december 12, 2022
11:09pm | lax
"Everything in me doesn't want to get on this plane."
Trinity dropped her shoulder on mine as we waited to board. "Unfortunately, they scheduled press for 11am tomorrow in an entirely different country." I empathized with her.
The premier had been crazy and we were all exhausted. But, like I said, we had a press junket in Toronto tomorrow morning and we were all still in LA.
We'd all been able to change into comfy clothes before heading to LAX; our clothing for the premier on Wednesday had already made it there. Someone had been in charge of making sure everyone's premier outfit made it to the hotel in Toronto. I'm definitely glad I wasn't in charge of that.
I'd been unsuccessful in convincing Brit to come with us to Toronto — even though I said i'd venmo him the $1,000 in a heartbeat. So, I was left to go to Toronto alone with the rest of the cast. Well, and Caleigh, of course she was coming.
She wouldn't let me go places without her. Something about being my assistant.
Jamie had also asked me again if Caleigh was mad at him, the second time at the after party. Apparently her lack of flirting was bothering him and he "didn't know why." I'm not sure if he missed the attention or if he was developing feelings for her — but I loved this.
Caleigh had said she'd given up on flirting since Jamie wasn't reciprocating it. I respected her decision, but decided to not tell her about Jamie being bothered by it. She'd go absolutely insane if she knew Jamie had been asking about her.
"I would like to press charges against whoever made that decision." Trinity groaned as we scanned our tickets.
"I agree."
Once on the plane, I was about to follow Caleigh to where our seats were, she'd walked on ahead with Bailey. Right as I was about to take my seat, the latter sat down. My eyebrows immediately furrowed in confusion.
"I'm gonna sit with Bails, you my dear, against my better judgement, are going to sit with Jack."
I'm doing what, now?
Bailey showed me her plane ticket, seat 10B. She'd taken my spot in 13A. Apparently, Jamie and Trin were paired, me and Caleigh, and Bailey and Jack. I huffed, knowing that Bailey had probably talked Caleigh into switching seats so i'd be forced to sit with Jack.
Hell, maybe Jack had asked Bailey to do all of this.
All I knew was that I was making a few other passengers mildly angry at the fact I was now fighting to walk back the other way to get to my "new" seat.
I swallowed harshly when I slid into the row, Jack already sitting in his window seat. He was looking at something on his phone and hadn't noticed me totally yet.
"Bails, I-" He paused when he looked over at me. "Holland."
I softly smiled, nervous butterflies swarming in my stomach. "Bailey asked me to swap."
Was he panicking internally like I was?
We both settled into our seats, neither saying anything for a while. Slowly, but surely, the plane filled up and the flight attendants came out to do their safety presentation. Then, the plane began to taxi and head down the runway.
I, for one, hated this part of plane rides.
The speeding up of the plane and the feeling of it lifting off of the ground were terrifying for me. Probably something that scared me the most.
I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed whatever was next to me as tight as possible. And, not even a minute later, it was all over. We were in the air and the plane was flying without a problem.
My eyes fluttered open and I relaxed my grip, looking down to see that it was in fact Jack's hand I had been squeezing. The red marks on his pale skin were a dead giveaway.
"It's fine." he mumbled before I could even speak. "Put my hand there because I remembered how much you hate takeoff."
Right. When we'd flown from LA to New Zealand I almost had a panic attack during takeoff. Jack had noticed the shift in my attitude and held my hand tightly, his thumb rubbing the back of my hand for at least the first 30 minutes of our flight.
Of course he remembered.
"Thank you."
Another bout of silence.
Then, randomly, he looked to me. His soft brown eyes staring at the side of my face. "I meant it the other day." Jack's voice was quiet again.
"What do you mean?" I truly didn't know. Was he talking about us being friends? I kind of got that he meant that.
"About missing us, missing you."
I cursed my cheeks for heating up, betraying me. But just like when we were younger, Jack's words always had an effect on me.
"I've missed what we had back then." It was the first time in a long time that i've admitted that to myself.
Jack angled his body toward me, resting his head on the back of his chair. "We did everything together... like wrestle." A smile cracked on his face.
I let out a laugh, remembering all the times we'd be in a full out brawl on the floor and Jim would have to break it up. It wasn't like we were in a disagreement, we just decided that wrestling was a favorite pastime.
"We were strange kids."
The boy nodded, his eyes never leaving my face. I turned more to face him, my leg brushing his, sending sparks up my body.
Shit.
"You looked beautiful tonight, by the way." His compliment came out of nowhere.
I was taken by surprise, my mouth hanging open ever so slightly. "Uh, thank you." I thought back to that outfit he'd worn, "You didn't look too bad yourself."
I was lying to myself. He was absolutely gorgeous. Jack will forever be breathtaking and it's a little unfair how he still had that effect on me.
Maybe Kit was right? Maybe i've never gotten over Jack and Kit just blocked me from ever doing anything about it.
"I want to be offended, but you somewhat complimented me. So, i'll take it." He laughed.
I opened my mouth to speak when the plane hit turbulence. My eyes screwed shut and I reached for his hand again. Only this time, Jack interlaced our fingers, not letting go when I opened my eyes back up.
The action felt nice, comforting even. So, I decided to let it happen.
"You haven't changed."
"Not much."
My heart skipped a beat when Jack began to rub the back of my hand with his thumb. I purposely didn't look down at our hands in fear that he'd stop. And the action felt... right.
"I'd like to go slow with rebuilding our friendship... if that's ok."
He nodded quickly, dipping his head down to look at me better. "Anything for you, H. If that's what it takes for us to come back together than i'll do it."
I smiled at his eagerness. It made me feel good.
"Ok, good." I nodded, using my free hand to tuck away the armrest sitting between us. "Mind if I-"
My mouth closed. The question I was beginning to ask had felt too forward at the beginning stage of rebuilding our friendship.
He raised an eyebrow as he squeezed my hand, urging me to continue. "Tell me."
"I'm tired, J. I was gonna ask if you minded if I used you as a pillow." the blush on my cheeks made me drop my gaze down to our joined hands.
Which honestly just made me blush more.
"Of course you can, I should probably try to sleep soon myself... considering the flight is only 5 hours."
I winced at his reminder of the flight time. We'd be getting into Toronto in the middle of the night/early morning, would go to our hotel for the quickest nap, and then head back out. The relief that came from letting his hand go and letting my head fall into his shoulder was enormous.
His scent flooding into my nose was a blast from the past. Jack Champion seemed to still use the same cologne he's used since we were kids. It brought tears to my eyes, a mixture of happy and sad.
But something about reconnecting with the boy just felt right. And I can't wait to see where things go.
•
i literally can't wait to write
some of the chapters i have
planned because they're SO GOOD