URIAH

Partying

make sure you read the AN

Chapter 11

"Well, you look cute when you have drool all over you." I recognize Nathan's voice.

"Ew," someone mocks; probably Portia. "Stop flirting."

I push myself up and force my eyes open. I'm greeted by Portia on my left with a neck pillow and Nathan on my right staring me down. What a view. I decide to ignore them and look out the plane window, but I am once again greeted by a great view. A window shade.

"You guys are really mean," I mumble as I sheepishly wipe the drool off the bottom of my cheek. I notice something odd with my hands as I bring it down. My wrist has slimmed down a lot. I look at my arm in general and notice its thinner figure. I wonder if it's the constant moving around or the stress that's causing the weight loss. I haven't been training that much though. Then again, I haven't payed much attention to my body's changes since I've started training. This might be just my late notice. Then again, I don't miss changes or detail.

I shake my head at the constant "if"s and "then again"s in my head.

"You okay?" Nathan asks.

"Superb," I reply dryly before cracking a laugh. "I'm fine. Defense mechanism, remember? The sarcasm?" I question waiting to see if he follows.

"Right," he simply says. I guess he wasn't following.

I think of telling myself a story. Instead, I just play out scenes in my head of me telling about this journey to people around me.

I plug in my earphones and I try to forget that there are still 5 hours left until we land in Colombia.

***

"Nathan, wake up. Please, babe." I shake him, but he won't move. This nightmare must really be bad. I put water on my hands and grab his face. I get closer and whisper in his ear. "Nathan, wake up. It's a dream. It's just a dream. Wake up. Wake up." He jolts to the side before opening his eyes slowly.

"It was a dream, right?" he mumbles.

"Yeah, babe. The plane just landed. We have to get off now."

He sits up straight and looks around. "Did anyone see me?"

"No, I was pretty subtle about it. I even sent Portia off. She still has the bracelet on, so..."

He nods mostly to himself. I hate seeing him like this. Yet I know, at the bottom of my heart, if I would see a character in this situation in a book or a movie, if I had not known Nathan and had seen him now, I would be strangely attracted and intrigued by him. I know his situation now so there isn't a mystery pulling me in, but there's his ability to feel that never stops being attractive and amazing to me. I wrap my right arm around him and use the left to pull his carry-on out of the upper compartment.

"I got it," he says. He takes the carry-on and leads himself in front of me. I grab the jacket he forgot on his seat and follow him.

All three of us walk quickly down the boarding tunnel and past baggage claim. We get to the entrance in under 15 minutes and start our search for a taxi. When I turn around to look for one behind me, I notice a beautiful black BMW with a driver in a black suit standing in front of it holding a paper. It reads Walters.

I hit Nathan's elbow and show him the car by a tilt of the head.

"You think it's Rodrigo?" he asks. "He had to have used his Van Walters identity."

"It has to be."

We show Portia the car and we hesitantly make our way towards the it. The driver nods at us as if recognizing us and opens the back door. We slide in the back seats and he takes care of our baggage without saying a word.