“Attention all passengers, flight 727 to New York is now boarding at gate G2. Once again, flight 727 to New York is now boarding at gate G2.” rang a high-pitched, velvety voice. I finished at the check-in counter and the lady took both bags that I was checking and set them onto a conveyor belt to the storage area under the plane. I rushed over to the gate with my carry-on trailing behind me. Luckily, the plane boarded the first class passengers first. I got into line and plugged in my iPod. After a couple songs, I came to the head of the line and handed my ticket to the lady. Beep. The lady, Sami was her name, scanned the ticket and handed it back to me. I walked through the tunnel that led to the plane and arrived at the large airplane door. “Hmm.” I thought. Unfortunately, my seat assignment was, “Seat X2”. That meant I had to sit in the back of the plane. Although I liked feeling the turbulence, I would have rather felt it in a seat up in the A’s or B’s. But, I guess that’ll have to do. I took my black Jan sport backpack off and stowed it away under my seat. Click. My seat belt now snuggly sat on my waist. I sat back and checked my iPod. I was currently listening to the song, Simple, Starving to be Safe by Daphne Loves Derby. I sat back for a second, closed my eyes, and just listened to the beautiful melody. Soon afterwards, I fell asleep to the soft sway of the music in my ears mixed with the shuffling of people walking down the aisles to their assigned seats.

“Welcome aboard American Airlines. My name is Steve and I will be your pilot for today. The flight will be approximately six hours and thirty minutes. So sit back and relax.” The loud voice crumbled the sound of my tunes and woke me. I took my earphones out and listened. Then, another voice came on.
“Hello, I am Jill and I will be your one of your flight attendants for today along with Tracy in the rear of the aircraft, and Jane right here. Today, the snacks you have to choose from are animal crackers, chocolate chip cookies, Munchies, Doritos, or fruit. Our beverage selection for today is Coke, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, Ginger Ale, and water. Now, before you get too comfortable, please look up here at the head of the aircraft for some very important safety information about this aircraft.” After Jill finished her set of instructions, the presentation on the televisions began. Being familiar with the safety instructions, I just put my earphones back in. Now, Grenade by Bruno Mars was playing. I turned up the volume and looked out the window. Even though I got a seat with a limited view, I still got the window, which was a good thing considering I could have been assigned to the aisle seat. Finally, after the flight attendants were done, the plane began its ascent. We gained speed and the butterflies began to party in my stomach. Ohh…the take off and descent were my favorite parts of the flight.

Once we were up in the air, Jill’s voice once again filled the aircraft saying, “You may now use your electronic devices folks.” Oh shoot, I forgot to turn off my iPod. Oh well. I thought. I lifted my backpack from under my seat and reached into its depths. I pulled out a can of Pringles, and with impeccable timing, the flight attendant, Jane, came up and asked, “What kind of beverage would you like, Sir?”
“I’ll have a Dr. Pepper please.” She drew a can of Dr. Pepper out of her cart and handed it to me with a napkin. “Do you want a cup with ice, Sir?”
“No thank you, the can will do. Thanks”
“You’re welcome,” Jane said with a sweet smile.

I cracked open the soda and took a sip. I ruffled through my bag again for my laptop and the movies I had brought. I pulled out the black, matte, Mac book and my movie selections. Elf, Blades of Glory, Yes Man, Inception, Salt…what should I watch? I thought. EHz…I’m in an action mood today, so I guess Inception it is. I slid the movie out of its paper sleeve and into my laptop. Off and away you go. I said to my iTouch. I tossed my iTouch into my bag and pulled out my noise canceling earphones out. Once I pulled them all the way out, I untangled them, plugged them in, and put them into my ears. The movie started. It was an intense movie. After about half the movie had played, I felt a warm, sweet smelling breath on the back of my neck.

