1,000 Lies Told At 40,000 Feet High

“Passengers, the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign as we prepare to land, so we ask that you please put on your seatbelts and stow away your tray tables. The cabin crew will be moving around the plane to collect any rubbish and to offer you assistance. Thank you,” said a woman over the plane intercom.

“I think that I’ve won,” said Chace as he placed a small, neat ‘X’ in one of the boxes, effectively giving him three in a row. I huffed in annoyance and glared at the piece of paper that we had been playing ‘Noughts and Crosses’ on.

“How can one person be so good at ‘Noughts and Crosses’. It’s beginning to get ridiculous, you’ve won the last seven games,” I said.
“Ahh, I have two terms of Australian History class with Ms. Knight to thank for my fantastic Noughts and Crosses’ skill. It was honestly the most boring class that I have ever had the misfortune to take. My friend Ryan and I spent the most of our time in that class playing games like this.” Chace explained to me as he slowly drew another table for the next game.

“Excuse me, could you please stow away your tray table?” I looked up in surprise and realised that a flight attendant was standing right next to Chace.
“Oh sorry,” I replied as I moved the things that Chace and I had put there during our flight and stowed away the small table.
“We can keep playing on my knee if you like,” Chace offered as he placed the paper on his leg.
“Sure, anything to distract the girl with a fear of flying.”
“I’ll even let you go first again this game,” said as Chace as he handed me his pen. I bit my lip as I took the pen from Chace and leant over so I could make my move. I handed Chace back his pen and sat back in my seat. In a few minutes the pane would be on the ground and I would be on my own once again. I will be lucky if I see my father twice the entire weekend.

“Avery?”
“Yeah, right, sorry. I wasn’t concentrating,” I said, snapping out of my thoughts. I quickly grabbed the pen that Chace was holding out to me and made my move. We were silent for a moment as Chace made his move and handed the pen back to me again. My eyes widened in surprise as I put a small ‘O’ in a box.

“I won! I actually won!” I said almost jumping out of my seat and doing a victory dance down the aisle, “Wait a second. You let me win. That’s not fair!”
“Okay, you caught me out. I did let you win, I couldn’t stand watching you be miserable about losing any longer,” Chace said laughing. I glared at him in mock outrage but this only made him laugh even more. I couldn’t keep up the façade for much longer and soon enough I was laughing with Chace. The plane suddenly lurched forward as it touched down on the runway and I brought my hand up to my chest in faked fright.

“I’m okay, I’m not going to die. It is all going to be okay,” I chanted softly under my breath. The flight attendant started to make an announcement over the intercom but I tuned out what she was saying, o had heard it all before.
“See, now that wasn’t so bad was it?” Chace asked. I nodded my head and smiled slightly.
“Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for distracting me for most of the flight. I don’t know what I am going to do on the flight back. I guess my parents will just have to put with me,” I said.
Chace and I gathered up our hand luggage and started to make our way out of the plane. People pushed past us in a rush to go somewhere but we walked slowly side by side towards the baggage claim carousal.

“I hope that you have an amazing time at the wedding and don’t get have a panic attack on the flight back to Melbourne,” Chace said.
“Thanks Chace, you were a fantastic person to be seated next to. It was lovely to meet you,” I said, and for the first time that day, I wasn’t lying. Chace turned his head around the airport and his gaze fixed on a small family that were standing together by the doors.

“That’s my family over there, I should probably go,” Chace said, stopping in front of me.
“Yeah. Thanks Chace, for everything,” I said. I’m not a hugging person, but at that moment, I wasn’t Piper, I was Avery. And as it turned out, Avery was a hugging person. So I reached up and placed my arms around Chace gently. Chace seemed a little surprised but quickly wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug. I let go of him and took a step back.
“Bye Chace,” I said smiling before I turned around and walked away.