Stolen Seconds

I thought by now I would be married and trying to have kids. But obviously fate had a different idea for my twenty five year old self. Instead of residing in a nice house with a home owners association, I’m walking in my flight attendant uniform to the airplane I will be boarding. I really don’t have a specific airline that I work for because I’m a versatile attendant. I work for whichever airline that needs me at that time.

I’ve seen basically the whole world minus a few countries. So many people seem to think traveling the world for a living would be amazing but really, it would be if you didn’t have to catch the next flight in the morning to serve people drinks and show them how to work the seatbelts.

I’m based in Las Vegas; where I was born and raised. So today I was boarding a plane from McCarran International Airport going to North Central West Virginia Airport. I stepped into the plane and placed my small suitcase of clothes besides my seat in the section only for flight attendants. I smoothed my black pencil skirt down with my cream painted finger nails and waited for boarding passengers.

As the plane began to get full I loosened the hold my blue and white scarf had on my white collared long sleeve button up. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see a fellow flight attendant Mackenzie, who I had the pleasure of attending every flight with. She asked,” Seatbelts or oxygen?”

I didn’t hesitate in answering,” Seatbelts. I always feel like I look like a weirdo showing passengers how to access the oxygen.”

She chuckled at my childish answer but let me go into the front of the aisle for the seatbelt instructions.

I stated,” Hello everyone, I’m Ginny and this is Mackenzie if you need us anytime during this flight, do not hesitate to ask. First let’s start you off with how your seatbelts work. I’m sure many of you have already heard this speech from many other flights but it’s required, so I’m sorry but you have to sit through it again. So in the back of the seat in front of you is a manual on how to work your seat belts or you can just watch up here and I will show you how to buckle it, unbuckle it, and also how to tighten and loosen the strap.”

I watched as more than thirty eyes drifted to my bluish green eyes. I held the mock seat belt up in the air so everyone could see it.

I continued,” So basically to buckle your belt, it’s just like buckling a regular seat belt in a car. To unbuckle it, lift lever and pull the part you buckled out. To tighten, just pull the extra strap.”

I could hear Mackenzie whispering low so only I could hear,” Ten o clock and two o clock”

She was talking about the cute guys on the airplane. My eyes flashed to the left side and searched for the cute guy she spotted as I finished my instructions. Although Mackenzie found him attractive, I didn’t. I looked at the two o clock and found myself staring. The guy who was sitting on the right had black hair up in a fohawk and had headphones in his ears. He sat next to a guy with facial hair and a bald head.

I lowered the mock seatbelt and stepped behind Mackenzie so she could instruct oxygen.

As I passed her I nodded” Two o clock.”

Mackenzie was two years younger than me and engaged to an aspiring lawyer. She had hazel eyes and black hair. Her brown haired roots were coming in slowly but she pulled it off without having to re-dye her hair just yet. She was shorter than me but then again I was 5’8, but with heels on, I was even taller. Despite being engaged she was still boy crazy, but in her mind, she wasn’t. She was just trying to help me find my certain someone. I laughed at her desperate measures to get me dating. When we landed we got all dolled up to go out or when we were doing our job she would seek out cuties.

Finally the plane was ready to take off so Mackenzie and I made our way to the three other attendants, Vanessa, Chandler, and Elaina. On this flight we surprisingly were all pretty young flight attendants. The oldest one was Vanessa who was thirty one. Chandler was gay and proud. Elaina was twenty seven and had a child at home waiting for her in West Virginia.

I strutted down the aisle ten minutes after taking off and began to write down drink requests. Chandler raised his eyes brows towards our earlier two o clock. He made a motion that looked like he was going to take over where I was so I could go talk to him. I rolled my eyes and shoved the paper with four requests already, into his hand.

I brushed my curled blonde hair off my shoulder as I walked to his seat. As I got closer I realized who the guy was. It was Zak Bagans, from Ghost Adventures. I felt myself hesitate and turn my head to see Mackenzie, Chandler, and Elaine trying to nonchalantly watch me. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach as I began to get nervous.