but the wait will be worth it

chapter twelve

It was pretty chaotic, rushing everyone into the airport while constantly being overwhelmed with fans. After getting on the plane, we all took our seats in first class. MacHeath said that soon we would start taking private jets, but until we made enough money for that, regular planes would do.

I took a seat next to Niall, as Liam, Zayn, and Louis sat together in front of us.

Niall leaned his body towards me. "Hey Harry, wanna watch a movie with me? It's gonna be a long flight."

I paused before shaking my head. "Nah, thanks, but I'm okay, Niall. Think I'm just gonna listen to music for a bit."

"Suit yourself," he said before putting headphones in.

I was sitting by the window, and could hear the plane beginning to take off. I subtly stole a glance at Louis in the seat in front of me. He was plugging his ears, due to the loud noises coming from the plane as it took off into the air. I smiled shyly to myself while looking down.

I hoped that Louis would be okay, he was always afraid of flying. Every time we would fly together with One Direction, I would sit next to him. He would quickly grab my hand and squeeze it, the whole time until the plan landed. I hoped he had a hand to hold during this flight.

I placed headphones into my ears, connecting to my iPod. I clicked on the top song, which happened to be an Oasis song. Shit.

Any reminder of Louis right now would bring me to tears.

I quickly skipped the song, which caused a Rolling Stones one to play. I guess that would be okay. While leaning my head back to the chair, I calmly gazed out of the window while the music played loudly into my ears.

This went on for about five minutes, until I noticed that the plane had entered high into the sky. There were fluffy white clouds all around us, as the ground could no longer be seen.

I looked ahead of me at Louis, who was anxiously tapping his fingers and leg against the chair. I didn't want to say anything; something small would only lead to something bigger. I did not want to switch seats with Zayn or Liam, either, as that would just bring me closer to him.

But his eyes— he looked so worried and nervous, apprehensively squirming around in his seat. A bundle of unease began to build up in my stomach, as I continued back to my listening to music and staring out the window.

After a few minutes of watching him, I hastily yanked out my earbuds and sat the iPod back in my bag. I leaned over and tapped Louis' shoulder.

"Hey, are you doing okay," I kindly whispered to him, watching as Liam gave me a frown.

Louis turned around with a blank expression. "Mhm," he mumbled and turned back to his tapping and trembling.

I reached over once more and lightly stroked his arm. "Louis, I know how you feel about planes. Here, I packed some paper and coloring pencils just in case you felt anxious.... I know that normally makes you feel better. So here," I said quietly with a dry tone. I held out the notebook and drawing tools.

He smiled back at me; that sunshine smile that I had missed. Taking the objects, he gently set them on his lap and began to draw.

"Thank you," he whispered.

I smiled and put my headphones back in. Again, I focused my eyes on the clouds. Occasionally, I would peer over Louis' seat to glance at what he had been drawing. He seemed to be creating a picture of bright flowers surrounding a red heart. The sweet, kid-like drawing made me smile to myself.

The songs played continuously through my iPod.

We had 13 hours ahead of us. I really hoped Louis would hold up fine with no hand to grasp on to.