I fluttered my eyes open to reveal the back of the plane seat. A part of me was disappointed, that meant the flight wasn't over yet. I was sitting straight up with Sheldon still dead asleep on my lap. One of my arms around had a waist and I quickly pulled it away. I looked over at Leonard to see him playing 2048 on his phone. I tapped him on the shoulder, still half asleep.
"Huh?" Leonard asked as he pulled out an earbud.
I rubbed my eyes and yawned before responding.
"How long do we have yet?"
"I dunno maybe 2 hours?" He guessed.
I sighed. This was going slow.
"Did the snack cart go by yet?" I asked hopefully.
"Yea, like an hour ago," Leonard said looking down at his phone.
I sighed again. I could watch a movie but I knew I should get some sleep so I could walk through the airport.
"So? What's with this??" Leonard smirked as he waved his hands around Sheldon on my lap and putting down his phone.
"Not what you're thinking I know for sure!" I said not amused.
"Mhmm," Leonard said as he put in an earbud and went back to his game.
I looked back down at Sheldon sleeping peacefully. I smiled and rubbed his back softly. The rise and fall of his chest put me in some kind of trance and I stared at it for a while.
Wow...what's happening to you, Natalie? I asked myself.
I laid my head back again to try to go to sleep. My heart thought of many things, while my mind drifted elsewhere...
——————————————————
"Natalie??"
"Yes, mother?"
"What on earth are you doing?"
"Playing ponies mother!" Says 6-year-old Natalie.
"Well stop that. You look ridiculous prancing around like that. You have work to do. Come work on your study notes. Today's lesson is the Revolutionary War and it's generals."
"But mother..."
"But nothing Natalie, come and sit."
"No," Natalie said walking off.
Her mother shoots up and runs after her. She grabs her by the arm and yanks her to the table.
"Read. Right now." Her mother warns.
Natalie sits there with crossed arms as a tear slips down her face.
"I don't want too. I did this yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that." She whimpers.
"And have you memorized it yet?"
Natalie knows the answer but remains silent.
"HAVE YOU?!" Her mother raises her voice.
"No mother..."
"Than get to it, right now."
"Where's father?" Natalie asks quietly.
"He's around."
"Around where?"
"Don't you stall me, little girl. Read."
Natalie lowers her head and mutters, "mother I would rather die than live this life."
"What did you say?" Her mother hisses.
"I said I'd rather die than live this life. Then to learn the same things every day because I haven't learned good enough. To be forced to be intellectually advanced even though I'm in first grade. To have to stay here every day doing the same thing and being threatened if I don't. Then to have to be homeschooled because I'm "too good" for regular school." Natalie finishes with her head now raised.
"You make my life miserable mother." She says as confident as ever, through gritted teeth.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY LITTLE BRAT!" Her mother says, letting year's worth of anger go.
She yanks Natalie up and slaps her across the face. Natalie screams and runs to her room where she collapses on her small bed. Tears stream down her face as she knows this isn't the way for a poor child to live.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
I woke with a jerk of my body and my eyes shot open. I realized I was breathing quick and my heart rate was up. That dream got me every time. It pretty much summed up my childhood. Each day my mother would tell me to come to my studies and I would either cooperate or refuse. If I cooperated I would end up doing the same thing as the day before and if I didn't I was threatened or slapped or sent to my room. It always resulted in my misery. All the unexplained bruises or the neighbors coming over, asking if everything was alright because they had heard my screams or my mother blaming my father's absence on me it all came back like it was yesterday. I closed my eyes again and let the sadness flow over me for a few seconds. I then opened my eyes and let it all leave my mindscape. This is something I did often. I let the problem at hand overcome me for a few seconds then pushed it out of my mind and made myself forget it.
Suddenly I realized I was lying down. I let my eyes wander and I recognized the plane setting which also meant the flight wasn't over. I slightly sighed and looked up. I was on someone's lap.
"Oh hey, you're up!"
