Icy - John Mulaney x OC

11 - I Love Airplanes!!!!!!!

I woke up to a slight headache, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I sat up. No messages. I headed into the kitchen to get some Juice. Laura read on Cosmo once that Orange Juice could cure a hangover. I didn't really have one, but I figured better safe than sorry.

Speaking of Laura, she was still in her bedroom. Weird. She was a morning person, and usually up by this time. I looked at the clock. It was 10. She really should be up by now, and I had work soon. We always Lyfted together on Fridays.

I knocked on the door of her bedroom. "Laura? Are you up?"

Laura didn't say anything, but I heard sniffing from the other side of the door. She was crying.

"Laura, what's wrong?" I asked.

More sniffles. The door opened. Laura's face was red. 

"Laura, what is it?" I asked.

She showed me her phone. I took it and checked the page it was open to. Her messaging app. It was a text from Anne to her. They were in a fight. One message, however, stood out 

From Bae: You know what, screw this! We're done!

I looked up from the phone to Laura quickly. "Did you-"

"Yeah..."

"Oh, god. Laura, I'm so sorry."

She rubbed her eyes. "It's fine, I'm just-" She cut herself off by bursting into tears again. She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her back. We stood there like that for a while before she pulled back and dried her eyes. "It was just so sudden." she said. "But then she was saying she'd wanted to do it for a longish time."

"Well, Anne's a bitch." I said. "If she doesn't want to be with the best woman on the face of the earth, that's her loss."

Laura smiled a bit and pushed me. "Yeah, whatever." She said. "Did you make coffee?"

"I did not! Can we just get Starbucks?" I asked.

Laura rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yeah, okay."

I spent most of that week and the next with Laura, and didn't have much time to talk to John, besides the occasional texts. I did not tell him about my feelings, as I was much to preoccupied and also very embarrassed of what he would say, seeing as when he had expressed his own feelings, I had shut a door in his face and pretended I didn't hear him.

Maybe Laura was right. Maybe I was a pussy. But to be fair, I was terrified. Oh. Yeah, I was definitely a pussy.

At half a week before we had to go to Texas, I was finally talking to John again, in person. I was still a pussy though, so we just talked about what we were packing and how long we were gonna be there and how to convince my asshole brother we were dating. Not anything really important.

At one day until we left for Texas, I really, really wanted to say something, because things were a little awkward between us, but I was so nervous I actually threw up. Like literally. So I didn't tell him how I felt. Instead, I let him get me a glass of water and we sat and talked until I told him I felt better. Then I helped him finish packing. 

We all decided to meet at the airport at 6 AM the next day. I don't know why we chose an early flight, but we did. Laura, John and I had breakfast at an overpriced cafe in the airport, and I left to go to the bathroom for one second. When I came back, they didn't notice at first, and I caught a snippet of their conversation. 

"Yeah, but you have to be really careful," Laura was saying. "because Charlie is really scared of flying."

"Really?" Asked John.

Laura nodded. "Yeah. He gets terrified whenever we fly. I don't know how he's not shaking right now."

"Laura!" I called, marching over. "I am not shaking! And I'm not 'terrified of flying' or whatever! I am a very calm, cool, and collected person, always!"

Laura raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Yeah, you sound really calm cool and collected right now. By the way, your Texas is shining through." She said.

"What?"

"When you said 'always'," John pointed out. "Your accent was very prominent."

"Whatever! Tell John you were lying!" I said, waving them off.

Laura looked at John. "I was stretching the truth." She said. "But only a little bit."

I went to protest but an announcement came over the loudspeakers and we realized we had to book it.

We settled into the plane comfortably. John was sitting at the window seat and Laura was sitting in the isle seat, with me in the middle. John put in earbuds and selected a movie almost immediately, so I talked with Laura.

"Charles." She hissed at me. "This is a two and a half hour flight. Please tell me you'll at least tell him something."

I blushed and whispered back to her, hoping John couldn't hear. "I don't want to disturb other passengers. Plus, He's busy."

Laura glared at me.

"What can I say?" I asked her. "I'm a pussy."

The plane took off, and I jumped. Laura laughed at me. I ignored her and chose a movie to watch. I was fine for most of the plane ride, because I'M NOT SCARED OF FLYING, but every once in a while turbulence would happen, and It would freak me out a bit, but that's perfectly reasonable. Turbulence is freaky. 

I may or may not have accidentally grabbed John's hand during one bout of turbulence but my ass was out of my seat. That shit's not cool! He didn't say anything, but he nodded at me and squeezed my hand while I tried to stop breathing heavily. I took a while because my heart started pounding when he did that.

Then my head started to hurt because it wasn't fair to John that I don't tell him how I really feel because he told me, and I lied to him and now he didn't know that I liked him and it was rude to do things like hold his hand because I had rejected him, even if I was going to tell him how I really felt. But for now... I pulled my hand away and watched my movie.

I had never been so happy to get off a plane. After I took back my hand, Laura had glared at me for about 15 minutes. It was deeply uncomfortable. I did my best not to look at John or Laura, but when the flight attendant brought around drinks, I handed John his tea and out fingers brushed and our eyes met and it would have been cute if it hadn't shook me to my core. After that I really tried not to talk to anyone.

James met us at the airport. He found us while we were waiting outside a gift shop and John was in the bathroom. "Welcome to Texas!" He said. "Charles, Laura! It's so good to see y'all again! I missed you!"

"Jamie, hi." I said. "Congratulations again on the wedding. I'm sure it will be great."

James smiled. "Awww, Charlie! You're warmin' up to me."

I looked at him. "I assure you, I'm not. I called you Jamie because of habit. It won't happen again."

James laughed. "Okay, Charlie. Y'all ready to go? Got your luggage?"

I smiled and narrowed my eyes. "Actually, James, we're waiting on someone. My boyfriend is in the bathroom. Remember, Laura told you about him? John Mulaney? Famous?"

Jame's smile faltered but he quickly recovered. "I thought y'all were jokin' about that."

"I would never joke about that." I said.

John came out of the bathroom.

"John!" I said, waving him over. "This is James, the one we've been telling you about. James, this is John, my boyfriend."

John smiled and stuck his hand out. "Hi! James! I've heard so much about you!"

"All good things, I hope."

"Well..." John said, trailing off and smiling at James. 

It was perfect! My brother felt like such a jackass!

James coughed. "Well, the car's out front," He said, leading us away from the gift shop and to the car.

When his back was turned, I whispered my thanks to John.

He smiled back. "No problem."