Sam and Colby: The Asylum

Chapter 23

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, flight number 346 to Massachusetts will be boarding in five minutes. Zone one, please make your way up to the loading area. All veterans and active military members, you are welcome to come aboard," she said. I looked down at my ticket. We were zone two.

            We all stood up and gathered our things. I took everyone's empty cups and threw them away.

            "Thanks, mom," said Jake. I looked at him.

            "You're welcome, son," I said. He gave me a nod of approval before reaching down to grab his backpack. I walked back over by Colby and put my purse on my shoulder. Colby didn't bring a backpack, and we checked our big bags, so he wasn't holding anything except for his phone and his ticket. Corey wasn't holding anything either but was putting his phone into the Champion fanny pack he was wearing diagonally across his chest. What a weird trend. The lady called for zone one to board. We all shuffled into line.

            "Corey, you know you're sitting in the back, right?" Sam asked. "K3. It's technically what Nessa's ticket said but she chose a random number to see who had to sit alone since Colby and I didn't like the idea of making her sit alone," said Sam.

            "Yeah, I got it," Corey said. I was glad that he didn't seem upset about it. I let him walk in front of me when the woman called for zone two to board. Corey went first, then Jake, then me, then Colby, and then Sam. We walked down the long tunnel leading to the plane, and stepped on. The flight attendant clearly recognized Colby.

            "Y—are, sorry, are you Colby Brock?" she asked him. We were standing still anyway, waiting for the people further up in line to put their bags up and scoot into their seats. Colby smiled.

            "Yes, ma'am," he said.

            "Well it's wonderful to meet you," she said Colby nodded as we all moved two steps forward.

            "Which means that you must be Vanessa and Sam," she said warmly. I stared at her.

            "Yeah, hey. Thanks for helping out on the flight today," Sam said.

            "Bye," I said quietly as Sam gently nudged me forward to follow the moving line. I turned around and whispered to Sam as we kept shuffling forward.

            "She recognized me too!" I hissed.

            "Yes, Nessa. Quite a few people probably will," Sam said with a smile.

            "That's insane!" I said.

            "It sure is. Now come on, you don't want to hold up the line," Sam said, nodding forward with his head.

            "Right," I said. I faced forward all the way and made it to where Colby was standing in the aisle, waiting for me to get in since I'd told him I wanted the window seat.

            "Thank you," I said, ducking into the seat by the window. I tucked my purse under the seat in front of me and Colby sat down next to me. Sam and Jake sat down in the row in front of us. Colby lifted up the armrest that was in between us and buckled his seatbelt. I buckled mine too and reached down into my purse to pull out a pack of gum. I grabbed two pieces and stuck my hand forward in between Jake and Sam's seats. I felt each of them take one.

            "Thanks, Mom," Jake said.

            "Yeah, thanks Mom," Sam said.

            "Of course, my children," I said, laughing. I held one out to Colby. "For your ears popping," I said.

            "No, I know what it's for," he said, taking the piece I was handing him. "I don't know if I like my friends calling you Mom, though," he said. I laughed.

            "No?" I asked.

            "No. You're younger than us and you calling them your children is weird," he said. I rolled my eyes and punched him on the shoulder.

            "Get over it. For at least the next three days, they're my friends, too," I said.

            "For more than three days, Mom. You're a homie now," Jake said in front of us. "I'll stop eavesdropping now. I'm putting in my headphones. Scream and or aggressively shake me to get my attention," Jake said, putting AirPods in. I looked over and saw Sam do the same.

            "See? I'm not just their mom. I'm a homie now," I said, chuckling.

            "You're not my mom or my homie," he said, pulling his AirPods out of his pocket. I felt the need to follow suit, so I reached down and took mine out. I looked back at Corey, who also had his in.

            What a bunch of rich white people-type shit.

            "What am I, then?" I asked, staring down at my phone, connecting the earbuds. "If I'm not your mom or your homie?"

            "I don't know. What are you?" he asked. I shrugged.

            "I don't know," I responded. I didn't know what answer I had hoped for, but I knew what answers I didn't want to hear, and 'I don't know' wasn't too bad. "An acquaintance? A companion? A new coworker, now? A flight buddy? Your part time roommate? That girl who hangs out with Colby Brock? The girl on Vinny's sister Sarah's wall? Someone who—,"

            Colby cut me off by leaning over, grabbing my face in both of his hands, and kissing me. It was, what, our third 'real' kiss now? But, just like the first time, it definitely did feel real. This was probably our longest kiss yet, our lips slowly moving against each other's.

            "Hello, passengers of 346," a male flight attendant's voice said. "My name is Alec and I will be your chief flight attendant today."

            I expected Colby to stop and let go when Alec started his speech, but he didn't. He kept holding my face, kept kissing me, and I didn't mind one bit. I reached one of my hands up and set it on his. I pulled back after a while, not wanting the flight attendant that showed us how to use the safety things to see us making out on the airplane instead of, you know, listening how to use an oxygen mask in case we were all about to die.

            "Our flight time will be of 5 hours and 31 minutes today, with a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet. We will arrive at IATA: BOS at local time 6pm.

            "At this time, make sure your seat backs and tray tables...," Alec continued. I looked back at Colby, his hands still on my face.

            "Not a homie. Or a coworker. Or a companion. Hopefully yes, a part time roommate for sure. I don't mind the flight buddy idea either. And you are technically a girl who hangs out with Colby Brock," he said, pecking my lips one more time before letting my face go. "But, you know. You're a combination of several things, and not just those," he said. I really wanted to ask what I actually was to him, but I was lucky to have gotten that much of an answer after his initial 'I don't know'.

            "Okay," I squeaked, my voice quiet and high pitched after being so wonderfully surprised. A simple 'shut up' would have done the trick, but I liked what Colby did much more than that. I listened to the rest of Alec's speech, still kind of shocked at what Colby had done. I like said, we'd kissed before, but not so blatantly. I mean, in front of an Uber driver and against my car outside his apartment, but never in front of people who could directly stare at us if they wanted to. I don't know if they did, though. I was too focused on Colby. But there were people behind us and next to us and diagonal that could easily have looked at us if they wanted to. Did Colby not care if other people saw us? I thought he really would. We weren't dating. Not even close.

            But he hadn't disagreed with that little boy. And he'd had his hand on my knee out there in the gate's sitting area. And then he'd kissed me in front of people who could easily see. Maybe he just didn't care since only, like, eight people max could have seen us, and people weren't usually on their phones during the flight attendant's speech. I wasn't sure what to think about any of it. He'd never been spotted in public kissing a girl before. Not that I'd seen. But maybe that's why he'd done it on the place. I don't know. I decided to not overthink it any more than I already had.