COMPLETED
All 16 year old Avianna Moorson wanted was an easy flight to sandy and beautiful Australia. No talking, no company and no distractions. But what happens, when the person forced to sit next to her leaves her at a loss for words?
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Hour Twenty Three
She piled her bags onto her suitcase upon reaching the airport terminal. An incoming text from her sister proved she'd be here for awhile.
Her hand grazed her forehead and she slumped on the ground with boredom. What was she supposed to do for an hour? Play mindless games on her cellphone?
No thanks.
Without haste, she reached into her carry-on, panic rising inside her. "No, no, no. Where is it?"
She let the suitcase fall to the ground, sleuthing and scrambling in every pocket, unzipping every nook and cranny. "It has to be here!"
Tears pricked along her lashline and one fell.
She had lost it.
She had lost her sketchbook.
Half of her, wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, the other half prompted her to buy a new one. Sure, she could do that but it wasn't about the actual book itself--it was what was inside it.
Not only the picture that she avidly denied was Logan, but all of her hopes, desires and dreams and to think that someone had it, was probably invading her privacy at this very moment, having access to her private thoughts, left her with anxiety.
Anxiety that she hadn't felt in a long time.
All she wanted now was to be safe, to have back those last moments when she was in control. It floated away like a tumbleweed sailing through the desert breeze.
~~~~~
The rest of the flight was a short one. All Logan had to do was sit back and enjoy sounds of music. His aviophobia was less daunting this time around. It was still there, just not as prominent.
Maybe it was because she had turned it off.
Like a light, she silenced the nagging voice in the back of his head, and replaced it with giggles, jokes, sarcastic remarks, arguments about pineapples on pizza and things of that sort.
She wasn't an angel.
She was her.
And he liked her.
He wrapped his knuckles around the suitcase handle and pressed on, hopefully he wasn't too late. Passing a gift shop and a luggage store (the irony), he heard crying.
It was familiar, like he'd heard it before.
No, it couldn't be. She was happy the last time he's seen her. She was munching on pretzels the same way he devoured cake.
Groaning, he followed the noise. He was surprised to hear sobs from a stack full of red suitcases.
"Never knew suitcases could cry," he leaned against one, crossing his legs. Looking down he spotted her and extended his hand.
"Are you always this sarcastic?" she asked while taking his hand and using the free one to wipe her face.
"Only around you. Now why are you crying?"
"It's nothing."
"That's not true."
"It's nothing."
"You know doing nothing is actually doing something," he folded his arms. "So by that logic, something is bothering you. You can tell me, or we can just stay here whatever you want to do."
"I lost my sketchbook."
"Your sketchbook?"
"Yeah."
"Geez, that's gotta be tough. If anything happened to my headphones I don't know what I'd do."
"So you see my dilemma?"
"Clear as day. So what do you want to do about it?"
"I don't know. I want to go look for it but the only place it would be is on the plane since that's the last place I had it."
"Fine let's go look," he grabbed her things. Even if it was just empty hope, it would give him more time to talk to her.
When they reached the desk, Logan spoke up. "Avianna, I need to talk to you--"
"Not now," she waved a hand. Looking at the man behind the desk who glanced up momentarily from writing on a piece of paper, she gave him a fake smile.
"What can I help you two with today?" the man spoke, with a cheery tone and kind eyes. His moustache wiggled when he talked which Avianna found funny.
"Sir, I might have left something really important on the plane that we were just on. We landed at this exact spot and I need just a minute to check if it's there."
"Just a minute?" he studied the sincerity on her face then sighed.
"And not a second longer," she answered, squeezing Logan's hand.
"Alright, you can check for just a minute. Now hurry before I get fired," he shooed them in, carefully guarding the door and looking to see if anybody was watching.
She ran down both the blue aisles, adrenaline racing through her. "Logan aren't you going to help me look?"
Her head was beneath a seat at this point, while her charm bracelet on her arm touched the carpet.
"I just wanted to say I overreacted," he scratched his shoulder.
"Apologizing isn't going to bring my sketchbook back now is it?"
Yikes, next time take the dagger out before you stab him again.
"No," he began to walk off. "But then again...never mind."
"Are you really leaving me when I need you the most?" she bit her lip.
"So now you care? How about all of those times when I was trying to tell you something and you just pushed me away? You've done it several times in the last ten minutes."
"I'm sorry. When I'm stressed I yell at everything within an earshot of me, even you. This book means the world to me and if I don't find it again...."
She didn't want to think about it.
"That's still no excuse."
His footsteps receded as the door closed behind him.
She scanned the entire area for what was the longest minute of her life. It was nowhere to be found.
Someone had taken it.
Author's note
Three chapters in one day wow. I'm so excited for you guys to read the rest of the chapters.
If you had the chance to go to an amusement park, what's the first thing you would do?
Avianna: Play games of course. Who wants to go on rides when there's so much games?
