Playing With Lightning

January 2010

A.N: Sorry if the dates are skipping a bit fast, I'm just getting this all out of the way so I can get straight into the actual story :D

Don't forget to comment if you enjoy, or even if you don't, I don't judge ;) 

January 2010

“Can I get a hot chocolate please?” I asked the girl behind the café counter. She typed the order in, putting her hand out for the $4.50 I owed. I fished through my wallet, looking for the $20 note I knew was in there when I left. I found two $2 coins, but other than that my entire purse was dry. “Sorry, I don’t think I have enough.”

“Here, I’ve got it,” a voice behind me said, passing forward a $10 note. “Make it two.”

She was about my age, with long, curly chocolate brown hair and bright blue eyes. She smiled at me kindly as I tried to hand over the $4 I had and she waved it away.

“Thank you so much,” I said genuinely. “I swear I had money in there when I left the house.”

“No problem,” she shrugged. We accepted our drinks and walked back out onto the airport floor. I perched myself on the rail near where the passengers would come out when they landed. “So, are you picking someone up?”

“Yeah, well meeting someone and catching a ride home,” I explained. “You?”

“Same,” she nodded. “My brother’s coming in from Ireland.”

“So is mine,” what a coincidence. A voice came over the speakers saying that Flight 458 had just landed, meaning the boys would be coming out soon. I jumped down off the rail, bouncing up and down. “Sorry, I’m a little excited. I haven’t seen him in like 5 months.”

“Don’t worry, I completely know how you feel,” she grinned as the doors swung open and people started filing out. I craned my neck to find the shaved head I was looking for. I saw it bobbing among a couple of dark heads and squealed excitedly.

We were right near the end of the rail, so when they emerged I ran right up and hugged him, jumping into his arms. He dropped his suitcase and hugged me back, laughing into my hair.

“I’m so happy to see you,” I gushed, pulling back. “Never leave me for so long again, I barely survived. I mean, I can’t even use the oven.”

“Good to know I was missed,” he laughed.

I turned to face the other boys to see them standing there with their mouths hanging open slightly. The fact that they were all looking at me made me blush self-consciously. I crossed my arms across my chest which, yes, was a quite a bit more uh… existent than before.

“Hey boys,” I said nervously, giving them a small wave.

“Holy crap Maeve,” Nathan said with wide eyes. “You grew up.”

“We were only gone for five months,” Siva said incredulously. “Where did our little girl go?”

I laughed, playing with my hair nervously. Okay, so yeah, I’d grown up a little in the last five months. But for a teenage girl’s body, five months can be a really long time. I’d grown taller, which meant I’d topped Max by an inch or so. I’d filled out a fair bit, my arms and legs no longer gangly and awkward. My skin had cleared up and I’d started wearing make up. My face in general had filled out and become less childish, more attractive I guess. And yes, the biggest ‘growth’ were my boobs. They’d uh… blossomed quite quickly over the months.

“Eyes back in your heads guys,” Max said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, slightly more awkward now thanks to my growth spurt. “She’s still as off limits as ever.”

The boys automatically started looking in different directions and I laughed, elbowing Max gently.

“So, it looked like you guys had already met each other,” Tom spoke up, gesturing to the girl by his side. It was the brunette I’d been standing with before, but wait… “This is my sister, Taylah.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, nodding to myself. “That explains a lot.”

“Yeah, it definitely does,” Taylah agreed with a small laugh. “But, nice to actually properly meet you.”

“Same to you,” I grinned. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’m over being excited to see you guys, I want to go home.”

“But we didn’t even get a proper welcome,” Jay pointed out, pouting. I rolled my eyes and ran over to hug him, nearly knocking him over.

“Official calling in a best friend favour. You need to become friends with her okay,” Nathan whispered in my ear as he pulled me in for a hug. “She’s fit and you owe me for something along the line.

I rolled my eyes and moved on to Siva and Tom, giving them each a hug.

“I’m tired,” I whined, pulling a puppy dogface. “Who wants to carry me?” Jay rolled his eyes and slipped off his backpack. I jumped up onto his back, too tired to be concerned about being too heavy.

“But this isn’t fair,” I noted. “Taylah shouldn’t have to walk. Nathan, be a gentleman?”

She looked about to protest but Nathan pulled off his bag and told her it was fine. She shrugged and let him pull her onto his back. She was small, so he cold hold her on his skinny frame. Skinny white boy, that one.

We all split into different cars to go home. I slid off Jay’s back onto the leather seat of one car while Max got into the driver’s seat. Tom and Taylah went into another and the other three split off on their own.

“How was your flight?” I yawned.

“Good,” Max answered. “But you can pretend to be interested in the morning. Get some sleep, I’ll wake you when we get home.”

I knew he wouldn’t. I knew that I’d wake up in my bed in the morning, tucked up in the blankets snugly. It was a trick he picked up from Dad when we were younger and I’d fall asleep on long car trips. He would always say that, and I always just agreed because I’m not one to protest to getting out of walking anywhere, especially when I’m tired.

“Night Maxxie,” I yawned again, closing my eyes and leaning my head against the cool glass of the window. His soft laugh was the last thing I heard before I drifted to sleep.