JT's Reign (Jay Taylor - Pause)

//1

c h a p t e r  1

                I feel a nudging at my side but ignore it. I shift in my light sleep and rest my head against the window as I get comfortable again, but the irritation and the poking continues:

                 "JT? Jay? Jay? Dude? Dude? Dude wake up. Wake up dude."

       I slowly open my eyes and groan when I see Kyle staring down at me with an annoying grin on his face. He's in my space once again and refuses to relent. He's brought me back to the reality holding my nightmares captive. It's proven to be enough to drive me away from everything I once knew.

                   I lift my head from the pane of glass to scowl at him and his never ending energy. I stick my arm out and forcefully shove him away. "Get out of my face," I mutter groggily, half asleep and unable to keep my eyes open.

            I rest my head back down. He laughs mockingly at my exhaustion. I sigh. "You're so annoying," I hear myself mumble grumpily before his laughter starts to fade out...

                    "Wake up! The plane's going down!"

            My eyes snap open as I fling up into an upright position, alarm and panic sprawled all over my expression. It takes me a second to register the lie when I hear Kyle explode into laughter from beside me. I glare at him accusingly, "You're not funny man."

                         "You're right, I'm hilarious, boeta," he only laughs louder.

               "Brother?" I question, trying to take in as much as I can. Generally, I take an interest in learning new things. It's a challenge, but I respect all the different cultures I've been seeing. South Africa is nothing like America, nothing short of it either.

                   Kyle nods, "Now you're getting it. By the time you go back to America, you'll be speaking Afrikaans fluently."

"I don't appreciate being woken up," I tell him, changing the subject. Returning back to America is the last thing on my mind. I don't even know if I ever will go back there.

                "I was waking you up because we're about to land, dude," he updates me.

        "Great," I say sarcastically, muffling a yawn. I have a will to travel and volunteer, but it eventually gets exhausting.

            I stay put in my seat once we've landed and wait for everyone else to file out first.

"Let's go!" Kyle suggests overeagerly when he sees that we're two of the few still left inside. He elbows me when he sees that I'm reluctant to move.

          I always end up getting stuck with the irritating people.

           I mutter beneath my breath and stand up. I lazily swing my red backpack over my right shoulder, holding down the strap with one hand. I take after his lead and follow him out, but stop short when I see three woman waiting to get off the plane. I pull Kyle out of the way by the collar of his shirt. I step back and motion to the ladies to go first.

                Kyle scoffs impatiently at me but lets them go first nonetheless.

                                  I shrug at him, unfazed.

"Thank you," the last of them smiles at me, evidently grateful. "This world needs more guys like you," she insists, despite not knowing the first thing about me.