one of them - j.flatters

v. clouding thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2017 - IN THE SKY
"I really don't like flying." Bailey groaned, her eyes firmly closed and her hands gripped to the armrest of the seat, her fingernails scratching the fabric. "Is my safety belt too loose?" She turned her panicked face to her friend, Eliana chuckled. "Is my safety belt okay?" Bailey's question flickered to the flight attendant who was passing in the airplane's alley.

"You only have to wear it when the light is on, darling." The woman smiled, nor answering the curly haired girl's question or even reassuring her worries.

"Can we have two cups of water, please." Eliana gently asked, redirecting her attention to Bailey as soon as the stewardess had left. As she figured that her friend was inconsolable, Eliana got up from her seat and reached her bag that had been secured in the compartment above them, putting it on her laps and looking for Bailey's panic remedy. "B, just sleep it off." Eliana cut the sleeping pill in half with her fingernails, the flight attendant arriving with their water, on cue. Eliana thanked her and handed both the half pill and water to a frowned Bailey. "It's going to be fine." The girl hesitantly grabbed the solution to her worriedness.

"And you'll wake me. I don't want to miss Pandora." Bailey asked, causing Eliana to nod, a slight amused smile on her lips yet it convinced the girl to swallow the pill and chugged it down with water. It took Bailey almost a full ten minutes before snores echoed in their private double stall, her head dropping onto Eliana's shoulder. The Martin girl checked the time on the screen before her, they were halfway through the trip, two hours away from Orlando, Florida where they had been invited to visit the new Avatar themed park. For the whole week, it was the only thing the young cast could talk about, their first interview and it was at Disney. Eliana couldn't seem to grasp the fact that tomorrow, the whole world will know about her, strongly awaiting for the movie she was working on. The nerves agitating both her mind and body. The more she thought about it, the more the weight on her chest felt heavier. Eliana looked one more time at the serenity on Bailey's face before gently lifting her head and placing it on the window's side. The girl got up from her seat, she thought that stretching her legs might help so she walked along the aisle until she reached her mother's stall.

"Mom." She softly knocked on the seat's frame, causing Annie to look up from her phone, her eyebrows furrowing when seeing the hardened traits on her daughter.

"Honey, is everything alright?" The woman questioned, scooting aside on the other seat to free one for Eliana which she quickly took it. Her legs becoming weaker by the seconds she passed standing up, clearly stretching wasn't the solution to ease her nerves. Annie repeated her question, gently caressing her daughter's back, in a circle motion.

"Am I supposed to feel that way? Like my heart is going to explode." Eliana finally turned her head to face Annie, tears quickly brimming her eyes as she let out the words. Annie's gaze softened, her eyes widening to see Eliana crumble in front of her, scared that such an unimportant interview could cause this kind of reaction in her and disappointed that maybe her daughter wasn't strong enough to work in this industry. What would happen when the movie would come out if she's panicking today, she thought. Annie figured it was a phase, any teenage girl doubted herself at some point but Eliana wasn't any teenage girl, she was on the verge on becoming a worldwide known actress on the most successful movie of the next decade.

"Sometimes," Annie smiled at her daughter, trying to be the most reassuring mother she could. "but you cannot let that feeling get to you. It's all about appearances, you want to look like you've got it figured it all out."

For Eliana, Annie's words did quite the opposite of what her mother was going for, it scared her even more but she couldn't tell her that. How could she projected this specific image when she did not in fact figured it all out, she was still in search of becoming the person she wanted to be. The girl absently nodded to her mother before getting up from the seat and searched for comfort elsewhere, her feet dragging her to a familiar figure. The stall's curtain was opened, Jamie immediately spotting the brown haired girl from the alley, he smiled, greeting her with a faint hey.

"Hey, do you mind if I talk to Britain," Eliana cleared her throat. "Uhm, alone?" Jamie quickly shifted his attention to the boy who sat beside him, repeatedly blinking away the thoughts that flashed through his mind.

"Sure." He awkwardly chuckled while getting up from his seat and headed toward an open seat at the back of the section. Jamie sat by Bailey who was firmly asleep, Eliana hadn't bothered to close the curtain, making it accessible for the boy to watch their interaction and the only thing he could hear was his heartbeat beating against his ribcage.

"What's up?" Britain asked the girl who had switched places with Jamie, interrupting their game of Mario Cart yet he didn't really mind. His amused look completely changing to a more concerned one when he noticed the redness under her eyes and her fidgeting. The boy intuitively resting his hand on hers, recognizing the familiar signs of what Eliana was going through. "Lil, you can talk to me."

Eliana finally gathered her courage to met Britain's eyes, scared of getting shut down once more but in deep need of exhaling all of her nerves. She stuttered the first words she tried to spoke before taking a deep breath, refocusing her mind into making clear sentences.

"It feels... all too much?" The girl spoke, unsure of the words she had finally settled for. "Like the world has stop turning but I still do." Britain licked his lips before nervously grinning at Eliana's perfect way of telling how he had always felt.

"I get it." He sighed, readjusting his body to sit closer to the girl, comforting her with his other hand on her back.

"You do?" Eliana scrunched her eyebrows together, her shoulders dropping when understanding that she had made the right choice by telling the boy. She had a hunch and decided to follow it. In the few months she had known him, she always felt so comfortable around the boy, instantly clicking from their first meeting and now she knew the reasons why. Britain had always been somehow opened with his anxiety yet the feeling was unknown to Eliana, until today. This trip was meant to be the launch of her dream, her career yet she felt unprepared and unworthy of it. She didn't trained as hard as Britain. She wasn't as talented as Bailey. She didn't have Trinity's ingenuity. She didn't delivered her lines as authenticly as Jack. She wasn't as creative as Jamie. What did she brought? There was nothing special about her.

"You've actually described it perfectly. But I promise you, it gets easier with time. Just know that I'm always going to be there for you. Don't make the same mistakes as I did, we'll deal with it together, okay?" The boy slightly nudged Eliana's arm, wanting to see appear a smile instead of the frown she had on her face. He elbowed her a few times before getting a reaction from the girl. Eliana shook her head, dropping it as she hid the grin with her hair falling at her sides.

"Thanks, Brit." She simply responded before getting up from Jamie's seat, scrunching her nose one more time at the boy before walking back to her own stall where she find her two friends sound asleep, head resting on top of each other. Eliana grabbed her cellphone and snapped a picture of it before taking a seat in a free stall. Her phone close to her heart, she stared at the picture, a nostalgic grin growing wider by the seconds when she understood that now wasn't the time to be in her head. Instead, she needed to cherish every single moment of this journey. She was special, amongst all of the other aspiring actresses, she had been singled out. She had been the chosen one.

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Hello hello,
This is the end of act one, I hope you enjoyed it.
Please tell me what you want to see, what do you expect? Tell me everything you're feeling, I love reading you guys!

Anyways, the next act is going to be phew, let me just say it is a lot and I can't wait to share it with you all.

Love you all,
-J