Thin Bones

26

To: Mad-woman

Where are you two? It shouldn't take you that long

Mon 2:47

To: Gaige

Leon got us lost, ok? God calm ur titties we're like seconds away

Mon 2:48

Gaige rolled his eyes and shoved his phone back into the back pocket of his too-large jeans. He glanced back down at his duffel bag resting against his foot on the airport floor, before looking back up at the bustling Christmas crowd of the decently sized Tallahassee airport. Why was everyone that was supposed to pick Gaige up from various airports late?

Gaige had to squint at the sun that was coming out of the entry and exit of the picking up area of the airport, but he longed to feel some ray of sun on his neck. He missed that about Flordia. The light the brighten his darkness. To cover his goosebumps with thin blankets of warmth. He missed the sun that Michigan would never replace. 

He was alone in the crowd, all waiting for their family so they may celebrate a very merry holiday. He was alone in his craving for the sun. He was alone for a lot of things despite the hundreds of bodies and souls that mingled around him.

Gaige could see Maddie and Leon's grin despite the slightly tinted windshield of Leon and Gaige's busted up orange ford truck they bought with assistance from their parents. It looked stupid against the fresh flow of new and smooth cars. But that was Leon and Gaige for you. The two stupid brothers with their stupid car decisions against the normal crowd. 

Slowly but surely, the orange truck fights the traffic and idles slowly in front of Gaige, his too picker-uppers grinning madly. Gaige willingly smiles back. Throwing his duffel bag in the bed of the truck, opening the passenger side door with an ear-splitting creaking, and making Maddie slide into the middle seat, Gaige lifts himself into the truck, setting his backpack at his feet. 

"I literally haven't seen you in years!" Gaige bites his smile, Maddie wrapping her short arms easily around his thinning frame. He tries to push away the idea that the way she speaks isn't as familiar as it was two months ago. But manages to force his arms around her too.

Gaige even gives a little chuckle, "I know. God, stepping off the plane felt amazing," He pulls away, whipping hair out of his eyes with nerves that he can not stand, "Leon, this thing was an embarrassment to get into."

Lone-behold, Leon leaned forward with his dazzling eyes and his thick black curls grown out more. Lazily, with one arm slung around the wheel, Leon can't help grinning despite his brother insulting his car -the thing most people don't get away with.

"Well shit, you should have thought of that before you put half your shitty money in this monster too," Gaige swims in the real-lifeness of his brothers laugh, "Hand it here, brother."

They do the 'magic' handshake they invented when they were eleven, slaps and shakes and weird little finger dances all included. It's a foreign concept to Gaige, to laugh with people he loves, it makes his stomach swirl.

"Ok, okay, enough with the bromance, we need to get going or someones going to curse us out," Maddie sticks her hands out, separating the boys. Gaige falls back in the cracking leather bench, reaching absentmindedly for his seat belt, staring at the sun ahead of him. 

"Okay, with the camera I gave you to do home videos whenever you want, I need you to shoot interviews with your family," Adonis is obviously hesitant to bring this up, the library study room as bland as ever, Gaige's mind more occupied than ever. School got out yesterday, he leaves for Florida in two days. This is the last time he'll talk to the blonde boy with wire-frames and too big of ears for three weeks. Gaige's mind fights between being happy and anxious to return back to his real home.