I Found It on an Airplane

Thirty-four hours: the amount of time it took Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Six hours: the amount of time most people spend sleeping every night.

One hour: the amount of time it takes Target to develope pictures from a disposable camera.

Fifteen seconds: the amount of time it took me to fall in love with Brendon Urie.

I know, it sounds cliché to fall in love with someone when you’ve only seen them once. For years, I didn’t even believe in love at first sight. I’d made fun of Romeo and Juliet, Twilight, and Les Misérables. I’d written off ever time that some claimed that they’d experienced it as just a shot of lust.

That is, until I moved to Las Vegas. My friend Leah had moved out there about six months earlier for a job, though I still don’t know exactly what it is. She called me up and said that she was driving herself crazy without her friends (like me) who had stayed in Anaheim. Leah promised that if I moved out there with her, I could stay in her apartment and she’d find me a job. After she bugged me for about two weeks, I finally complied. Besides, I’d always wanted to see the City of Lights.

Little did I know that I’d find more than I asked for in Las Vegas.

I also didn’t know that I’d find it on an airplane.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking,” came the voice of - who else? - the captain over the loudspeaker. “We have just landed in Las Vegas, Nevada. The local time is 11:14 am and the temperature is around 87 degrees. You may now use your cell phones at this time. Thank you for flying with Frontier and enjoy your stay.”

I stood up and immediately stood in the aisle to make sure that nobody could cut in front of me and leave me stranded on the airplane until someone took mercy on me. Trust me. I’ve been on planes enough to know that people can be that rude.

Ah, shit, I thought looking into the overhead compartment. As usual, two huge bags had moved to squish mine in the overhead compartment so that it was nearly impossible to get out. And considering I’m only five foot nothing, I couldn’t exactly reach it, let alone get it out of there. How the hell did I get it in there in the first place? Oh yeah, now I remember. It involved quite a bit of jumping and throwing.

“Need some help with your bag?” said a voice behind me, which caused me to jump just a little.

I turned around to see who the voice belonged to see a man about eight inches taller than me with brown hair and the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen.

You know how I said that I fell in love with Brendon Urie in about fifteen seconds? Well, ten of those seconds were spent staring into his eyes. Then I brought myself back to reality. “Uh, yeah,” I said looking down, just a bit embarrassed. “That’d be great. My bag’s the green one wedged between those two huge black ones.”

He looked into the compartment, felt around for the strap, and heaved, causing the bag to jump out, pulling him back with it. Luckily, I grabbed my bag and his friend grabbed him before he could run into the people in the next row over.

“Thanks,” I said as I put the strap over my shoulder. “Next time I’ll remember not to put my bags up there. Especially since I can’t exactly reach up there.”

He laughed a little bit at my comment. “You’re a fun one. I’m Brendon by the way. Brendon Urie.”

I smiled. “Kyra Atkins. You guys are from Panic at the Disco, right?"

"Yeah. You've heard of us?"

"Of course."

“Uh, Brendon," his friend and probably bandmate said. "I think it’d be smart to get off the plane before the people behind us start plotting our deaths.”

Brendon looked back at his friend. “Eh, you’re probably right, Ryan.” Then to me, he said, “Shall we?” I nodded, turned around, and headed off of the plane. “So what brings you to Vegas?” he said when we were on the walkway.

“My friend Leah convinced me to move here from Anaheim. She came out about six months ago and called me last month saying that she was going crazy being without any of us with her. Speak of the devil, there’s Leah now,” I said pointing to the bouncing, five foot four blonde girl, waving her arms around like a maniac.

Both Ryan and Brendon looked in the direction that I had indicated. “Wow,” they said at the same time before Brendon added, “Your friend is, um, interesting.”

It was my turn to laugh at them. “Just come out and say it. We all know Leah’s weird. That was decided about fourteen years ago. I’d better go say hi to her,” I said before turning to walk away.

But Brendon grabbed my shoulder, preventing me from taking another step. “Hey, could I have your number?”

“So you can find me in this big old city?”

“Precisely,” he said before reaching in his bag and pulling out a scrap of paper and a pen. He scribbled ten numbers onto the paper, ripped it in half, put the written on half in my left hand and the pen and blank paper in my right. I followed his example and handed the paper back to him. “Hope to see you around town some time.”

With that, we walked off in opposite directions: me toward Leah, Brendon and Ryan to God-knows-where. Once I reached Leah, I couldn’t even say hello to her before she said, “Kyra, were you just talking to Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And Brendon and I traded numbers.”

Leah squealed at that statement. I had to calm her down to keep people from staring. “I’ll tell you more about it in the car.”

“Fine,” she said. “I want to take you to this great diner before we go home.”

“Never again are you allowed to drive with me in the car, Leah. You have some serious road rage issues,” I said as we walked into the diner.

“Oh, come on, Kyra,” Leah said sounding a bit disappointed. “I do not have road rage issues. And I drive just fine.”

“No, you’re dangerous,” I said sitting down at a booth.

“Whatever. Now tell me what happened with Brendon,” she said sitting down across from me.

I couldn’t help but smile. “He helped me get my bag out of the overhead compartment and we started talking. Then, as you saw, he asked for my number, saying that he wanted it so he could find me sometime.”

“Do you think he’s interested in you?”

“Yes.”

“How can you be sure?”

At that moment, Brendon and the rest of Panic at the Disco walked into the very diner that Leah and I had entered just moments before. Since I had sat down on the side that was facing the door, he saw me, smiled, and waved. I waved back, looked at Leah, and said with a smirk, “I just can.”