I Am Invincible

For someone who has travelled all over the world, my father is seriously hilarious when it comes to flying. He literally has to be pushed into the plane and, as soon as he sits down, the seatbelt is on, even if the flight isn’t leaving for another twenty minutes. His arms would immediately go to the armrests and his knuckles would be white as he holds onto the ends in a vice-like grip. It’s pretty funny to watch. He gets better during the flight though and can actually enjoy himself after a while, which I think is a relief for both him and his band mates.

Unfortunately, I got my fear of flying from him, but I’m not even half as bad. For one thing, I feel perfectly safe while the plane is on the ground and not moving, and I don’t mind when it’s flying straight in the air, just when it’s taking off and landing that I start freaking out.
Sitting on the plane waiting for it to take off for Australia was no different to any other plane trip I’d been on with the All Time Low guys. Same as always, Jack was leaning over seats and talking to random people, shouting to me across the aisle (even though I could hear him perfectly fine if he just talked in a normal voice) and just generally being annoying. Rian was trying to calm dad down, who looked like he was going to go into a full-blown panic attack any second. Matt Flyzik and everyone else who had organised the tour were going over schedules and things. I was sitting there anticipating the take-off and landing (basically just scaring myself) and watching to see if any interesting people would be joining us on the flight. Zack was ignoring everyone and reading tourist brochures and trying to decide which beaches he’d hit for the best surf in each Australian state, occasionally taking a pen and marking a place that looks promising.

A few minutes before take-off a guy who looked about 17 rushed through the door and looked at his ticket. He located his seat and started walking towards it, stopping in front of me and I quickly put my head down in case he suspected me of staring. I’d completely forgotten that there was an empty seat next to me, and I moved so that he could get past me. As soon as the guy got settled, the plane roared into life and began moving, scaring the shit out of me. My hands flew to the armrests just as the guy was about to lay his arm on the one in between us.
“Sorry!” I squeaked, not looking up.
The guy laughed a little under his breath. “You scared of flying?”
“No. I’m scared of the plane taking a nosedive as soon as it gets off the ground.”
The guy laughed again. “Relax. That won’t happen. Have you ever heard of that happening?”
“No,” I replied, still keeping my eyes averted. “But knowing my luck, who knows what could happen.”

“Well, let me distract you. Hi, my name is Jake, I’m 16, and I’m travelling home from visiting my brother. My friends would’ve killed me if I missed this flight, cause we have something very important on, starting this week. Your turn.”
I looked up at him finally and withheld a gasp. He was gorgeous. “Uhh… I-I’m Cameron. I’m 15, um… and I’m here with them,” I pointed across the aisle to where dad was cowering in his chair, Jack was trying to steal Zack’s brochures with no luck and Rian was finding a song on his iPod.
Jake’s brown eyes widened. “Um… they’re…?”
“All Time Low, yeah,” I replied, fumbling with my seatbelt slightly to unlatch it; I had only just noticed that we were allowed to take it off.
“Wow. I guess it’s lucky that I did get this flight. I didn’t think they’d be coming this early…” he muttered to himself, then, to me, “Sorry, um you know how I mentioned me and my friends have something important on?” I nodded. “Well… we’re uh… actually… touring with All Time Low. There was a competition for an Australian band to join them on the road? Yeah, well. We’re it.”
“Really? So you’re part of…oh, what’s it called? C-catch…”
“Chase the Feeling? Yep,” Jake said with a smile.
“What do you do?”
“Drums. I love banging things.”
I laughed. Jake ran his hands though his messy, brown hair and smiled at me again. “So, how do you know ATL?”
“Alex is my dad.”
His jaw dropped. “Seriously? Wow. That must be awesome. I bet he’s a lot of fun. You’re so lucky,” he finished with a sigh.
“Not really. Actually, he’s a real dickhead. The Alex you see on stage and in interviews is an act. He’s really a horrible person. He makes my life a living hell. I can’t wait to leave home, just to get away from the asshole,” I said loudly.
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Cameron,” I heard from my right and looked around. Dad was sitting up quite normally (although still with his seatbelt on) and glaring at me.
I laughed and turned back to Jake, “No, I’m kidding. He’s a great dad. They’re all really great guys and it is a lot of fun.”
“Oh, awesome. So what do you do when you’re touring with them? Do you help with merch and stuff?”
“Nah, not really. I just basically go for the holiday, you know, just to see other places and that. I haven’t been on a lot of tours with them and this is the first out of the USA tour I’ve been on. I’m not usually invited on those.”
“How come you were invited on this one, then?”
“I had a rough year last year. Dad thought I needed to get away for a while…” I trailed off, not really wanting to talk about it.

