charity project // mischa bachinski (ride the cyclone)

32 - snapshot

I packed up my clothes that night to avoid getting up any earlier than I needed to that morning. I slept pretty well for as long as I was able to in the morning, and I was elected yet again to wake Mischa up. It wasn't even suspicion anymore, it was blatantly obvious that everyone else was scared to wake him up. The fact that it was currently four in the morning didn't help.

I opened the door, and he immediately groaned.

"I give you five seconds to leave. Eight, three, two, five..." He trailed off, clearly still half-asleep.

"We're going home, Mischa. Wake up," I urged.

He sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "It is the middle of the night."

"It is not the middle of the night."

A scowl formed on his face. "Damn it."

Slowly, Mischa stood up. By instinct, I averted my eyes due to the fact that he was not wearing a shirt yet again.

He paused, a look of concern shadowing his dimly-lit features. "Are you- oh, right. I forgot. You are not used to-" Mischa gestured to his torso. "All this."

"No, no. It's fine. I am definitely used to it," I assured him, still not quite looking at him.

He dug around in his suitcase and pulled out a t-shirt. "Clearly not. Look at you. You are blushing. Swooning, even."

"I am not swooning!"

He pulled the t-shirt over his head and then found a sweatshirt to go over it.

"I wish you could have seen yourself. It is actually kind of funny."

"Really? What am I like?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

Mischa put on a falsetto in an attempt to imitate me. "Mischa! You are so unbelievably hot!"

"I never said that!" I protested, laughing.

"You probably thought it. Anyways, you are just like: 'So hot that I cannot even look at you! I am swooning!'"

"I didn't say 'I am swooning' !"

His eyes widened, and a grin began to form. "You said it! You just said it!"

"Come on!" I threw my arms in the air, exasperated. "You know what I meant!"

"I do. But it is still funny."

...

The second Mischa sat down next to me on the airplane, he was out like a light. I can't say that I wasn't, either. Both of us were fast asleep while Noel and Ricky took embarrassing pictures of us, which I didn't have the pleasure of seeing until after the flight. We ate lunch in the second airport, and went the rest of the way back without any problems. It was beyond incredible to be back home in Uranium City. As we neared the exit of the last airport, a group of parents were huddled together, whirling their heads around looking for their children. At last, Noel's mom pointed us out, and they all came rushing to meet us. I ran into my mom's arms to embrace her and tell her how much I missed her. I glanced over her shoulder at just the right time to see Tom hug Mischa. It was incredibly awkward and hard to watch at first, and when Tom let go, Mischa didn't. There was a tug on my heartstrings as I spotted a tear running down Mischa's face, and it only worsened when I realized that this was the first time he had hugged any sort of father figure ever since he was seven. And then there was Tom. Sweet, stoic Tom. The Tom who was now trying to be a better father figure than his own father was to him, and was just now gaining the courage to do so. The entire scene was so beautiful that I wish I could've taken some sort of snapshot of it to make it last longer.