The Step Brother

It Never Meant Anything

I glanced up at Liam, not really sure where to go. There were multiple doors, all for different airlines. I didn’t know which airline we were flying home though, but Liam started to walk towards the one that said ‘Jet Blue’ so I decided it would be best to follow him.

We stepped into the line that was actually a lot longer than it looked thanks to the clever way they had the people set up. Since we were going to be waiting for at least twenty minutes, I decided to spark up a conversation.

“It’s so cold in here,” I said, rubbing my arms to back up my statement. Liam didn’t even glance down at me. Instead, he looked down at his phone. I watched him as he opened a text message to someone, type something, and then press send. I hadn’t gotten a chance to actually read who it was to or what it said, but it pissed me off how he had purposefully tilted the screen away when I tried to see. Liam never got annoyed when I looked at his phone. Why was it any different now?

We stood in silence until an attendant was free to help us. Since we didn’t have any bags to check in, the guy just handed us our boarding passes and told us to take the escalators and make a right. Liam was handed both mine and his boarding passes, but he took the time to separate them and leave mine at the desk before leaving.

Narrowing my eyes at him as he walked away, I grabbed the tickets.

“Jerk,” I muttered under my breath. By the time I had caught up with him, he was in line for the metal detector and someone had stepped in between us. I didn’t even bother to cut them and get next to him because he was acting as if we weren’t even travelling together.

Angrily, I grabbed a bin and placed my purse and shoes in it. In the midst of my frustration, I forgot to take my belt off. When I walked through the metal detector, it beeped and I noticed a blinking red light in the reflection of the officer’s glasses.

Finally, Liam noticed me. However, he didn’t say anything when he watched me tell them it was just my belt.

“Miss, just follow the yellow tape and go to the officer there. He’ll pat you down.”

“Pat me down? Dude, I’m telling you it was my belt.”

“Miss, please follow the yellow tape. The officer will take care of you there.”

I scoffed and moved over to the security officer who was going to ‘take care of me’. He was pretty young and I noticed him eyeing me suggestively.

America’s finest.

“Okay, I’ll need you to turn around and spread your arms and legs,” he ordered, a small southern twang in his voice.

“This is so inappropriate! I’m telling you it’s my belt!” I protested after I had turned around.

“Miss, we’ll need you to cooperate,” he answered, placing his hands on my shoulders.

I sighed deeply, and glanced back at Liam. I didn’t know if I was more pissed at the officer who was touching me or at him for not standing up for me. He was watching me however, with a weird look in his eyes.

“Thank you,” the officer said after what seemed like forever. I dropped my hands and grabbed all my stuff from the container. With my suitcase behind me I walked right past Liam, beyond infuriated. I walked through the airport at a speed walk since I was so mad.

When we got to the gate it was surprisingly empty. At first I thought it was because we got there late, but then I checked the flight time and we were actually right on time for boarding.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Liam, even though I knew he wouldn’t answer.

But to my surprise, he did.