Jake seemed to get the hint and didn’t push it any further. Instead he changed the subject.
“So… you got a girlfriend?” he asked me. I laughed and he looked confused. “What?”
“Not into girls,” I explained. Here we go; this’ll make or break our friendship, I thought. I hoped he wasn’t homophobic.
“Ah… got a boyfriend, then?” Wow.
I nodded, “Yup. His name’s Zach. What about you?”
“Boyfriend? No. Girlfriend… Also, no,” he said with a grin.
What? “Why?” I blurted out, “You’re so cute! Shit! I said that out loud. That was meant to stay in my head. Sorry, I get the ‘talk now, think later’ trait from my father,” I apologised sheepishly.
Jake laughed, “No, it’s cool. Thanks. But I don’t know why. I guess I just haven’t found the right person yet.”

Jake and I talked pretty much the entire trip, except for when we were sleeping. It turned out that he lived really close to the beach in a medium-sized town a couple of hours south of Sydney (our first destination in Australia). He told me that his older brother had been living in Baltimore for three years with his fiancée (something that his parents aren’t all that happy about) and that this was the first time he’d seen his brother in that amount of time. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like not to see Declan for that long.

Having someone to talk to that wasn’t my father and everyone else who I have to put up with on a daily basis was a nice change. It made the plane trip seem much shorter than the 28 hours it took to get from Baltimore to Sydney.

I was wide awake when we landed at the airport. I had slept for about 10 hours not too long before the announcement was made that we’d be landing. It took me five minutes to wake Jake up; apparently he’s a heavy sleeper, especially if he managed to sleep through the loud squeak of the microphone as the announcement was being made. I was freaking out a bit when the plane took a slight dive as it aimed for the runway and Jake had to hold my wrists so that I’d stop picking at a small hole in the armrest before I picked the whole thing away. As soon as the plane was at a standstill I felt much calmer. When we were allowed, all of the passengers filed out the door. I don’t know about anyone else, but my legs were shaking like mad and I would’ve fallen out of the plane if Jake wasn’t behind me and caught me when I stumbled. I threw him a grateful look before concentrating once more on getting out of the plane and into the airport in one piece.

With everybody else behind me I made my way to the luggage thingy and tried to spot my suitcase in amongst the thousands of others that were there circling around waiting for their owners. There were people everywhere! It was insane. And virtually impossible to find anything; I’d be screwed if everyone suddenly disappeared on me. Which, knowing my luck, could happen.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I heard a loud shriek behind me coming from a girl who looked about my age. Oh fabulous! Fan girls, I thought, rolling my eyes and turning back, just as my bag came around on the conveyor belt in front of me. I made a huge lunge and grabbed it before I was pushed out of the way by anyone whose bags were around mine. I struggled a bit with the weight and looked around for some help from someone but everyone was busy signing crap for fans and Jake was hauling his own suitcase off the conveyor belt.

I sighed and threw myself on the nearest seat to wait. The seat was hard and cold and really uncomfortable. I placed my elbows on my knees and rested my chin in my hands. It was going to be a long time before we get anywhere the exit to the airport.