"I can look away."
“I don’t care whether or not I can see out of the window.”
Our bodies were tilted back as the plane sped up and the suddenness of it caught me off guard. Javier gripped onto the armrest with a gulp as I realized we were going into the air.
Alright, now I did want to look out of the window. We had been moving for some time so we had to have been at least a little high in the air. Luckily, the person in front of me had their window open. I leaned forward to get a better view and I watched as the building below us turned into little specs.
Relaxing against the seat, I turned to Javier who was trying to act unfazed by it all. His gaze was fixated on the seat in front of him and I believe he was humming to himself. It was hard to hear because of the loud motor of the plane in my ears.
I leaned over the armrest and spoke close to his ear, a playful smile on my face. "Do you want to hold my hand?"
Javi wasted no time putting his hand into mine and we kept them together the entire ride up. I occasionally poked my head forward to see through the window to take in the fact that we really were above the clouds. It was just as cool as I imagined it to be.
The plane was not quiet. Our classmates were loud, and that was saying something because the noise of the plane was obnoxiously loud. I knew the regular people on the plane were peeved.
I leaned my head back and shut my eyes as I put in earbuds to drown out the sound of the hyper passengers on the plane. The vibrations of the plane were soothing, but I wasn't sure that it would put me to sleep. It couldn’t hurt to try, though.
Much to my surprise, I did fall asleep. I knew I had because I woke up with my head resting against Javier's shoulder. He was watching the tiny screen on the back of the seat in front of us, but he noticed when I stirred awake.
"How much time do we have left?" I asked groggily.
"Thirty minutes," he said as his hand gave my hand a tight squeeze. "You slept most of it."
The sound of someone clearing their throat pulled us from the conversation. Standing before us was Diane, a gentle smile on her face.
"Hi Javier," she spoke hesitantly. "And Eli."
"Hey, how are you?" Javier asked her kindly. I settled for a wave.
Diane moved out of the way as someone tried to pass her. "Decent, excited, all that. You?"
"Good."
We waited for her to continue her thoughts because surely she had a reason for standing in front of us. She gripped onto the armrest of the empty seat next to us.
"Totally tell me if this is super weird to ask, but can I sit next to you guys?" she asked quickly. "I made the mistake of sitting with Poppy instead of Justin. Now Poppy and Logan have been flirting the entire time and I'm gagging, so I need to move. There are no empty seats around Justin, and no one wants to trade with me. This is the only empty seat I can find."
"Uh…." Javi looked to me for permission.
I shrugged. Who was I to tell him no? If he wanted her to sit there, then he should let her. She was asking him, not me. I would not lie and say that it was not slightly odd to have his ex next to us for the rest of the ride. However, if he was okay with it then I was too.
Javier nodded unsurely and Diane took the opportunity to take her seat.
"Thanks," she chirped as she sat down. "I've been suffering for an hour and a half. It's been brutal."
Diane and Javier fell into chatter about something. I was trying to listen at first but there was an uncomfortable tension in the back of my head so I shut my eyes to see if I could sleep the rest of the way. They needed to catch up, anyway. They used to be really close, after all.
My eyes were only shut for a couple of minutes until Javi’s finger poking me in the shoulder opened them. He was standing in the aisle. "I'm going to the restroom, okay?"
Javier moved toward the back of the plane and left Diane and me. We made eye contact and she forced an awkward smile. I returned it as sweetly as I could. Great, now the atmosphere between us felt uneasy. It was fine when Javi was between us to act as a buffer, but his absence made things more blatant. I closed my eyes again, but it was not long before she spoke.
"You weren't in school all week," she stated.
Why did everyone feel the need to comment on that? “That’s right.”
Her head hung low as she stared at her hands in her lap. "I hope I haven’t come across as stuck up or… intruding at all this year. I promise I'm not."
Hm, that was not what I was expecting.
