LAVENDER HAZE | j. champion

sixteen

I, for one, hated this part of plane rides.

The speeding up of the plane and the feeling of it lifting off of the ground were terrifying for me. Probably something that scared me the most.

I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed whatever was next to me as tight as possible. And, not even a minute later, it was all over. We were in the air and the plane was flying without a problem.

My eyes fluttered open and I relaxed my grip, looking down to see that it was in fact Jack's hand I had been squeezing. The red marks on his pale skin were a dead giveaway.

"It's fine." he mumbled before I could even speak. "Put my hand there because I remembered how much you hate takeoff."

Right. When we'd flown from LA to New Zealand I almost had a panic attack during takeoff. Jack had noticed the shift in my attitude and held my hand tightly, his thumb rubbing the back of my hand for at least the first 30 minutes of our flight.

Of course he remembered.

"Thank you."

Another bout of silence.

Then, randomly, he looked to me. His soft brown eyes staring at the side of my face. "I meant it the other day." Jack's voice was quiet again.

"What do you mean?" I truly didn't know. Was he talking about us being friends? I kind of got that he meant that.

"About missing us, missing you."

I cursed my cheeks for heating up, betraying me. But just like when we were younger, Jack's words always had an effect on me.

"I've missed what we had back then." It was the first time in a long time that i've admitted that to myself.

Jack angled his body toward me, resting his head on the back of his chair. "We did everything together... like wrestle." A smile cracked on his face.

I let out a laugh, remembering all the times we'd be in a full out brawl on the floor and Jim would have to break it up. It wasn't like we were in a disagreement, we just decided that wrestling was a favorite pastime.

"We were strange kids."

The boy nodded, his eyes never leaving my face. I turned more to face him, my leg brushing his, sending sparks up my body.

Shit.

"You looked beautiful tonight, by the way." His compliment came out of nowhere.

I was taken by surprise, my mouth hanging open ever so slightly. "Uh, thank you." I thought back to that outfit he'd worn, "You didn't look too bad yourself."

I was lying to myself. He was absolutely gorgeous. Jack will forever be breathtaking and it's a little unfair how he still had that effect on me.

Maybe Kit was right? Maybe i've never gotten over Jack and Kit just blocked me from ever doing anything about it.

"I want to be offended, but you somewhat complimented me. So, i'll take it." He laughed.

I opened my mouth to speak when the plane hit turbulence. My eyes screwed shut and I reached for his hand again. Only this time, Jack interlaced our fingers, not letting go when I opened my eyes back up.

The action felt nice, comforting even. So, I decided to let it happen.

"You haven't changed."

"Not much."

My heart skipped a beat when Jack began to rub the back of my hand with his thumb. I purposely didn't look down at our hands in fear that he'd stop. And the action felt... right.

"I'd like to go slow with rebuilding our friendship... if that's ok."

He nodded quickly, dipping his head down to look at me better. "Anything for you, H. If that's what it takes for us to come back together than i'll do it."

I smiled at his eagerness. It made me feel good.

"Ok, good." I nodded, using my free hand to tuck away the armrest sitting between us. "Mind if I-"

My mouth closed. The question I was beginning to ask had felt too forward at the beginning stage of rebuilding our friendship.

He raised an eyebrow as he squeezed my hand, urging me to continue. "Tell me."

"I'm tired, J. I was gonna ask if you minded if I used you as a pillow." the blush on my cheeks made me drop my gaze down to our joined hands.

Which honestly just made me blush more.

"Of course you can, I should probably try to sleep soon myself... considering the flight is only 5 hours."

I winced at his reminder of the flight time. We'd be getting into Toronto in the middle of the night/early morning, would go to our hotel for the quickest nap, and then head back out. The relief that came from letting his hand go and letting my head fall into his shoulder was enormous.

His scent flooding into my nose was a blast from the past. Jack Champion seemed to still use the same cologne he's used since we were kids. It brought tears to my eyes, a mixture of happy and sad.

But something about reconnecting with the boy just felt right. And I can't wait to see where things go.

•

i literally can't wait to write
some of the chapters i have
planned because they're SO GOOD