Just Hate Me and We'll End It Here

Bailey

“Oh crap,” my eyes widen as we begin boarding the plane. “Oh, no, no, no…” I mutter to myself, my hands clenching into tight fists as I look around. Already I can feel my heart beating faster.

“Bailey?” Alex frowns behind me.

I whirl around, my face pale. “You know what? I changed my mind. We can stay a little longer with your parents. I don’t mind. Really.”

Alex gives me an odd look. “I thought you couldn’t wait to get out of here, Bay. Are you feeling okay?” He asks me. “You’re looking pretty p- oh…” he blinks and it seems to dawn on him. “Bailey,” he starts in a soft voice, and makes me turn around back to the aisle.

His arms remain over mine, obstructing me from being able to grab anything and make a run for it. As it is, I can barely make my legs move forwards. “It’s going to be fine,” I faintly hear in my ear. “Like last time. Three, four hours, and we’ll be back home. With Jack, and Missy, and Georgie. No problem, right?”

“B-b-but, planes crash unexpect-tedly,” I stutter as he makes me sit in the window seat. I take a sharp intake of breath, seeing outside. We’re already pretty high off the ground! How can they really expect us to fly off with all this weight? It’s impossible! I swallow hard, and I see Alex’s hand cross over, shutting the window.

“Better?” He gives me an innocent smile.

I glare and punch him on the arm. He winces, making a face. “Don’t talk to me,” I mutter, crossing my arms and slinking down in my seat. I grit my teeth, closing my eyes and focusing on keeping my breathing normal.

Alex’s light chuckle reaches my ears as he whispers, “What’ll I ever do with you, Bailey?” After a moment, he grabs me arm, though I try to make him let go. “At least sit up and get your seatbelt on,” he lectures me. “That’ll keep you safe, you know.”

Right away, I sit back up right in the chair and with fumbling fingers, I manage to get my seatbelt on, and snug. My hands quickly grab the armrests tightly and I shut my eyes closed, wishing this were just over.

Why hadn’t I remembered this a little earlier? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Above my thoughts, the voice speakers turn on as the pilot starts talking to everyone calmly and all this butt load of crap, before we finally start taking off. My breath catches in my chest as we start down the runway, and I can’t remember how to swallow.

Alex mutters a curse, turning over to me. “You’re going to kill yourself, Bay,” he mutters, slightly annoyed. His stronger hands disconnect my hands from the rests. “Bailey, breathe already!”

I rasp a breath and violently cough, getting my throat to start working again. I shake my head as Alex rubs my back for a moment. “Close your eyes again,” he tells me. “And just… just keep them closed, all right? Try going to sleep,” he offers. “That helps.”

I glare at him. “Only you would know,” I mutter and look away, taking deep and slow breaths. My fingers retake the armrests and I start nervously tapping my fingers again, trying to think of something else…

Like birds…no, not that. Um…Bubbles? Oh, heavens no. Or, or um… not superman. Not any superheroes. I groan, banging my head against the back of my chair in frustration. My eyes open again and I notice Alex amusedly watching me.

“Oh, find your own amusement to watch,” I mutter at him as the flight attendant passes some cokes to the two of us. Hurriedly I open my can and take a long swallow. I shudder as the carbonated drink goes down. One should never drink soda that fast…

“Well that’s enough for now,” Alex chuckles a little, and then puts his hand over mine. I glance at it, my eyebrow raised but he just grins. “How about… let’s play a game,” he offers.

“Oh, please no,” I mutter, leaning my head back.

He promptly ignores my moans. “Okay, uh… I’m… oh! Okay. I’m thinking of a song. You have to guess the title and the band or singer. Got it? And I’ll give you two lines. Um…”

There, for the next three hours and forty-five minutes we play this guess-the-song game. Well, we pause at one point in the game because we get into an argument over The Killers. He doesn’t really like their music and calls it techno- when clearly it’s not, and it’s even better than his band. That argument lasted quite a while, obviously. Stubborn boy.

“Good afternoon, fliers. We’ll be landing shortly. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. We’ll be down in about ten minutes.”

“Oh my gosh, I love you,” I groan, heaving a sigh and almost relaxing.

“Why thanks,” Alex teases me.

I frown and punch him in the arm. But then I regret it, feeling the plane tipping downwards. I take a sharp intake of breath, my eyes wide. Alex looks at me and then takes the hand closest to him off the rest and starts fiddling with my fingers. He tugs at the tips, tickles the middle of my palm, traces the outline- doing just about anything. My brow furrows, trying to figure out what he’s doing, and why.

A small beeping goes off, meaning we can take off our seatbelts now. It makes me jump in surprise and I stare- we’ve landed? Already? Seriously? My mouth open, I look at Alex who gently sets my hand back down on the armrest, smirking at me.

Glaring, I snatch my hand into my lap and start fumbling to get out. Sighing, I follow him off the plane through the crowd, and to the crowded baggage claim. Uneasily I shift my backpack, glancing around and brushing my hair back. We’re finally home, thank goodness. But I feel exhausted and just want to sleep. Then I frown, recalling Alex took his car back… “Alex,” I sigh, turning back to him. “We need a ride.”

He opens his mouth to object, but then closes it, remembering. “Oh.” He says finally. “Well, then… here, I’ll get our things. You call Rian or someone, okay?” And he tosses me his cell phone.

Stepping out of the crowd, I go through his list of callers and find Rian’s number. I push send and put the phone to my ears, stifling a yawn. Then after a few rings, someone picks up. “Hey humanoid!”

“Jack?” I scrunch my nose in confusion and glance at the number I dialed. “Why do you have Rian’s phone?”

“Cause…um…he gave it to me?” He offers.

“Jack.”

“Okay, so the aliens abducted him!”

“Jack, come on.”

“Uh… would you believe he went to the movies with Kara and accidentally left it and I got bored and starting playing solitaire on here?”

“That’s better,” I roll my eyes. “But could you find him or something? Me and Alex are at the airport and we need a ride.”

“Why wait for Rian? I can drive!”

I give a dry chuckle. “Alex already told me about the incident.”

“I wasn’t looking!” He whines immediately. “I was just changing the radio, okay? I swear, the bunny just appeared and- and it tackled the car and everything!”

“Ugh, whatever. Could you just bring a ride over? Or we’ll get a taxi,” I mutter and hang up before he can say anything more. I stare at the phone for a minute and then turn around to return to Alex, but he’s on his way over with all our luggage already.