The War of Love {Liam Payne}

Chapter 8

A/N: Yay for longer chapter... If wattpad makes it as long as it actually is, lol. Anyways, this chapter's dedicated to Kenzikinz. She's awesome, and quite frankly, she should move to California. 

The night was young as the plane drifted above the clouds, the stars sparkling with delight in the dark sky. Cassie kept her eyes glued to the moving scenery outside her window as the aircraft sped through the air and across the Atlantic Ocean as she scanned around the plane.

It wasn’t a privet jet, she knew that, but hardly anyone was on the plane at all. She tore her eyes away from the beautiful night sky for a moment to assess what was going on in the plane. Each boy had a row to themselves, except Liam. He lay sprawled across the aisle of chairs that he shared with his fiancé, his head resting in her lap as he slept, and his legs hanging off the edge of the cushioned chair.

Louis sat in the aisle seat across from the row that Cassie and Liam were in, his elbow propped up against the armrest, his fist being the only thing that held his head up as he, too, slept. His headphones were plugged into his ears, a song by The Fray surely on replay.

Harry was in the row behind Louis, sitting in the middle seat. It was a theory that he had proved, as he had told Cassie, that if the plane crashed, he would be safest in the middle of the plane, on the right side, in the middle seat. It was completely random and odd to the girl, but there he was, his arms hugged tight around a pillow and his face buried in it, his curls draping over the fluffy, white object.

Niall lay a row behind Cassie and Liam, his back against the window and his ankles crossed on the aisle chair. There was a package of crisps perched on his lap, his blonde hair askew as he slept. If Liam had been awake, the crumbs on the Irish boy’s shirt would surely not have been there at that moment.

Lastly, Zayn lay in the row in front of Cassie and Liam, surprisingly not asleep. It may have been his specialty, but planes definitely weren’t. Even though it had been nearly two years since he had begun travelling, he still wasn’t used to it. His tomato red eyes were glued to an iPad that lay on his lap, an episode of The Big Bang Theory playing mutely to everyone else besides him, as his headphones were plugged into his ears.

Cassie stifled a yawn and pulled out her iPhone to see if she had any messages she’d missed before putting it on airplane mode before the flight took off, her lips twisting into an unknown expression as she came up empty handed. Her brown eyes darted on each of the apps she had, from games to settings, until she reached the photos app. A sad smile taking over her lips, she pressed her thumb to the app, a picture of her and Laura just a few minutes before the bombs had exploded throughout the church.

Laura had an arm draped around Cassie’s shoulder, a soft, yet excited smile on her lips as she stared at the camera, which Oliver had been holding to take the picture for them. Tears brimmed Cassie’s eyelids as she slid her thumb across the screen of her phone to see the next picture, which was of Oliver. Even as a member of the army, his personality didn’t show it one bit. He would be goofing off one minute, and laughing at himself at times. The picture was of him, in his uniform, baring his front teeth like a dog and wrinkling his nose, his blue eyes crossed and his hands on either side of his head like moose antlers.

Having had enough, Cassie locked the iPhone and placed it in her jacket pocket, running a finger through her perfectly curled hair that hadn’t come to use that faithful day. The thought of the pictures sent shivers through her spine.

She didn’t know if Oliver was alive.

Or even Laura.

And that was the last straw, the one that made the tears she had been fighting back pour down her cheeks. She made no effort to wipe them away as she stared back out the window at the beautiful night sky to clear her thoughts.