I sat down in my seat in the airplane with a sigh. Rubbing my heavy eyes as a yawn escaped my mouth. Sometimes I pick up the wrong women in the bars and end up with a nightmare of a night. Who would have thought that a few of the quiet ones would be so loud and demanding in bed? They truly show their true colors then. I don't like it when they try and take control. It's like they are taking away the one thing I need to have when I'm in bed with them. Especially when they try and touch me, that is a no, no.
I won't deny that I was glad that Rylan appeared once again in the morning, scaring away the women out of the hotel room. But then she started to bored me with the details, and I left for the bathroom.
Rylan is stiff and boring, speaking of the devil. She placed her phone on the table in front of me and pulled off her leather jacket to put it over the back of the seat. Her thin black shirt is hugging the muscles on her arms; if only I had that benefit.
"Up," She said to me.
"Excuse me?" I narrowed my eyes.
"Get up," Rylan told me again firmly. With a smile, I crossed my leg over the other.
"No," I said and sighed loudly.
"Let me go!" I shouted as she pulled me roughly by the arm and shoved me aside.
"You are such an asshole," I said through gritted teeth as I looked up at her, and the only thing I got in return was a raised eyebrow as if she thought I was stupid. I watched her bend down onto the floor and looked underneath my seat. I crossed my arms and watched her dumbfounded as she kept on looking through it.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked as she got back up on her feet.
"Making sure your ass won't blow off," She said and found her way over to her seat.
"There are already people doing that, you know," I rolled my eyes as I sat down.
"Doesn't mean that they don't have the opportunity to do it, Miss Hadley," Rylan explained as she kept searching around every cabinet, seat, and possible corner of the plane.
"If you say so, soldier," I grinned, and she side glanced at me as she clenched her jaw but didn't comment. I winked at her, feeling the victory in my chest of how I got her annoyed. I watched every move she made in curiosity and how she didn't leave one place not searched.
If it were one of the older guards, they would have been in the seat across from me by now. With a glass of whisky or scotch in their hand, drowning their sorrows. Talking endlessly of what happened to them and that their wives have left for someone better. But Rylan, I have never seen drinking on the job; if anything, she drinks more coffee than a normal human being.
She is determined to keep me safe, yet I don't see any point in that. I have never really needed protection. Regular people on the streets don't know who I am because they don't care who manufactured the weapons used in foreign countries' battles. Yet dad is too paranoid and self-centered about believing anything else.
When Rylan finished her round, she sat down across me, picking up her phone as the captain announced that we are on the way to leave. The flight attendant, Joan, made sure everything was in order as she smiled at me. She has been here for as long as I can remember. She has always been on my trips all over the country. Mostly back and forth from New York and San Francisco.
Dad prefers having me around in New York, where he has his office. But my mother's family is in San Francisco, and I need to see them once in a while. It's the closest thing I have to a proper family.
My grandmother bakes the best cakes in the world. Grandad is always on his feet, making sure everything is in order, if not placed in front of the TV watching games. My aunt would always make sure that I'm okay even though I kept telling her that I am, which is sort of a lie. But at that moment, when everyone is together, I feel fine. It might only be for a few minutes, but I'll gladly take them.
"Anything to drink or eat, Hadley?" Joan asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. I looked at Rylan for a second as I noticed that she had been staring at me, but she quickly turned her gaze away to her phone. I turned back to the older lady with a smile.
"Yes, please, a coffee would be nice," I said, and she nodded.
"Anything you want, Miller?" She asked Rylan.
"The same, please," The taller woman answered politely, her blue eyes filled with a sort of kindness.
"I'll get back to you when we have gone up into the air," Joan grinned brightly before walking away. I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes as I breathed deeply, waiting on the plane to take of. It's going to be a long ride, and I dread every second of it.
***
I sipped on my cup of coffee as Rylan has been staring at that phone of hers ever since we lifted it from the ground. What can be so crucial for her to spend so much time on that thing.
"What are you doing?" I asked, breaking the silence that has become our closest way of a company the past couple of weeks. Rylan slowly looked up at me with a tense jaw.
"What I always do," She sighed but placed her phone on top of the table in between us and leaned back in her seat.
"And what is that?" I asked before taking another taste of my coffee.
"Keeping you safe," She answered, and I had to hold in my laugh.
"What can possibly be on your phone that could make me safe?" I chuckled, and she bit her inner cheeks as she stared out the window.
"It can be so many things, Miss Hadley," She faced me again, her blue eyes narrowed slightly.
"What do you mean?" I wondered, worriedly by the way she watched me.
"It can be the weather, traffic, and any news in the area that we are going to. But also the need to know where every exit is, not just the hotel, but street as well," She explained and stared back out the window as if she was lost somewhere far away from her. I didn't say anything, which made her close her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest.
I'm impressed with everything that is on her mind. The way she thinks about everything she needs to be aware of. I don't think anyone else has done that, not proper at least. Where did my father find this one?
I picked up the bag from underneath my seat and pulled up my notebook. Trying to figure out what to draw, I stared at Rylan, which felt like forever as ideas came and went. I haven't been able to put the pencil on the paper for years.
I lost the spark for what kept me going in life, and no matter how much I tried to fill up that void, nothing ever did. It's like trying to top up a bucket with a massive hole in the bottom. Everything that I let in went straight through in the end and never came back.
Rylan turned her head to the side, exposing that long scar on the side of her neck. Wanting an answer to the question of how she got it, I filled it up by placing the pencil onto the paper.