Bail | LRH

Chapter 25: risk & reward

Michael and I sat together at the gate as he offered to watch my dad and I's bags as I brought my knees to my chest and turned to face him, leaning my side against the backrest of the chair and pulling my beanie over my eyes again in an attempt to nap.

It was no use as the second I felt myself about to succumb to unconsciousness I heard that laugh. That silly little laugh that perked my ears up, and brought myself to straighten up a little bit and slowly uncover my eyes so I could see who was approaching us. I didn't need to see who it was though, I could recognize that laugh anywhere.

Luke, Calum, and Ashton were all walking over in our direction, with Ashton shoving the last piece of a breakfast sandwich into his mouth.

"Well if it isn't the rest of the Goon Squad here to join us on this oh so lovely morning" I laughed as I locked eyes with Luke who gave me a playful eye roll.

The five of us sat at the gate waiting for the woman on the loudspeaker to tell us it was our turn to board essentially in silence. It was too early for us to be having any sort of conversations, and we all mutually understood that. My dad returned and greeted the boys with a coffee in his hand, and in a matter of minutes it was our turn to board.

I made my way down the aisle looking for my seat when I finally stumbled across seat 22B. Great, a middle seat. I wasn't happy about being stuck in between two strangers, but then again I'm sure I'd be sleeping from take off to landing, so it wouldn't matter in the end. I let out a grunt as I tried to shove my carry-on into the overhead bin, basically launching it into the holding space as I was too short to gracefully place it there myself when a taller figure was grabbing the bag from my hands and putting it inside for me.

"Thanks– Hey!" I exclaimed while realizing that the tall figure was actually Calum. "Where are you sitting?" I asked hoping that maybe he was going to fill one of the seats next to mine.

"25F" he groaned. "Ashton somehow managed to get a ticket towards the front, and I don't even know where Mike and Luke are sitting, but I think I'm the furthest back."

I took my seat, while Calum walked a few seats back to find his. The two on either side of me were still unoccupied and I was beginning to grow hopeful that maybe I was going to be alone and would have the whole row to myself. What a dream that would be. I was staring out of the small plane window, praying and hoping for the best when a voice brought me out of my trance.

"Is that seat taken?"

I whipped my head around to face the aisle to see one Luke Hemmings sending me a smirk and using his boarding pass to gesture to the window seat.

"Is that even your seat?" I replied with a hint of sass in my tone, as I grabbed his boarding pass from his hand. "This says 11C, what are you doing with us common folk back here?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest after examining his ticket.

"This was Michael's seat, but he's kind of scared of flying and can't sit in the window seat, so I offered to trade with him so he could have an aisle seat." he shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

"Well I guess it's all yours then" I shrugged this time, handing him back his ticket and bringing my knees to my chest to give him ample space to walk past me and to the seat on my left.

"Are you nervous for this weekend?" he asked as he buckled himself in.

"If you ask me anything about this weekend I'll throw myself out of this plane" I stopped him before he could continue with this conversation. This was the calm before the storm, and I wanted it to stay that way before discussing the competition ignited any anxiety and nervousness I was going to feel when the day actually came. I wanted to feel at peace for as long as I could before I entered the war zone. "We can talk about anything else, but the competition" I sent him a tight smile to apologize for my blunt response before letting out a yawn and rubbing my eyes.