Something Vague.

“Congratulations!”

We walked into the room filled with everyone from the recording studio along with our friends from the fearless and Warner. The happiness on everyone’s face, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I stood around as a bunch of people gave us congrats and just talked about the new album.

“Hey JohnO!”

I turned around and saw Howard standing there with a smile on his face. I gave him a grin back before shaking the hand that he had outstretched in front of me.

“Hey Howard.”

“I just wanted to tell you sorry for always being on your ass, I just had to push you man. I saw the potential in you and it needed to be exposed. You should be very proud of this album I think it’s amazing”, he said making me smile a bit.
“No hard feelings?”

I looked down at his hand again before shaking it again. “Nah man, I needed the push.”

“Congrats on everything.”

“Thank you”, I said with a smile as he walked away.

We left the party to go back home for the last time. The van pulled up into the driveway but all I could do was staring at the house next to us. My eyes not able to leave it, the car missing from its spot so I knew she was in town. I felt my heart break a little but I held back the tears and the look of misery and walked inside the house. All us running around to pack everything so we could go back home finally. I walked into my room and everything about this place reminded me of Carly. I looked down at the blanket she bought me at the swap meet, then down at the pictures cover the wall. I grabbed my bag throwing all my clothes into it, not really caring about neatness. The amount of plaid I had was too much. I took a seat on my empty bed looking over into her window. I could almost see her through my imagination; see her small body dancing around in the window with a smile. I could see her in all those ridiculous costumes.

“Hey man, you ready?”

I looked up at Kenny standing there with a smile on his face. I nodded my head before taking a deep breath and grabbing my bags. We threw everything in the van knowing that all the guys were going to drive back while we were going to fly back. Before getting in the van I took one last look at the house and then I stepped inside the van. As we drove off and away from those houses I could see that familiar house in the rear window. With every minute the house was further away, and then it disappeared. I looked out the window trying to control my breathing as well as the tears on the verge of coming out. We got to the crowded airport and walked out to take our seats on the plane.

“Come on, I get the random ass seat”, I said looking over at Tim with an annoyed look on my face.

“At least it’s window.”

“Great”, I said throwing my head back and taking a seat. “Going to get some fucking creepy that doesn’t know what personal space is.”

“Suck it up!”

I could hear them all laugh behind me and to the side of me. I rolled my eyes and settled into my seat grabbing my iPhone and headphones. I leaned into my seat waiting for everyone else to come aboard. I looked out the window, just the thoughts of Carly running through my head. When I felt someone take a seat next to me I didn’t dare to look over at them. I knew that was just asking for a conversation that I didn’t want; I just wanted to be alone to my thoughts.

“I’ll trade ya.”

That accent was thick and it made me cock my head in the direction to the stranger on my left. That’s when her eyes met mine, I was frozen. I just looked her over. Once again my imagination was just playing jokes with me.

“What do you say?”

“Carly?” I asked hearing that image speak again.

“Hey John”, she said with a smile.

I looked over at the guys and they just stared at us with interest. Tim with a guilty smile, I looked back at Carly confused about why she was here. Part of me was pissed that she left and broke my heart while the half was just begging to taste her lips. To tell her I love her, but I wasn’t sure of what side was going to win.

“What are you doing here?”

“I needed a change of scenery and I heard such great things about Arizona.”

“So you magically appeared on the same flight as me, right next to me?”

“Magically”, she said with a smile using her fingers as emphasis. “It could be worst, you can have a person that has no idea what personal space is”, she said nodding her head with a grin.

“Why did you leave?”

“I had stuff to figure out”, she said with a smirk, and again with the vague answers to my straight to the point questions.

“Such as?”

“Well you see”, she said squinting one eye as she shifted her body to face me. “I had a small dilemma between my heart and my head.”

“And who won?”

That’s when I watched her pull out a coin. I stared at her intensely unsure of what was going to happen. She threw the coin up a bit before catching it in her hand. Not looking at it she looked over at me with a smile.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentleman welcome to American Airlines air flight 443 to Tempe Arizona. Please fasten your seatbelts”, the fight attended said starting off her speech but I could care less about what she had to say, my eyes were all over Carly.

“We were good together”, she said smiling over at me, still not looking down at the coin in her hand.

“We were”, I said agreeing with her with a smile.

I felt her hand take mine, lacing our fingers together as the plane took off. I wasn’t sure what was going on but all I knew I had an hour long flight with the girl I was in love with. I was going to make it count no matter what her decision was.