Trouble - 5SOS (L.H.)

-1-

In the middle of a deep sleep, I am suddenly awoken by my phone alarm, set to 4:30AM.

I stay there with my eyes closed a bit before dismissing the alarm, and roll out of my bed to throw on my clothes and makeup, and quickly make my hair look more acceptable to the public.

And I'm already fucking late.

As I sit in the traffic of Los Angeles, my phone rings.

"Hello?" I say turning the speaker on loud.

"Hey darling. You excited to come spend the summer with me?" My dad's voice comes out of the phone.

"Definitely." I lie. I do love my dad, don't get me wrong. But he's busy a lot, has too many ex-wives, and a lot of his co-workers randomly show up at the house.

"Are you at LAX yet?" My dad asks.

"No, I'm stuck in traffic. Almost."

"Okay! I'll see you in a couple hours. I can't wait for you to meet Valerie."

With that we hang up the phone, and I know Valerie is obviously his current wife. I don't even bother coming to the weddings anymore. It gets old.

***

As I'm sitting on the aisle seat of the last connecting flight plane, I feel someone's eyes on me. I turn all around but no one's staring at me.

I turn to the seat next to me, and yeah. The bright red-haired guy in the window seat is looking right at me. I brush it off, feeling thankful that no one is in the middle seat, giving us space between each other.

When I can see that he's still staring at me from the corner of me eye, I turn directly at him, "Yes?" I say with full confidence, annoyed at the boy.

"You just look extremely familiar." He says, "Sorry."

I nod, still feeling a bit creeped out.

"Where are you headed?" He asks me, after I thought the conversation had ended.

"Florida?" I say. This flight is to Florida.

"Obviously.. But why?"

I contemplate whether I should tell this guy anything. But I figure that when this flight is over, I'll never see him again.

"My dad lives there, I'm living at his house for the summer."

"That sounds cool. My mom just got remarried, I have to meet the guy." He says, unamused.

"My dad's been remarried countless times. Usually to younger women, they like the old man for his money." I say, shaking my head and staring straight ahead at the back of the chair in front of me.

"Sounds an awful lot like my mom." He chuckles. He changes the subject, "I'm hoping to go to this concert while I'm there."

"What band?" I ask.

The rest of the flight goes like this, small talk. I usually hate when people talk to me on airplanes but this guy was cool. I quickly learn that his name is Michael Clifford, and he's my age.

And he's my new step-brother.