I’m currently stuck at the airport so I figured I would share this story and the maybe the more idiotic things I do when someone makes my heart beat.
I was flying back from Austin to Baltimore at the end of summer. With the Fall semester starting at UT Austin, the airport was packed. I made it through TSA, found my gate and scouted for a place to sit. There was a cute woman perched on the edge of a row with her bag occupying the seat next to her. The only free seat was next to her bag so I went for it.
At this point, the airport is chaos: flights cancelled and gates for planes are being shifted. The announcer on the speaker mumbles something that is inaudible to both of us so I turn to her and ask:
“Did you understand any of that?”
She turned my way and smiled. She had crazy big blue eyes and her pupils we’re filled with a rich black that I felt could peer into me.
“I have no clue what’s going on"
We laughed a bit because it was fun to just revel in the insanity of it all. We exchanged what brought us here to the airport. I told her I just came back from a 4 day bender with the last night in the coconut club for my undergrads 21st birthday. She was about to start her bender with her friends in Mexico and she just turned 21. At this point, I felt a little odd because she was 7–8 years younger than me (me in my late 20s) so I kind of knew logically this might not work for me.
We chatted for 20–30 minutes until the time came to start boarding. I got my boarding progress and ID ready. I looked over and she was beginning to panic. She couldn’t find her ID in her coat pockets, her bag, or around her. She needs the ID to fly back into the country if she is headed to Mexico. She looks up at me and says:
“Give my ID back"
That stunned me. The thought never crossed my mind but I just realized what I was being accused of. I told her I don’t have it and I have no reason to do an action like that. She questioned why I sat next to her in the first place and to think of a lot of intense possible scenarios including if I was a threat. She told me to open my bag and show her. I personally didn’t care so I just gave her my bag and told her to look through herself. She eased up and I gave her a plan. She needs to go first and talk to security, the front desk and find out if there is a “lost and found” she can go too. She got up and went to security
At this point, I decided to absolve myself from the situation so I go stand next to one of those makeshift standing desks. I put my headphones on and just start jamming to some other beats. As I look out the window, I notice in the reflection she is running towards me.
“Can you help me, I need to find the white phone near the bathrooms”
I’ve been in and out of airports awhile and not once have I ever seen that type of phone. I went with her though, it was still 10–20 minutes until my group was being called so I figured why not make my life a little more exciting. When I agreed to help her, she questioned it, and then reaccused me. I told her stop it, lets go find the phone.
We found the phone, called, and a security desk personell answered. The woman on the phone told us to head out of the airport lounge into the ticket area to get to a Lost and Found Box. However, one person has the key to the box and is walking around the airport. This seemed to be a little tricky to navigate. I told her let’s go to TSA, maybe she left it there or someone might have found it. Her response was
“How do you know I went through TSA?”
“Everyone goes through TSA, that’s obvious”
I looked at her and gave her a look that was like “C’mon”. We kind of argued back and forth….bantering.As I get more fustrated, she smiles and stands pretty close to me:
“This is fun”
And maybe in a weird way, it was. I was stressed now with her problems but truth be told she definitely got my heart racing a bit so I was having fun. We arrived the TSA and asked the security guard. He told us a worker was walking around with an ID that he found on the floor but he was headed back to the Lost and Found located outside of the gate area. If she left she wouldn’t be able to get passed back into TSA. She looked at me, I have my ID, and I can go out and check. I ran through the doors, down to the baggage area and found the Lost and Found box. I called for 20–30 minutes knowing I just missed my flight. It felt quiet and I figured if she found her ID she would have came and told me. I go back up, back into TSA, and find the guy we asked previously.
“Oh yeah, she found her ID, the security guard walking had it”
I stood there, realized the girl has left, and just missed my flight. That sucked. I ran back and forth up and through the airport until it happened to be some of my undergrads friends saw me and called me out as I was zipping by. One of rhe undergrads had a flight headed to Baltimore and I decided to just catch on to his flight for $400 extra. Kind of an expensive mistake. It was a pretty cool flight back though and I have another story to share that my friends can be like “bro you fucked up” at the bar.
