The Bad Boy's Bucket List

Fly Part 2

"This one's so cute!" I squealed, picking up the small teddy bear. It was pink and had a small white bow tied at its collar. I saw Nolen roll his eyes, but I pretended not to notice.

We had purchased our tickets, made our way through security, and now we were waiting out the hour we had before our flight in a gift shop. Nolen was on the other side of the room, looking at the sports magazines, and I was fooling around with the stuffed animal souvenirs.

"Oh, it has a name!" I shouted to him, picking up the tag. "Betty. Its name is Betty!" Nolen made eye contact with me, and slowly put the magazine down. He walked over and began looking at the other animals.

"I kind of like this one." He held up a blue lion. "And his name is.... Roar." We groaned in sync.

I hugged my bear. "I love Betty." I sighed, taking her and pressing her soft material against my face.

Suddenly, I felt her snatched away. Nolen had grabbed her and was walking to the check-out line. I stood silently while he paid, and when he turned to hand me the bear, I pounced, giving him a huge hug. When I pulled away, stuffed animal in hand, Nolen had a slight blush on his face.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cried, ripping the tags off my new friend.

Nolen shrugged. "It's the least I could do, I mean, you just bought me a trip."

I just smiled and started walking towards the exit. I looked behind me to check if he was following, but Nolen was no longer in sight. What....

"Boo." A voice whispered, and I gave out a loud scream. Nolen was standing in front of me, a grin stretched across his face.

"You idiot!" I shoved him and stomped away, hiding the smile I was sporting.

~_~_~_~_~

We got food from a bagel place, because I don't eat meat so McDonalds was out, and Nolen and I definitely did not trust the sketchy half Chinese- half American Airport food. I had an everything bagel with butter instead of cream cheese, and Nolen had picked out a flattened plain bagel that was hot pressed with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.

I checked the announcement board, seeing our flight was still on time, and then we sat down to eat. We didn't talk during the meal, but it was a comfortable silence that neither of us seemed to mind. I glanced up occasionally during the meal, noticing more about Nolen each time. He had soft freckles spread across his face if you looked closely, and his eyelashes were really dark. When we made eye contact, he would smile using just the corner of his lips.

An announcement was made that our flight was beginning to board, and we threw away the wrappers and headed over to our gate.

"You excited?" I asked Nolen and the ticket agent scanned our tickets.

He nodded. "Yeah, I am."

Even though it was a big flight, I had managed to get us seats on the side of the plane, and so since the rows went two, six, and then two more seats, Nolen and I were all to ourselves. I gave him the window seat, it was his first time flying so that was only polite, and we placed our backpacks in the overhead. I had brought along a small carry-on bag with my phone, some little stuff, a book, and Betty in it, and so I kept that, along with my camera case, down with me.

We sat down, and he marveled at the TV's the way a three year old would. It was really cute, and I made sure to reach over and pinch his cheeks, cooing like a mother.

Because it was an overnight flight for a nice airline, little bags were handed out. Inside was a blanket, slippers, earplugs, headphones for the TV, and a couple other small things like gum and mints.

When everyone had sat down, the pilot announced a welcome hello. A flight attendant demonstrated safety rules and Nolen read along with the packet he found in the seat pocket. I already knew the safety rules, so I kinda daydreamed. Finally, the plane began to move.

Nolen smiled at me, shifting around and glancing out the window often.

"Hey," I nudged his shoulder, "don't be scared, okay? We're so safe right now."

He nodded as the plane began to take off. When we felt the pressure change once lifted off the ground, Nolen stared out the window. "Woah."

"It's cool, right?" I mused.

Nolen didn't seem scared anymore. "It actually is." He looked at me, the expression in his eyes unreadable. "Cali, you have no idea how long I've dreamed of this. Thank you." His arm reached out to my thigh, giving it a small squeeze of reassurance. I expected him to move away, but he left his hand there, on my bare skin. Butterflies welled up in my stomach, my cheeks red. His hand was so warm. I peeked at him using the corner of my eye, but Nolen didn't seem changed by the intimate gesture. Maybe to him it wasn't intimate. I don't know.

Finally, I just plugged in my headphones and stared ahead at the TV.

The flight attendants delivered the meals, which we had ordered last minute, around six thirty, along with drinks. Nolen and I chatted about school, college dreams, and family while we ate. I learned Nolen was still not sure where he wanted to go to college, just like me. He had a super strong relationship with his dad and seven cousins on his mom's side of the family, two on his dads. We stopped talking and went back to watching our movies after we finished eating, but I could feel Nolen's eyes on me sometimes, and when I glanced at him to confirm that theory, I would be right. He didn't touch my leg again, which was releveling, but a tiny part of me wanted him to touch me, wanted to feel that warmth spread through my body. That feeling confused me at first, but then I realized it was just hormones and everything was better.

I fell asleep sometime that night, and awoke to a flight attendant tapping on my shoulder.

I looked up at the red haired woman. "Yes?"

"The plane landed, miss."

I felt Nolen stirring beside me, and I realized then that I had been leaning on him. His arm was around me, cuddling with me. I sat up straight, shrugging out of the position, looking around the plane and everywhere but him. I realized the flight attendant was right. The plane was almost empty.

Nolen realized too, and we looked at each other embarrassed. I grab bed my stuff, and we got out backpacks from above us. When we got off the plane, we burst out laughing. The awkwardness was gone.

"Well," I said happily, "Welcome to Italy."