Page 10 of All the way home

As he collapses into the nearest vacant seat, he texts Mara.

mara.

mara this is important do i look like a heterosexual

LOL

???

i mean

WHAT

you’ve sorta got a laissez-faire straight boy vibe going on

Excuse Me I Have What Now

in the like. damaged victorian way.

timothee chalamet-esque

i hate this and also you

no but that boy is a hot commodity!!!!

you should hear the girls at work talking about him & The Cheekbones™

the girls at work are not my primary demographic

The airport terminal is loud and chaotic. Zach’s pretty sure he can overhear snippets of a dozen different conversations, but they all blur together into a swirling mass of noise and chatter. Blinking rapidly in the strange and industrial brightness, he waits for Mara to answer him.

She doesn’t.

Zach wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans and glances over in Kieran’s direction and—oh God—he’s looking back over. Cheeks warm, Zach does his best to act like he was doing a thorough scan of the gate seating area, but the next thing his eyes land on is a couple practically sitting in the same seat and making out like they’re saying goodbye forever.

Fervently, Zach wishes for his headphones. Or, really, anything to distract him from the whole lost-bag-imminent-air-travel anxiety soup that’s sloshing around inside of him. It’s a minor miracle he keeps any sort of chill, considering all he has to distract himself with is his surroundings, and it’s not like the gate is particularly Zen. Behind him, a businessman takes four phone calls back-to-back at top volume, yelling into the receiver about a secretary named Cynthia, who is apparently a whole lot of things Zach wouldn’t repeat in polite company. When a very agitated parent shows up at the gate with three kids under five, Zach surrenders his seat, then snags one back when the loud businessman gets up to go to the bathroom.

It says on his boarding pass that they were supposed to board at 11:10.

It’s 11:24.

Chapter Four

Rena

“Where did you go?” Rena demands when Kieran sinks back into the seat next to her. “You can’t just leave.”

Helpless frustration threatens to overwhelm her. It’s not just that she’s desperate to keep track of where they all are, but being left alone with Lucas right now makes her nervous.

Kieran waves his water bottle at her, contents sloshing. “Hydration is essential, Reener-baneen—”

“What did I just say about that?”

Rolling his eyes, Kieran slouches lower into the chair, knee bouncing rapidly.

Rena examines him and the offending knee with narrowed eyes. He looks slightly put-out, and she doesn’t think it has anything to do with her sniping at him for the nickname. It might just be nerves, but she doesn’t think that’s all.

Lucas’s gaze sticks on the view through the window, eyes as gray as the cloudy sky. A furrow pinches his brow as he tracks a plane taxiing out to the runway. “That snow isn’t looking good.”