Therapeutic Love.

Chapter 12 - "I'm right here."

My feet tapped repeatedly against the linoleum floor as we all sat in duty free, waiting for our plane. My clammy hands gripped my hand luggage, which was just a drawstring backpack, and my fingers played with a loose strand of thread as my music blasted through my earphones to drown out the sound of the others.

When the loudspeaker called our flight I was jerked back into reality by Mitch, who was regarding me with a careful look.

"What?" I snapped, my eyes darting to Mitch.

"I said the plane's boarding... You alright?" He asked, a frown creating a dip in his eyebrows.

"I'm fine." I answered curtly, my voice sounding faint even to my own ears. Annoyed at this, I got up quickly and followed the rest of the group, chewing on my lip.

When we were boarding the plane, where at one point I debated 'loosing' my passport, I sat down in my seat and shoved my bag out of view, Mitch sat next to me by Holmes' command to 'keep me quiet', and I once again plugged in my earphones.

Another tap on my shoulder made me take out my earphones and shoot Mitch a deadly glare.

"Gotta turn it off." He shrugged, pointing to my phone. I clutched my phone tighter in my hand as my stomach clenched, I thought about keeping it on but thoughts of what could happen it flooded my mind and I quickly turned it off.

After what felt like hours that consisted of me jerking my knee, adjusting the belt holding me to the seat and biting my nails under Mitch's close watch, the plane began to move, and almost instantly my hands went to the armrests on either side of me. My heart pounded and my knuckles turned white at gripping the armrest so hard.

"Piper?"

Too panicked to feel any annoyance towards the boy I snapped my head to him, swallowing thickly.

"W-what?" I tried to sound annoyed at least, but failing miserably.

After watching me for a couple of seconds he wordlessly held out his hand.

I surprised myself by taking it without much of a second thought, my hand was shaking so much I could barely lift it.

The plane picked up speed and I shut my eyes tightly, squeezing Mitch's hand as I did so, almost to remind myself I wasn't alone. His thumb gently glided along the skin of the back of my hand, and it felt nice so I focussed on that, the plane tipped upwards and I was forced back into my seat, an involuntary whimper escaped my lips which I would've been mortified at if I wasn't trying to prevent myself from either crying or throwing up.

Fingers lightly touched my cheek and gently moved my face to the right, I opened my eyes and looked at Mitch, who was staring at me with a calm smile. Why was he so calm? How was he so calm?

"I'm right here." He said, his voice was drowned out by the roar of the engine. "Just keep looking at me."

His fingers moved away from my cheek, which triggered a churning in my stomach I didn't understand, and he cupped my hand with both of his, gently massaging it and basically removing my attention from the rumbling tin can we were in.

Soon enough the plane levelled out which made it easier for me to relax, I removed my hand from Mitch's and busied myself with turning on my phone, untangling my earphones, anything to just not look at him.

"I never thought you'd be scared of flying."

I sighed, too shaken up from the process of takeoff to be truly mad at him for insensitively pointing it out.

"Just... don't tell anyone." I said, gathering the courage to unbuckle my seatbelt to curl my legs beneath me. "How did you know to calm me down?"

"Connor isn't a big fan of flying either, mom and dad usually pawned him off to me since I could calm him down so well." He explained, a crooked grin gracing his features. He gave me a sideways glance for a second and shot me a wink. "And don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"You better not." I grumbled, but unable to help the small smile that wormed its way onto my face.

--

Somehow, I managed to fall asleep, which meant I slept through any potential turbulence and that I was thankful for, but when I woke up I quickly realised my head was rested on Mitch's shoulder.

I jerked my head off of his immediately, startling him. We looked at each other for a second before I return my gaze to my phone, refusing to mention that I'd slept on him for the second time.

Sadly, I didn't sleep through the landing, and had to employ the help of Mitch's calming nature to keep me from freaking out. When the plane eventually did land we congregated at baggage claim, after an extremely thorough headcount we all got the luggage and stepped into the hot Californian sun. I smiled when the sun hit me, I was just glad my feet were on solid ground once again.

We waited for about maybe half an hour before the bus came round the corner to get us, again, I was sat next to Mitch, but he kept his eyes glued to his phone screen. To my annoyance I felt a need to try and talk to him, but what would I say? What could I say? Why did I want to talk to him anyway? I shook it off, keeping to my own phone instead and trying to ignore the weird urge. God, what was wrong with me?

--

We arrived at the hotel without much difficulty, and got assigned to our rooms easy enough. The only catch so far was when I saw Mitch's suitcase disappear into the room across from mine. I narrowed my eyes and went to look for Holmes, enough was enough.

I found him easily enough, he was talking to another teacher, but turned his attention to me when he noticed my approach with scowl.

"Get the kid off my back." I demanded, crossing my arms.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied with a sneer, crossing his own arms.

"Don't lie to me!"

"I don't have time for this." He sighed and rubbed his eyes, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Are you obsessed with this boy or something? Just ignore him."

My face heated up at his words. Obsessed? I huffed and turned on my heel, returning to my room with a slam of my door. I didn't need this shit from Holmes, of all people.

I sulked in my room for a while, unable to tear my mind away from Holmes' words. What made him say that? What the fuck? I groaned and rolled over from my position on my bed, with my forearms shielding my eyes from the Florida sunshine.

I decided to try not to look so deep into it.

My little sulk in my room turned out to
be a very long nap, and when I woke up the sun had gone down and the moon had risen.

I groaned, knowing I'd missed dinner as my belly rumbled loudly. I checked my watch and saw it was 12:46. 

"Fuckin' assholes." I muttered to myself, hauling myself out of bed and grabbing the keycard to my room, along with some cash, my phone and a jacket. I cast one last look around my darkened room before shutting the door, with the intent to find some damn food.