December 24th [COMPLETED]

Chapter 5: Twenty-Four

George spent the early morning hours of her twenty-fourth birthday trying to hold on to a bubble. It was a beautiful bubble, the sweetest, warmest bubble she had ever lived in. It had become home over the last ten months and it was due to pop any moment. She had time, even if it was just a little while, and she was going to revel in every second she had left in her little iridescent sphere.

That Christmas Eve morning found her waking up on an airplane, thousands of feet in the air. She was the first of her travel companions to wake up. The airplane around her was as silent as a plane could be, the unwavering hum of the engines still as deafening as ever.

The flights, the travel, the constant unpacking, and repacking, that was all she had known that year. The road, as always, felt like coming home.

Yawning, stretching, careful not to wake the sleeping body next to her, the shoulder of whom she had just been passed out against for the last five hours, George reached over to the window and slowly slid it open. The sun sat waiting to pour in through any available crevice. And pour in it did. Outside lay a bright winter's morning and below, the city of New York going about its day.

The light from her window set off a slow but persistent chain reaction through the rest of the cabin. Passengers who were previously asleep started to wake up, flight attendants who were lingering in the back started making the rounds with trash bags. The captain announced, in a low, courteous voice, considerate of the early hour, that they would be landing soon and encouraged the passengers to prepare. eStill the body next to George slept on.

That was one of the many things George had learned about Felix in the last ten months. There were so many things she learned about him that she had lost track early on but one of those things, the one that amazed her the most, was his ability to sleep anywhere at any time. George's usual insomnia when it came to sleeping on planes was a foreign concept to Felix. As George was to discover early on in their relationship, Felix's odd talent proved infectious. When George was with Felix, even on the shortest of flights, she could sleep. It helped that his shoulder was right there waiting for her, as was the steady sound of his breathing, ready to help lull her to sleep.

George reached out and gently shook Felix awake. It took three tries and each time she shook just a little bit harder. She didn't try too hard, though. There was something in her brain telling her to let him sleep. If he kept sleeping, the plane couldn't land and if the plane never landed, well then, they wouldn't have to go their separate ways.

But that was the unavoidable fact George didn't want to think about. One of them, at least.

George and Felix were parting ways. For the first time since George had joined Felix on tour back in February to help him write and produce his second album, for the first time since the unspoken thing between them had started up again and blossomed into something real, something spoken, George and Felix were heading in different directions.

Despite her lack of effort and her futile wishes, Felix did finally stir. George watched as he yawned, as he ran his hand through the mass of curls that had taken over his forehead, looked around, and then finally found what he was looking for, his half-opened eyes landing on her, the sleep on his face fading away as a smile that crept across it. One hand ran over his face to wipe what was left of his unconsciousness as the other hand reached out for George. It was an instinct he had, George had noticed once things had become official between them back in the spring. He was always reaching for her, regardless of where they were or what they were doing. His hand was always seeking hers.

George walked into Concept on the first Monday of the year and demanded one thing. Her fury and confusion over what had happened at the company party fueled half of her determination, her rekindled feelings for Felix the other. She demanded to be put on Felix's next album. She knew album cycles, she knew how the industry worked and so she knew his sophomore album was due soon. She also knew it needed to be better than the first and that was already a tall order. George knew, down to her bones, that she was the only person who could help him make that great second album. She had learned so much since the first, she knew Felix so well. George was the only person for the job.