50 Ways To Spend Your Christmas, Stuck With an Annoyingly Hot Emo Delinquent [16]

The papers were 2ft high I swear to god.

Jean was really reluctant at first, but in the end we managed to win his heart. In a non-creepy way, of course. And nearly on my third week since I came to NJ, I was sitting on a direct flight to California. My mother sat in front of us.

And I couldn't help it but felt as if she was praying silently that the plane won't crash or anything.

Because I was.

Height scared the crap out of me. And when the pilot announced that we were "cruising at 30,000 feet altitude. We hope you'll enjoy the rest of the flight thank you," followed with a faint static noise before all that was left to be heard was the roaring of the engine.

I was not amused by the 30,000 feet information, that's for sure.

But Nathan who sat at the next aisle but on the same row as I did looked pretty calm as he read his copy of a thriller novel. I slumped back in my seat, breathing heavily and trying to calm myself down. I had bad lucks with flights.

The flight back to NJ was a killer. I thought we were all going to die. It turns out to be a strong turbulence.

Once I went back to Britain, I thought a frozen duck hit the window, shattering it to pieces and there was obviously the problem with the air pressure inside the cabin then. It turns out that it was just a dream. This flight was no exception.

Because next to me sat a ridiculously obese man who couldn't stop scratching his ass and farting once every 5 minutes. My friend once joked that the silent farts were the most deadly ones. On the flight to Cali, I was beginning to realize that he wasn't joking after all.

God, at this rate I think I would very much need the emergency oxygen mask to be deployed straight away.

13) Spend the rest of the flight complaining to yourself about the person sitting next to you.

Nearly 6 hours of agony.

6 hours of the man picking his nose and sticking his snot under the seat, sneezing and coughing without covering his mouth, snore in his little naps and his huge arm kept resting on my armrest. Not to mention he spilled the entire orange juice on me.

If I didn't get my skirt dried in time we land, people might think I peed in my underwear.

I couldn't take this. I might jump out of the plane.

I heard the man shifted and I suck my breath in and hold it in to brace myself for the impending, foul fart bomb. But the man stood up with an overwhelming effort and next to me, Nathan sat. "You better thank your lucky stars that I'm doing this for you," he snapped, settling himself on the sunken seat.

He closed the book and set it on his lap. Nathan's eyes closed in a snap of a finger, but he took my hand in his and played with my thumb. I felt a sudden rush of affection all over again as he opened one of his eyes and smiled shyly.

I returned the smile warmly.

Maybe this emo wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

"A limo is waiting for you, Mrs. Cassity," Nate said, pointing towards the white stretched limo. "My aunt made sure you'll enjoy your time here. I need to visit my parents' house before visiting the resort near the spa."

Which by the way, Mr. Hiroyuki owned.

Mom went all starry-eyed.

"Can I bring Charlotte out though?" he asked innocently. "I promise I'll bring her back to you before 8 p.m."

Which used to be my old curfew.

After mom agreed, we took a cab. Even though he didn't show it, but the mood between us got 4 times brighter. "I don't know if I should be happy or if I should be depressed right now actually," he said randomly.

"Most probably depressed," he said shortly after and the cheerfulness died down in a blink of an eye.

"What happened here?" I asked casually, hoping he would answer. But he didn't like usual.

And then my mind drifted to the Google results.

"Let's get something to eat first," said Nathan and he gave a new address to the cabbie. He shot us a look in the rearview mirror and grinned sheepishly. "Good choice of restaurant to go to a date."

Huh?

I quickly looked at Nathan, who was refusing to look straight into my eyes. It was probably because he was blushing furiously.