Kid in a Locker (REWRITING)

25. Rim of the World

"I am going to punch you in the balls if you don't quit blowing in my ear." I hear Peter growl. I can't help but snort at his threat, causing a few people on the plane to grumble in annoyance at how loud my brothers and I are being.

They've been trying to cheer me up ever since we got on the airplane nine hours ago. We were supposed to be sleeping like our parents were a few rows back, but anytime one of us got close to dozing off, the others would find something remotely interesting which distracted the person enough so that they momentarily forgot about the jet lag they were going to experience one we land.

We were to land around one p.m. CEST. From there we would go to our new home and sleep, making our jet lag even worse.

I was planning on calling Nick. It would be around six a.m. there, so it wouldn't be too inconvenient for him to answer the phone then. It would be Sunday, however, so I would text him first to see if he was awake before actually calling him.

"Why can't we be friends." Romul sings in response, making Peter's frown grown even deeper on his face.

"Will you just shut up and watch Shrek again or something?" Peter grumbles, closing his eyes again and leaning his head against the head rest.

"That's not from Shrek."

"It isn't." I agree.

"Same band." He says. "Same thing."

"Someone's a little grumpy." Romul teases. He leans over me to act like he's telling me a secret, but whispers his statement loud enough that Peter can hear it. His eyes whip open as he grabs the neck pillow from around his shoulders and proceeds to hit Romul with it. It seemed harmless enough but the zipper on the casing could be enough to be considered its own weapon.

"Okay, okay. Enough." Romul snatches the pillow away from the younger, causing him to pout.

"Oh, hey, can I get that?" I ask.

Romul shrugs and hands the neck pillow to me. I sling it around my neck and settle back into the seat, enjoying the sensation of the memory foam forming around my neck.

I snuggle into the seat, seriously planning on taking a nap within this hour we have before we land. As I do so, I move my sweatshirt around to get comfortable. The movement causes the smell of it to sprout up into the air and into my nose, making a dull sadness start to throb in my chest. It was the smell of the cologne that I bought for Nick for Christmas. It had been a wild guess at a gift, something that I believed I couldn't go wrong on. It had worked out pretty well and he started spraying all of his sweatshirts with it before he gave them to me.

This was the last one he gave to me. He gave it to me yesterday as I walked in through the door of his house. Somehow he knew that this was exactly what I needed. I hadn't taken it off sense, though any time I moved it reminded me that I was actually gone. Pretty soon I'll be touching down oceans away from Nick.

"You wake me up, I will kill you." I warn. I crack open an eye and peak over Romul to Peter in the window seat, making sure he can see the seriousness on my face.

"Yes, sir." Peter salutes to me before going back to his laptop, scrolling through the downloaded list of movies in search of one he can begin to watch.

He had always needed something to fall asleep. He had been trying to constantly, but he and Romul would be reminded of something through one of the scenes and get engrossed into another long conversation.

We all had nervous jitters about going to a new country. It always happened. No matter how much we tried to sleep or how much we tried to distract ourselves, we were all like little kids on Christmas Eve. You would think that travelling so much would dull this experience, but it was always as exhilarating as it was the first time.