"Why did you buy pizza, though? It’s a five-hour flight; they will serve something to eat, right?"
Liam was pushing the suitcase cart while Clara was searching for her passport and ticket in her handbag.
"I bought it because, see this? I sit at 12A, while your seat number is 22C. I will give this pizza to the person next to you to exchange our seats. How’s my plan?"
Clara excitedly pulled out her ticket and then started waving it in Liam’s face. Liam swatted her hands out of his vision casually; she didn’t mind, on the contrary, and just smiled at him.
"Mine is an aisle seat, while yours is a window seat."
"Eh? I like window seats. Why don’t you take this pizza and come sit besides me?
Liam, hearing her plan, blinked his eyes slowly; he was wondering if the system had made her dumb or if she was already this dumb.
"No, thank you. Go ahead and get yourself checked; I will weigh these suitcases and get tags for these."
Clara nodded her head but looked at Liam with an impressed smirk; she didn’t know she was with an experienced traveler.
...
Liam placed his backpack in the overhead bin and, taking a deep breath, sat down on his seat. He was a little worried because the whole flight looked almost empty, so Clara might not need to use her pizza.
"Yes!! Please, ma’am?"
Clara was requesting the flight attendant to change her seat, but the older flight attendant was not listening to her at all; she was just shaking her head continuously.
Thank god.
Liam sighed with relief, seeing Clara being forcefully seated in her assigned seat; he can relax now; he can watch something fun.
*DING-DING*
{Please be seated in your assigned seat until after the takeoff.}
Liam facepalmed hearing the announcement, but to his surprise, two young men casually took seats besides him. They were talking among each other, so Liam understood they might be friends.
Damn! Thank god again.
Liam was almost standing up with the shocking announcement, but these two dudes saved the day again.
There will be an attempt from her for sure, though.
Shaking his head, Liam took the complimentary earphones and played a random song and closed his eyes. He wanted to get as much rest as possible without someone disturbing him; the day will only get more tiring from here.
...
Just like last time, I will be assigned to the same room, number 9. This time I’ll buy a desktop for personal use; also, this thing needs to be replaced.
Liam was looking at his phone, which was almost dying because it was out of battery; this old device could barely run idle for about four hours before dying, so when he used it to watch YouTube to ignore Clara, it barely lasted an hour.
"Excuse me, can I bother you?"
An enchanting voice made Liam stop his thought process. When he looked to the side, he saw a tall girl around his age gently smiling at him.
Who the hell?
"Yes, you can bother us. What’s up?"
Before Liam could respond, the person seated next to him pushed his glasses up and replied in an unusual manner. Liam could guess the boys seated besides him were kind of nerds and their social skills might not even be normal.
"Sorry, I was talking with this person here. Hello, I was wondering if you would like to exchange seats with me?"
She smiled politely at the boys, then looked at Liam and pointed at her seat with her thumb, hiding the fact that she was pointing there.
"Nope."
Liam didn’t even bother to look behind; he refused outright. His luck was favoring him. First, this flight has an older, strict attendant, and then there are these two friends beside him; they won’t move because they are talking non-stop with each other.
"H... Hey, I can give you my seat. It’s a window seat, and you can be very comfortable here."
Suddenly the guy at the window seat spoke up, and then Liam saw the middle-seated friend visibly making a fist and pulling it towards him as if he had won a lottery or something; the other one stood up swiftly and, keeping his head down, went to the back.
Liam, seeing this scene, felt disgusted a little, and removing an earbud from his ear, he turned around and looked back, seeing the boy being seated in the middle row and between two old men, who were coughing from time to time.
"Thank you?"
The girl was visibly confused; she wanted to say thank you, but the guy who gave up his seat didn’t even want it.
"H...hey, my name is Creed."
"Hello, I am Megan."
Liam, seeing the creepy Creed, just rolled his eyes and placed his earbud back. This duo reminded him of himself in the past; he focused on studies so much that his social skills might have been in the negative in his past life.
"You’re going to Princeton today?!! Wow, I also study in Princeton, in the public policy department. That was my friend Billy who gave you his seat; we’re currently in our junior year."
Although a song called ’I Wanna Fuck You’ by Akon was playing in his earphones, he still got to listen to Creed, who was excitedly talking about Princeton; maybe half of the passengers heard his gasp.
Wait, what is this song? I thought it was called ’I Wanna Love You’, and what the fuck are these lyrics?
Liam wanted to skip the song, but this thing didn’t have a button for it, so he obviously just put the earpieces back in their place.
"Hello!! Missed me? Who is this BITCH!! "
"Sigh! I am sorry; she is a little crazy, Clara. We don’t know these people; come on."
Clara peeked from Liam’s side of the seat; she was going to give him a big surprise but saw another beautiful girl seated just one seat away from him, making her shocked in the process.
Liam had to get up and apologize on her behalf; Clara was still looking at Megan’s way with grudge-filled eyes. This was the first time she had met someone similar to her age and almost equally beautiful.
"What are you doing?"
Liam gently pressed Clara’s hand and, with a smile on his face, asked in an angry manner; he doesn’t like to grab attention in a public place, and she was making a commotion out of nothing.
"Who is she?"
"How would I know?"
Liam was talking while clenching his teeth, while Clara was looking at Megan’s with hostility. Megan, on the other hand, was looking at Liam’s way awkwardly; she was an introverted person, and this whole thing was making her uneasy.
"Come sit beside me; I don’t have anyone sitting beside me."
"Will you stop shouting if I do?"
"Yes!!"
"Let’s go. Hey, I am sorry, folks."
Liam turned around and with both hands in the air smiled at everyone who was looking their way and made a face that said, ’Small Couple Banter,’ and then, taking his backpack from the overhead bin, walked forward with Clara.
[Updated]
[Main Mission: Accompany Clara Hartmann till New Jersey]
[Side Mission: Help Megan Vox from the creep.] [Skip for $2]
Yeah, definitely skipping that; with this psycho on my side, I need a smoke. My head is spinning.
"Hey! Wanna give me your number so I can show you around the campus?"
As Liam was walking away with Clara, he heard Creed directly asking for Megan’s number; his eyes went a little wide with shock because not only was Megan out of his league, but even Liam, who was a multimillionaire now, could not hope to impress Clara if the system didn’t interfere and both Clara and Megan could go toe to toe in terms of beauty.
"I am sorry."
"Come on, Billy and I always have parties with girls; it will be fun. Come on."
How naive...he thinks showing around the university is all there is to impress a girl? Sigh! Wait, why am I even getting scared of Clara? Guess I have PTSD from women; I am doing this side mission.
"I am sorry, I don’t like parties."
"You’ll love it; sometimes we have those nude parties..."
Liam turned around with a smile. Clara was surprised to see a different side of him; he almost looked very confident.
"Hey, Creep, don’t bother her. You know the Danuvan behind the Nassau Inn? I am a member; I’ll beat you so hard that..."
Liam made a slicing throat motion with his hand towards Creed, the Danuvan Motorcycle Club, or more like a dangerous business around Princeton; they were feared as the most notorious criminals in Princeton, and every student tried to avoid getting their attention, and in this particular scenario, Liam just borrowed this name using his past-life memories.