1,000 Lies Told At 40,000 Feet High

Chapter 8

I was sitting in an uncomfortable navy blue chair outside of gate 12 waiting for my plane to commence boarding. I hadn’t seen Chace yet, although I knew he’d be here somewhere. He was most likely with his family, relishing the last few minutes that he would get to spend with them before he would be back in Melbourne on his own for two weeks. I knew the feeling; it was how I used to feel when I left my father.
The call finally came for the plane to board and although first class passengers had the opportunity to board first, I hung back a bit. And as much as I tried to convince myself that it was because I wanted to finish the article that I was reading in Harper’s Bazaar, the reality was that it was partly because I was waiting for a text and mostly because I still hadn’t decided what I would say to Chace when I saw him. Upon my arrival at the check in counter, I had sweet talked the lady into looking up where Chace was sitting and assigning me the seat next to him. The $100 note that I slipped her probably helped too.
I finally plucked up the courage to get on the plane and handed my ticket to the flight attendant. Her smile did little to calm the nerves that had settled in my stomach. Chace was busy looking out of the window when I walked up to my seat and didn’t even glance at me as I sat down. Not that I had expected him to, he didn’t know that it was me who was sitting next to him. His long brown hair was messily styled in the I-just-rolled-out-of-bed look that I was learning to be typical of him. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt. On his lap was a black leather jacket and an iPhone. I checked my phone one last time before speaking.
“Hi,” I said softly. Chace’s head whipped around to stare at me and he froze in surprise.
“Umm, hi?” Chace replied looking confused.
“I want to apologise, again. For everything. I...” I began, biting my lip nervously as Chace cut me off.
“I forgive you.”
He forgives me?
He forgives me?
He forgives me!
I wanted to throw my arms around him and shower him with ‘thank you’s’ but I thought it might make things uncomfortable seeing as we were on a plane and I managed to restrain myself. This was far more than I hoped for and when I thought that things couldn’t get any better...
“And I think that we should start over. Let’s just forget about the past, it’s the past for a reason.” This time I couldn’t hold back and I hurriedly wrapped my arms around a surprised Chace in a tight hug. After a moment I pulled back and sat back down in my seat, my face filled with a large smile. Chace chuckled lightly as he shook his head and held out his right hand.
“Hi, I’m Chace Spector. I’m seventeen and I live part time in my school and part time in Sydney,” Chace said, his eyes not breaking contact with mine. I took his hand and shook it gently.
“Hi, I’m Piper Evan. I’m also seventeen and I live in Melbourne with my mum most of the time unless I’m being forced to ‘visit’ my father in Sydney,” I replied. I glanced down at my phone that was in my hand once again, still no message.
“How was your weekend?” I asked, glancing towards Chace.
“It was good. We spent the entire weekend at the beach. I doubt my teachers are going to be happy tomorrow about my lack of completed homework. How about you?” Chace asked smiling. I sighed, I had been hoping that I could avoid talking about my life in Sydney.
“It was okay I guess. When I got in my father was on a date with his new girlfriend. And by new I mean ‘not the girl I meet last month’. I did homework most of Saturday and then on Sunday I did some yoga, went for a jog around the park and then I went shopping with Oliver because there was nothing else to do.”
“Who’s Oliver?” Chace questioned. I laughed a little at the scrunched up look of confusion on his face. It didn’t suit him at all.
“Oliver is my personal chauffer for when I’m in Sydney, my father doesn’t have the time to pick me up from the airport himself most of the time so he pays Oliver to do it,” I replied attempting to brush past the issue. I didn’t want Chace to think that I was some stuck-up rich girl who got whatever she wanted.
“Oh. Didn’t you see your father at all?”
“I don’t normally see him,” I answered with a small shrug, “But I was lucky this time and I saw him for 20 seconds on Saturday night as he left to go and play poker with his friends. He said ‘Shouldn’t you be studying?’ and then he left.” I glanced down again at my phone –still no message- as I tried to cover the emotion that admitting that to Chace had temporarily brought up.
“Can all passengers please turn off any electronic equipment they are currently using or switch them to flight-mode as the plane prepares for taking off. All tray tables must be stowed away and...” came the voice of an air hostess. Damn it! That meant that I would have to turn off my phone, I had been trying to delay it for as long as possible. I did one last message check before turning off my phone and placing it in my handbag.
“Tell me something about yourself, something that’s the truth,” Chace asked. I turned to look at him and smiled slightly.
“I have never been overseas,” I claimed.
“Really. Huh, that surprises me.”
“I’ve been to Sydney more times than I can count but I’ve never left Australia. What about you?” I asked softly over the voices of other people talking.
“Only once, a few years back my family and I went on a holiday to America,” Chace replied.
“Wow, what was it like?”
“We spent most of our time in New York and California, all of the big tourist attractions, you know? Some people love it and some people don’t. I like it over there. It’s sort of the same as Aus but, then it’s different in so many ways,” explained Chace, “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?” I feel silent as I contemplated my answer. If this was anyone else, I would have shot off some answer of how I wanted to go to Haiti and volunteer for a year. But, this was Chace, and for some reason that made things different.
