This Could Be All I've Waited For

Airplanes. I don’t really have anything against them… or well I didn’t usually. But today, today I hated airplanes. I especially hated them as I sat in the waiting area with many of the people from Warped. It was over. It was funny how badly I wanted to go home at the beginning of this tour… and even in the middle of it, but now I wanted nothing more for it to last forever. I was seated in a chair, a very uncomfortable chair, while Jack sat on the floor with his back propped against my legs. My fingers were running through his hair absentmindedly… I wouldn’t mind staying here forever.

The rest of the All Time Low guys and crew were being obnoxious with some other friends from the tour. They were laughing and cutting up and promising to hangout before the next warped tour. Jack’s head lulled and his cheek rested against my knee.

“Why do you have to be so smart?” he asked sounding aggravated and tired.

He had reason to be tired; we’d both stayed up all night trying to squeeze in whatever time together we could. The aggravation was probably meant to sound joking but the tiredness got the better of his tone.

“I ask myself that question all the time,” I answer resting my chin in my hand that wasn’t playing with his hair.

“You should have been stupid,” he mumbled leaning his head back so that he could see me.

I rolled my eyes at him, “If only I knew then what I know now,” I said, “Maybe I would have tried to be stupid for you.”

A Lazy smile spread across his lips. “I wouldn’t want you to be stupid, Cady, because then you just wouldn’t be you,” he told me kissing my knee.

I chuckled at him. “I’m glad I have your permission to be intelligent,” I teased pulling his hair lightly. Jack smacked my hand away from his hair as we both laughing.

Unfortunately, our banter was cut short by my flight being called… my smile faltered and my laugh caught in my throat. Jack wasn’t laughing anymore either and I could feel everyone’s eyes on us. I wished that they would just turn around and act like this wasn’t a big deal, because if they could then maybe I could convince myself to. Jack pushed himself off the ground and without warning he was pulling me out of my seat and crushing me to his chest.

I let him hold me hoping that by some miracle I wouldn’t have to get on the plane to go home and I’d be able to stay here with him instead. After a moment Jack pulled away and picked up my bag prepared to stay with me until the very last second.

I gave everyone quick hugs before leading the way to the line that had formed for my flight. Jack was beside me holding my hand and rubbing gentle circles in my skin. We didn’t say anything for a while and the line was moving slowly. I couldn’t just not say anything to him, that would make the first phone call the most awkward phone conversation in history.

So I sighed heavily letting out all of my frustration towards this situation. “This shouldn’t be so damn dramatic,” I huffed squeezing Jack’s hand tightly. Jack didn’t say anything so I continued as I turned to look him in the face, “We’ll talk to each other constantly though emails texts countless phone calls probably at random.”

Jack cracked a smile and kissed my cheek swiftly. “I’ll visit every chance I get and I’ll fly you out on tour against your will if I have to,” he promised leaning his forehead against mine.

“There is no way in hell you’ll have to force me onto a plane if it means that I get to see you when I get off of it,” I told him grinning up at him. He straightened himself taking his forehead off of mine only to tuck my head under his chin.

“Cady?” he asked gaining my attention.

“Jack?” I mocked smiling as he chuckled.

“We’re going to make this work,” he promised, “I know we’ll fight, and I’m dreading the first one more than you could imagine, but we’re going to make it. I can feel it.”

I smiled at his words as they tugged on my heart. I couldn’t get over all of the adorable things he said to me and I believed them; every last one of them. It was Jack, after all, not some scummy guy I barely knew. Why wouldn’t I believe him?

I was next in line and Jack squeezed me tightly one last time before letting me go. I handed over my ticket and Jack passed me my bags. He kissed me softly before promising to see me again soon and stepping aside. I didn’t see him walk away. I looked over my shoulder as I made my way down the short hallway to board the plane, checking to see if he was still there. He was, every time he was still standing there smiling sadly and watching me go. I guess he finally walked away when I couldn’t see him anymore and impatient passengers were pushing me along.

I pushed my bag into the overhead compartment and settled down in the window seat. I hoped that I wouldn’t feel the need to go to the bathroom because I really did not want to have to climb over the people that would eventually be sitting next to me. I sighed seeing that I would be sitting next to a couple of teenage girls. What could they possibly want in a place like Georgia?

I decided that I didn’t care and shoved my ear buds in and turning on my iPod. I chose my Warped Tour 2012 playlist that was compiled of all of the bands that had been there because honestly I wanted to pretend that it wasn’t over just yet and I could pretend while I was on this flight.

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“When was the last time you spoke to Jack? Dad asked settling himself into his recliner while I was sprawled out on the couch watching crappy daytime TV.

“This morning over breakfast,” I told him laughing under my breath at the memory. We decided to make ourselves omelets and Jack managed to burn his first one proceeding to complain that I wasn’t there to make his for him seeing as he was not very good at it.

