One Hell Of A Life

chapter two: flyin'.

Em POV:

Okay. Day of the flight. I'm a light packer, so I brought a bag with my stuff in for the plane, and one medium sized suitcase. I'd checked everything over at least four times because I had that feeling - the one you get when you reckon you've forgotten something, but you haven't.

With my bags packed, I called my taxi. JJ and I had rearranged things so that nobody had to leave their car at the airport for a week. Jide, Ethan, Simon, Josh, Vik, Emily, Talia and Freya and I would meet at Heathrow with Cal, Freezy, Tobi and Harry. Sarah would join us a day later.

And that's exactly what we did.

"Yo, Freezy." I gave one of my best friends a huge hug, before we walked onwards towards security.
"What's goooooooood?" He greeted.
"I'm gassed." I jumped like a little kid.
"You never been to Vegas before?" Cal sounded surprised.
"Bitch, I've never been to America before, never mind Las fucking Vegas!" I laughed.
"If you're anything like JJ, then you're gunna love Vegas." He smirked.
"I suppose I can be a little crazy on the alcohol..." I smiled sheepishly.
"Oh yeah, just a little." Cal chuckled. "You're almost as bad as me!"
"Yeah, almost. Nobody goes as nuts as you do when they're drunk, Airey. No one!"
"You come pretty close, like." He smirked.
"Anyway, I'm not drinking. Reason one is because it's bad for my health. Reason two is so that everybody will be safe from my antics." The pair of us laughed.

And so we made our way through security and then boarded the massive Emirates airplane. I sunk into the first class seat that I'd been allocated, Jide sitting next to me.

I took in all of his features for the first time in a long time. He looked different, that's for sure. I mean, most of it came from the boxing training that he'd been through for the Weller fight; but still. His shoulders looked broader, and his chest flatter. Not many would actually notice, but his face looked ever so slightly thinner. It made one hell of a difference. Another massive change was his hair. Three years beforehand, he was constantly wearing hats and snapbacks to cover his dead trim. And horrific blonde hair that he'd bleached.

"What are you looking at?" JJ asked, snapping his fingers in front of me.
"You, spazo." I replied. He chuckled as he adjusted his bandana.
"Oi, you're the spazo. You walked through security without telling them about your pacemaker." Jide laughed uncontrollably.
"Shut up!" I shoved him, but found myself giggling too.

-

Around half way into the flight, I got shook awake by my brother.
"Wha-" I rubbed my eyes.
"You're swapping seats with Simon." JJ told me.
"Can I have a sec?" I stretched, deliberately whacking Jide in the face.
"Piss off!" He threw my arm away from him. "Hey, since when did you get a tattoo?" He pointed at the back of my hand, right where I had been inked a henna style tattoo around a year before. It was a reminder of how Mum used to use henna on me before I moved away, so I got a tattoo of it.

"About a year ago, now." I answered, grabbing my phone as I stood up.
"What did mum say?" JJ smirked.
"She flipped." I mirrored his expression.
"She was so, like, disappointed when I got mine." He elaborated.
"Yeah, same." I agreed.
"AH AH, YOU HAVEA RUINED YOUR SKIN, EMILOHI!" J impersonated our Nigerian born mother. I immediately fell about laughing.

"LO-LO!" Talia shrieked, making me jump out of my skin - please note that I had Different Kind by Frisco blaring through my Beats headphones, yet I still heard her loud voice.
"WHATS UP, T-BO!" I shouted, making my way across to where Simon had been sitting.

By this point, the entirety of the plane was staring at us in a disgusted manner.

I mean, that's what JJ, Deji and I have in common, I guess. We're not afraid to make ourselves look like absolute dickheads in public.

"Lo, Lo, Lo, can I do your makeup?" Talia bobbed up and down excitedly.
"Sure." I agreed.
"How come I haven't seen you in so bloody long? Jeez, must be like six months now, mustn't it?" She smiled, taking in my features.

In short, Talia and I are so close because we both went to Brit School together. She was in a few year groups higher than me, but we used to be in the same form, and she helped me settle in as I was quite anxious about everything.

"Too long, honey." I tried a toothy grin, but it came out as as guilty as I felt.

I was too busy in 2017 to do anything. I was travelling everywhere, all the while trying to avoid Jide. I had collaborations with Nike, with Rimmel, covers for Cosmoplation, and one of my new year's resolutions for that year was for me to get one video out per day. I mean, I did it, I just didn't have time for a social life in between, bar seeing the people who I lived above and below quite briefly.

"Wait, you're not even wearing foundation?" Talia asked surprisedly, raising her perfectly filled in eyebrows.
"Do you know who you're talking to?" I shook my head.
"Oops, you have a point." Talia brought out her eyeshadow palette.
"Not too over the top, I don't like full glam." I rolled my eyes.
"Good, I don't have any glitters on me."

-

What felt like just moments later, we landed at the airport.
"VEGAS, BABY! WOO HOO!" JJ screamed.
"YEEEEEEEEESS!" Harry yelled.
"You guys..." I shook my head and chuckled. Nevertheless, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we made our way off of the plane, into the burning Vegas sun.

"Cheeze." Freezy exclaimed, looking behind as Tobi and I exited the plane side by side.
"I, for one, am boiling." I looked around me.
"Can we go to the beach?" Ethan asked everyone.
"Not today. It's a bit late, don't you think?" Josh answered.
"Innit." Simon seconded.
"So, straight to the hotel?" I gave some input.
"Yup." Freezy answered behind me.
"Good, I need to change!" I added.
"Too warm for ya?" Vik turned around.
"Completely."
"Same!" Freya waved her hand in the air from next to Josh, the other around his waist.

"My leggings are bloody sticking to me." I said, collecting my suitcase from the conveyer belt. My hair was tied up by this point. I just couldn't wait to get to the hotel and get fucking changed.

So we did.

We wandered around Vegas strip for a while, taking many photos, and then went to a golf place where I realised how embarrassingly awful I am at golf.

I'm in Las Vegas. This is what dreams are made of.

a/n:

thanks for reading!

lee x