(3) Not the Same: An All Time Low Fanfiction Romance

Chapter 66: Flight

        I was awake before Zack, taking a shower and changing into yoga pants and a hoodie, choosing something as close to pajamas as possible before heading back towards the bed. I I crawled onto it, sitting beside Zack at the top, pushing my toes under the blankets that were covering his bare chest. I reached for his hand, holding his fingers in my own as he started to move, his fingers closing gently around mine as he woke.

        "Time to get up," I said softly, watching his eyes open slowly, his head turning and focusing on my face in the dim lighting due to the crack in the bedroom door and the hallway light I had on.

        "You're ready already?" he asked quietly, still sounding half asleep.        

        "Mhm," I nodded, watching him rub his eyes and sigh deeply before pushing himself up slowly. I pulled at the fabric of my yoga pants as he stretched, raising his arms high above his head.

        "Alright," he yawned, pushing the covers back. He moved off of the bed, disappearing from the room into the bathroom. I turned on the bed, falling onto my back across it, diagonal across the mattress. I stared at the ceiling, listening to the water running in the bathroom for a few minutes before it stopped and Zack came back out, wearing jeans that I hadn't noticed him grab.

        He walked over and moved onto the bed, hands on either side of my face as his body hovered over mine. I smiled, eyes holding his in the dimly lit room, listening as he started to talk.

        "Do you want anything for breakast?" he asked. I shook my head quickly, lifting my right hand. My fingers fell to his neck, moving his face closer to mine. I felt him smiling as his mouth met mine, our lips moving together slowly before he pulled away like he always did.

        "Where were we meeting everybody?" he asked, his face remaining only a few inches from mine. I picked myself up, pushing my body against his for a moment as I kissed him again before resting my back on the mattress.

        "Los Angeles International," I answered, letting my hands fal from his neck, landing on his forearms. "We should probably leave now."

        Zack moved away, straightening up as his hands slid across my arms towards my hands, grabing them as he stood to pull me off of the bed with him. We grabbed out suitcases and headed out from the apartment into the dark early morning, arriving at the airport just as the sun was starting to rise, lighting up the dark blue sky, but still hiding behind the horizon. It would be visible by the time we were in the air, but flying to Pennsylvania would put us well into the late morning.

        We found the rest of the guys and the members of The Lovely Broken, who were flying with us, easily. Everybody was dressed in either sweats or jeans and a swetashirt, hoods pulled up to cover hair that hadn't been fixed at such an early hour.

        I saw Xavier sitting on one of the benches, head tilted back, eyes closed with ear buds in, trying to block out the noise of Porter and Maverick behind him. Stella was sitting next to Alex, his arm draped comfortingly around her shoulders as they listened to something Vinny was saying along with Rian and the two Matt's. Jack was sitting next to Natalia, the same over-confident gleam in his eye and goofy smile on his face as he talked, or attempted to flirt with her. I wanted to laugh at the look Natalie had, knowing she wasn't a morning person. Even with the coffee in her hands, the only thing that would've gotten her out of bed before the sun, wasn't going to make her listen to Jack.

        "Ay, finally," Alex exclaimed, noticing us as he picked one leg up from the ground, twisting it so his ankle was resting across his other knee. All eyes fell on me and Zack as we approached, standing in front of the group.

        "Now it's a party," Maverick exclaimed, eyes falling on me with a friendly and familiar grin. Natalia rolled her eyes, speaking before shooting me a smile.

        "Not with you around, moron," she shot in his direction, reminding me of the flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Neither Nataila nor Xavier were people you wanted to argue with in the morning, but eveybody else seemed to be used to it or just dealing with it.

        For a few minutes, everybody was still waiting around, either talking or goofing around before our flight was finally announced.

        Maverick ripped Xavier's ear buds from his ears, causing him to pick his head up, hand reaching out to punch Maverick in the arm. Jack bounced up, rocking excitedly on his heels as everybody rose, grabbing the bags they had with them before our large group made our way to the terminal.

        Californiag rew smaller and smaller beneath us as our plane rose into the air, heading towards the east coast. Of all the cross-country trips I'd gone on in the last few years, I knew this flight, so far, had to be one of the best because it wasn't the same as the others. I wasn't running away from something or trying to escape someone. I was done trying to run away from my past, knowing that I was not the same person I had been all those years ago in high school, but that didn't matter to the people I truely cared about. Those people were sitting around me on the plane, ready for our next two months of adventure together.

THE END!!!