Chapter Text
Regret.
It hits her when she watches her friends throw their collegiate caps up in the air in a coordinated motion of youthful glee. An ominous feeling of watching a train go off its tracks at the end of the road. A solid dullness pressed against her heart, heavy with sorrow and dread. Drowning the happiness she should feel right now.
Long gone were the restless nights of burning compound interest tables against her retinas. Endless days of market analysis, after-class debate, and presentations. Suits and ties that would cut her circulation, old men that gazed unscrupulously behind thick glasses, internships that would devour the little interest she had in her field of study.
Professors that would be understanding but demanding. Classmates that would be competitive one moment, and friendly the next. Great leaders, from all walks of life, and some of them didn't look at her like that.
Like she was a Rembran.
Like she had her future engraved in stone before she was born. A well-paying cushy corporate job, a timely rise through the ranks of bureaucracy; not too soon to protest nepotism, not too late to stop being a valuable asset.
But by the time they were seniors, all of them knew.
Of course they knew her, the Rembran firm had been a staple in the investment banking world for the last 20 years.
What are you doing after you graduate? she never faced that question, her friends just assumed she'd go into the path of less resistance. And it was fair obviously, but it hurt nonetheless.
It had been clear since the start that it didn't matter what she wanted.
Some nights, she'd lay awake on some stranger girl's bed considering she would rather have been literally anywhere else. Privilege be damned.
And it felt good while it lasted, the friends, the frat parties, and the business clubs. The laughter, the drinking, the smoking, even the studying sometimes. She didn't doubt she'd keep in touch with some of her classmates from the Finance Concentration. With them, she even forgot that those 4 years were all but a faint relief.
And now it was all over.
The insipid feeling crept up her neck as she stood frozen, too overwhelmed to join in on the celebration. On the corner of her view, a black Cadillac approached the stage and stopped underneath the shade of a tree, her phone rang one time, and she crumpled the plane ticket shoved into the bottom of the robe's pocket.
Miorine hid her white mane under a beanie and a large hoodie, dreading the time she would have to take them off for the TSA check. Thankfully sunglasses were appropriate for this weather.
She opted for a carry-on suitcase and a trekking backpack, nothing too flashy, and just enough to hold her most precious belongings.
Blending in from the press was a survival skill developed after years of just existing as the only heir to an international conglomerate, her life wasn't as drama filled as the ones of young artists and awarded actors and actresses, but she had knocked elbows with enough celebrities in the New York sphere that the tabloids wouldn't mind some juicy gossip about her. Especially when her sexual orientation was already a topic of discussion.
Thankfully it hadn't crossed her father's mind to hide her passport. She had found it after searching frantically around her mess of a room for 15 minutes. Glancing at it, she realized that even Miorine Rembran, renowned heiress, wasn't immune to the curse of bad photographs on official documents.
She chuckled as she cleared the corner towards the Check-in.
The receptionist greeted her with a strange look after looking at her documents, one she'd caught before.
Oh no, please don't end this journey before it begins , Miorine lowered her glasses to confirm her identity to the agent and scrambled to tag her bags.
"Your plane ticket. Have a good trip", said the agent.
"Thank you", responded Miorine, with a perplexed look on her face. Her anxiety seemed to be following her everywhere these days. She sighed as she put her sunglasses back on. At least it was better than the worker recognizing her from a magazine as she feared.
But her stress didn't wane until the plane took off. Her bags were safely tucked away and her phone was disconnected from the network.
That was when she let her mind wander to strange faraway lands. She had been so hellbent on getting out that she didn't think about her destination. After all, a short stay with some distant relatives in the Old Continent was only temporary.
Maybe she could trek across Europe, that seemed like something most of her ex-classmates were interested in. But it was probably dangerous to go alone and she didn't know anyone who could accompany her on such short notice.
If she tried to sign up for a post-graduate degree anyplace relevant, she only risked herself to be found by her father. She wished she could be invisible to the machinations of the company, come and go as the wind, and be gone from a place before anyone could find her tracks.
A notice came through the microphone, she turned her head from the window and was welcomed by the bright screen of her seat, an elegantly dressed smiling lady in front of a tropical background giving instructions to passengers, while the attendants in the aisle showed seatbelts and pressure masks, after that the screen went through different photos of destinations she didn't recognize behind the company logo.
Asticassia Airlines.
That was it. She knew what she had to do.
Safety, Service, Smile.
She had to pull call some favors to get into the program at Asticassia but it was worth it from the start.
The first weeks of flight attendant training were more physically taxing than any of the prior eight semesters. Even worse given her experience with heels was limited to prancing around dinner halls and auctions, leagues apart from using a fire extinguisher that seemed to have a mind of its own.
The Grinch panel of instructors scolded her at the slightest mistake, and they didn't hesitate to get in her face if she forgot the right order of evacuation protocol. She would be hit on the head with a manual during the day and read it to sleep until she memorized each one of the chapters in the handbook.
And for the first time in months, years even, she smiled, from the toes of her feet to the crown of her head, she gleamed with giddiness as she was one of the crew, no different from the rest of the trainees. She walked through the hall surrounded by guys and girls her own age, and none of them even stopped to stare at her with more than a smile. It was exhilarating.
So, she cut her hair and stopped painting her nails as they were ever broken with the motions of training, she wore her heels everywhere until she developed callouses. She made diagrams of airplane parts in her spare time, she started doing yoga and she was just like any white girl living in a cardboard apartment in Center London. She even changed her documentation to list her mother's maiden name: Laurier.
And she felt as free as a breeze of Spring.
Somehow yelling commands at invisible passengers to get on a plastic raft did wonders for Miorine's stress. She was wearing a proud grin when Aliya hooked her arm on the way out of Asticassia Headquarters.
"Have you gotten assigned yet, Mio?", Aliya said, walking slowly towards the bus stop.
"Hmm? I'm waiting on that, but I did send in my priority list at the same time as yours so we should be getting them soon", commented Miorine.
"I'm excited, but I'm predicting that we'll end up on the same crew so let's do our best in the time that's left".
"You're too optimistic Aliya, it would have to be too much of a coincidence".
"Oh, but I do believe the universe will work in our favour. We are grabbing some drinks with the guys. You in?". The guys, Nuno and Ojelo were already at the bus stop. She grinned.
"Sure, as long as we don't stay up past your bedtime", said Mio.
"Says the girl who took a nap on the Uber", replied Aliya as she held her hand out to signal the bus.
"I was meditating", Miorine said as a smile cracked through her teeth.
"If you say so, Mio", replied Aliya.
That night, after leaving the guys at the subway station and accompanying Aliya to her apartment building, she thought about what she had lost in moving to Europe and starting from scratch, and she figured it was not a whole lot.