17 Nights {c.h.}

+six+

The Sixth Day

“You have your toothbrush?” Aubrey checked, fussing with my hair and tucking small pieces inside my beanie-well, technically Calum’s beanie.

“Yes mom.” I groaned, not fond of how she was treating me like a baby.

“And your medicine?” She asked, looking me in the eyes as I squirmed under her stare.

“It’s in the front pocket.” I sighed, pulling out the small orange-tinted container filled with white tablets.

“I know you hate talking about your anxiety but I worry about you.” She bit her lip, obviously trying to contain her emotions.

She was right; my anxiety was one of the few things I despised talking about. I had only recently been diagnosed, though I had lived with it for most of my life. One tablet in the morning and that was that, though some situations still managed to make my throat close and my heart race, just not in a good way.

I had lived with anxiety for almost my whole life; the stress of moving across the country increased my symptoms, leading to attacks happening frequently even if I wasn’t doing anything to set them off. The benzodiazepines helped with most of my symptoms, though I had Calum and Cynthia to thanks for persuading me that it was getting out of hand since it was affecting everything I was doing with school. Of course sometimes there were slight side effects, though I was lucky because I never suffered from anything more than faint drowsiness or confusion, maybe I would tremble every once in a while but I was aware the medication was only a temporary fix until I got home and was able to deal with everything in a safer environment.

“I’ll be fine; I am a big girl, after all.” I smiled as she rolled her eyes, nudging my shoulder as the familiar sound of my flight being called sounded through the overhead speakers. I turned to Aubrey, wrapping my arms around her as she did the same.

“Call me when you land, okay?”

“I will.” I promised, squeezing her once before retracting my arms.

“Only a few days.” She seemed to reassure herself more than me.

“A few days.” I echoed, turning around and going through the, seemingly normal, routine of waiting in line, handing the attendant my ticket, walking out with the rest of the passengers and waving to whoever had seen me off this time.

I found my seat relatively quickly, having booked a ticket for a small plane rather than a large one like my last trip to California. I was content with my window seat, knowing I would fall asleep with my head resting against the cool surface it provided. The person to be seated next to me happened to be a middle aged Caucasian male with a full out beard sprouting from his face. To be honest he looked quite similar to my father.

“First time flying?” I asked, noticing the slight shake of his hands as he looked down at the floor, jerking his head up at my voice.

“That obvious, huh?” He laughed, bringing a trembling hand up for me to shake.

“I’m Bella.” I introduced myself, deciding I might as well help the frightened man.

“Robert, but most people call me Rob.”

“Trust me; I was a mess the first time I took this trip.” I consoled him, smiling as he seemed to relax a bit, the shaking of his hands not as bad now that I was taking his mind off of everything else.

“How many times have you taken this trip?” He asked, leaning back in his seat as the flight attendants requested for us to secure our seatbelts in place.