18 ways to die

3 - wide open skies

"Pretzels or peanuts?" The stewardess asks with a smile so wide it appears she's trying to swallow my soul.

"Oh, uhm," my eyes flick from package to package as I try to decide, "pretzels." I pause. "Please."

"Sure." The smile gets wider. "And for him?" She nods towards sleeping Jace.

I glance at him. "He would like peanuts."

"Here you go, ma'am." She hands me the two packages.

"Thanks."

I watch her take a few steps to get to the next row of seats and then turn my attention back to Jace. His chest rises and falls every few seconds as he takes in a breath. I lean closer to him until my mouth is almost touching his ear and whisper, "I'm going to eat all this food, and you're not getting any of it."

He doesn't move.

All good though, I actually do want to eat his share. I'm starving, and quite upset by the fact that I thus far have not been able to fall asleep. Jace, on the other hand, has taken four little naps. Four. Another annoying part about this is that I have the window seat. So whenever Jace falls asleep and I need to go to the bathroom, I've got to practically climb overtop of the boy who very inconveniently sleeps with his knees pressed against the seat in front of him. He basically turns into an unconscious human barricade.

I turn to stare out the window while slowly eating my snacks. One thing that surprised me about flying is the clouds. From the ground they look fluffy and enormous, like they go up for miles. As we flew higher though, the clouds looked flat. Still huge, but flat. Now there's no clouds. We're up so high that all I see is blue unless I look down. Underneath us is a blanket of those flat clouds, hiding the world from view. We're completely secluded, utterly alone. I can just imagine how it would feel to free fall from here. The only sound would be your heartbeat and the wind as you fall thousands of feet with every breath you take. And then just as you're through the clouds and can see the world again...

"Asia?" Jace says my name in a raspy voice, shaking me from my thoughts.

"Hmm?" I turn. "So, you're awake."

"You got food? Did you get me anything?" He rubs his face sleepily and yawns.

"Yep!" I grin. "And then I ate it."

"What?" He looks offended. "B-but why would you?"

"Well," I clasp my hands together, "I was hungry, and this has been a very long flight."

"Yeah, which is why you should have saved me some."

I smile and pass him the last pretzel from my bag. "Here."

"Thanks," he says dryly. I would think he was genuinely annoyed with me if I didn't see the corners of his lips twitching up into a smile. He confuses me. He seems to care for some reason, and he's never angry at me even when I'm being awful. True, I've only been around him for about thirty six hours —not including that night at the bar— but that's still enough for most people to leave me in the dust.

"They'll come by with actual meals soon anyway." I assure him.

"Says the girl who's never flown before?" He raises his eyebrows, giving me a teasing smile.

"Yes." I nod. "When will we get to Beijing?"

"I have no clue." He checks his watch. "It's gonna be a while..."

"To be expected."

I was correct. They bring us little menus about a half hour later and give us a moment to choose. Of course it being an airplane and all, there isn't that huge of a selection. Still though, It's more than I thought there would be. The food comes out only ten minutes after that, and we eat our meals silently and happily.

*****

"Please fasten your seatbelts as we begin our descent to Beijing, China." The pilot says in that stereotypical authoritative pilot voice. The sentence is repeated in what I assume is Chinese.

I shake in my seat, anxious to go and see everything.

"Gum?" Jace offers me a piece. "So your ears pop."

"Oh, sure. Thank you." I unwrap it and put it in my mouth, chewing slowly. The minty-ness mixes with my saliva making my whole mouth cold and pepperminty. "Why does gum help?"

"I don't know." He shrugs. "Just does. Plus it tastes good."

"Have you tried not chewing gum on the plane?" I ask.

"Yep. Pain ensues."

"Alright." I chew a bit faster as the pressure from descending presses against my brain. The plane dips and shakes a little as it goes. Jace told me that it would happen, That it was normal. It doesn't feel very normal. The woman behind me gasps, but I'm completely at peace.

"It's okay." Jace grabs my hand. I think I'm used to him randomly touching me now.

"I know." I whisper, the corners of my lips curling up into a small smile.

When the wheels of the plane touch the ground, a small jolt goes through everything. We race down the runway, going faster than we did when we took off. Of course it slows down seconds later and then crawls to a stop. The seatbelt light clicks off and immediately people jump up to grab their bags.

I unbuckle and start to stand up when Jace puts a hand on my knee. "Just wait for the people in a rush to leave first so we don't get pushed around."

"Alright." I lower myself back into the seat and look around, drumming my fingers against my leg.

"Relax." He laughs.

"I am relaxed!" I stop tapping my fingers, switching to hitting the heels of my shoes together.

"There's no place like home?" Jace looks down at my feet and chuckles.

"What? Oh, wizard of oz." I look around to see the crowd of people who first jumped up getting smaller. "Can we go now?"

Jace puts a hand on the back of the seat and peers behind us. "Sure."

"Finally." I jump to my feet and wait for him to grab his luggage from the overhead bins so I can get mine.

"Hey, Asia?" He looks back at me as we walk towards the plane exit to the gangway.

"Mmhm?"

He gives me the biggest grin ever. "We're in China."

* * * * *
I didn't forget about 18 Ways, I swear <3
I hope you like this short little chapter! I'll try and write the next one a bit faster ;)