If I Had Just One Wish

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I heard the announcement over the speakers that our flight had been diverted to New York because of the snow in Indiana.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. After all, I’d been looking forward to going home and spending Christmas with my family for months now. Life as a musician was hard as it was, and now that I was starting to get some radio play and people were starting to know my name, it was even harder to get time off to spend with the people I loved.

You’d think that after touring for three months, I’d be going to stay with my significant other for Christmas, and you’d probably have been right if I had one; there were several problems with it though. One, I was gay, and I was a closet case. Second problem was I had a huge crush on someone who was so far out of my league that I felt like a dumbass for even thinking about him like that.

His name was Chris and he was a musician, like me; unlike me, he was amazing. We’d toured together a few times over the last couple of years, actually, and we’d become really good friends. We’d even recorded a song together, a Christmas song. We’d only ever be friends, that was obvious; not least because I didn’t even know if he was bisexual, though I’d heard he was several times now.

The voice of the air hostess came again then, informing us all to turn off our electronic devices and stow the drop down plastic table thingys because we would be beginning to land soon. I picked my iPod up from its spot on the edge of my seat and turned it off, unsure of whether to be relieved that we were finally going to be landing or not. By the sounds of it, I was going to be stuck in New York for a day or so; did I know anyone in New York? With all my touring, and a lot of my friends outside of Fort Wayne being musicians, meaning they spent most of their time touring also, it was hard to keep track of who lived where.

The plane started jolting around a little as I felt it start to descend slowly towards the ground. Out of the window I could just make out the bright blur of the lights of New York through the clouds and smog. The lights started to grow gradually brighter as an annoying popping in my ears also alerted me to the fact that we were starting to lose altitude quite quickly now, probably to land within the next ten minutes.

The middle aged woman in the seat next to me had woken up suddenly about a minute before and we were both now just gazing out the small airplane window, waiting for something to happen. I’d never been too fond of flying. It was boring, uncomfortable and noisy, unless you paid a small fortune to upgrade to business or first class. The only nice thing was looking out the window at the passing landscape, and I hadn’t even been able to do that due to the clouds covering most of the country currently.

After what seemed like an eternity, the plane finally jolted as it hit the landing strip and I breathed a sigh of relief as the voice over the speakers told us that we could now use our cellphones, but we had to remain in our seats with our seatbelts on. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket immediately and held down the power button, waiting for it to turn on.

I texted my mother a quick apology, explaining that I wouldn’t be home today due to the weather and then opened my twitter app, tweeting Stuck in New York for at least today cause of snow. Anyone here want to save me from the airport? before turning to stare out the window, waiting for the plane to stop.

My phone beeped and lit up just as the plane stopped and the clicking of people releasing their seatbelts started filling the air, alerting me to the fact that someone I followed had replied to my tweet.

Christoferdrew: @thereadyset I’m staying in NY for the holidays. Want to meet up in like an hour?

I think I just died a little inside.