Friday, January 17, 2020

"But honestly, this is so weird." Lindsey shook her head as we strapped into our seats on the plane. I was yawning loudly the entire time, and there was no way that I was going to listen to her continue to ramble about how amazing airports were and how much she wished she had been on one before this point in her life.

"Linds, I love you to pieces, but please shut up about the plane." Leslie finally said as she pulled out her book, "I am absolutely terrified of heights and would like to forget that I'm even on a plane right now."

"I'm sorry, I forgot." Lindsey replied, "I'll shut up about it."

After a few seconds of silence as the three of us gathered our phones, chargers, earbuds, books, and laptops together on our laps, I felt both of them turn towards me. This was also the exact moment that I realized how stupid I had been to sit in the middle of the three-person row.

"So are you nervous about seeing Brenden?" Lindsey was the first to speak. "I mean, it must be really weird to have to go and see him, of all people."

"Honestly Linds, I'm just trying not to think about it, and especially not at 7:00 in the morning." I settled back into my seat, closing my eyes as the seatbelt light went on above my head. "I just want to sleep through this flight and pray that I won't have to see his face at all."

"Oh come on, Ar, that's just not realistic." Leslie's voice came from my left. "He's probably on the welcoming committee or something, you know how obsessed he is with you! He's going to do everything he possibly can to see you as soon as possible."

I opened my eyes as turned towards her.

"And that is why I need you two to try and keep me as far away from him as possible, at least for the first few days. I don't want him distracting me from the reason I'm there."

"Of course." Lindsey said as Leslie nodded. "We will be right by your side the entire time." She took out her phone. "Now, let me get in one last tweet before the plane takes off!"

Leslie rolled her eyes as she exited out of Twitter and turned her phone on airplane mode.

"You and Jaime are unnaturally adorable. Why do I envy the relationship of two people who I never thought would get together in a million years?"

Lindsey blushed.

"Honestly, I'm surprised it ended up happening. It took a while to get going with it, since you both know I was crushing on him for what felt like ages—"

"It was like a month, Linds." I interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Lindsey waved her hand in dismissal. "But I mean, it's just not something that I thought would actually end up happening. I thought for sure that it would mess up our friendship and the friendship in our group in general, but it looks like it hasn't so far." She shrugged. "He's just super nice to me, and super understanding of everything, which is totally bizarre and different from how I'm used to guys treating me."

Leslie leaned over to me and whispered quietly.

"This is why I can't have a relationship. I don't want to turn into a sap."

"I can hear you, Les."

"I never said you couldn't!"

***

"Time differences will always mess me up." Lindsey complained as our flight neared its third hour. "I don't think that that makes any sense whatsoever. Why can't our whole country just have the same time?"

"It has to do with daylight I think." Leslie replied, taking off her headphones and biting into what had to be her fifth granola bar. "Like, do you really want it to be dark at 4:00 every afternoon? Or light at 3 AM?"

"I don't think that would happen." Lindsey snapped.

"Well I don't think you've thought your comment through." Leslie quipped before pushing her headphones back on her head and bopping to whatever rap music she had been listening to for most of the flight.

"I swear if you two are like this for the remainder of the trip I'm going to die." I told Lindsey. "Do you know who's rooming with who?"

"Nope." Lindsey replied. "I put in a request to room with both of you, so I don't know which one they're going to choose. I don't even know if there are more than two girls per room."

I nodded.

"Alright. As long as I don't end up with some random person, I'll be fine."

"I'm sure you'll be great either way. You're always so friendly to other people." Lindsey assured me. "I mean, how could anyone not like you?"

I looked at my best friend suspiciously.

"You didn't request to room with me, did you?"

"No." Lindsey put her head down. "I didn't mean to leave your name off, but I figured that Leslie had already put me down and if I put her down then I would have her for sure and not be stuck with someone I didn't know!"

I turned away and opened my phone.

"It's fine, Linds. Honestly. I'll probably be in your room more than mine anyways."

"Oh good." She looked relieved. "How much longer until we're there?"

I checked my watch.

"About 50 minutes. Think you and Les can make it without bickering?"

Lindsey laughed half-heartedly.

"I'll try."

A/N: Sorry I didn't update on Wednesday! I was kind of on a roll with writing like five chapters of Recalling Lincoln Carter in a row (Speaking of which, GO CHECK IT OUT!) and I forgot about Love, Aria, so I am so sorry! But here you go, first chapter of Part Two!!

Also, whoever made the trailer for Dear Sydney that I put at the beginning of the chapter, PLEASE message me privately and tell me how you did the thing at the beginning, because I absolutely love it and love the trailer as a whole and I would love to do that in future trailers! (Or in redoing my current one for Dear Sydney, since I kind of hate it whoops)

For now, make sure to check out Recalling Lincoln Carter, THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE WATTY AWARD!!!, and I will try my hardest to get another update up on Wednesday, but it's tech week for the school musical and I'm playing violin in the pit orchestra, so it's gonna be a hectic week!

As always, make sure to comment, vote, and let me know what you want to happen next!! I love you guys!

-Katherine