All About Risks

Chapter 1

*Five Years Earlier*

“You promise you will keep in contact?” Paisley whispered, her heart hammering in fear. The people around them moved with the excitement of graduating and talked amongst their families loudly but Finn and Paisley remained tucked into their own little world.

“I promise,” Finn agreed, feeling the urging of his mother to hurry up. Paisley knew he had to go and she had to go as well, their separate families were waiting to leave, hers headed home to Alabama and his going home to Oklahoma.

The past four years together flashed through both of their minds, best friends both refusing to admit that they were inevitably in love with each other. She wanted to kiss him, she wanted to leave him with that at least and she needed it for herself, one last thing to hold onto to remind her of him. She couldn’t bring herself to make that first move though so instead of making the moment any harder she turned and hurried towards her parents.

Finn watched her as she left, longing to chase after her and never let her go but he couldn’t knowing she never loved him the way he loved her. Then he turned towards his own parents without looking back, both of them knowing that this would be last time they saw each other.

*Present Day*

               “Flight 307 to Honolulu is now boarding,” an automated females voice came over the loud speaker. Finn stood from his waiting chair and got on line to board the large jet that would take him from Los Angeles to Hawaii. He was dreading it, the flight from Oklahoma was a lot shorter but shaky and he was a queasy flyer. His hands shook as he entered the plane and searched for his seat and he found himself being a lot more nervous than he thought he would be.

               As soon as he was safe in his seat by the window his body started to relax and he closed his eyes to calm his nerves. Within minutes a squirrely guy sat down next to him who seemed just as nervous as he was.

               “Hi, I’m Eli. I’m a nervous flyer so just a heads up,” he smiled a nervous friendly smile and Finn introduced himself, telling Eli that he too was a nervous flyer. Then they made some small talk before settling back into jittery silence. Once the plane was up in the air and the ‘Fasten Your Seatbelts’ sign went off, Finn flagged down a flight attendant to get some water, he was breathing abnormally fast and hoped that water would help. The attendant kindly obliged and Finn settled back into his seat but after ten minutes of waiting he looked around to see if he could find the lady he spoke to. He easily found her but his heart stopped.

               About eight rows up from him she was standing with another young woman who seemed to be very distressed about something and appeared to be making the flight attendant very uncomfortable. He recognized the long wavy, dirty blond hair before the voice registered. Her back was mostly to him but when she turned enough to see her profile he knew he was right but he didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t understand what she was saying but he could recognize Paisley’s tone of voice from anywhere.

               “Hey what do you think is going on up there?” Eli asked Finn but Finn had no answer, he could only stare at the woman who was a ghost from his past, trying to convince himself she was not real. “I am going to go ask,” Eli answered himself and then disappeared from Finn’s side but he barely noticed.

               Five years it had been since he promised to keep in touch. Neither of them upheld their end of the bargain, finding it wasn’t so hard to be in love when they were thousands of miles away with no contact at all. Both of their hearts needed mending; time and space was the only medicine and at this point she was only a distant memory to him. His heart still loved her but it became easy with the lack of her presence and each day he thought about her less and less. But now she was here, right in front of him, on a plane to Honolulu from LAX in the middle of May, almost five years to the day since they made and broke that promise and his heart felt as though it were ready to leap from his chest and embrace her. It felt the same way it did that day when he watched her walk away from him, thinking he would never see her again. He rubbed his eyes and looked back but she was still there, now explaining to Eli whatever it was she was fussing about. Typical Paisley, fussing over everything.