely not going to New York. Ethan pulls me closer to him so I'm now standing in front of him between his legs.

"Nope." He pops the 'p'. "What does it say baby?" He asks.

"Italy." I say. "It says...Italy."

"Mhm." He kisses the back of my hand.

"T-This, t-this isn't right." I shake my head, shoving the ticket back into my pocket. "We have to go fix it. How did they get that mixed up?" I scratch the back of my head. There's no way...he did this on purpose. Right?

"Everything is fine. I'm taking you to Italy." He grins up at me. I just stare at him, shocked.

"Italy..." I blink. "We're going...to Italy?" I ask slowly. He just nods at me.

I burst out laughing, taking a few steps back. Yeah, he got me good. Italy my ass. I stop laughing when I see Ethan is looking at me, amused. Horror spreads on my face.

"Oh my god, you're not bluffing are you?" I cover my mouth with my hand. I feel queasy.

"I told you, I lied to you. I wanted to surprise you. If I told you we're going to Italy you definitely would have said no. So I said we're going to New York, and even then I was surprised that you agreed. I also know that you're weird about money so I didn't want to bring up that I'm taking you to a different country with me in front of your friends." He stands up so he's in front of me now.

"I agreed because you bought the tickets already." I start to cry. I practically throw myself at Ethan, hugging him so tight I'm not even sure how he manages to breathe. He wraps his arms around me, hugging me tightly as well.

"You're an idiot." I cry into his chest. "Why would you do that? I don't deserve this." I sob quietly, I didn't want people at the other gates to know I'm crying.

Look, I know I've been crying a lot recently, and I swear that I'm not a cry baby.....but this man just bought me a first class ticket to Italy, who wouldn't be overwhelmed and cry?

"Because I love you and I want you to enjoy our break from school." He hums. I pull away from him, wiping my tears quickly.

"I don't even know what to say. 'Thank you' isn't even enough to express how grateful I am right now. Thank you so much. I love you so much." He grins, leaning down to kiss me.

"Don't thank me. I just like to see you happy." He sits, pulling me down to sit in my seat too.

"How much was the ticket?" I ask.

"It was- wait." He cuts himself off, narrowing his eyes at me. "Why?" He asks.

"So I can pay you for it?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Then I'm not telling you." He crosses his arms.

"Ethan I can't just let you do that." I feel so bad. I had already planned on paying him back for New York, but Italy is a whole different price range. But I need to pay him back, I don't want anybody to think I'm using him.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" He tilts his head, reaching over to twirl one of my curls in his fingers.

"No, I'm not. That's a lot of money. That's way too much money. People are going to think that's the only reason I'm with you." I groan.

"Why are you so obsessed with that?" He frowns. "Whether you're using me or not, makes no difference. We're having fun, right?"

"I'm not using you." I furrow my eyebrows.

"I know that. You know that. So what does it matter if the public doesn't know that? This relationship is only me and you anyways." He sounds kind of annoyed. My shoulders drop and I look away from him.

"You don't get it." I mumble.

"Well then explain it to me. Because you're right, I really don't get it. Every time I buy you something, or pay for us to have dinner, you try to pay me for it and I say no. Then you bring up how people will think you're 'using me'. It's getting old. I have money, I don't need yours. You can keep yours and do something better with it than spend it on our activities. I'm tired of hearing 'people will think I'm using you.' every time I buy something. How the hell are they going to know I'm the one who bought it?" Ethan rubs his face, I can hear the frustration in his voice.

I cross my arms, turning my body away from his. I suppress the lump that formed in my throat as he was talking, along with the urge to cry. I close my eyes and take deep breath.

"Now you're going to ignore me?" He scoffs. I don't respond. If I talk right now I'm going to cry. And I hate crying when I'm angry.

"If you really don't want me to buy you anything anymore, then let's just go home and spend our break at my place." He rubs my back.

"I say that because it's true." I turn to look at him.

"No it's not. Nobody thinks that." Ethan looks at me.

"Yes it is. You don't get told, but I do. I hear the girls at school. I hear the whispers when we're out together. I see the stares we get. Do you know how many times girls from our university have come up to me, asking what I'm doing dating a white guy? You're in that stupid frat house, people know you're rich! And they see me, next to you, and they make up stories. Since we started dating, people have told me that I need to stick to my own kind, stop 'tainting' the white people, stop trying to suck up your money. And you don't realize because you're fucking white! This shit doesn't affect you. Nobody dares to say it to your face, but they have no problem saying it to mine."

Yes, I'm crying again. But that's besides the point.

"And here you go, practically making them confirm their stupid, bullshit ass theories by bringing me gifts to school and not letting me pay for anything. Then, to top it all off, you end up getting upset with me when I say people will think I just want your money. How am I supposed to win? Huh?" I cover my face with my hands.

