Last One Standing (wattys2017) (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Bite Of The Big Apple

LAX definitely had a way of making you question your morals.

Without Lucas' hand wrapped securely around my wrist, there was a high chance that I would have gotten lost in the abyss of the crowds in every twist and turn of the large airport. People from all over pushed and shoved, yelled and cried; it was like walking into a hospital times two.

My brother kept me from getting trampled more than once on the way to the Service desk. The minute we stepped into line behind a couple with a young boy racing in and out of the ropes on either side of us, Luke turned and offered me a smile I was all too familiar with.

"What? What didn't you tell me?" I asked, eyebrows furrowing as I deliberated on whether to be angry or confused.

"As you know, there's a slight possibility I won't be able to give you my full attention the next couple days. There was also the possibility Katrina wouldn't want you staying with her. I invited someone to keep you company when I can't." there was a hesitation in his voice as he spoke, as if he were terrified I might slap or run out on him right before our flight.

It was one thing to have never been on a plane before, but having huge surprises thrown in my face was an entirely different story. "Who-"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, forcing the rest of my thoughts and words to become a jumbled mess and die off on my tongue. I wasn't as shocked as I should have been to find Griffin standing behind the rope, a half smile tugging up the left side of his mouth.

"Hey."

"Lucas! I can't spend a five hour flight and three days with him." I threw my hand in gesture toward Griffin and ended up slapping him in the jaw. He took my hand and held it with a forced, bitter smile.

"Thanks, Alex. You make me feel so loved." Griffin bit out, earning a curious look from my brother. Lucas stared at the taller boy in front of him with a look that had me wondering if he were starting to second guess his decision on who he had gotten to babysit me for the next seventy-two hours.

"You're going to have to just suck it up, both of you. This is as important to me as it is to you, Alexis. If you are going to act like children over being stuck together for a few days, then you can go home right now."

I was positive if Jason were here, he would applaud Lucas for being direct for once. The two of them differed on many levels, but this was one of the view times it was easy to see they had grown up together.

"I don't need to be babysat." I eventually whispered, tangling my fingers in my loose ponytail.

"You're not being babysat, believe me, Alexis. If I were to ask someone to babysit you, it sure as hell wouldn't be Griffin. Think of it more as him accompanying you on your endeavors." Lucas shared a look with Griffin, then returned his attention to me.

For the first time in my life, I saw my brother turn into our father. He had the same stern tone, the same cold, warning eyes, the thinning lips. The look he was giving me wasn't one of encouragement, it was a warning; the worse thing about the look was that I understood why he had it.

This was one of the biggest milestones in Lucas' life and there was some sort of fear buried deep in us both that were afraid we'd screw it up.

*

My anxiety and realization of what I was doing didn't hit until I was seated aboard the plane. Lucas and Griffin had been thrown into seats ahead and behind me; leaving me alone in a window seat near the rear of the plane. The tingling started in my feet and rose throughout my body, washing nausea and virtigo along with it. The boy I was sitting next too wasn't much older than me, but looked like he hadn't quite grown out of his acne. His entire face was broken out in zits, and the glasses that rested askew on his nose twitched every time he looked up from his book and at his surroundings. When he caught the look on my face, a color drained from his own.