I am just starting to travel through the haunted house in a mine cart when We Are the Champions by Queen begins blasting through the speakers that magically appeared. I am utterly confused for a moment, and then I realize that I am in the middle of a dream and my eyes pop open. I stare at the ceiling for a moment, debating whether to pick up the phone or leave it. Chances are, if I do not answer, Tammy will kill me, so I lazily press the "accept" button and lift the phone to my ear.
"Hello?" I mutter groggily.
"Where the hell are you and why on earth did you not pick up immediately?" Tammy screeches from the other end of the phone.
I wince and hold the phone away from my ear until she pauses her incessant screaming to take a breath. "Please... please be quiet. I just woke up." I press my index finger to my lips even though she can't see me and delicately shush her before relaxing back into my bed.
"I will not be quiet. Your flight is leaving in half an hour, and you promised me you would be here by–"
"What?" I shriek, my tone matching hers.
Tammy chuckles dryly. "You forgot, didn't you? Of course. Why am I surprised?"
"What?" My screech earns a pound on the walls from my neighbor signaling for me to be quiet. "What?" I hiss at a much quieter tone while stumbling towards the bathroom and splashing water over my face.
"You always forget, Cherisse! This cannot happen anymore."
"I know, and I am so, so sorry. Uh, can I call you back?"
"What? No. Don't you dare hang up on me, you little–" I cut her off and toss my phone onto my bed, ignoring how it continues to ring and ring. I would rather deal with her wrath later than now when I am trying to focus. I grab the nearest outfit from the bottom of my closet, which happens to be the green jeans I wore yesterday and the black hoodie I wore about a week ago. I never got around to washing either item, but oh, well. I don't have much of an option.
As fast as lightning, I throw my hair up into a messy bun within seconds and dart about my room, throwing as many clothes as I can find into a suitcase. I don't pause a moment to think about how much I wish I could've just woken up peacefully, although that is my greatest desire. I am certainly going to feel the effects of sleep deprivation in a few hours. I scramble out of my apartment, hurriedly locking the door and checking my pockets to make sure I have everything I need.
"What is going on out there?" an old man with wisps of white hair hanging over his forehead grumbles as he steps outside his door.
"Sorry, Mr. Allerton," I call back as I continue to sprint down the hall with my suitcase in tow.
"Crazy kids these days," he mutters after me.
After what seems like ages, I reach my designated gate of the airport just as the flight attendant is announcing perkily, "This is the final call for boarding. I repeat, this is the final call for boarding."
I pause when I see Tammy's furious glare digging holes into my forehead.
"No time to stop now," she hisses, grabbing my wrist and dragging me towards the plane. "I already checked both our boarding passes, so get on the plane before we miss it."
"I am so, so sorry," I mumble, nearly tripping on a haphazardly placed rug.
"Stop apologizing and get on that damned plane," she grumbles, helping me upright only so she can shove me towards the plane. I board quickly and move to the back of the aircraft where Tammy strategically selected our seats so we would not have many people near us.
"Don't. Say. Anything," Tammy growls, holding up a warning finger. I quickly shut my mouth and strap myself into the seat, preparing for a long trip to South Korea. The plane begins to move slowly, and I clutch the armrests so hard that I worry I will leave fingertip-shaped dents in the metal.
"Nervous flier?" she asks, raising a pristine eyebrow as she delicately touches up her concealer.
"I have never flown before," I admit quietly.
"Never?" When I shake my head again, she chuckles disbelievingly. "Well, you have plenty of tension ahead of you, kid."
"What do you mean?" I ask nervously.
"The takeoff is the second to worst part because you feel like your body is being physically shoved back into the seat as you rise rapidly in altitude. Then, you have to worry about the pilot staying awake long enough to keep the plane level. They always blame their mistakes on turbulence."
"If that is the second to worst part, then w-what is the worst part?"
A slow grin spreads across her lips. "After you have finally calmed down, you have to worry about the descent, which is unquestionably the worst part. Your ears are constantly popping, and when the plane finally touches the ground..." She shakes her head solemnly at me. "It will practically jar you out of your seat. There is always nervous chatter on the plane after that."
