They both nodded in agreement, exchanging money. "Duh."
“You failed me, Flabs. Come on. I thought for fucking sure you’d tap into those marbles you call balls and not ditch us,” Mase huffed.
For one second I felt a little guilty for wanting to go sit with Sacha despite how reckless for my heart it was, but then I remembered. “Oh, right. Like that time you guys left me at that party to go mess around with those girls, and I had to walk home with Gordo in the middle of the night?”
Yeah, that had them shutting up.
"I hope you both get Ebola," I added with a laugh. It really wasn't that surprising that they'd made bets or that one of them was upset they’d lost. I used to make bets with Eli over the most random stuff. Like how Mom react to certain things. With our mom there were certain levels of anger: she'd rub her forehead if she was only a little mad, next she'd start slamming drawers, then she'd scream our full names out, or finally, if she was really mad—and this was only with Eli—she'd start crying, asking God out loud what she had done to deserve to get treated “like this.”
Sacha appeared a second later, sitting down in the empty seat next to mine and began talking to my brother about some band they really liked that had released an album that day. An hour passed by quickly. The next thing I knew, we were waiting in line to board the plane, and Sassy was asking Miles if he’d mind sitting with Eli and Gordo on the plane so I could take his seat. Miles was extremely laid-back, and he didn't seem to care about the change in seating arrangements.
Once onboard, the plane was the biggest one I'd ever seen. There were three sections with four seats in the middle and three seats on each other side. I just followed Sacha as he slipped into a window seat in the middle of the aircraft with me taking the middle. Carter waved before sitting with Mateo and Julian on the opposite side of the plane. I saw everyone else scatter into different rows.
A lady came and sat in the seat next to mine, telling Sacha and I hi.
Folding my hands into my lap, I turned my head to look at my seat buddy, who had his attention focused on me. “Is there anything else I should know about before the plane takes off?”
One smoky-colored eye went a little squinty. “Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Do you get nauseous on flights? Is little baby Sassy scared of flying and you’re going to need me to hold your hand or something?” I asked.
That beautiful mouth with its plumper bottom lip, pursed. He blinked. “Do you emasculate every man in your life?”
“Just the ones I like.”
He cracked a grin before reaching over to tug on the seat belt across my thighs. “All right, then.”
I opened to say something but before I could, the prerecorded flight attendant came over the speakers with emergency procedural information. She went on and on.
"I'm probably going to pass out soon," he warned me when the speech was over. He was already settling the little pillow into the space between his head and the paneling.
I nodded in agreement. I'd gotten up early to go buy last-minute things with Carter that morning and we'd walked around a lot. A nap was in demand. "If I snore, wake me up, okay?"
"No promises.” He smiled.
Sacha began telling me about how loud Julian could snore, and then I told him about how my dad used to keep us up all night because he sounded like a dirt bike. The plane took off at some point and sure enough, my eyelids started to droop in no time. The little pillow the airline had provided was smashed behind my head, and I remember giving Sacha a sleepy smile.
I passed out.
Who knows how long later, my legs started to feel a little weird and uncomfortable, so I opened my eyes to find that I wasn't sitting up. My upper body was draped over Sacha's lap; the only thing keeping me from being face-to-crotch with his humankolbasawas the pillow. My fingers were wedged underneath one of his thighs and something warm was resting on my neck. I wiggled one hand out to feel that his fingers were cupping my throat. He wasn't moving, which meant he was probably asleep too.
I wasn't going to overanalyze it. I would have done the same with my baboons. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
"Would you like anything else, sir?"
I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. The flight attendant was bent at the waist and leaning over the lady in the seat next to mine. Hell, I could have poked her forehead if I wanted to. But she didn't care about us; I don't even think she really saw the other passenger or me sitting there.
Her focus: Sacha.
Sacha, who had just woken up three minutes before and had a little bit of drool on the corners of his mouth while one cheek was pink and lined from the position he'd been in. His eyes were still heavy with sleep. After a four-hour nap, I'd woken up with a stiff back, neck and hips, and then shook his arm to get him up when I spotted the flight attendant coming down the aisle with a cart.
"No, thank you," he answered her with a slightly awkward smile on his face.
The woman, more than likely in her early or mid-thirties, stayed in that position a second longer than necessary before lowering her voice to sound… sultry. Yeah, she definitely sounded sultry. I didn’t even think it was possible to sound so sexy. "Are you sure? Anything else at all?"
I squeaked right before Sacha pinched my leg. "No thanks."
"Okay," she replied before sauntering off to the next row with her cart.
