What The Heart Wants (Stereo Kicks/ James Graham)

Chapter 13

Tom and I were all packed and headed to the airport. As much as he loves to sleep, Tom was wide awake. We were jamming to music and it was only 5 o'clock in the morning. I had to stop dancing in my seat because my phone went off.

Casey: Morning Aria! Just wanted to make sure you and Tom are on ur way?! :) x

Weird. Casey never texts me.

Me: Morning! Don't worry, he got out of bed today. We're about twenty minutes away! :)

I did my best to ignore the 'x' at the end of the text but it bugged me. Obviously it symbolizes a kiss, but was he just being friendly, did everyone from the UK put an 'x' at the end of a text, or was he flirting? I don't know.

Casey: Great! I got a ride from Barclay and we're about 10 mins away so ill see you soon! x

There it is again!

Me: See ya! :)

"Who's that?" Tom looked over at me. "Oh, it was just Casey. He wanted to make sure you got out of bed on time. Can't say that I blame him." I looked at him and stuck my tongue out. He laughed, and turned the radio up.

We arrived at the airport fifteen minutes later, and Tom parked the car in the holding area. We showed the parking garage guy our X Factor papers that way he knew our car was already paid for by Louis, then we walked inside with our luggage. We checked our suitcases and ended up running into Casey and Barclay. Literally. I was walking and I accidentally ran into Casey when he wasn't looking. "Oops, I'm so sor—" Casey started, then stopped when he noticed it was me. "Oh hey Aria! Sorry about that." He chuckled. "Its alright." I smiled. "So you guys ready for this?" Tom asked them. "Hell yea! You?" Casey replied rather loudly, causing a few people to turn and look at us. "I'm ready to go back to sleep." Tom yawned. I was getting tired too, now that the adrenaline was waring off. "Same." Barclay said from behind Casey. "Shall we go find our gate?" Casey suggested looking from the other boys to me. I nodded my head yes, and we headed off in the direction of our plane. Once we found our gate, we took a seat and waited. After a few minutes, Chris, Charlie, and Reece all showed up. They smiled at us and took the surrounding seats. There were only three other people waiting for the same plane, so there were plenty of empty chairs. After all, how many people need to catch a 5am plane to Bermuda? We talked about everything that happened yesterday for about twenty minutes before Jake and James showed up. Jake was smiling as per usual, but James looked like a zombie. "What the hell happened to you?" I asked as James sat down on the floor in front of me. "I got woken up. That's what happened." He slurred. I giggled and playfully ruffled my hand through his hair. Our plane wasn't set to take off for another hour and a half, so we all sat back and relaxed. All the guys ended up dozing off after about twenty minutes. All but one. "Not tired?" I turned to look at Casey who was typing away on his phone. He looked up at me and clicked his phone off. "Too excited to sleep. Actually it might be nerves, I'm not really sure." He replied. "Why would you be nervous? We don't perform for another week." I asked. "True. But in an hour we're gonna be fifty thousand feet in the air." His leg was bouncing up and down nervously. "Aahh. You've never been flying before?" I shifted in my seat to get a better view of him. I looked down at James, who was using my knees as a headrest, so when I moved, he stirred a little bit but then fell back asleep. When I looked back at Casey, he was looking at James like he was envious, but then looked back at me and cleared his throat. "Nope. Never. You?" He asked. "How else do you think I got here?" I smiled. "Oh yeah. Dumb question, sorry." He blushed. "Its ok." I smiled. "And flying really isn't as bad as you think. It's actually pretty incredible. If you get the chance, make sure to sit by a window." I said. "I'll be sure to." He smiled, then unlocked his phone and began texting again. I was just dozing off myself when a lady came over the intercom. "Now boarding all passengers for flight 217, London to Bermuda." She sounded like a robot. The boys jerked awake, and we all gathered our things and got in line to board the plane. I could hear someone behind me breathing so fast I thought they were going to pass out. I turned and seen that it was Casey. I reached behind me and grabbed his hand. "It's gonna be ok." I smiled at him. He squeezed my hand as I handed the lady my ticket. I waited as she checked his ticket too and we walked hand in hand to the plane. He was still breathing heavily and sweating more than he should be. I stopped and looked at him. "Casey. Take a deep breath. Don't think about it. I promise everything will be fine." I squeezed his hand reassuringly. He nodded his head and let go of my hand, then boarded the plane. "He gonna be ok?" I turned to see James standing next to me. "He'll be fine. He's just nervous. He's not gonna like take off, but after that, he should be ok." I said. "Not gonna lie, I'm quite nervous myself. I've only been on a plane once, when I was a kid." He told me. I looked up at him and smiled. "What?" He asked, his eyebrows pulling together in the center. "I don't think I've ever seen you scared. Its refreshing to know you're not cocky about everything." I smirked and left to get on the plane. After I found my seat, I put my carry on bag in the compartment above my head. Or atleast I tried. I was too short. My suitcase was about to fall on my head before Casey came up from behind me and grabbed it. He put it in the compartment and then looked down at me. "Thanks." I smiled. "Don't mention it." He returned the smile then went and found his seat. I then sat down in my seat and put my headphones in. I pulled them out just seconds later because James sat down next to me. "What are you doing?" I raised my eyebrows. "I'm sitting in my seat. What does it look like." He replied. "Umm, that's Tom's seat." I said. "Correction. This was Toms seat. We traded. He's sitting next to Jake now." He smiled. "Hmm, I wonder whose idea that was." I asked sarcastically. "Oh I assure you, it was mine." He grinned. I rolled my eyes, smiled, and pulled out my pack of gum that I brought specifically for take off. "Want a piece?" I offered him a stick of Spearmint flavored gum. "Don't mind if I do." He said while he grabbed the gum. Just then, the engine of the plane roared to life and the seatbelt sign came on. I could hear the clicks of people buckling themselves in. I turned my head to look for Casey. He was sitting with Barclay who was talking, trying to distract him. I sighed in relief, then buckled my own seatbelt. After a couple seconds, we began moving. This is it. We're headed to judges houses.