A Burning Thing {Avi Kaplan fanfic}

-12-

No one was particularly surprised when I ran up to the flight counter without a minute to spare.

"Whoa, cutting it close, bro!" Kevin said. "Tough time saying goodbye?"

"You might say that," I smiled. "Fortunately I didn't have to say goodbye, just see you soon."

"Aw, that's sweet," Kirstie said. "I'm sure the month will fly by."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you guys about that." As we made our way through security I explained Ellie's plan, and was relieved when everyone else looked happy about it too.

Kirstie hugged me. "That's amazing! Jeremy is meeting us in London too! We'll have so much fun together! And they can hang out with each other when we're busy doing sound checks and appearances."

"Ellie and Avi might not want to do anything that involves leaving the hotel," Mitch smirked, elbowing me.

"Well, we do have to eat now and then," I laughed. "And I promised to show her the sights. I'd like you guys to get to know her better, too."

"So I guess we're getting serious?" Scott raised an eyebrow.

"It's been both the longest and the shortest week of my life," I sighed, shaking my head. "I feel like I've been waiting for her for a long time."

My friends cooed (especially Scott) and gagged (mostly Esther) and patted me on the back (too hard and all at once), then changed the subject back to our upcoming video. After a while I tuned them out, enjoying some time alone with my thoughts.

A short while later, as I got comfortable in my airplane seat, I thought back wistfully to the last time I'd flown. It had been a much smaller plane – only two seats on each side – so Ellie had curled up on my lap with her feet on her seat and dozed lightly against my shoulder for most of the trip. As she slept I examined her hands and arms – the only part of her I could get a good look at – memorizing each freckle and scar, the shape of her hands, the rings on her fingers …

Wait, what?

I puzzled for a while, trying to remember her usual attire. She always wore an antique silver ring with a small emerald stone that had been her great-grandmother's, but it suddenly occurred to me that she hadn't worn the other ring since that flight. I remembered it well – one of those multi-piece ones, sort of like a puzzle, forming a heart shape in the middle. I wondered what might have happened to it. And, having far too much time to mull it over, I started to worry. Was there a guy in her life before me? Didn't she say she hadn't had a boyfriend in a while?

There are probably a lot of things I don't know about her.

On the one hand I found it thrilling to think that there was so much more to discover about Ellie, and that we had plenty of time ahead of us to explore each other. On the other hand, it occurred to me for the first time that there may be some things about her, or at least about her past, that I wasn't going to enjoy hearing.

~~

By the time we landed and got settled in our hotel rooms it was dinner time, but still morning back at home. I called Ellie but after a few rings it went to voicemail, and I left her a sappy, jetlagged message that made very little sense. I called back once more just to hear her voice on the machine, while Kevin rolled his eyes and waited impatiently to go get some food.

I know, I know. I have a problem.

Between travel, set-up, sound checks, performances, autograph sessions, media and more, I had very few free moments, and they always seemed to come at times when I knew Ellie would be sleeping. It was day three of the tour before I finally heard her beautiful voice say my name.