I turned around only to find a beautiful girl, about 21, watching my movie from behind me. Although the normal person would get slightly annoyed, I didn’t, I thought it was a little bit cute, actually. “Um, do you want to listen, too? I’ve heard the movie is a lot better with voices, you know?” I chuckled. She giggled and said yes. She brought her stuff with her and sat down in the vacant seat next to me. I pulled out another pair of earphones, plugged them into the second earphone jack and handed them to her.
“By the way, I’m Silver.”
“Hi, I’m Austin, nice to meet you. So what brings you to New York? I came here for school.”
“Yea, me too. I’m coming back from a family reunion in Wisconsin. What about you?”
“I’m comin’ back from LA. Visiting family. Speaking of schools, which one are you going to? I’m going to Queens University.”
“Are you serious? Me too! What’s your major?”
“Graphic Arts, photography stuff.”
“Get out!” She lightly punched me in the arm. “This is crazy!”
“Yea…how weird….hahaha.”
By then, I had closed my Mac book, pulled out my earphones and had my full attention on her. We talked for a long time after that. She was Filipino girl from a little town in Wisconsin; she was an only child, who loved to ice skate, her favorite flower was a pink rose, and she was born in December 24, 1989. Silver was a beautiful girl; she had black hair with light brown highlights, wore barely any makeup, and had eyes like diamonds. She was skinny, but not “stick thin”. We rambled on and on about random topics and we got onto the topic of relationships. She explained to me that about a year ago she broke up with her boyfriend of two years. She cried a little bit and I consoled her and she fell into my arms. We talked and acted like we had known each other for years rather than mere hours.

Suddenly, the all too familiar voice of Jill came on, “Welcome to New York. The temperature is currently a chilly 30 degrees. The current time in New York is 2:45 pm. We will be landing in approximately fifteen minutes.”
Whew, lucky me, I’m glad I wore my jeans, my thermal and my heavy jacket. I thought.
“Wow that was quick! That totally didn’t seem like six hours,” she said to me.
“I know. I guess time does fly when you’re having fun. It was nice talking to you, Silver. Maybe, if you aren’t busy, do you want to get a cup of coffee with me after we drop our stuff off at our dorms?”
“Sure, I’ll call you when I’m done. What’s your number?”
“714-342-1048”
“Thanks. I’ll call u soon!”
“Ok, can’t wait to hear from you.”
“Um. Excuse me, did you two need something?” the stewardess asked.

Silver and I looked around and to our great surprise, everyone had evacuated the plane already and we were the last ones off. We grabbed our backpacks and walked off the plane.
“Hey, since we’re going to the same place, do you want to share a cab?” Silver said.
“Sure, we can talk some more!” I replied. We picked up our bags at carousel twelve and walked towards the exit. We got to the door and I put on my coat.
“Where’s your coat?” I asked Silver.
“Shoot, I forgot it.”
“Oh, here, you can use mine.”
“Oh my gosh, thank you. Wait, you’ll freeze outside though.”
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
I took off my coat and slid it onto her. She buttoned it up and we walked outside. It was snowing. I hailed a cab.
“Hurry, get in, you’ll freeze to death. I’ll get your bags.”
“Thanks.”
I grabbed our bags and fit them into the trunk of the cab. Slam! The trunk shut closed. I ran over to the door and got into the cab.
“Queens University please.” I said to the cab. Fortunately for my wallet, the university was only a few miles away from the airport. Silver and I talked some more and then the cab stopped.
“Here you are. $30”
“Here.” I said and handed the man a twenty and a ten. We got out and I unloaded the car. We rushed onto the campus. When we got inside, Silver breathed, “Thank you so much, Austin, you really did not have to do that for me.”
“It’s ok, I wanted to.”
“Thanks again though. So where’s your dorm?”
“It’s on the west side. Dorm 203. What about you?”
“You are not going to believe it; I’m just down the hall from you, west side, dorm 210!”

We walked over to the west wing and walked up the stairs. I carried Silver’s luggage for her, and again, she thanked me profusely. I walked her to her room and we parted. I went back to my own dorm and unpacked. I met my roommate. His name was Dixon. We introduced ourselves and started packing. I plugged in an amp and played my music. It turned out that Dixon and I liked the same music, crazy. We got to know each other and talked while unpacking. Through that, Dixon and I became friends, good ones. When I was done, I took a running jump and landed on my bed.

“DONE AT LAST!” I yelled. Dixon and I both laughed. He was already on his bed; he was a fast un-packer. He told me about his girlfriend, Kasey. After he finished, I told him about Silver and I, how we met, and everything in between.
“Wow dude! That’s crazy.” Dixon said.
“I know, it’s amazing, though.” Right then, my phone vibrated. “Speaking of Silver…” I raised my phone, and lifted my eyebrow. She had texted me. “im done, wbu?” I texted back. “B there in 2 mins”. I quickly changed into black jeans, a plain white T, a Volcom beanie with tassels, and spritzed myself with some Abercrombie cologne. I slid on my white Nike’s and grabbed another jacket on my way out. “Later man!” I half shouted to Dixon.
“Later, have fun!” He said sarcastically.

