Six Feet Under The Stars

Waiting seemed to be the hardest part. We had boarded the plane right on time and were waiting to take off. It was killing me, I could feel my heart rate increase with every second that passed us by and the sweat forming on my brow made me desperately want a shower. Of all the horrible things in the world I was only truly scared of three things; spiders, heights and flying.

“Relax,” Colby mumbled as he gripped my right hand tightly.

I glared over at him, it was easy for him to say, he wasn’t deathly afraid of flying. He also hadn’t been assigned a window seat nor had he been gentlemanly enough to offer to switch.

I heard his laugh ring through my ears and I glared down at my shoes harder before snapping them shut as the engine rumbled beneath me.

I could feel the speed of the plane as it hurtled down the runway before lifting up nose first. I gripped Colby’s hand as tight as humanly possible as my other free hand gripped the arm rest beside me. I felt my knuckles turning white as Colby mumbled that we were safely up in the air.

I scoffed; how exactly could we be safely up in the air?

We were encased in several tons of metal which was somehow being kept in the sky; the laws of gravity told me something wasn’t right about that.

Colby unbuckled his seatbelt as I slowly opened my eyes before pulling my blind down shut with a snap. As long as I imagined we were still on the ground I would be fine.

“You are such a wimp.”

I turned awkwardly in my seat to face him, “Might I remind you of the time we went to the sea life centre and you almost crapped yourself when that shark came right up to the glass.” His face paled slightly and I grinned smugly.

“Hey that thing was huge.”

I pulled a face. “What are you talking about it was smaller than Leon.”

He scrunched his face up with a huff before turning away from me. I grinned as my stomach dropped at the thought of one of our friends. Leon had been the annoying kid at pre-school who bugged me non-stop to borrow my particularly cool colouring pens until I caved in three weeks later. We had been somewhat inseparable ever since; well up until my mum died anyway.

I suddenly felt a little guilty, I had been so wrapped up in my own life and its problems that I neglected to tell my friends that I was okay, distraught and upset but okay. They had been worried about me (I could tell from all of the emails and texts I received) and all I had done in return was ignore them.

And now I was jetting halfway across the world without so much as a goodbye.

“Do you think we should have told people where we were going at least?” I asked quietly catching Colby’s attention.

He looked as though he was thinking for a while before he spoke up, “No, I mean I feel bad for just leaving but if we had told them they only would have convinced us to stay and I’m actually looking forward to this, fresh start and all that.”

He grinned at me in his boyish way that had charmed so many and I laughed. I guess he had a point there but in my gut I still couldn’t be sure that we were doing the right thing.

I placed a hand over my mouth as I yawned before resting back into my seat and closing my eyes again, “Wake me up when we’re almost there.”

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“Never again okay, just never again.”

I smiled awkwardly at the air hostess as we stepped off of the plane while Colby laughed openly.

“Come on Bracken it’s not that bad, flying is actually quite fun,” he insisted as I glared at the people in front of us. I wasn’t glaring because they had done anything wrong, I just didn’t want to have to turn around and glare at my brother. “I mean when you think about it, all there is between you and thousands of miles of air is a lot of metal and three hundred peoples suitcases.”

I cringed at the vivid image playing in my head as Colby nudged me in the side.

I moved to punch him as passport control came into view only for him to dodge it by millimetres. We joined the end of the long queue and waited patiently. My fingers itched to reach into my pocket for my phone to switch it on but I restrained myself in fear that our father would have contacted us.

Not that it mattered much now.

“What do you think the likely hood is that dad has already got in contact with Michelle to tell her we’re on our way?” I was asked as we reached the front of the queue and the booths containing scary looking men. I shrugged simply in response before dragging my feet over to the guy looking at me.

I handed him my passport before breathing out a sigh of relief, I was almost there.

“Welcome to America.”

I nodded him a thanks before laughing quietly to myself and making my way through to baggage claim. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the suitcases and bags from our flight were already making their way around the carousel.

I sent Colby into the mass of people and waited as he collected all of our bags. When he returned we high tailed it to the exit and jumped into a cab. I was thankful when Colby pulled yet another sheet of paper from his pocket before reading an address off of it to the driver.

At least he had remembered to find out exactly where Aunt Michelle lived.

“I’m excited.”

I rolled my eyes at him as I stared steadily out of the window. I was still tired and the fact that it was only two in the afternoon when we had left England later than that wasn’t boding well with my body clock. Plus I had just endured the longest and most terrifying journey of my life.

“What are you thinking about?” Colby asked me after a long, comfortable silence. I exhaled slowly before sitting back in my seat and staring blankly ahead.

“Nothing, I was just wondering whether or not Michelle is going to make us go to school here.”

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I was almost regretting my decision to come as we pulled up outside a well kept looking house. The garden had clearly been tended to recently and the (extremely cliché) white picket fence that lined the whole of the garden was still pristine, leading me to think that it had probably been painted recently.

All in all it looked like a perfectly nice place to live.

“Bracken what are you doing? Come on,” Colby hissed as my hand lingered over the door handle. My nerves were shot as I pulled on the plastic gently, releasing the door before I pushed it open enough to let myself slide out.

I watched silently as the cab pulled away from the pavement and disappeared down the street. Colby had already begun to walk up the gated pathway as I stared around me at the other houses. They all looked fairly similar and I could tell that the people who lived here took pride in the appearance of their homes.

“Bracken you better get up here, because I’m about to knock.”

I quickly averted my attention to my brother as he lifted a hand to knock at the solid white door. I groaned quietly before pushing open the gate and speed walking up the grey stone walkway. I had just reached the front steps when Michelle opened the door, surprise written all over her face.