AJR-Panic Attacks

Winter- 6 (Airplane)

Ryans POV

We finally get to go home. We've been on tour for the last month and a half, and now we get to fly back home for a break until we go back off to Europe. We ended this part of the tour in LA last night, slept for a few hours and now we get to fly home. We were really lucky on this tour though, because we got to take everyone with us. Well, I guess not everyone, but I got to take Cat and Winter, and Jack and Adam took Alba and Emily. We made it to the airport just in time, went through security, and now we are waiting at the gate. Me and Winter were playing a game where he has to say a lyric to a song and I have to guess what song it is. Everyone else was on their phones, and then we heard our plane was boarding. Since we are sitting at the front of the plane, we got to board first. We stood up, made sure we had everything, then got on the plane. The first row was Jack, Alba and Chris, the row beside them was Adam and Emily and a stranger, and the row behind Jack was Winter, Cat and myself. Winter sat in the window seat, I was in the middle, and Cat was beside me. Winter was excited to fly again, since the last time he flew was last year. We go through all of the boring safety stuff, then we finally take off.

Not long into the flight, the plane starts to shake a little bit. I know this is turbulence, but out of the corner of my eye I see that Winter is looking around, looking scared. I watch him for a moment before asking,
"You ok Winter?" He nods it off, even though I know he's not. The plane shakes a little more, and Winter freaks out. He pulls his knees into his chest and looks around with wide eyes. I know he is about to panic.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I ask, turning towards him.
"I'm scared." He responds.
"You're ok Winter, it's just some turbulence."
"I wanna get off the plane." He mumbles.
"Winter.." my heart breaks. "We can't get off the plane yet." Just as I say that, the plane shakes again and Winter jumps.
"Attention folks, this is the captain speaking, we are experiencing some minor turbulence, so we are asking that seatbelts are on and you stay seated. Once again we ask that you are all in your seats with seatbelts on." Winter's breathing starts accelerating, and I know he's having a panic attack. He's only focusing on the plane shaking, nothing else. I know I need to calm him down, so I reach over and loosen his seat belt slightly. I scoot him closer to me and wrap my arm around him. He leans his head on me and asks,
"When will it be done?"
"It'll be over before you know it baby." Winters breathing still isn't slowing down, so I say,
"Hey, you're ok. We are safe. Nothing bad is going to happen, it's ok."
"O-ok." Winter mumbles.
"I know you're scared, but everything is going to be fine, ok?" Winter nods.
"Here, hold my hand." I say to Winter, offering my hand that's wrapped around him. He grabs my hand and wraps his fingers around mine. He looks up at me, still looking scared. I squeeze Winters hand three times, signalling 'I love you' before I turn to Cat and ask,
"Do you have Winter's blanket?" She nods and leans down to grab it out of her bag. Winter wanted Cat to take his little blanket on the plane cause he was scared he was going to lose it. Cat hands me the little grey blanket and I give it to Winter. He snatches it and buries it into his face. I was watching a random family movie on my phone, so I take out one of my earbuds and give it to Winter. With my arm wrapped around him, and the distraction of the show, Winter starts to calm down. By the end of the flight, the turbulence had died down and Winter had fallen asleep. I decide not to wake him up until we were on the ground. I didn't know how he would've reacted had he been awake for the landing. I gently rub his shoulder to wake him up, saying,
"Winter, time to wake up, we're here." He slowly arises from his sleep and yawns, leaning his head back on me.
"How was your nap?" Cat asks.
"Good." He replies.
"Well, we made it home!" I say. "You can unbuckle and grab your backpack." The door of the plane finally opens and we're allowed to get off. Winter puts on his backpack, still holding his blanket in his hand. I put my backpack on and grab Winter's other hand. We shuffle out of the plane, meeting with the others on the walkway between the plane and the airport.
"How was the flight Winter?" Alba asks excitedly.
"Good." He replies. We headed over to baggage claim and waited for all our bags to come out. I waited beside a wall with Winter and the girls while Adam, Jack and Chris went to get the bags. They came back with all eighteen-hundred of our bags, then we shuffled out of the airport and went home.