Sing a Song of Cloud 9

9:22 AM, Portland International Airport, Flight 123

Today is the big day.

I'd marked my calendar, counting days off one by one. This was the day when I was going to meet my boyfriend Parker for the first time in 2 years. Excited? Not really. I dreaded this day, because today Evangeline Grant is going to break up with Parker O'Malley.

I boarded the plane, and proceeded to sit in the back part of the empty business class. Alone.

Not that I was complaining, I needed to stretch out a bit and I got the window seat either way. I raised the window cover, the rain masking the sun. My grandpa always said, “It’s sunshine in Oregon!” and I remembered his jolly voice booming throughout the room. And then, he would take me to the window, and point to a cloud. While the other clouds were dark, that one piece of cloud would remain white. Pure. "That, little Eve, is Cloud 9. It's a wonderful place. You'll reach it if you do good things." After that, he would kiss my forehead and sing a song about Cloud 9. "Cloud niiiiine, darling, let's sing a song of cloud niiiine."

Of course, I didn't know what the sense of that song was. But he encouraged me to do sing it everytime I felt down. He said that a hero would come if I sing it. I never did.

My grandpa was the one who introduced me to Parker. Parker was his friend’s grandson. His friend, I used to call him Ray, took care of Parker since his parents died of a car crash, then moved back here from California because, in his own words, “Nothing can beat the sunshine in Oregon!” But they can’t fool me, I knew he just wanted to up-and-leave California because sometimes, painful memories needed to be left behind.

Parker was an enigma, there was something curious about him besides his electric blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair (He hated calling it strawberry. According to him, it wasn’t manly.). It was something about how he was still pieced together, even though so many things happened to him. Even up to now, I still admired him greatly. It was still difficult for me to believe that I was going to break up with him.

It came to me while we were talking over the phone, he was saying random things about how his life in the university is, how great the food is. It came to me in a Eureka! moment, like a light bulb flashing, that this wasn’t working anymore.

How could I have thought it would work out?, I thought to myself. Long distance relationships rarely work, Now maybe I can be a statistic. I smiled a little bit, in a peaceful but brief moment.

My thoughts were interrupted by someone sitting beside me. Oh great, so much for sitting alone. I continued looking out the window.

“Hello there, miss.”  Oh great, he was the talkative type.

I muttered a “hi” before getting a magazine from the back of the seat in front of me.

“So, why are you going to California?”

Irritated, I turned to him and in a cliché moment, felt my jaw drop as I stared at a gorgeous face. He was... wow.  He had shocking green eyes and raven black hair that fell on his slightly tanned skin.  He was wearing a navy blue hoodie and denim jeans.

“W-what’s it to you?” I decided to put on a tough façade. Good-looking types are usually no good.

“Just making conversation with the one I’m going to be sitting with for,” He looked at his watch. “2 hours and 30 minutes.” He flashed me a smile that showed off his pearly whites.

“Err…” I looked down, picking at the seatbelt. “I’m just visiting my boyfriend. You know, the usual stuff.”

He laughed. I felt jealous as I compared my horrible pig-snort laughter to his. Mental note, don’t laugh in front of him.