AN: Before you read this, know that almost all of it is true. The names have all been changed, but it's based on my orchestra trip. So if you are reading this and think "Holy shit, I remember that!" stop reading! There's only like, maybe five or six people who would remember most of this other than me, only one person who would remember all of it. Well, except for the thoughts. But I don't think any of those people have Fiction Press accounts, or read or anything. If you do and want me to change something because you think people will be able to track you down, then I will.

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Plane rides are great. You know why? Because you get to spend hours sitting in one position next to the same person who is snoring loudly and obnoxiously while you try and talk to your friends over said snoring person because you got window seat and your friends are across the isle. Yeah, did you catch the sarcasm? God, I hate plane rides.

“Annie, did you hear what I just said?” Isabelle snapped at me. I looked blankly at her.

“Sorry Izzy, I can’t really hear or concentrate on much right now, not with the snoring.”

“Well wake him up and tell him to switch with you!” Jake told me, looking up from the Rubik’s Cube.

“Jake, gimme my Rubik’s Cube!” Izzy snapped.

“NO! I have to solve it!”

“Yeah! Besides, he’s the heir to the Golden Cube!” I protested, bringing up our earlier conversation about how if you solved the Rubik’s Cube just right, it would float apart, and the Golden Cube would be presented, and it would end poverty and wars. We got really bored.

“God, shut the fuck up about your stupid Golden Cube thing!” Izzy yelled. That jolted the snoring guy awaked.

“What’s going on? What time is it? Are we there yet?” he asked groggily.

“Shut up, switch seats with Annie and go back to sleep, Hunter,” Jake ordered. Hunter nodded groggily and we switched seats.

“So what were you saying earlier, Izzy?”

“I don’t freaking remember!” she exclaimed.

“Listen to the music! It will make you feel better,” Alex said, offering his iPhone ear buds. Izzy turned down the ear buds but I jumped at the chance to get any closer to Alex. He was really cute, pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, a really goofy smile. And he gave everyone the pedophile smile except me. It made me feel special.

”I’ll listen!” I shouted. I shifted back a seat, so I could sit across the isle from him. The seat next to me was empty, but had a bunch of bags in it. “What am I listening to?”

“Girls by Beastie Boys. Really sexist, but pretty funny!” he laughed. I grinned and took the ear bud he wasn’t using.

Girls to do the dishes! Girls to clean up my room! Girls to do the laundry! That’s all I really want is girls!

“Wow, Alex. Nice song,” I said dryly. “It was funny, though!” He laughed and nodded. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and noticed Izzy and Jake involved in talk either about goat’s blood or school, I couldn’t really tell them apart. So I felt no guilt in continuing to discuss music and other random things with Alex. So that’s how we spent about an hour of our eight hour plane ride. See, our orchestra went to Spain to perform and meet with some world famous director who was old friends with our director, and so we went to Europe for two weeks. Now we were on our plane ride back to America, to the great city of Houston, Texas. It is a pretty great city. But it was pretty Central America, so we had a pretty long plane ride to and from Spain. I met Alex over there, on the trip, I mean. He was a grade older than me, a senior in high school, and didn’t play the same instrument as me, therefore, we never saw each other before this trip. Well, I mean we must have passed each other in the halls, but you pass people every day and don’t notice them unless you know them or they look weird. He played first violin (melody) and I played contrabass (the really big low one). We ended up in the same group for running around Madrid, and we kind of hit it off. Totally accidentally, but we did. He was a really great, funny person. Way more experienced and mature than me in every way, (and yes, more experienced and mature in that way too) but still a great person. And I did kind of like him, starting with a little nudge from my old best friend Madeline.

Flashback

“Am I crazy, or is Cameron really cute?” I asked, knowing Madeline would be the one to ask. She gave me a huge smile.

“Are you kidding? Everyone knows that Cameron is so fucking delicious!!!” she squealed.

“Good, I was just making sure I wasn’t crazy.”

