lost » zach mitchell ON HOLD

two

People rushed in and out of the airport to get home for the Christmas holidays. Everyone was brutal and merciless. Natalie wheeled her suitcase through the crowded airport, not caring whose feet she ran over as she pushed her way through to keep up with the Mitchells.

"I swear to God, if I have to listen to one more Christmas song," Zach grumbled from beside Natalie. Natalie smiled up at him but when she saw him reach into his pocket for his headphones, she snatched them out of his hands. "Natalie!"

"Natalie, what? You were the one who invited me on this trip, Zach. You will not ignore me." Natalie grinned at his frown, his pink lips pouting slightly. Quickly, she averted her eyes. "If you want to listen to your music so bad, give me a song and I'll sing it for you."

Zach's frown dropped to a look of near-horror and began to shake his head violently. "No! No, you don't have to do that, Nat. I'll be fine."

Natalie's smirked widened, gripping his arm with hers while the other wheeled her suitcase. "Let me serenade you, Zach. What do you want? Drake? Kanye? Maybe mix it up with The Weeknd?"

"Please, Nat. Please don't." Zach literally begged her but Natalie wasn't listening.

"You know what? With this heartbroken mood you've been in all morning, you are in desperate need of some Adele." Taking a deep breath, Natalie prepared for the best performance of her life. "HELLO FROM TH--"

"NO, NO, NO!" Zach yelled out. In only a couple seconds, Zach had unhooked his arm from Natalie's, wrapped it around her head and clamped his large hand on her mouth, silencing her singing to unintelligible muffles. Natalie's eyes were wrinkled with laughter as Zach pulled her tighter to his side to get a better hold of her, his mouth threatening to smile. 

Finally, the group arrived at their gate and Mrs Mitchell pulled out the three plane tickets. "Zach, can you hold these, please?" she asked but received no response. Looking up, the family saw Zach with his arm around Natalie and a hand over her mouth, whispering warnings to her while she stared up at him with eyes full of mirth.

"Zach!" Mr Mitchell called out a little louder, catching Zach's attention.

Zach unwrapped his arm from Natalie, who was staring apologetically at his parents. "Can you hold these? Honey, I need you to take care of these." Mrs Mitchell asked her eldest son again. Zach took the tickets out of his mother's hand, his father dropped into one of indifference once again.

Mrs Mitchell hadn't finished speaking before Zach turned back to Natalie, taking back his headphones from her loose grip. "Hey. Listen to your mother." Mr Mitchell scolded Zach, who rolled his eyes as he turned back to his mother.

Shooting a disapproving glare at her husband, Mrs Mitchell continued. "Take care of your brother, answer your phone. I'm serious. It's the green button. When you see my name, push it, okay?" Zach nodded absently. "And remember, if something chases you..." she paused for dramatic effect. "run."

Natalie gave a breathy laugh as Zach smiled halfheartedly. "Yeah, you're funny." he shook his head before turning to Gray and Natalie. "Come on, let's go."

Natalie turned to Mrs Mitchell as Zach began to usher Gray to get on the plane. "Don't worry, Mrs Mitchell. I'll keep them in check," Natalie grinned cheekily.

Mrs Mitchell laughed, wiping at her teary eyes as she pulled Natalie into a hug. "You have no idea how much that reassures me,"

Natalie smiled at the red-haired woman as they pulled away. "You can count on me," Zach's yell for her to hurry up pulled Natalie away, departing Mr and Mrs Mitchell with a small wave before running to catch up with Zach and Gray.

Once she was by Zach's side she slowed down to match his pace, Gray was a couple of feet ahead. "See what I mean?" he asked quietly, so Gray wouldn't hear. Natalie looked up at Zach with pursed lips, giving him a small nod.

For a while now, Zach's parents had been constantly at each other's throats. Countless times, Zach had sneaked into Natalie's room in the middle of the night because of his parents fighting. She was the only one he trusted to confide in about it. Not even Gray knew.

Natalie had felt it during the car ride and their small interaction before the three of them made their way to board the plane. The tension between the two was thick. It was like everything one of them said or did was getting on the other's nerves and were making mental notes in their head of what to bring up in future arguments.

"This whole thing is just a front. 'It would be good for us to spend time with Aunt Claire' - we haven't seen the woman in nearly ten years." Zach scoffed with a shake of his head. "I'm telling you, Nat, when we get home... my parents are going to be divorced."

Natalie couldn't say anything, nothing that would reassure him. What could she say? 'I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, your parents love each other,' - it was clear his parents had fallen out of love and were well on their way to a divorce. Why give him false hope only for it to be crushed? 'Yeah, they're definitely going to be separated when we get back,' - that's insensitive and even though Zach knew the truth, he didn't need to hear it.

Finally, Natalie reached out her hand and slipped it into Zach's, her warmth immediately heating his cool hand. Natalie knew as Zach looked down at her with a tight smile that her small gesture meant more to him than anything she could have said.

"Zach! Natalie! Hurry up." Gray called out. We had boarded the plane and Gray had immediately rushed to their seats by the window. Zach ushered Natalie to sit between him and Gray.     Gray was a smart kid and immediately picked up on the strange atmosphere that had formed around the two older teens. "What is it?" he asked, his voice tinged with worry.

"Nothing, bud. Everything's fine." Natalie offered Gray a reassuring smile as she blindly reached to her left, giving Zach's arm a reassuring squeeze.

"Erm... Nat?" she heard Zach say as she helped Gray fasten his seatbelt with her free hand. "That's not my arm."

Natalie gasped so loud that it burned her throat as she whipped her head around to see her hand holding Zach's arm and the teenager burst into laughter. "Zach!" she scolded, taking her hand away from him only to give him a hard thump to his shoulder. "That's not funny."

"Why didn't you pull away as soon as I said it?" he asked, tears almost streaming out of his eyes from joy.

"I was in shock!" Natalie quickly defended herself.

"I don't get it." Gray said from beside them, staring at the two in confusion. "What did you think you were holding?"

Natalie's face paled, her eyes widening in horror and her face flooded bright red while Zach burst into another round of laughter. At least he's happy, even if it was at Natalie's expense.