I walked over to Silver’s room and knocked. “Tap duh duh tap tap…tap tap” She opened her door and came out. She looked…breathtaking. She too, was wearing black jeans, along with a green and blue Hollister shirt, Converse’s, and a jacket. She handed me my jacket.
“Again, thank you.”
“No problem.” I replied.
We walked past my dorm and I threw my jacket in just as Dixon was walking out.
“Hey Dixon, this is Silver.”
?”Oh, so you’re Silver. Austin’s told me a lot ‘bout u. Wouldn’t shut up…” he laughed
“Nice to meet you Dixon.”
“Ok, well I gotta go, my girl’s waitin’.” he said.
“Later man, have fun!” I taunted him back.

Silver and I walked down to the nearby Starbucks and got some coffee.
“Hey! You wanna catch a movie?” Silver suggested.
“Sure, why not.” We walked off campus, sipping our coffee, to the Metroplex up the street. On the way there we talked, some more. Man, should I hold her hand or no? I just met her, but I like her a lot, and I think she likes me too. Oh well…what’s the worst that can happen? In the middle of her story of how she learned how to ice skate as a little girl, I quickly slipped my warm, rough hand into her soft, pale, cold hand. She squeezed my hand playfully and sent a smile my way. WHOOO HOOOO!!!! TOUCHDOWN!!! I yelled internally. We held hands and talked until we got to the movies. We got the ticket booth.
“What do you wanna see?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Hmm…well it’s bout quarter after four right now.”
“Umm…lets see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!”
“Ok, Harry Potter it is then.”
“Excuse me,” I politely asked the man in the ticket booth, “two tickets for Harry Potter at 4:20 please.”
“That’ll be $22.”
I slid the money under the half circle of an opening and received our tickets. We bought some popcorn inside and drizzled the butter on. We walked to the ticket collector and I gave him our tickets.
“Theatre 26, on the right.” he said dully. It was as if he were a dead man talking.
“Thanks,” I said.

We sauntered to the room hand in hand, in love. We found some premium seats and sat our cold bodies down in the warm comfy chairs. When we sat down, Sliver said, “You know, crazy as it sounds, although I just met you, I think I love you. I don’t know how, but I do. You just…attract me just like a magnet. And I don’t know how it happens, but when you touch me or hold my hand, I simply can’t pull away.”
“I know I’m in love with you. On the plane, I started off as just a guy being friendly to a cute girl, but by the time we got off, I changed into a man with a captured heart. And when I held your hand, I felt the surge from our…”

And at that moment, she leaned over and kissed me. It started off as a peck kiss and sparked into a passionate, long kiss. Even the people in the theatre, cold as they were, could feel the intensity of our kiss. We kissed and talked some more until the movie started. We watched the movie with half attention to the screen and half on each other. We took short intermissions from the movie...about every ten minutes. We were in love. Needless to say, we both missed the ending of the movie since it came after one of the ten-minute intervals. We walked past Time Square and saw the stunning stars above, sprinkling the black sky with specks of splendor. It was as if we were…living in my dreams. We passed an ice skating rink.
“Hey, come on, lets go ice skating.”
“Ok, race ya there!”
We ran towards the skate rental booth; she beat me. I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. She turned around and kissed my weather stricken cheek.
“I’ll have a size 10 hockey skate please.”
“And I’ll have a size 8 figure skate please.”
We sat down and laced up. Naturally, she beat me, again. She got onto the ice and skated through the current of people circling the oval rink. She started skating; an angel she was. On the ice, she was a swan, graceful, beautiful, a sight to see. I got out onto the ice and skated up next to her. I held her waist and gently nudged her forward. We skated hand in hand around the rink until no one was to be found left in the rink.

I slowly pulled her to the middle of the circular rink, pulled her close, and kissed her, passionately, softly. It lasted minutes. We slowly pulled away and skated to the exit. We returned our skates and slowly walked back to the university. We strolled to the west wing, up the stairs, turn left, then a right and poof. We arrived at her room.

“Wow, what a day,” I whispered.
“Yeah, what a day,” she whispered back.
“You know, meeting you on the plane was fate, falling in love with you was uncontrollable, and loving you is serendipity.
“Goodnight Silver.”
“Goodnight Austin.”
We kissed goodnight…
And now, I lay here in bed. Ready to sleep and face tomorrow, not alone, but with Her, the person who makes my world right. The girl who is indescribably amazing. The girl who loves me. The girl who I love. Somewhere on that plane………Cupid was hiding.