BLOSSOM ▹ JOSEPH MORGAN

seventeen; irl

-•-•-

Arabella twiddled her thumbs as she sat on the plane, smiling at the elderly man who took a seat next to her. She was right in the middle of the economy section - of course the ideal placing. Nothing but the best from The CW (note the sarcasm). But in all honesty, Arabella paid no mind to the seating arrangement, as the plane would be landing soon enough. The flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia was only four hours, give or take. Four hours of stale air and peanuts in exchange for seeing her friends was a small price to be paid. 

"So, what's taking you to Atlanta?" the geriatric man beside her asked.

"Work, actually. Duty calls," Arabella replied, offering him a small grin.

"Ah, I remember those days," he sighed reminiscently. "Myself, I was a stockbroker in New York when I was a kid - sales used to bring me all over the world. Now I'm just an old man on his way to retirement," he chuckled. "Savor this while you're still young, dear."

"Hey, you don't look a day over thirty," Arabella interjected. "And yeah, you're definitely right. I wouldn't trade my work for the world."

The man's eyes glistened with intrigue. "What's your field?"

"I'm an actor. I had thought that focusing on one project at a time would make my life a little easier, but then I slapped myself in the face and realized how completely moronic that was. So, here I am," the woman replied, shrugging her shoulders.

The man let out a hearty chuckle, his hand gravitating to his chest. "Home is where the heart is."

A small yet shining grin spread across Arabella's lips. "That's pretty damn poetic."

And it was pretty damn true, as well. Arabella's heart had metastasized to the people she called family. Sure, her life was anything but perfect, but it was filled with people that gave her hope - and that was all that mattered. 

-•-•-

After four hours and twenty-four minutes, JetBlue flight B6 288 landed in Atlanta at the ungodly hour of 2:06am - and Arabella was practically a corpse. Her coffee brown irises were adorned with dark circles, which were only highlighted by her jet-black eyelashes. She looked (and felt) like she just rolled out of a sewer. 

She lugged her carry-on down the ramp as she disembarked from the plane, waving a short goodbye to the nice elderly man before he was swallowed by the large crowd. Arabella sighed to herself, furiously blinking her eyes in a desperate attempt to stay awake. 

It was the home stretch, now. All she had to do was grab her luggage, find a cab, and get to the hotel. At least, that's what she thought she had in store. 

As Arabella approached the baggage claim, a small group of people instantly stood out over all others. Her heart fluttered and her eyes crinkled as a bodacious smile graced her sleepy features. 

"Am I hallucinating? Did someone put something in my drink on the plane?" the woman asked aloud as she stepped into the group's line of sight.

A shrill yelp assured her that she was most definitely awake, as a hefty build barreled toward her. "My daughter landed safely, thank god," Daniel spoke as he pulled Arabella into a bone-crushing embrace. 

"I've never been happier to see your stupid face, Daniel," she replied, holding her arms tightly around his form for a few moments before pulling away and walking over to the rest of her friends. "I can't believe you guys are here. It's literally 2am."

"We couldn't just leave you to flounder all by yourself, could we? We knew you would either die or get kidnapped. You haven't been in Atlanta for a year or two, so we had to make sure you at least got to your hotel before we abandon you," Joseph was the first to reply, emerging from behind Daniel. Another grin immediately appeared on her face as she quickly walked to give him a hug, too. The woman was so overcome with emotions that she didn't know if she was actually awake or not.

"Nice to see you, too, Josephine," Arabella chuckled into the crook of his neck. The two stood there for a moment in undisturbed silence. It felt like ages since she had seen him (and everyone else) face-to-face. She could've fallen asleep right then and there, her head resting on his unmoving shoulder - but they were interrupted by Phoebe's cheers.

"Oh, get a room!" the brunette joked, her voice booming throughout the airport as people began to stare. 

"Shut up, drama queen," Arabella replied with a smirk before hesitantly pulling away from Joseph. Phoebe wrapped her arms around the back of Arabella's neck, hugging her tightly. Claire joined in, putting an arm around two women and placing a chaste kiss on Arabella's cheek. 

"Gosh, it's so good to see you," the blonde said as she held tightly onto Arabella, and the latter did the same. Sure, it had only been a month or two since they had all seen each other in person, but it felt like years. 

"It's good to see all of you, too. Seriously," Arabella replied; and it was true. It had been months since she felt this much happiness. 

"The others would have came as well, but they all passed out at 12," Joseph said, walking back over after grabbing Arabella's luggage from the conveyer belt. 

"How dare those lightweights," Daniel scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"The fact that you guys showed up at all is a miracle. I was just gonna hail a cab or something," Arabella nonchalantly said, and shot Joseph a grateful smile.

"At 2am . . . Yeah, you're definitely sleep-deprived," Phoebe chuckled, linking arms with the other brunette. "Alright, kids, is everyone ready to go?"

"Yes, ma'm," Arabella saluted. "Also, I call shotgun!" She blurted out, before unlinking her arm from Phoebe and sprinting out of the airport. The group laughed, each person following closely behind her in an attempt to evade the seat in the middle of the back row. 

"Like I said before - dysfunctional!" Joseph yelled.

And boy, was he right. They were one big dysfunctional family. 

-•-•-

jOREBELLA, YA'LL!