Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,62
ears, making my shoulders tense. You know that drumbeat that comes on when something crazy is about to happen in Jumanji? Yeah, I feel like I can hear that sound getting louder the closer I get to the seat one of the flight attendants is directing me toward.
My heart is in my throat. My palms become sweaty and when I see that there’s someone seating in the seat beside mine, I still in my tracks, starting to panic.
Who is that? Is that the danger Nicky promised? Could it be my father? Does he know where I am? Is he the one who upgraded me, because for as long as I’ve been alive, my father has never flown coach. He could the one in the seat beside mine, ready to ambush me.
I mean, if Julian could track me, it means my father can also track me. Or John for that matter.
I need to get off this plane.
I start looking around, panic constricting my airways. I see the flight attendants closing the door, and I think of rushing toward them, demanding for them to let me out. But I don’t want to make a spectacle of myself. This might be a set up for all I know. I start sweating, standing in the middle of the isle, feeling my pulse go erratic. What do I do? What should I do?
I’m about to turn and run when I get an idea. By passing the flight attendants that are now about to make their final checks, I quickly approach a woman sitting in economy by a window seat at the very back. The place is for two and the man sitting beside her looks like unproblematic, older, and so damn calm.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” I start, and she looks up with a smile.
“Yes dear?”
“I’m sorry, I was wondering if you’d like to switch seats with me?”
“Uh, I’m keeping my window seat, sweetheart, sorry,” she says with a kind smile.
“Yes, I understand that. Mine is also a window seat.”
“So, what seems to be the matter, love?” she questions, kindness in her eyes that makes my throat tight.
“Uh, I just thought you’d enjoy my seat more than I will.” God knows I’ve enjoyed my fair share of first class everything until we went broke. “See, my seat is in the first-class cabin and I think you’d love it there.”
God, this is crazy. I can feel several pairs of eyes on me, but I focus on the lady. She’s so stunned that I have to ask her again. She nods her head quickly as her eyes well up with tears.
“Oh my God, nothing as nice as that has ever happened to me before,” she whispers, getting up now. “I’ve just lost my house, my husband of twenty years cheated on me with my cousin and his reason for cheating was I wasn’t sexy anymore and that my cousin looks a bit like me so I should take comfort in the fact that he thinks about me each time he does it with her.”
What a pig.
She’s about to hug me but I stiffen, and she notices. “Oh, I’m sorry I just…”
And now I feel like a bitch.
“I’m sorry, I’m not really a hugger but I do think you deserve good things to happen in your life,” I rush to say, literally thrusting my ticket in her hands so she can go find her seat up there.
“I have no idea what to say,” she gushes, covering her mouth with her palm. Bless her heart, she’s been through some shitty times but I’m not doing this to be kind. I’m a selfish bitch, that’s what.
“Just say you’ll enjoy the flight,” I whisper, my throat tight.
With that, she quickly grabs her stuff and gives me a warm smile then leaves to enjoy her flight in luxury that I never asked for. I’d rather fly in the cargo hold than take shit I never asked for from someone unknown.
A rush of relief slams into me when I store my bag in the overhead compartment. At least back here, I should be safe. For a moment I think I might have overreacted. Maybe coincidences do actually happen.
Really, Mia? A coincidence? The universe is rarely so lazy. You know that.
Whatever, I’m choosing to hang on to the notion so I make my way toward my seat, passing by the kind gentleman who gives me a warm smile like one would give a stranger about to join you on an eleven-hour flight.