kindred

Chapter 23 : Family

"Addie, wake up" Someone shook Addie's shoulder. She didn't appreciate being woken up when it was still dark outside. 

"Go away" she mumbled, rolling onto her stomach to push her head into the pillow. 

"We've got to leave for the plane" That perked Addie up.

"Come on, just put a sweatshirt on over your pyjamas, you can sleep on the plane " Addie like that idea better than having to get fully dressed so she allowed Joe to wrestle a hoodie over his head. 

She trudged down the stairs behind her brother who was carrying her bag down the stairs. She flopped down next to James at the kitchen table, 

Like Addie, he looked like death. With his large bruise, tired eyes and unbrushed hair he looked like he had just been dragged from a street fight. Addie tucked into the breakfast infront of her, not paying any attention to what it was. More engrossed in eating it so that she could go back to sleep. 

Her pill box was slid across the table towards her, she emptied the handful of tablets into her hand and swallowed the medication quickly. 

She felt herself dozing of so quickly that she lay her head down on the table. She hoped everyone knew not to want free up, she was very grumpy without her sleep. 

Addie grumbled again when Riley woke her up. It felt like only minutes that she had been asleep but she knew it was longer from the lack of people in the kitchen. 

"Come on Addie, we're leaving." He grabbed her small hand in his and led her up to the main foyer. 

The outside was still dark, so Addie estimated it was still before 6 in the morning. Far too early for anyone bar birds to be awake she thought. 

As her bags were already packed into the car all she has too do was  scrambled into the back of one of them. 

And spotted Jackson across the courtyard putting his own bag in the back of the car. She offered him a small wave which she returned. 

They finally set off from the driveway, Addie snuggled into the blanket she had bought from her room. Next to her Elijah was also dozing off. Harry and Thomas were in the middle and a driver in the front. Harlan, Joe, Riley and James were in another car. 

Addie watched the another 2 cars following behind them. The drive to the airport wasn't too long, over half an hour. Unlike the regular customers they didn't have to wait at customs, in fact they got to drive right up onto their private air track.

She trailed after the brothers, clambering up the large metal staircases onto the plane. It was clearly a private jet, with premium leather seats, TV's, multiple bathrooms and many more things. She guessed it was the same as the one she had arrived in American with Harlan 

She had sat stiff for the duration of her first flights, on edge about the new man near her and uncertain about her family. Now, however, she could properly relax. 

It was such a contrast, the same plane almost two months earlier, but such different feelings and people around her. 

She and James curled up under blankets on the leather seats next to each other. They both watched a new release film on the TV as they sipped on identical milkshakes. Addie thought James was remarkably calm, the only time he wasn't bouncing off the walls was in the early morning. 

The familiar lurching of her stomach arrived, this was the part she hated about her two plane journeys. The vomiting from travel sickness. 

She crashed into Joe who was walking down the aisle, dodging under his arm and collapsing into the bathroom.