“Odd,” He commented, “Shouldn’t you two have already had your lunch call it’s nearly twelve thirty.”

I looked at my phone and sure enough it was twelve twenty six and I still hadn’t gotten a call from Jack where we would eventually facetime as we made ourselves lunch and then talk until we were finished eating. I frowned because it wasn’t like Jack. He either called right at twelve o’clock, sometimes he would even call early just because he could.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, dear,” Dad reassured me getting up from his chair and leaving me alone.

I went to Jack’s number and pressed the call button hoping that he was okay and had simply gotten caught up in some sort of activity, though that had never happened before. It went straight to voice mail which is something else that had never happened before.

I told myself not to worry that he was probably just out with some friends and his phone had died. Or maybe he had done something stupid and had managed to break his phone. That wasn’t too hard to imagine Jack doing. No matter how many stories I told myself I couldn’t stop the sinking feeling from filling my stomach. What could possibly keep Jack from a phone call that we had every day? I mean sure it had only happened for the last two days because that’s how long I’d been home. He could have forgotten. That wouldn’t be so bad as long as he was okay.

And then I started wondering if he could possibly be hurt… I couldn’t keep the flood of thoughts of horrible things happening to Jack from entering my mind. I knew that I was being over dramatic there was no doubt about that but I couldn’t calm myself down enough to convince myself that the idea was ridiculous.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that Jack might be with Alex or maybe Alex would know where he was so I called him.

“Cade!” Alex shouted into the phone happily.
If Alex was happy then there was no way that Jack could have been hurt, right?

“Hey Alex,” I greeted him glad that my voice didn’t give away how anxious I felt, “Have you heard from Jack recently?”

“I talked to him yesterday but haven’t heard a peep today,” he said sounding distracted, “Didn’t you guys do your weird lunch thing a bit ago?”

I rolled my eyes Alex enjoyed making fun of Jack and I now that I wasn’t there to smack him. “He missed lunch,” I admitted trying not to sound as disappointed as I felt.

“Oh,” Alex said dragging the word out, “so that’s why you’re calling. You wouldn’t possibly call to talk to me nope you’re calling to check on your boyfriend. Typical.” He was joking, of course.

“Alex,” I whined, “you know I love you to death but I’m worried.” I wasn’t trying to make excuses I just wanted him to tell me where Jack could possibly be.

“Well I’m sure you have nothing to worry about, Jack probably just lost track of time being the goofball that he is,” he assured me, “He’ll call you and apologize like there’s no tomorrow once he realizes it.”

I sighed knowing that he was right. We chatted aimlessly for a while until Lisa got there. Lisa and I shared brief pleasantries before I let them go, knowing they would want to spend some time together.

I wandered into the kitchen to find something to nibble on and decided that crackers and cheese would work. I should have eaten sooner because I was sure that I wouldn’t even be hungry for dinner at this point. I really didn’t care seeing as I decided that I would eat some chocolate chip ice cream straight from the carton.

“Don’t fill up now,” Momma said coming into the kitchen and wagging a finger at me.

I sighed resting the spoon back in the container, “Why not what are we having?” I asked thinking that maybe if we were having something really good I wouldn’t eat all of the ice cream.
Momma started whipping down the counters as Dad came in seeing that he was the one who cooked. “We aren’t having anything special,” Dad said, “But your brother will be here in a few hours.”

I rolled my eyes. Honestly I was still slightly peeved at Derek for ratting me out to our dad. I had thought about calling him to yell at him and get it all over with but it didn’t seem like the best idea. Besides he’d probably tell Dad that I had yelled at him over it and Dad would lecture me on how family is important despite the stupid things that they do. In fact, from the look Dad was giving me now a lecture was coming on.

“Cadence you know that your brother was just looking out for your best interests,” Dad said Momma glancing up at me with a knowing look.

I buried my face in my hands, great so either Dad or Derek had told Momma. Boys are the freaking worst even when they’re your dad. “He was trying to get you to say that I couldn’t date Jack he wasn’t looking out for me,” I argued still not looking at my dad.

“He was keeping us informed on your life,” Momma threw out, “which is something that you don’t ever do.”

I rolled my eyes, “Sometimes I don’t always know what you want to know,” I explained throwing out some random excuse.

“We want to know everything,” Momma said as if it should be obvious.

“I had an omelet for breakfast,” I offered making Daddy laugh while Momma just shook her head smiling at the two of us.

While Jack may have forgotten to call it was nice to just hang out with my parents since I hadn’t gotten to in so long. Even though I was still a little mad at Derek I was pretty psyched to see him too. I decided that I wouldn’t be angry with Jack because while I would have loved to have spoken to him over lunch I’m sure that he was spending his time hanging out with someone that he hadn’t been able to see over the summer either, and that was cool by me.