Bethany's POV:
The jolt of turbulence is what wakes me up. It must have woken up Joey too, because I feel his head lift off of mine.
He obviously doesn't like how the plane feels like it's going over bumps in the air. I watch as the color drains from his face and he digs his nails into his palms. I notice that he begins to take slow, deep breaths as he closes his eyes, like he's trying not to throw up.
I don't really want to say anything to him and make him respond, but I do anyway. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He quietly breathes out. He's obviously not.
I take his hand and, after much effort, pry it open and see that his nails have left marks in his skin. I gently rub his hand and it seems to calm him down.
Soon the turbulence passes he gradually relaxes. The pilot's voice comes on over the intercom.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in Boston in 10 minutes, please fasten your seatbelts. Thank you for flying with us." Then there's the familiar static as the speakers turn off. We do as he says and soon there's the familiar screeching of the tires on the runway. I'm really happy to be getting off, I hate airplanes.
It doesn't take long to go through security let again, and get our bags. We sit on a bench outside the airport, waiting for Nicole to pick us up. I really feel the nerves building up. Nicole is Joey's sister, she's going to make sure I'm nice to him as much as she's going to make sure he's nice to me. And she's a really big part of his life, of course her opinion is going to be a big deal to him.
"Hey, don't worry. She's going to love you. And even if she doesn't, it won't change the way I think about you." He must have sensed my worry. He can read me so well.
A car pulls up on the road pretty close to where the bench is. I'm assuming it's Nicole's car. The nerves multiply by about 20.
Joey gives me a reassuring kiss, obviously so Nicole can see. Is he sending her a signal?
A woman steps out of the car, she looks to be in her mid-20s, she has blonde hair. She smiles when she sees Joey and me, she has his smile. Then she starts walking up to us. As soon as Joey stands up, he's pulled into a huge hug.
"Joey! I missed you so much! You need to come home more often!" She exclaims.
He laughs. "Yeah, I missed you too!"
She notices me awkwardly standing there and immediately pulls me into a suffocating hug.
"And you must be Bethany! Joey's said so much about you! He was right, you are gorgeous." She says.
I see him blushing out of the corner of my eyes and I giggle. Nicole releases me from her grip, allowing me to breathe again.
"C'mon! I hate airports." She says, leading us to the car.
-
Joey's house is cozy. It's not small, but it has a family-type feel and it's nice. A little boy, about six years old, comes running down the hallway and then throwing himself at Joey, who catches him and then lifts him up.
"Jett! I missed you, little guy!" Joey exclaims.
Jett squeals and runs off to go play with his little cars.
"That was Jett, my little brother." Joey explains.
"Hey, you guys should go put your stuff in the extra room. I guessed I should have told you this earlier, but there's only one extra room so you guys are gonna have to share..." Nicole says.
Joey laughs while I blush. "Naw, it's fine girlyanya."
Joey and I run up to the extra room and throw our suitcases on the bed, then run back down back to Nicole.
"Hey, can we go see dad now?" Joey asks, tears forming in his eyes.
I can see Nicole's expression fall a little, too. "Yeah. I know he wants to meet Bethany."
Please don't hate me for not updating yesterday😢
Thanks for reading!
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