My heart is pounding in my chest, and my knuckles have turned white once she finishes her description. "Is it too late to get off the plane?"
"Ma chére, you are sticking with me. Our flight is already slightly delayed. We were supposed to take off at 10:00, and it's 10:04. Hey, what's the delay?"
"I am sorry, mademoiselle, but the plane cannot take off until we are certain that we will not be an obstacle for other descending and ascending planes," the flight attendant says with a serene smile. Despite her calm facial expression, I can tell that the woman is slightly annoyed at Tammy's disruption.
"Well, I am sorry, mademoiselle," Tammy mocks her, "but my client has to get to Seoul by midnight, or she will have hell to pay."
I look at her with wide eyes. "I will?"
"Yes."
My heart pounds faster, and my hands begin to shake, but when the flight attendant isn't looking, Tammy winks so I know she is only trying to manipulate the situation.
"I apologize, but there is nothing I can do unless you want us to crash into another plane," the woman says sourly.
"There should not even be any planes to crash into since they know we were supposed to take off at 10:00," Tammy snaps.
The flight attendant plasters a forced smile onto her face. "Landing times are never completely accurate. I apologize for any inconvenience."
"It is not an inconvenience," I step in quietly. "We apologize if we have been disruptive or rude. Passenger safety is of paramount importance."
"Yes, it is," the woman agrees with an even wider smile. "Thank you for your politeness." Before Tammy can say anything more to the flight attendant, the woman hurries to the front of the plane to avoid further confrontation.
I sigh and turn to Tammy. "Tammy, you have to be kind to people. There is no reason to impose your power on those who are already aware of it."
Tammy blows on her nails and glares at the woman's French twist on the back of her head. "If she were aware of my net worth, she would not have treated me like some regular passenger she can just mouth off to."
"Please be nice?"
"No."
"Okay."
We settle into our seats, and I attempt to relax until the plane starts moving again. Then, I grip Tammy's hand for dear life.
"Ow, geez, you have a strong grip!" Tammy exclaims, pulling her hand away. My hand scrambles for another stable surface until it finds the armrest. When the plane moves faster and faster, then lifts off into the air, I have to stifle the urge to scream. Tammy was right – it feels like you are being pushed back into your seat, and I am simultaneously unable to breathe from the shock of it all.
"Not too bad, right?" she laughs as the plane levels out.
"Gosh, I hate roller coasters," I say stiffly, still gripping the armrests as I try to comprehend the fact that we are flying thousands of feet above the ground.
"...this is a plane, baby."
"Close enough."
Tammy chuckles and turns back to scrolling through a website on her laptop. Once I calm down enough to stop using the armrests as a stress ball, I become entirely captivated by the landscape spread out before me. As we rise higher and higher until we are above the clouds, I realize that I am getting a view that I have only seen before in movies. Once the individual streets fade into the distance, all I can see is the outline of borders and the majestic color of bodies of water. It is all purely mesmerizing. As terrifying as my first plane ride began, I am starting to open up to the idea of it. I rest my head against the window and stare at the passing scenery as a past ballet choreography dances in my head.
After a while, the flight attendants come around with the option of food and drink, but I politely turn them down. I don't have the willpower nor the ability to eat anything this high in the air. About an hour passes and then Tammy taps my shoulder.
"Yes?" I ask quietly, pulling my earbuds from my ears. Immediately, the static hum of the airplane engine – or whatever it is – floods into my ears and I wince.
Tammy looks at me oddly. "Since you forgot about your flight, I am guessing you did not look through many of the emails I sent you?"
"Oh, no," I insist. "I looked through... three or four of them."
Tammy sighs. "I counted. There were 108. You had better get working, ma chére."
"Now?"
"You have ten hours to go – might as well make them count."
"W-well, what are you going to do?"
Tammy smiles as she gently pulls a mask over her eyes and wraps an airplane pillow around her neck. "Sleep."