“Oh, no, not at all. Not that many other guys are cute. Especially on this trip. They’re either not cute, or taken. You’re lucky you’ve got the decent ones in your group.” I grinned and nodded. “Do you think he’s cute?” she asked, discreetly nodding at a guy across the restaurant. I looked over and shrugged.

“Tyler? No, not really. The guy next to him is cuter,” I said, meaning Alex. At that point I didn’t really know either of them, though they were both in my group. Madeline looked over and smiled hugely and nodded.

“Oh yes, he’s much cuter.”

“What would you like to eat, dear?” a nice old flight attendant lady asked me, jolting me out of my flashback. I looked up and saw the old flight attendant lady with a food cart.

“Oh wow, is it lunch time already?”

“Yes dear, now would you like roast beef or chicken or a salad? And what would you like to drink?”

“Uh, roast beef and a Sprite, I think,” I smiled at her. She handed me a black plastic package and a can of Sprite. She turned across the isle to Alex.

“What would you like dear?” she asked him.

“Chicken and a Coke.”

“Not a fan of roast beef?” I asked, opening my package of food. He laughed.

“Not really. Not a fan of limp lettuce either.”

“I see.” We ate silently, watching the video for and listening to another song on his iPhone. It was really weird. It was called “A Little Piece of Heaven” by Avenged Sevenfold and it was about a girl that refused a marriage proposal, so her would be fiancé killed her and ate her heart. Then she came back and haunted him and killed him, and they became zombie serial killers together and got married in hell. And there were a bunch of skeletons that kept going “Eat it! Eat it!” about people’s hearts.

“That was really weird,” I said after we had finished the video. He had been laughing at my expression the entire time, bright blue eyes dancing. I knew because I had kept looking at him out of the corner of my eye. He was really cute.

“Yeah. Really disturbing.” I grinned.

“I have a really funny song!” I pulled out my old ipod, a black 30 gig classic and handed him an ear bud while I searched for the correct song. “Okay! Here we go!” “The Clap” by Perez Hilton began playing. I watched his face while we listened, laughing outright at some parts. Let’s just say it’s a pretty dirty, weird song. And so gay. It’s about STD’s, and it’s the guy singing to some other guy. Really a funny song. When it finished he grinned his really cute grin.

“I dunno, I think my song was a bit creepier,” he said, smiling.

“Yeah, yours was creepier, but mine was funnier. I have a kind of creepy song. Like, the first time I heard it, I started crying it freaked me out so much.”

“Wow. Let us listen!” I laughed and selected “They’re Coming to Take Me Away” by Napoleon XIV.

“It’s pretty funny once you’ve heard it a lot.” Again, I watched and laughed at his reaction to the song.

“That made you cry?” he teased, poking me with his plastic fork.

“I was ten!” I defended. “Besides, it was creepy!” He laughed again and nodded.

“Okay, if you were ten. Geeze, what kind of music did you listen to?”

“My dad’s music. Because he wouldn’t let me even freely use iTunes for about a month after I got my iPod in seventh grade. And then when I got his laptop, he had blocked me from even listening to explicit songs. It was crap. So I had to figure out how to lift parental controls. And any time the laptop, who’s name was Frankie, was on, he could see what I was doing if he was on his computer. I don’t think he could check my history. But Frankie died recently, so I got a new computer, and I haven’t named her yet, but I’m sure it’s a she.”

“Wow. Sounds like a fun dad,” he commented, finishing his Coke.

“Oh yeah. If I say ‘crap’ I get screamed at for cussing. But with my mom I can say ‘fuck’ if something’s really bad. She doesn’t like me to though.

“Trash? Would you like to throw your trash away?” the same kindly old lady asked. I smiled at her and threw away the black plastic lunch container and Sprite can. Alex thanked her and did the same.

“Hey, you wanna sit next to me? I think we’re blocking people with the iPod ear buds,” Alex offered. I grinned and nodded. He moved over a chair so he was sitting next to the window and I moved to sit next to him. He started fiddling with the armrest in between us, pushing it up and down.

“Up or down?” he asked, moving it continually.

