Airport

Whistler was in the bathroom, leaving everyone else in the van outside waiting. Nathan had driven over to the house to pick up Zach and Whistler on time, but getting to the airport in a timely fashion was going to be challenging. Jake was already at the airport, he said he had gotten there earlier that morning because he had nothing better to do.

Whistler ran out to the van with his last suitcase in hand, but had to run back up to the door to kiss Demi. Hopping back in the van he yelled "Drive, what are you waiting for?"

"We were waiting for you" Nathan retorts; he's a real piece of work, that Whistler. Nathan turned the radio on to a tape Zach had made, all Sugar Ray, Sum 41, and Smash Mouth.

Zach was quietly eating sun chips in the backseat, holding his backpack as a pillow. Looking out the window, he sat for almost an hour; until they got to the airport.

When they arrived, they had to haul not only luggage, but their instruments as well. Zach had a bag with his favorite bass in it. His 5 stringed bass, the same one he had been using since he was 12. He had a hard time letting anyone else touch it let alone fly across an ocean. Nathan had his guitar in an expensive case, a leather one with a hard interior. Anything to protect his Gretsch. And Whistler was shipping a high hat, a drum head, and was told that the rest were promised to be at a venue.

After they got their luggage checked and went through security, they were set out to find Jake. "He texted me he was going to get breakfast," Whistler said, checking his phone. He leaned on the conveyor belt that was taking them to the correct gate.

Nathan had a habit of getting lost in thought in crowded places, or empty places for the record. He looked at a little girl, holding a stuffed dog. She clung to it as an only reminder of home. A boy, about seven, was holding his mother's shirt, as she held more luggage than any of them together were, and she was navigating them to their gate. He envied how calm she looked. He was finding the gate for the boys he was in charge of, and while trying to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen. He was more stressed than he had been while studying for his SATs.

Zach looked dead. He stared out the giant windows along the corridor that shows the runway outside. Nathan was watching him, but he didn't know. Zach must be tired, he barely talked on the way here, and had no emotion behind his eyes right now. He still had bed head, and wore a dark blue sweatshirt that looked to be a size too big.

At the end of the travelator, there was a food court of sorts, and a group of chairs at their gate. They got situated in the seats, Nathan and Zach went to find Jake, leaving Whistler to watch their stuff.

"I can try texting him again," Nathan suggested. "Maybe he'll tell us which place he got food at this time."

Zach nodded. "We should get food when we find him" he mumbled.

"Sure.You look tired, rough night?" Nathan said as he put his hand on Zach's shoulder.

"I kept waking up all night, stayed up past my bedtime writing, and everytime I woke up it took forever to fall back asleep"

"Well, we've got a twelve hour flight ahead of us, maybe you can get some sleep on the plane."

"Maybe."

Nathan's phone buzzed in his hand. "Jake said he's at Cinnabon. We walked past that like a hundred times, how could we have missed him?"

"We started looking at 9:14, now it's 9:31. We've been looking for seventeen minutes, it's taking us about five minutes to get to the end of this strip. We've walked past this 3 times almost 4 times. How could we have possibly looked past him?" Zach said turning them around.