The Cole Brothers

The trials and tribulations of an airport

POV Alex

If you thought that Travis on a normal day trying to get somewhere was bad, you've never met Airport Travis. It's not even like he had grown to be this way after becoming our guardian- no, he was always a lunatic about the airport, even when we were young. Travis and my dad were basically a tag team when it came to flying with the family. Dad would hold everyone's documents and Travis would keep track on the time and our gate. Travis is basically a carbon copy of our dad. We have only flown once since our parents died and Travis was even worse, mostly because he had to keep up with everything. I know to stay in my lane and do exactly as he says on airport days.

It's 7 a.m. and everyone is already up and dressed, sitting in the living room. Our flight doesn't leave until 1 p.m., granted it does take around a hour and 45 minutes for us to get to the nearest airport. Our luggage is waiting for us by the door, which might I add Travis made us do last night. Brad is scrolling on his phone in the love seat, yawning every five minutes. Even he knows not to mess around on airport days. Dylan is in the kitchen watching the toaster intensely, as if it might run away, after he put his cinnamon toaster sticks in. I'm laying across the couch, resting. I'm careful enough not to fall asleep, though. Travis is outside checking the tires and oil in his truck. I'm starting to catch Brad's yawns and the throw blanket over the back of the couch is looking real nice considering it's freezing in the house this morning. I decide it won't hurt if I cuddle up with it for a few minutes. I bring the blanket up to my chin and try to stay awake by watching videos on my phone. Eventually my eyes get so heavy that I can't hardly keep them open and not even the constant scrolling can keep me awake. Maybe it'll be fine if I just close them for a few minutes. I lock my phone and rest my eyes.

"Ow!" I grab my shoulder and open my eyes to see Travis standing over me. I take a quick glance around and my other brothers are gone presumably out the front door as it's wide open. The luggage is gone, too. I'm suddenly yanked up by my collar, fumbling to a standing position.

"We don't have all day, twerp, you need to be in the truck in 2 minutes." He says sharply, releasing me. He walks out the door not even waiting on a response. I groan, stretch, and then snap back to reality. I snatch my backpack off the floor where it was laying in front of the couch and I also grab the throw pillow and blanket I was using in the hopes of taking another nap in the truck.

I walk out into the bright sunlight that is immediately blinding. My eyes ache and I have to use my hand as a shield while squinting. As I cross the front of the truck to get to the drivers side, Travis honks the horn making me jump a little. I look through the windshield and him and Dylan are both laughing. I roll my eyes and climb into the truck.

"We're so honored that you finally joined us, sleeping beauty." Dylan says looking back at me with a grin. Dylan has always been a morning person. I didn't give him a reaction, honestly I physically can't. I am still half asleep. I situate my backpack at my feet and try my hardest to get comfortable again, setting my throw pillow against the window and covering up. I see that Brad has the same idea as he's already passed out, but minus the blanket and pillow. I lay my head against the window, close my eyes, and it's almost instant.

The beeping that signals the open truck doors wakes me up. I flutter my eyes open to see everyone gathering their things in the truck. I quickly gather myself and start to mimic them. "Everybody have headphones?" Travis asks, 'yes' echoes through the truck as everyone signals that they have theirs. "Everyone have a charger?" The same answer. "Everyone have their wallet?" Same answer. Travis looks at Dylan and says "ID?" Dylan pulls out his real and fake ID to show Trav. He just nods and opens up his folder of documents. He has our guardianship papers and birth certificates all neatly organized. And he calls me a nerd.