“I don’t care,” I said, leaning back in the chair.

“You decide.”

“Why me? I don’t care!” He just looked at me as he continued pushing it up and down. “Fine, up!” I decided, putting my hand on his and pushing it up. I frowned internally. There were no sparks. Everything I had heard was that there were supposed to be sparks or tingles when your hands touched, and there was nothing. So what did that mean? Could nothing ever happen? Or was it just one of those things that are amazingly romantic that authors make money off of? He grinned at me and leaned back in the seat. Strangely enough, now there was no music I wanted him to listen to. We sat there silently for a bit when I decided to break the awkward silence. I put my hand on his knee.

“Are you nervous?” I asked. He grinned and shook his head. This was the nervous game. You put your hand on someone’s knee, and ask if they’re nervous. You keep moving up their leg until you hit their crotch or they say they’re nervous. Usually the person moving their hand gets nervous first because they don’t want to fondle someone, and the other person is lying. It’s a lot of fun. But then earlier we were all attacking Alex, and Jack shoved his hand in Alex’s face and told me to put my hand on his crotch ‘cause I was the only girl paying attention, and he wanted to make Alex nervous. Needless to say, I refused.

“Nope.” I moved my hand up a few inches.

“Are you nervous?” I repeated. Again he shook his head. I moved my hand up further.

“Now?” He shook his head again. I looked down at where my hand was, trying to judge how nervous I was. Once more. “Are you nervous now?”

“I told you earlier, I never loose at this game.” I grinned and pulled my hand off his leg.

“Just try and beat me.” He laughed and accepted my challenge. He covered my knee with his hand.

“Nervous?”

“Nope!” He moved up a few inches, the same as I had.

“Nervous?” I shook my head and moved up more. “Nervous?”

“I don’t loose either.” He moved his hand up once more, now at the crease where my leg bent.

“Now?” he smirked. I swallowed.

“A bit.”

“Does that mean I win?”

“No,” I responded stubbornly.

“Damnit, I am.” I grinned and stuck my tongue out at him.

“I win!” He pouted adorably at me. “Aww, poor baby. Do you want me to loose so you can feel better?”

“Yes,” he said, his pout melting into an excited smile. We started the game again, on my knee, then farther up. When he was a hand move away from molesting me I caved and told him I was nervous. He made a funny little happy sound and hugged me awkwardly from our position sitting next to each other. “Thank you!” I laughed and hugged him back.

“Any time,” I said. I placed my hand lightly on my thigh, closing my eyes and resting my head back on the seat rest. Suddenly I felt something on the back of my hand. I glanced down and saw Alex had placed his hand on top of mine. I twisted mine so it was palm up and laced our fingers. I glanced shyly at him to make sure he was okay with that. He looked down at our hands and rubbed his thumb lightly and soothingly over mine. My stomach fluttered. Not like butterflies, but like everything was gone from my stomach and it made room for the really excited feeling. This was better than tingling.

“You should sleep,” he said softly.

“So should you. I heard that when Jake gets caffeineated coffee he can’t fall asleep,” I said, my eyes laughing at him. Alex laughed. Last night we (Alex and Izzy and Jake and me) had all been up in the lobby of the hotel because we got kicked out of the stairwells and the fifth floor next to the elevators. Apparently we were playing hackey sack too loud. So we went down to the lobby, got coffee and talked about how we were really nerdy and deprived children. Then we got called out for being out after curfew by our director, but not before Alex gave Jake his coffee, and apparently it was two a.m. before anyone in that room went to sleep.

“So exactly how much sleep have you gotten on this trip?” he asked, poking me with the hand that wasn’t tracing patterns on my hand.

“We got to sleep at about one and get up at seven,” I said after thinking for a minute. “Pretty much every night.”

“So do you get to see them naked?” he asked, grinning.

“Alex! No! Stop being a lesbian voyeurist!” I chastised. “Do you get to see your roommates naked?” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s how I feel about seeing other girls naked. But two guys…”

“I just don’t see how girls could find two guys making out hot.”

