Sink Into Me

When my alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning, I was not ready to be awake. I opened my eyes and slowly dragged myself out of bed. I trudged into my tiny kitchen to make my coffee. I set it to brew and took a shower while I was waiting for it to finish. Twenty minutes later I’d had three cups of coffee and was ready to leave for the airport. I arrived at the airport and got in line to check my bags and go through security; thirty minutes later I was through. I checked my phone and saw that I had time to kill so I went in search of coffee.

“Oh thank god I’m not a Starbucks girl,” I muttered observing the long line as I passed it on my way in search of Dunkin Donuts.

After I’d gotten my extremely large coffee, I went to find my gate. When I found it, I also found most of the guys sitting there waiting. Patrick Sharp noticed me first and waved me over to where he was sitting.

“Hey Mae, to what do I owe the pleasure of you gracing my presence this trip?” he questioned, flirting shamelessly.

I laughed and lightly smacked him in the shoulder. “If you don’t cut that out, I’m going to tattle to Abby and tell her to put you on a shorter leash,” I laughingly told him. “But to answer your question, Jack is having knee surgery, which I don’t think he told really anyone about, and so I’m taking over the stuff out on the road while he’s out recuperating.”

Sharp and I continued chatting until he stopped suddenly and started rummaging around in his bag until he pulled out his phone. “I have to show you this video I took of Maddie the other day!” I could tell from his tone of voice just how much he loved his little girl; he was wrapped around her little finger.

I heard someone plop down on the seat next to mine. I turned and found Kane slumped down holding a huge jug of orange juice. I smirked. “Don’t let me say I told you so, but you knew what would happen if you went out last night. You play, you pay.”

“Shut the fuck up Mae,” he mumbled. “I’m pretty sure I drank a bar dry and fucked like three girls last night.”

“Eww Pat don’t tell me that,” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “We’re friends but I don’t want to hear about your sex life.” I waited for him to give me a smart retort and when he didn’t, I turned to look at him. I found him shaking his head before closing his eyes to lessen the effects of his hangover.

Half an hour later everyone had boarded and I found myself seated between Sharp and Jon. Jon looked hung over too but not quite as bad as Kane. Once we were seated, I turned to Jon. “So, on a scale of one to Kane how hard did you go last night?” I asked laughing.

“Not funny Mae,” he moaned. “I may not be as hung over as Kane but fuck, I drank way to much last night.” He paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before continuing. “I really need to stop letting Kane convince me to go out with him.”

We continued to talk until the flight attendant’s voice came over the system telling us that our seat belts needed to be buckled because we were taking off shortly. I started to grip the armrests. I hadn’t told anyone but I hated flying; I wouldn’t have called it a fear but the feelings I got during take-off and touch-down scared me. I felt the plane start to take off and I gripped the armrests tighter.

Jon noticed and grabbed my left hand. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned.
I managed a weak smile. “I hate flying.”

He gripped my hand tighter. “It’s okay, Mae, nothing bad will happen. Just hold my hand if you need to.”

“Thanks Jon, you’re a peach,” I told him gripping his hand a little tighter and smiling a little.

Notes

This second chapter took a little longer than I thought to get out because I've been busy working. Let me know what you thought!