Season 01 - Chapter 01 (01)

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Gregory Fletcher's POV~

On a sunshiny afternoon in early April, a Virgin Australia Airlines widebody jet was transporting over one hundred fifty compliant passengers across the expansive depths of the Pacific Ocean from New South Wales to California. So far, everything was proceeding as smoothly as possible.

I was sitting next to a window, in Seat 27 F, on the right side of the plane, and my raven-haired best friend since middle school, Lianne Burch, was on my left, in Seat 27 E. We had just finished a month-long vacation of touring locations in eastern Australia and were bored out of our minds.

Occupying the other seats in the jet's cabin, people of varying backgrounds chitchatted quietly, some chuckling periodically. Occasionally, two female flight attendants, Alayna and Cassidy, according to their tags, would stroll down an aisle each to take any requests from passengers.

I stared at the clear blue sky with nothing else to do to pass the time. The muffled sounds in the whirring aircraft's atmosphere were soothing to me, albeit the seldom arguing from a pair of young brunette sisters several rows ahead. Their shaven-haired mother scolded them regularly.

When I was a mere minute away from hopefully drifting off to sleep for the remainder of the flight, Lianne gently put a hand on my knee, which had been bouncing absentmindedly for who knew how long. Her ensemble was black and navy green, complimenting her characteristics.

The woman, who sporadically danced in her spare time, whispered. "Hey, are you all right?"

Embarrassed, I straightened my slouched posture, my back flat against my textured chair. "Sorry," I chuckled, "I just can't wait to get out of the sky; it's not something I'll ever get used to."

Lianne nodded understandingly while closing the stout story she had been perusing. "Well, we don't fly often enough to get used to it," she sighed. "Even if we could, I wouldn't want to."

"Doesn't Tyrell want to move to the East Coast after he and I graduate? You'll be flying then, too."

"Yeah, if I decide to go with him. I mean, I want to! But you know how I am with homesickness; it's why I was worried about this trip in the first place. My anxiety was not making things easy."

"Mine wasn't either, but the struggle was worth it in the end. The weeks leading up to spring break were fucking torture, Li. I can't wait to get my master's degree and finish school for good."

"I felt the same at my dance academy. I know it wasn't full-time or whatever, but it's... fulfilling to put substantial effort into a hobby just as you're supposed to with your career, you know?"

"I would if I had a hobby. The closest things I've got are darts and beer bong, but I don't even consider those hobbies; they're just stupid games I play when bored or at some dumb party."

Lianne snickered. "I get it, Greg. But hey, you can always keep alternatives in the back of your head after graduation, especially since you don't typically need to go to school for hobbies."

I nodded, unsure of how to maintain the conversation. Lianne kept silent for a moment, too, daydreaming as she flipped through the hundreds of pages in her thick novel. Her bookmark was a printed photograph of her and her boyfriend of two years, Tyrell, in pristine condition.

Before long, Alayna, a brown-haired woman with sharp facial features, approached Row 27. She was only several years older than Lianne and me and wore the airline's traditional garments for female flight attendants: a red uniform and a purple silk scarf. Her engraved nametag was violet.

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