Got Up This Morning

"Guys, this sucks," I said, crossing my arms and pouting in the stiff chair of the terminal.

"Well, Cece, you bought your ticket after us, there's nothing we can do," Wes comforted.

"I know... but still," I sighed. "Whatever, I'm hungry, let's get a snack."

With that Layla, Wes, and I gathered our carry-on bags. We walked to a little kiosk and stared at the arrangement of dried fruit bags.

"Well fuck man, you'd wear sunglasses inside too, if your hangover was this fucking bad." I heard a voice exclaim, too loudly for indoors.

I turned to see the source of the obnoxious voice and and scowled at the tall man. He had a dark mop of unkempt hair and black sunglasses covering his eyes. His frame was slight and he was dressed in a black shirt and ripped jeans, with scuffed black Converse to occupy it. He was with four other guys. Although they all had different shapes, their attire was similar.

I turned to Layla and whispered, "I hope they're not on our plane."

Oh, to be so lucky...

"Fuck man, I don't even know why they took my lighter, but let me keep my cigs. That doesn't even make sense," the black haired, pierced boy whined to his friend as he took the seat next to mine.

I heaved an exasperated sigh and butt in. "They don't allow lighters through security because of safety issues, and you can't even smoke on the plane."

The longer haired boy raised his eyebrows at the pierced one. "You heard the lady, you can't smoke on the plane, Zack."

He sighed. "Well that's just fucking stupid."

The longer haired boy settled into his aisle seat and placed his pen striped fedora over his eyes. "Whatever, Zacky. I'm sleeping."

Zack glared at him. "Well fuck, Brian. We haven't even taken off yet."

I sighed, yet again. This time louder. The boy named Zack turned and looked at me, a confused look in his eyes.

"Do you have to say that word so much?" I asked, my eyes narrowed at him.

He smirked. "What word?"

I frowned. "The f word," I responded, already mentally slapping myself for how stupid I sounded.

"Well, sweetheart, I say the f word about all the fucking time," he stated.

I sighed. "This is going to be a long plane ride," I said, thinking aloud.

"Oh, with us, you'll be entertained," he smirked again, his green eyes shimmering.

I pulled out my phone and texted Layla a distress signal. Help me! I typed, then pushed the send button a few extra times. A flight attendant noticed and murmured to me about turning my phone off, it interferes with the plane, she said. So I automatically turned it off with haste.

Zack turned to me. "Nervous about flying? What is it, your first time?"

He made it sound dirty, the way he said it. I scowled. "Yes, it is. And I'm not scared."

He chuckled. "I never said you were scared, I asked if you were nervous."

I glowered. "Don't twist my words." The plane lurched. "What was that?!" I demanded.

He chuckled again. "The plane's making it way down the tarmac so we can take off."

"Oh..." I said, cursing myself for sounding stupid yet again.

We were silent the few minutes as the plane made its way down the tarmac, as Zack said it would. His heavily tattooed arm took over the armrest between our seats and he had turned the air condition to a frigid level. The plane eventually spend up. I knew what this was, we were taking off.

As we picked up speed my breathe quickened. I looked at the window as we lurched forward. I gasped, and grabbed the closet hand to mine without thinking, of course it was his. To my surprise, he squeezed my fingers and let me crush his fingers as we ascended. When we slowed down and evened out, I let go of the Vulcan death grip I had on his hand.

He turned to me and the corners of his full mouth perked up a bit. "Not so bad, is it?" he questioned me.

I held my palm over my right ear as it popped. "I don't know what you're talking about, it was terrifying," I wheezed.

He laughed. "Well you might as well chill, babe. 'Cause we're not landing for a good bit and I'm not going to sleep, so you're going to occupy me."

I scowled, I seemed to be doing that a lot around him. "Oh, really? Can I really have the joy of entertaining you?" I asked sourly.

"Yeah, smartass," he said as he reached under the seat in front of him and unzipped a pocket of his duffel and pulled out a deck of cards. "You know how to play poker?" He asked me.

"I know how to play gin..." I trailed off.

"Well, shit. You're learning to play poker now," he said then pulled down his tray table, dealing cards to himself then me.

After a few games I got the hang of it, and even began to beat him. Every time I did win, he'd pout and claim that I was cheating to Brian, who would just mumble and wave his hand at Zack, disregarding what he said to sleep. This would make me giggle every time.

"You know," Zack finally pointed out. "You're cute when you giggle."

I blushed, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. "No, I'm not."

"I swear you are..." he trailed off. "Wait, what's your name again?"

I felt the tinge of embarrassment at spending almost an hour playing cards with this man and not even telling him my name. "I'm Carolina," I said.

"Carolina," He said to himself. "I like your giggle, Carolina."

"Well thank you... I assume your name is Zack?"

"Yeah," he said. "But call me Zacky, I like that better." He yawned and gathered the cards up, tapping then on the table tray and put them back in the white and red box. He then put them back in the pocket of his bag.

He settled himself and leaned back, closing his eyes. "I'm going to take a quick nap, Carolina. Wake me up when they take drink orders."

I nodded to him, then mumbled an okay after I realized his eyes were closed.

I picked a catalog named Sky Mall out of the pocket in the back of the seat in front of me. After about five minutes I felt a weight against my shoulder and something warm on my neck. I looked over and saw that Zacky had fallen against my shoulder, still asleep. He even breathes feathered my neck with heat.

I took a good look at him and absorbed the light pale color of his skin, the dark color of his choppy hair and long lashes, the pinkish red of his lips, and the smooth plain of his jaw.

I even surprised myself when I thought in my head he was actually quite gorgeous.