Blue Jeans

1. James, Jean, and Janean

Airplanes suck. This was all I could think about as I walked into the nearest ladies room. I couldn't have peed on that plane if I tried. Not only was there a young, scrawny guy running to the bathroom every 2 minutes to throw up without a crowd, but the whole ride felt like a roller coaster. No wonder this guy kept throwing up, even I felt nauseous in those conditions.

After relieving myself, and washing my hands, I headed back out into the waiting area. After all, the officer who put me on the plane said my father would be waiting for me. I let out a sigh at the thought. Never did I imagine that this would be my situation, and that mom would be... I shook my head as I walked over to take a seat. No, I wouldn't think about it. Not here. Not now.

I let out another sigh as I slumped in the seat and pulled out my drum sticks. I began to drum a pattern in between my legs on the seat while I waited. Where is he?  I thought. It's not like I wanted to be here either. The more anxious I felt, the faster I began to drum. That is until I heard a voice.

"You know, the staff will be pissed if you break their chair."

My head snapped in the direction of the voice as my hands halted in their drumming. Stunned, I stared at the stranger next to me.

He was a handsome boy appearing to be around my age, maybe a bit older, with sable brown hair, and almond colored eyes. You could tell he was tall, even in his sitting position. And his shoulders were neither lean nor bulky, but somewhere in between. To top it all off he wore an amused smirk on his lips. I had to admit that he was attractive, but he was also far from my type and a complete nuisance as of the moment.

"What?" I asked, still a bit stunned. After reevaluating what he said I responded, "Excuse you? I'm not harming a damn thing."

To my dismay, the boy let out a chuckle. "Relax," he said, "I was only joking around."

"Sorry for your luck, but I'm not in the joking mood." I replied harshly. The boy raised his hands in surrender, "Hey, that's cool. But I do think your drumming was pretty alright."

"Pretty alright?"

"Well, yeah. You had that pattern down without even thinking. You'd give my friend Adam a run for his money."

My curiosity peaked, I asked, "Is your friend a drummer too?"

"Yeah, he's pretty good too. We all like to dick around from time to time."

I laughed, "So, what? You guys are like a band?"

This caused the boy to laugh as well, "No, no. Nothing like that. We just mess around and have fun."

"Well, when you say it like that it sounds like you two spend you spare time making a different kind of music." The boy staring at me for a moment before bursting out into laughter. "I like you." He stated. "I'm James."

Taking the hand the boy offered me and shaking it I answered, "Jean."

"Well, Jean, what are you doing sitting here anyway? You looked hella anxious before we started talking."

"Hella?" I questioned.

James rolled his eyes. "Just answer the question."

"I'm waiting to be picked up by my no-show dad. You?"

"Oh, just waiting for security to find my runaway sister."

"Runaway?"

"Yeah, she didn't exactly come here by choice, and now security can't find her anywhere. It also doesn't help that we have no idea what she looks like. All my dad has is a picture of her from when she was a kid that her mom sent to him through the mail. And I don't even have that with me."

"Damn, that's harsh. Are they split up?"

"Yeah, but it happened a long time ago. My dad fell head over heels for this girl, I was too young to remember, and got her knocked up. The girl's parents said it was best for them not to be involved, especially since my dad was moving back home soon. They didn't even want my dad to pay child support. They didn't want him involved at all. Said he was just a mistake."

I let out a low whistle. "Her parents sound harsh."

"Yeah. Plus I didn't help matters."

"What do you mean?"

"My sister's mom isn't my mom."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I'm the product of underage drinking at a high school party." I laughed. "I bet that is an interesting story."

"For your information, I'm a super interesting guy." I let out another laugh. "I bet you are. So, where's your sister from? Did she get off of my flight?"

"Probably," James answered, "She's from Seattle."

"Freaky. And you said she doesn't want to be here?"

"Yeah, her mom, the girl I was telling you about, died in a car accident a little over a week ago. Her grandparents apparently died years ago, so we're the only family she has left." I grew curious at his words. "What did you say her name was again?"

"Oh, I didn't. Her name is Janean. Why-" James cut himself off. "You?" he asked. I shrugged in response. I was just as surprised as he was.

Suddenly, James burst into laughter. "Oh, man," he started through his laughter. "We just wasted 20 minutes chatting like strangers!"

"Technically we are strangers," I pointed out.

"Well, congratulations! You just met your long lost brother!"

"But I didn't find you, you found me." James rolled his eyes at my statement. "It's a form of expression, buzzkill. And 'technically' we're not strangers anymore either." He made sure to put air quotes around 'technically' for an extra dramatic effect. I rolled my eyes back at him and answered, "Wow, what a drama queen." To my slight annoyance this only caused James to laugh and stand from his chair. "I like you. I'll go tell the front desk that I found you, and then we'll head out. And if my parking bill is expensive, I'm charging you."

"It's an airport, it's going to be expensive parking. That's a set up and you know it." James' reply was nothing more than a sly grin and a wink before he strode over towards the gate's service desk. I rolled my eyes once again as an attempt to look annoyed. Although, I couldn't help the smile that was lingering on my face.

I didn't know James, and James didn't know me. But just from the few minutes I spent speaking to him, I knew we would get along. He was humorous, charismatic, and seemingly carefree. He was just one of those lighthearted jokers who always livened up the room. My kind of person. And for the first time since I received the news that I would be forced to come here, the thought entered my mind that maybe coming here wasn't going to be so terrible.

...

Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of  Blue Jeans! Updates will be slow, but quality will remain above average. <3

I will greatly appreciate anyone who has a comment or vote to share.

Thank you for reading,
Jessica Alise