It was Sheldon's voice. He looked down at me this time. I sat up and looked at him in confusion.
"Why was I on your lap?" I asked.
"Well, once I woke up I realized you were now asleep so I tried to be quiet. I kept an aa close watch on you and for some reason, you started crying and squirming in your sleep. I thought that seemed irregular so I asked Leonard what to do and he said to put your head on my lap to comfort you. So I did. And yet here we are!" Sheldon said with a smile.
I was crying? How embarrassing. Damn it Why was I like this? It was sweet of him to do that for me.
"Thanks, Sheldon that was sweet of you," I said.
His cheeks turned cherry red and I swear I saw a sparkle in his eye.
Natalie no-no-no. This isn't a Hallmark movie. Get your head out of the clouds. My mind warned me.
It seemed it was a constant battle. I wanting to branch out a bit and explore this weird emotion called love but my mind keeping me in line. From the start I wanted to stay away from all that, Why was it so hard??
"Yea Leonard also told me to wipe the tears from your face but I had him do that because that's just weird."
I laughed and looked over at Leonard who was still engulfed in his game.
"How long was I asleep?" I asked Sheldon, hoping it was over an hour and a half.
Before he could answer the overhead speaker announced to the plane,
"Attention passengers, please fasten your seatbelts as we are about to start the landing process. Keep all electronic devices on airplane mode and prepare for landing."
I was happy to hear that. The flight was much longer feeling than I thought.
"Ok, that answers my question," I told Sheldon.
He nodded. We all gathered our personal items and soon the plane was on the ground. The announcer welcomed us to Fort Meyers, Florida and told us the weather and time. After we got out of the plane we went straight to car rentals and rented a minivan to get us around. The only thing now was, where would we have to drive?
"Oh god, Leonard! I forgot to book us a hotel room!!" I groaned from the backseat of the van.
"Aw damn it. Look it up quick before Sheldon gets crabbier! I'm not dealing with him." Leonard grumbled.
I looked through my phone and quickly found the nearest comfort in. With such short notice, there wasn't much left.
"Leonard all there is is a two-bedroom one-bathroom room. Is that alright? I'm sorry I totally forgot to look into it." I sighed.
"It's good. Yea that sounds alright, two of us will just have to share a bed." Said Leonard.
"It really doesn't matter to me. Well actually it does but I'll say it doesn't because it's my fault we have to share in the first place."
"Ok then, well we can just figure it out when we get there."
"Sounds good."
I put in the location of the hotel in my Google Maps and handed it to Leonard.
"Is this your first time here?" I asked him.
"No, I was here once before, what about you?"
I crossed my legs and sunk back into the seat. My back slipped down the clean black leather seats.
"Well yes. A few times in high school when I was escaping my mother my friends and I would go. Other than that the only other times were nonvacation related." I answered.
"Oh cool," Leonard said.
That was all that was said on the car ride to the hotel. I was pretty sure Sheldon was either asleep in the passenger's seat or close. He sure likes to sleep. Meanwhile, I looked out my window at the Florida night sky. I picked up my phone to check the time and it read, 1:45 a.m. Despite the time, the city was very much alive.
Lights and cars lined the roads and clubs and bars were plenty full. I could see the faint outlines of tall palm trees lining the roads and pretty much everywhere else and I smiled at the familiar setting. I missed Florida, it was one of my top favorite places on earth.
When we got onto the highway everything started to speed up. The lights and cars seemed to blur together and my eyelids threatened to close. I took one last glance out my window and took a deep breath in as I appreciated all that has happened to me so suddenly in the past few days. One minute I'm moving to California from Wisconsin the next I'm hit by a car with a supposed broken rib and in Florida with guys I haven't know for even a week!
Author- OMFG GUYS THANKS SO MUCH FOR 104 VIEWS!! I'm so so excited to reach this and I'm so thankful for everyone who has read this. I hope you all like it and continue to read. Thanks for everything and yea I just wanted to say that!! -Chloe :))