“It’s not always. Just like it’s not always hot when a girl and guy make out. But if they’re not being really gross about it, it’s fucking hot! I don’t really see how lesbians is hot, but I understand that guys like it. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to make out with a girl.”

“Well, you know, if you’re ever feeling lesbian urges, I would be fine with watching to make sure you did it right. And see how hot it was. I could film it and show you,” he offered, grinning. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“Okay, well if you ever change your mind, tell me!” I smiled softly and ran my fingers lightly over the back of his hand. Soon he was asleep. I sighed contentedly and continued occasionally rubbing my fingers over his. I closed my eyes but couldn’t fall asleep. It felt so nice to finally have a guy holding my hand. Nothing like this had ever happened to me. I was avoided because of the reputation I gave myself in middle school. I did my best to smooth it over, but all any guy saw me as was the creepy vampire atheist lesbian or a friend. Or someone they wanted to fuck ‘cause I had big boobs, but I don’t like to think about them. So I let my mind drift for the next thirty or so minutes, occasionally talking to Jake and Izzy, but mostly leaving them alone ‘cause they were being creepers. Suddenly I felt Alex stir next to me. I turned and looked at him, smiling softly.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“Hi.” We sat there, staring awkwardly at each other for a minute or two, each of us smiling. I looked down nervously. I glanced up at him shyly and saw he was still looking at me. “You have really pretty eyes,” I whispered. He grinned.

“Thanks. You have pretty eyes too.”

“No I don’t,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “My eyes are river-water green.”

“River-water?”

“Yeah, like it would be nice, but gross shit is growing in the water, and it’s just a really icky color,” I explained. “But your eyes are this really pretty clear blue that’s like you could see through it if they weren’t eyeballs.” He laughed.

“I think your eyes are very nice,” he grinned. I smiled shyly back at him and leaned my head on his shoulder. He pulled his hand out of mine and wrapped his left arm around my shoulders. I leaned my head back on his arm and closed my eyes tiredly. “Do you want to sleep?”

“I’ll try.” I closed my eyes and drifted off into that half sleep, where you’re still aware of everything, but you’re asleep. I could tell when I had a dream and jerked my foot violently. I could tell when Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket to respond to a text. A bit later I found I couldn’t sleep any more, no matter how sleep deprived I was. I looked up at Alex and blinked a few times.

“Hi,” he greeted.

“Hey,” I smiled. “How long was I asleep?”

“About thirty minutes, I think. You didn’t miss anything.” I grinned at him and leaned back into his arm.

“Sorry about all the jerking around. I don’t sleep well on planes or busses or cars or anything.”

“It’s fine,” he assured me, smiling. I rested my head slightly on his arm again, mostly on my headrest, but tilted slightly towards him. I closed my eyes for a little bit, I was still so tired. When I opened them Alex seemed a bit closer than before. I shrugged it off as being my tired brain playing tricks to give me false hope, because my brain liked to torment me that way. He leaned forwards and leaned his forehead against mine.

“I really want to,” he whispered, our faces an inch apart.

“Then do,” I whispered back, barely believing any of this was happening. Quickly he leaned forwards and pressed his lips softly to mine. The only thing I could think was: oh my God, his lips are so soft, I hate not having had my chap stick for the past few days, my lips are probably gross… He pulled back after a second to judge my reaction. Obviously finding it satisfactory, he rushed back in and kissed me again and again, pressing incredibly soft lips to mine. I kissed him back as best I could, but I’d never kissed anyone before. Just then a male voice came over the speaker.

“The in-flight movie will now be starting on channel eleven. The in-flight movie will be starting on channel eleven. Please enjoy the movie and the rest of your flight.” Alex stopped kissing me and pulled back. I smiled shyly at him.

“Well then,” I said softly. He grinned at me.

“Wanna go out with me?” he asked, smiling like he already knew the answer. I laughed softly.

“Yeah.” I love plane rides.

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AN: I do actually have the Golden Cube story pretty much written.