“I’d love to go to France one day. Paris just sounds so amazing,” I said after a moment of thought, “or England. I’m not sure why I’m so desperate to go there but I have always wanted to go. Maybe I’ll go when I’m older.” Chace and I feel silent as a woman walked past us and I anxiously checked my watch. Only a few had passed, which meant that there were at least another fifty-five minutes left of the flight. Neither of us said anything for a minute and I anxiously tapped my fingers on my leg.
“You’re waiting for a message from a guy,” Chace said to me as he looked outside the window. For a moment I was stunned. I quickly snapped my mouth shut and turned so that I was fully facing him.
“How did you ...?” I said trailing off awkwardly.
“You turned your phone off only when the stewardess made an announcement for it and when you turned it off you looked like someone had run over your cat. And you look at your watch to calculate how much longer the flight is every 30 seconds.” Had I really been doing that? I hadn’t noticed.
“I hate cats,” I replied, trying to buy myself some time to gather my thoughts.
“Fine, your dog then,” Chace said as he rolled his eyes and turned to me, “Am I right?” How was he so damn perceptive, it was as if he saw right through me. Looking down I fiddled with the hem of my dress.
“Can I ask you for some advice?” I asked. Chace looked at me curiously and nodded.
“So, there’s this guy,” I began after a moment.
“Who is incredibly handsome and is sitting next to you on a plane. You poor thing, it must be terribly hard to resist him,” Chace said finishing my sentence. I playfully shoved him in the shoulder.
“Not you,” I said rolling my eyes, “You’re a bit full of yourself aren’t you. No, it’s this other guy that I meet at a party a week or so ago.” I couldn’t help but notice that I didn’t refute his statement about him being ‘incredibly handsome’; thankfully he didn’t pick up on it.
“Okay, and?”
“Well, we’ve been texting each other since we meet but then I had to go to Sydney for the weekend so I told him that I wouldn’t have any phone reception for a bit but that I would text him when I did. So when I arrived in Sydney and had reception, I texted him. But he hasn’t texted me back the entire weekend. And it’s not like I want to sound needy or anything, I mean, we’re not even going out, but, it just doesn’t make any sense. Did that all make sense to you? Or am I just sounding crazy?” I rambled.
“Do you like him?” Chace asked. That question caught me off guard. I had been so busy wondering why it was that Oscar had never texted me back that I had never really thought about why it was that I cared so much.
“At first I didn’t, but now I think that I sort of do.”
“Is he hot?” Chace demanded from me. What was with all of the questions?
“I’m sorry?” I questioned, a little confusing.
“Hot, good looking, attractive, whatever it is that you want to call it,” Chace said casually, rolling his eyes a little.
“Umm, it’s complicated,” I replied.
“How can it be complicated?” Chace asked confused.
“Have you heard of the time-hotness scale?” Chace shook his head, “It’s sort of something that my friends and I came up with. Basically, sometimes when you meet a guy for the first time you might not think that is hot at all. But then, the more that you talk to him and the better you get to know him, the hotter he becomes. I guess you start to see the good features instead of the bad and you see their ‘inner-beauty’. And then eventually you think that your first evaluation of the guy was totally wrong and that he is absolutely gorgeous. Does that make sense?”
“So when you first meet this guy you didn’t think that he was at all good looking but the longer that you know him, the hotter he gets,” Chace said, attempting to understand what I had said.
“Yeah, pretty much. God, I am so shallow,” I said putting my face in my hands.
“What about me? Where do I rate on this scale?” Chace asked, puffing his chest out slightly and holding his head up high.
“I don’t think that you need to worry about it,” I muttered quietly, blushing a little, “But what should I do?”
“Don’t text him again, that would defiantly come off as needy. He might just be waiting to see what you’ll do. If he’s really interested in you, then he’ll text you back, if he doesn’t, then he’s not worth your time and you deserve better than that,” Chace finally answered.
“Aww, thanks, that’s really nice of you to say that.”
I couldn’t handle the silence that was starting to form between us –well, as silent as things could be on an airplane- and asked Chace another question.
“What about you? Are you crushing on any girls? Or guys? No judgement.”
“No, no, I’m straight. Why, did you think that I was gay?” Chace asked, looking more than a little surprised. At least he wasn’t going off at me for asking a personal question.
“No, not really. But I didn’t want to make things awkward if we got off the plane and you ran into the arms of some guy,” I replied. And then I began to laugh as the image of Chace kissing some indie guy in front of the baggage claim formed in my mind.
“I’m single at the moment. There’s a girl that I think I sort of like but I get the impression that I’m in the ‘friends zone’, so for the moment nothing is going to happen,” Chace said pushing his hand through his hair and messing it up even more than it already was.
“Hey, at least that’s better than being in the ‘she thinks I’m gay zone’,” I said. And Chace smiled.