Aurora arrived at the airport early, long before the arrival board even flickered with Jasona's flight information. She did not mind. The terminal had always felt like a place of beginnings to her, a place where people stepped into futures they had dreamed about from thousands of miles away.
It felt fitting to stand there waiting for Jasona, who had been gone for what felt like an entire era rather than a whole school year.
She kept checking the time even though it moved forward at the same slow, deliberate rhythm it always had. Her fingertips tapped her thigh. People brushed past her with luggage wheels clicking over the shining tiles.
Announcements rolled overhead, some clear and others muffled by echo. Aurora barely heard any of it. Her focus stayed pinned on the glass doors, the ones that would soon slide open and return Jasona to her.
