20 Hours - Jack Gilinsky

hour 2; instant attraction

I was staring straight ahead, trying everything I could to not meet his gaze, even as the flight attendants were talking I kept my gaze on the bald spot of the head in front of me.

I could feel his eyes boring holes into my temples as I did all that I could to look straight forward.

God his scent was overpowering my senses and all I wanted to do was look over at him, just steal one look, just one furtive glance then I don't ever have to look again. I just want to know what color his eyes are, are they a mysterious brown that I get put off by, are they a vibrant green that I can see straight through, are they a soft blue that make me want to divulge everything, I just need to know.

I take the chance and shift my gaze towards him, a frown present on his features until his eyes lock with mine. His cheeks turn to a furious red, signifying his embarrassment that for some reason I take joy in, knowing I make him nervous excites me.

"Hi, I'm Austin- yes, like the city, but I'm no where near as interesting as it is," I say as confidently as I can as I take hold of his eyes.

I don't even know how to describe them. They're mysterious brown- but they're not off putting that's for damn sure- though they let on a lot more than they should. I can tell he's thinking, I can tell he's trying to decide something, but that's mostly a combination between his eyes and his facial expression that has confusion writing all over it.

"Uh, hi, I'm Jack." He answers, still looking just as puzzled as before.

"Sorry to come and intrude on your space like this, but it was either get stuck in Australia or come sit in first class," I chuckle, but his expression shows no kind of amusement. He's making me incredibly nervous with his harsh frown that grows more and more confused with my each passing word.

"Why would you want to leave Australia, you don't sound like you're from there, so how could you get sick of it?" He asked, letting the harsh expression drain out of his face when he notices I'm uncomfortable.

"Well as much as I would like to stay, my parents would have my head." I say and we both chuckle- some unspoken understanding between us.

"They can't wait to drag you back to your little home town right?" He asks and I shake my head with my eyebrows drawn in.

"Not at all, they can't wait to ship me away to one. I live in LA, but I'm going to college in Omaha- they're so dead set on me going that they already had all of my stuff sent to my aunt's house so I can get it when I get there and go straight to my dorm room." I chuckle a little more and his face shows that same confused look. I sigh, knowing I now have to explain everything to him.

I stop myself before more words can come out. Even though he's fucking gorgeous, he's a complete stranger that I'm willingly opening up to. And despite our instant attraction, I have no idea who this guy could be.

I decide against telling him my life story for now, besides we've only been flying for 15 minutes so I have plenty of time to tell him. "We'll get back to me later, tell me why you're coming from Australia and going to Omaha." I say and get a little more comfortable by twisting in my seat.

"Well like I said, my parents are practically dragging me back kicking and screaming, they do this every time I go away. I'm only away for barely 3 months and they beg for me to come home like I'm the only thing they have left in their lives. I'm 18, I should be out and having a life, but my parents have this weird attachment to me. Maybe it's because I'm the youngest, or maybe because I'm their only boy, I don't know but it's damn annoying." He huffs and pushes back his brown hair that I want to reach out and run my fingers through.

I nod in understanding, I have two older brothers so I kind of get what he means. "I always feel like the screw up in my family. My older brother's getting drafted into the NFL and the other is at Ohio State with a full ride football scholarship. The only thing I ever did was get good enough grades to go to Harvard and have my parents such down my attendance to my dream school- UCLA- and get sent off to UNO."

He looks down guiltily, "I wish I knew what you meant, I'm kind of the opposite. Both of my sister went to college, I'm following my passion for singing with my best friend and we travel the world. It's great most of the time, but sometimes I wish I could be normal and go to college like other kids my age." He huffs and I look at him like he has two heads.

So basically here I am sitting next to world famous singer that I don't know? Maybe I do really live under a rock like my brother says. I guess it isn't that hard to guess he's famous though, with looks like that and his killer charisma, even a sheep could tell he's got star quality.

Then it clicked in my brain. The guy who was sitting next to, who I instantaneously fell for before we even talked, who was the first guy I ever even gave the time of day to, who was utterly perfect in every way, was the guy that hundreds of screaming, slutty adolescent girls huddled at the airport for. He was the pretentious, stupid, untalented internet famous kid, and I had absolutely no idea who he was.

"By the look on your face I think you know who I am." He said smugly, "want an autograph?"

I turned my head to him with my eyebrow raised, "put your dumb smirk up your ass because I literally have no idea who you are, the only reason I look like I'm going to vomit is because I realized that you're the pretentious prick that all the girls were screaming over at the airport." I spit at him and he looked taken aback.

"Wait, you had no idea who I was?" He asked in shock.

"Not everyone cares about a stupid teenager that's only famous for his insanely good looks." I say while rolling my eyes.

"Well, not everyone is blind enough to not notice a snarky teenager who is insanely beautiful." He said in a low voice that made my stomach do flips.

What the fuck is this kid doing to me? I literally just met him yet he thinks that he can swoon me with stupid pick up lines? Not going to happen.

"I'm sorry, I can tell you're uncomfortable talking about me being 'famous'- which I wouldn't even consider myself- so go back to what you were saying before, about your parents sending you to UNO." He said sincerely.

There he was again. That insanely adorable guy that I can tell actually cares about me instead of the insanely cocky internet famous kid I want nothing to do with.

"Yeah, well I graduated last May, so before that I was looking through my choice of colleges, trust me I had quite a few thanks to 4 years of living in the shadows of my brothers. I mean you would think that someone would want to at least schmooze me a little for like tickets to a football game, or an autograph or something, but literally not one person in my school besides the teachers knew who I was. I locked myself up everyday and studied for countless hours so I could at least do something with my time, I mean for Christ's Sake I didn't even have my obnoxiously overbearing brothers to annoy me after sophomore year. Over time it became my own little routine and within it was ignorant parents and proud teachers. I graduated with the highest GPA in my class, and the highest GPA I could have possibly gotten. My plan was to go to UCLA, become a doctor, but my mom and dad had other plans.

"They decided that I was going to go to UNO- mostly because they both went their and they didn't care what I wanted- so when I told them no my mother literally cried. It took days for them to even talk to me without a sour look on their faces and finally my dad came up with an ignorant plan that ended up working in my favor.

"He said that if I went to UNO he would let me travel around Europe and Asia for two months all expenses paid. Part of the agreement is that if I absolutely hate UNO I'm allowed to leave after a semester, so once the semester is up I've already talked to UCLA about letting me go their to start my classes next semester," Jack chuckles at that, "but yeah, I've spent the past two months traveling, and my last stop was Australia, so now I'm on my way back to my unmanageably involved parents and whatever they have planned for the UNO staff to make me love it there." I huff at the end of my rant, and Jack looks like he just got crushed with a wrecking ball.

"Sometimes I forget that people have problems besides getting their hat stolen off their head, getting chased by millions of dedicated fans, and having their pen run out of ink while signing autographs." He said quietly.

I probably looked absolutely murderous as I glared at him. After all I just said he had to choose that ignorant statement to follow with?

I've only spent one hour with Jack, and I can already tell this instant attraction is going to be a fatal one.