The Wrong One

Sian looked at her bed. She realized she was making probably a huge mistake, but she wasn’t going to think about that right now. She wasn’t going to think about the little amount of clothes she’d packed, nor was she going to think about what exactly they were going to do when they got to Italy. Right now, she was going to worry about catching Zacky on time at the airport.

Thankfully, she’d gotten her passport two years ago when McKenzie had the great idea to go to Mexico for spring break. She grabbed her duffle bag, sunglasses, purse, and keys before heading out the door.

She left a note for her brother and mother since they were sleeping; she didn’t want to disturb them. She also knew her mother would try to keep her at home, and she had to do this. Zacky was right; she not only needed to help find Samantha, but she needed to get away. She needed to do something for herself for once and this was her chance.

She had texted Zacky, telling him to not board the plane, but she didn’t know if he even looked at it or not.

Weaving in and out of traffic, she made it to the airport with a half an hour to spare. She moved near her gate and sat down, looking around for Zacky. She spotted him a few yards away, walking toward the gate. He looked around and saw her, his face showing his shock.

“What are you doing here, Sian?”

“You asked me to come with you,” she said, shrugging.

“Yeah, I did but I didn’t think you would actually come with me,” Zacky said.

“Here I am,” she said, smiling.

“Yeah, here you are.”

She watched as Zacky stood there, confused and looking around.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing, really. Usually there’s someone to tell us what gate to go to and shit and I’m kind of lost.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

“Rock stars are helpless," Sian said as a voice broke over the crowd of noise. "Come on, they're announcing our plane now."

Zacky followed her to the gate and they made their way through security. He watched as her one bag was scanned and she went through the metal detector. He did the same, and had to take out all his piercings, take off his belt, and empty his pockets. He shrugged in an apology to Sian who was already through the gate waiting on him.

He watched her shift her weight to her right foot and hold her backpack. Somehow she’d packed everything she’d need in one bag. Hell, even he had two bags. He wasn’t exactly sure how’d she done it, but there was a notable difference in Sian and Samantha.

Samantha would’ve packed at least four bags, complaining that she’d left something or she didn’t know if she needed something or not. Sian didn’t say any of that and she’d beaten him to the airport. He liked the fact that she packed exactly what she knew she’d need and nothing else. A light traveler. Zacky smiled.

They walked side by side, silent, as they boarded the plane and took their seats. He wasn’t exactly sure how she’d managed to get a seat beside him, but he didn’t complain. He watched as she sat down, put her bag in between her legs and buckled her seat belt. He placed his carry-on bag in the overhead compartment and sat down beside her. She looked calm, but then he noticed her chewing on her nails.

“Stop chewing on your nails.”

“How do you know what I’m doing?” Sian retorted.

“You always chew on your nails when you’re nervous, Sam.”

He realized what he’d said at about the same time she did. They both looked at each other with shock all over their faces.

“I’m sorry,” Zacky said.

“It’s okay. Sam chews on her nails, too?”

“How long has it been exactly since you two have seen each other?”

“Almost two years, I think,” Sian said, her face scrunching up in her thinking.

“You guys really don’t know how much alike you are? I’ve noticed it several times.”

“That’s crazy,” Sian said and smiled.

Over an hour later, they’d gotten more comfortable for their almost twenty hour flight. Sian had gotten her iPod out of her bag and had her earphones in. Zacky had pulled out his laptop and started typing away, thinking of new things for him and Brian to play.

Sian silently watched him work. Every once in a while his fingers would move as if he was playing the air guitar and Sian would smile. She watched him work like that for an hour until her eyelids became heavy. Since Sam had disappeared, she hadn’t gotten more than four hours of sleep a night and it was finally starting to take its toll on her. She put her elbow on the armrest between her and Zacky and set her chin on her hand, still watching him through slitted eyes.

Zacky felt something on his shoulder and looked down to realize it was Sian. He leaned forward a bit and realized she was asleep. He set her up, watched her open her eyes for a second before closing them again, and he lifted the armrest from between them. He slouched down a bit and her head fell to his shoulder. She shifted a bit, got comfortable and a yawn escaped her lips. He looked down as she slept. Her hand was holding her iPod and he could see the music. She was listening to his band and he smiled. She shifted a bit more and he slouched down again, allowing her head to rest between his shoulder and neck. Her hair smelled like cucumber and melon and he leaned his head back against the headrest. Pretty soon he found himself closing his eyes, tired.



Sian woke up with a start. Her music was blasting in her ear, and she looked down to press the pause button. She sat up and stretched. She looked around and realized she’d been pretty much laying across Zacky. His arm was around her back and resting on her waist, and his body was twisted and leaning towards hers. She wiped her mouth, making sure she didn’t have any drool and as the stewardess came by, Sian stopped her.

“How much further do we have, ma’am?”

“We should be there in about four hours,” the stewardess replied. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Yes, please. I’ll take water, and I guess just leave a Coke for him. I’m not really sure what he wants.”

“Alright,” the blonde said, and set down the bottle of water and the can of Coke.

Sian moved to put her iPod back in her bag and as she moved, she felt Zacky’s hand move. His hand tightened around her waist and she looked back at him to see his eyes opening. His hand moved from behind her back and he reached up to stretch. He mumbled something and looked around the plane.

“What did you say?”

“Where are we?” Zacky repeated more audibly.

“No clue, but I know we have like four hours left in the flight.”

“Fuck my life,” he said and rubbed his face in his hands. His lip rings caught her attention and she wondered about them.

“What did it feel like to get your lip pierced?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

He tugged on it for a minute. “It felt like biting your lip real hard.”

“Do you feel it?”

“No, not usually. I’ll find myself chewing on it or moving it around, but most of the time I don’t notice it.”

“That’s cool,” Sian said and continued to look at it.

“You don’t have any piercings?”

“Just my ears.”

“What about tattoos?”

“I don’t have any.”

“None?” Zacky asked, surprised.

“Nope, none.”

“Do you want any?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I think I might, but in fifty years what’s it going to look like?”

“It’s going to look like you had a blast when you were young.”

“Still,” Sian said and turned back to look out the window.

“What would you say if I told you I’d pay for it if you got one?”

Sian turned to look at Zacky. He was facing her and looked deadly serious. Suddenly, he broke out into a smile. She returned it. He turned to his computer and pulled up an internet page. He started looking up different ideas for tattoos and Sian leaned over him to look along with him.

“Zacky, we’re supposed to be looking for Samantha,” Sian protested, but then a set of stars caught her eye. “Oh, I like those.”

“Yeah, you look like a star kind of girl.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You would get something plain like a star,” Zacky said.

“Fine. We’ll keep looking.”

“I also know that tattoos don’t take much time at all, depending on what you get and where you get it. If you get a small one, it’ll be done within thirty minutes. That still leaves forever to look for Samantha. You’re in Europe now, Sian. Have a sense of adventure.”

“We’re not even on the ground yet,” she said and smiled into his green eyes. She looked at his bare arms at all the ink there, to the skull on his hand. She moved back to the two snakebites at his lips and finally back up to his eyes. “We’ll have to see.”

“No, but we will be. You’re twenty-three, Sian. Live it up.”

Sian smiled and leaned back in her seat.

“Yeah, I guess so.”