"Nova...I didn't know people were saying things about you." Ethan embraces me, rubbing my back. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for getting frustrated with you. I had no idea anyone was giving you a hard time. I thought you were just a little insecure and shy about receiving things."

"I love you, okay baby? I'm so sorry." He lays his head on top of mine. "I'll fix this. Nobody is going to say anything to you again, okay? Why didn't you tell me about this? You know...I'm still going to buy you gifts. If I don't, I feel like I can't show you how much I appreciate you. I don't care how much money you have, even if you were the richest person in the world, I'd be buying you gifts every single day. Cameron said something about it being my love language or whatever the fuck." I sniffle and wipe away my tears as he speaks.

"I did some research on that and I also think my love language is physical touch, and quality time." He states and I can't help but to chuckle a little bit because he just randomly went off topic. He looks down at me, cupping my face with one hand, the other still keeping me in his embrace.

"I'm sorry." He whispers. "I was being arrogant, I hate seeing you cry. Are you okay?" He rubs his thumb across my cheek. I nod, sighing.

"I'm okay. Are you okay? And don't apologize to me. All this could have been avoided if I just told you about these things. I'm sorry." I sigh.

"I'm okay. And I should just be more aware." He pushes my hair out my face. "Do you still want to come to Italy with me? Or did you want to stay home?" He kisses the top of my forehead.

"Let's go to Italy. Let's have fun and enjoy each other's company. Let's just live." I offer a small smile up to him. He grins, nodding.

"Yay, I'm so happy you say that." He pecks my lips.

"Ethan, I love you." I smile up at him.

"I love you more." He says, pulling his hand away from my face, and wrapping them around me again.

"Are you going to let me pay you at least partial for my ticket?" I ask, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

"Never." He kisses me. "Don't ever offer me money again. Okay? I won't accept it." He grins and I roll my eyes.

"Seriously." He kisses my forehead.

"Okay.. okay." I chuckle.

"Let's promise, from here on out, that we'll tell each other if something is bothering us, so we can talk about it and deal with the issue at hand. Let's never fight again alright?" He kisses my forehead.

"Alright." I smile.

~~

"There's so much legroom." I kick my legs back and forward.

Ethan let me sit at the window seat, claiming that he will have 'a view watching the view'.

"You're like a little kid." Ethan laughs, buckling his seatbelt. I buckle mine as well. "You ready for this 13 hour flight?" He raises his eyebrows.

"I think so. Having you here will make it better." I smile at him.

"We can watch movies together. Or play some card games. We can take a nap. Whatever you want." He laces his fingers with mine. I nod, smiling.

The flight attendants give their safety performances, and the plane starts going. The pilot said we arrive in Italy at 5:30 am, their time. I've traveled before and I've experience turbulence before. But the shaking of this plane made me feel like I was going to die. I close my eyes, trying to focus on my breathing. I tighten my grip on Ethans hand, and press myself into my seat as hard as I can, feeling comfort in the fact that I can feel my seat and that I'm not astral projecting out of the plane. I can feel my chest tightening.

"Baby, are you okay?" Ethan places his other hand on top of our already intertwined fingers.

"Yup." I say shortly, but I am most definitely not.

"Hey, it's okay. We're fine, this is normal. It's going to stop soon okay?" He manages to get his hands out of my grip and wrap his arms around me, pulling me to his chest.

I feel pathetic. I hate that I get like this. It's something so small yet I tend to make it a big deal. This is so embarrassing. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Ethan rubs my back as he comforts me. I feel my entire body is tense, so I relax in his arms and bury my face in his neck as I just wait for this to be over. A few minutes later I realize everything is smooth again. I lift my head up and make eye contact with Ethan.

"Okay?" He asks and I nod.

"I'm fine now. I'm sorry." He kisses my forehead, letting go of me.

"Don't apologize. It's scary, you can't help how you feel or react to certain things." He frowns.

"Thank you." I mumble, embarrassed.

"Do you want to watch a movie? To take your mind off of everything?" He asks and I agree quietly.

He turns on his small tv and browses through the movies.

"Oh! Let's watch that one." I point to 'The Sun Is Also A Star' "I heard it's good." I smile.

"Okay, sure." He grins. I turn my tv on too and find the movie.

Neither of us thought about bringing earphones, so we're stuck with the ones the plane offers, they look like those huge elementary school headphones. Ethan wraps his arm around my shoulder, and I rest my head on his. We press play at the same time, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

So fun fact, I watched part of the sun is also a Star on my flight to Italy but I felt so sick that I couldn't finish it. I don't remember much of what happened because I was trying my best not to throw up, but I remember it being sad??

Also this chapter is a lot shorter than the other ones. I can't tell if it's long still or not tho 💀 Either way, it's just a filler.