Flight risk. [h.s]

028.

★

The second that the wheels of the plane touchdown on the tarmac at LAX, my lungs turn to stone and my body grows rigid as the harsh reality of what I have got to face comes crashing down around me.

I have had nearly fourteen hours to delay the inevitable and ignore the fact that the world is currently ripping me to shreds in a billion and one unflattering news articles. My name is tarnished to an unspeakable extreme with the media calling me the most unsolicited names that I could think of.

It hurts more to know that I am being reprimanded. while Jonathan is getting off unscathed even though he was also unfaithful.

Cooper has been emailing my publicist back and forth since I went racing back to the air B&B in Sydney with Harry still on the call. After Harry and I eventually hung up, Priya took my phone away because I kept hurting myself by reading the things they were saying about me. She locked me out of all my social media and blocked everything from my view.

Weirdly, I had this odd sense of peace on the plane ride. No one saw me shuffle into first class with my two best friends on either side of me as human shields and a bodyguard literally right behind us.

I spent all fourteen hours sitting in silence with my mind a labyrinth of different scenarios and worries but for some peculiar reason, the anxiety didn't truly hit me until right now.

The bumpy landing snaps me back into the real world and as I cling onto the armrests and pinch my eyes shut as the plane sharply breaks to a stop, my mind twists and I feel my stomach perform a similar roll of grievance.

"Hey?" Priya reaches for my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It's going to be okay, alright?"

I nod numbly, my whole body stiff.

"Coops has arranged the car to be right out front and we will have security the whole way. All we've got to do is get past the paps, okay?"

I nod again, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"We've got you, you know that," She reassures me as the flight attendants usher us down the runway from the plane first since I was being escorted.

A heavy arm slings over my shoulder and the familiar musky smell of Cooper's aftershave clings to my nostrils. "Yeah, A, you know we've got your back,"

"Just a little nervous," I confess, my voice coming out hoarse since I haven't uttered a word in practically fourteen hours.

"It's all going to be fine," Cooper reiterates, giving my shoulder a pinch with his hand wrapped around from the side. "Trust me for once, would ya?"

"Have you seen what they're saying?" I ask.

My feet move along with the two of them on either side of me but I don't feel like I am fully here. I feel like I have transcended somewhere because I am entirely numb to all sensations. I can see that someone is touching me and so I know that there should be a sensation there but I can't actually feel it.