I sigh and dig my laptop out of my carry-on. I remember when Tammy bought this for me, insisting that I needed a way to connect to the world. I smile softly as the lullaby of silence fills my ears again, and I begin to drift into my own world.
--Flashback--
"I don't think I need a laptop," I insisted as Tammy scrutinized each model of each brand, occasionally pulling up reviews of the device on her bedazzled phone.
"That's B.S.," she said sharply. "You need a way to connect with the world."
"I respectfully disagree. I stay low for a reason, Tammy, and I don't want to get on the world's radar."
Tammy sighed. "Fine, then you will need one to connect with me. Who is going to look after you?"
"I am eighteen years old. I can look after myself."
"Yeah, right. What about that time I had to rescue you from a shopping center because you freaked out?"
I winced. "Please don't bring that up."
"You know, you never told me why you went nuts like that."
"Please," I repeated sharply. "Don't bring that up."
Tammy backed off with her hands raised in surrender. "All right, I'm sorry."
I sighed and raised a hand to my throbbing forehead. "No, I am sorry. I should not have snapped at you like that. After all this time, you deserve to know why that happened."
Tammy paused and turned around, studying my expression carefully. "What do you say we nix the laptop and discuss this over a cup of coffee?"
About ten minutes later, we were seated in a quaint coffee shop I had never visited before. The reviews on Tammy's phone insisted that they made coffee like no other, so I was eager to try the supposedly "transforming experience" for myself. Tammy ordered a tall latte macchiato with extra cream and sugar, while I ordered the simplest and cheapest item on the menu: a cappuccino.
"Really?" Tammy asked when my small mug arrived, dwarfed by her tall beverage.
"It was the least expensive item on the menu," I admitted quietly.
"Baby, when you are with me, you don't have to go for the cheap options."
I shrugged. "It is a good habit to get into."
"Anyways, you and the mall, huh? What is the big deal there?"
I intook a sharp breath. "It is purely emotional. Emotional trauma, to be exact. I told you how my parents died, didn't I?"
Tammy nodded. "Yeah."
"The night before, my mum realized she did not have shoes to match her dress. See, it was also the day before my aunt's wedding, and my mum was the maid of honor. I do not remember much about either of my parents, but I know she was very excited and honored that her sister chose her. They were very close growing up, I guess.
"Anyways, Dad had just tucked me into bed when Mum snuck in and asked if I would like to go to a shopping center with her to find some shoes. Most of her wardrobe consisted of jeans, hoodies, and tennis shoes — there was not much room for trends or fashion in her life. I guess I got my style from her. I agreed, of course, excited to go on a late-night excursion with the person I looked up to most. So, we drove to the shopping center and started walking through it to find a shoe store. It was pretty late – about 9:00 – so we didn't have much time before it would close.
"All of a sudden, as we were heading back towards the car with Mum's new shoes in hand, she stopped in the middle of the mall as if she knew something terrible was going to happen. She looked at me and said, 'You know I love you, right? More than anything?'
"And I replied, 'Yes, Mum. I love you, too.'
"'And you know I will always be there for you, no matter what?' she asked.
"I was starting to get confused, but I nodded and replied, 'Yes, Mum.'
"I remember she started to get this funny look on her face and just as the shopping center was announcing that it was ten minutes until closing, she pulled me in close and hugged me tightly, kissing the top of my head. 'I love you, ma chérie,' she said softly. 'Always and forever'. That was the last time she told me she loved me. The next morning, I woke up to a hand shaking my shoulder. It was my grandmother, and she looked terrified, more terrified than I have ever seen her. She was saying something about my parents, but I didn't understand." I shrugged. "I guess I didn't truly understand until their funeral."
I looked up and was surprised to find Tammy blinking tears from her brown eyes. When I cast her a questioning glance, she shook her head and glanced away. "That's... Mon Dieu. I'm so sorry that happened to you, baby," she finally said.
I sighed and took a shaking sip of my cappuccino. "There is not much I can do about it now. I don't have any regrets."
"That's good."
We sat in the coffee shop in absolute silence for the next half hour, only speaking when the waitress came by our table to drop off the receipt.
--End of Flashback--