Poly in Europe (Hiatus)

Prologue: Concerning a Flight

I've never really been fond of planes.

They don't make me anxious or anything, I just don't like being confined to a small space for so long. I can't really stretch out or anything like that.

At this point, I'm beyond f*cking bored. We're five hours into the flight, and most people are dead asleep, but I can't sleep. Apart from the turbulence, I'm just too uncomfortable to sleep. I turn my head, and look enviously at a sleeping Gemma, who has a travel pillow wrapped around her neck. Why I didn't get one of those, I don't know.

"T?"

I turn my head to Peter, who is sitting on my other side.

"Hm?"

"You aren't going to bed soon, are you?" he asks, just as the plane drops suddenly, before rising up a bit.

"Nope," I say. "I can't."

If I'm going to be completely honest with myself, it's not just the plane that causes me to stay up.

I'm excited.

I've never been to Europe before. I've always wanted to go, but my mother never had the money to take me. As a thank you for everything she's done for me, I actually brought her with me, and so did Alex. Our mothers weren't exactly embracing of our relationship at first, but they warmed up to it eventually. When they met each other, they almost instantly connected, forming a strong friendship between them. They're just as excited about it as the rest of us. Gemma's parents straight up disowned her, but her brother, Greg, who is with us, stayed by her side. Peter was raised by his sister, Tamika, who also came with us. It's an entire family vacation, even though Gemma, Alex, Peter and I had already chosen the countries to go to before inviting anyone else.

"Well, I can't either. Always wanted to do this," he says under his breath in excitement. I can see the pure glee reflected in his eyes; he can't wait.

It's absolutely adorable.

I lean over and kiss him, but as our lips meet, the plane experiences a hit of turbulence, and our lips and teeth clash unexpectedly.

"Mmmph," I grumble.

"Ouch," he says with a wince.

Well, so much for that random moment of romance.

"I guess we'll have to wait until we get to the ground to do that shit," he says to me.

"Yeah," I grumble, leaning my head back and closing my eyes, although I know that sleep won't come.

It's just three more hours. I can pretend to sleep for three hours, right? Pretend that I'm neither moderately uncomfortable, nor brimming with excitement, right? It's just three hours.

Shouldn't be too hard.