Once Upon a Plane Flight

Chapter Six

I was eighteen when I left home. I left as soon as I finished high school. I couldn't stand living with my mother's passive-aggressive remarks for much longer, so I packed a bag and left. I got accepted into a college in Maine and started studying to become a singer until I realized I would have to sing in front of people and I dropped that course. I started taking a poetry class instead and really got into it.

I was on my way to class when I met Jace. He was staring at me from across the courtyard and walked up to me. Being the naïve girl I was back then, I expected him to put his feelings on the line and ask me out. He didn't. He walked directly in front of me and kept going. This happened every time I saw him, until the one time when it was different.

I was having a really bad day. I woke up with a headache, stubbed my toe on my roommate's stupid table she put in front of my bed, and just when I got my coffee and started to calm down, Jace sees me and walks in front of me like he always does but this time he accidentally knocks the coffee from my hand and it all spills down my shirt.

He stops mid-step and tried to help me clean it up with the one napkin I had. He takes my books from me and wipes them off with his hand while I try to dab the stain out. He kept apologizing over and over until I told him to stop it and that if he wanted to make it up to me he could just buy me another coffee. I told him I had to leave or I would be late to my class and he let me go.

The next day, as I'm walking through the courtyard like I always do, Jace comes up to me and hands me a coffee. He was so worried that I wouldn't like the way he made it—yes, actually made it using his own supplies—that he brought me a bunch of little sugar packets and creamer that he later told me he stole from the nearest coffee shop. He was so thoughtful.

He didn't ask to go out with me until the semester was over. He did it over coffee at his dorm when he gave me a bunch of sugar packets and creamer that he once again stole. I, of course, said yes.

I am now twenty-two staying at my parent's house in Florida as my twenty-five-year-old sister complains that she misses her fiancé and he needs to come and help her choose a cake for the wedding. I am fairly certain that she is on her period at this time and I have no doubt that I am going to punch her if she doesn't stop in five seconds.

She ends up calling him and tells him, what I presume is, to come out of hiding and let everyone finally meet this mystery man in person. This was at nine o'clock in the morning, the time I was pulled out of bed and dragged downstairs just to find out that there is nothing even related to coffee in this house. Caffeine is a drug, my mother said.

So here I was, desperately in need of some type of artificial energy, sitting at the table listening to my sister whine.

I hear someone walking down the stairs and turn to see who it is. Lyle drags himself step-by-step into the kitchen as I lay my head on the table whispering a 'kill me now' hoping he won't see me. He leans over the tables and grabs two apples from the center piece. He places one of them in front of me, giving me a wink, and turns back to talk to Emily.

What, didn't they say all they needed to last night?, the snarky voice in my head spoke up.

"Emily, Aaron already gave me his songs for the wedding so I need yours." Lyle said.

"Ooh, is that his name?" a bridesmaid—I think her name was Jessica—asked.

"You haven't met him?" Lyle asked, confused.

"None of the girls have. Something about stealing him?" She says with a side glance over at Emily.

Emily scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it over to Lyle saying, "Here, if theirs is any extra time you can pick the rest."