I look over at my mom and give her a dirty look. She’s too busy doing something on her phone to even notice. When did she get a Smartphone? I shouldn’t be surprised, pretty much everything about her has changed since I last saw her.
I look out my window as we leave Greenville, heading toward Salem. She mentioned that a plane was waiting, but the closest airport is three hours away. This is going to be a long ride.
“I didn’t want this, trust me,” she says.
I ignore her. If she didn’t want this, then why the heck is she making me leave? It still feels unreal. I can’t believe when I woke up this morning the first thing I saw was Logan and now… now I don’t know when I’ll see him again. I force myself not to cry. I’m not about to give her the satisfaction.
“I know you probably don’t believe me, but it’s the truth.”
She’s right, I don’t believe her. I’ll never believe anything she ever tells me. Not after what she put our family through and especially not after today.
We sit in silence for the next few minutes. I’m not saying a word to her and I think she’s finally starting to understand that.
“How much longer, Tony?”
“About twenty minutes,” he says, glancing over his shoulder at us.
She lets out a sigh. Now I’m just confused. I assumed that we were going to an airport. Where could we be going that’s only twenty minutes away?
Out of the corner of my eye I can see that my mom is still on her phone. There was a time that I would ask her who she was texting, but now… I don’t care and she probably wouldn’t tell me anyway.
I pull out my phone so I can text Logan. There’s already a message from him.
I miss you.
I want to cry. Leaving Logan is going to be the worst part about all of this.
I miss you.
I stare out the window as I wait for his reply. I feel my phone vibrate in my hand and I look at the screen.
I can’t lose you.
You won’t. I’m going to get away from here as soon as possible.
It crosses my mind that I could always just refuse to go with her or try to run once the car stops, but what good would that really do? I probably wouldn’t make it very far and I have a feeling she would just call the cops on me.
Don’t do anything you’ll regret.
He must have known what I was thinking. I know he’s right. I need to convince her to let me leave or I’m going to be stuck in Los Angeles until my birthday. There’s no way I can last that long with my mom and without Logan.
Am I really going to have to live with her until my birthday?
As if right on cue, my mom lets out a little giggle. I shoot her an irritated glance, but she doesn’t even look up from her phone.
Who is she? It's still hard for me to look at her and see my mother. It’s like she’s a completely different person in such a short amount of time. Is this what happens when you move to Hollywood?
I don’t know that you have any other choice.
My heart sinks. I know he’s right, it’s just so hard to swallow. I feel like Logan is the only thing in my life that has gone right in the last couple of months and she is taking me away from him.
I already need to kiss you.
I hate my mom.
I turn my head just enough so that I can glare at her while I wait for his reply. She smiles as she looks at her phone. I never thought I would feel this much anger for another human being, especially for her.
Me too.
The car turns down a dirt road I’ve never noticed before, but probably have passed a thousand times. We are less than thirty minutes outside of Greenville and I didn’t think there was really much of anything out here. Where the heck are we going?
We pass a row of tall trees and cross into a massive open field. The dirt road turns into pavement as we drive. I peek around the front headrest and see a plane. This is definitely not what I was expecting. I had no idea there was even an airport here.
Tony brings the car to a stop just shy of the plane, hops out of the car and opens my mom’s door. I open my own door and get out. He opens the trunk and grabs my bags before I can protest.
The plane has a pointed nose, a blue stripe down the side, on the tail it says ‘G650’ and the tips of the wings are upturned. It looks fancy, with an engine on either side near the tail, but it’s not like any plane I’ve ever seen. It’s pretty small and just has eight windows down the side.
My mom walks up the stairs and into the plane. As my hand touches the railing I freeze. I’ve never been on a plane before. We could never afford it and had to always drive when we took one of our rare family vacations. Now that I’m thinking about it, is this actually safe? This plane seems so small. My mom pokes her head back out of the door and glares at me.
“Amy, get on this plane right now.”
I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and lift my right foot onto the first step. I force myself to climb the rest of the way and finally open my eyes as I step through the door.
It’s much nicer inside than a regular plane, or what I think a regular plane is like on the inside. The only knowledge I have of planes is from movies and TV.
I pass through an area that looks like a kitchen on the left and there’s a bathroom on the right. Instead of rows and rows of seats, there are just six large chairs that look almost like recliners. The floors are carpeted, there are wood accents along the walls and built in cup holders.
My mom is sitting in the first chair on my right. I walk by her without making eye contact and sit in the last chair on the left, trying to put myself as far away from her as possible.
A woman comes out of the cockpit and closes the door behind herself. She is wearing a gray skirt suit, a white shirt and has her brown hair in a bun. She opens a cabinet in the small kitchen up front and takes out a bottle of champagne. The flight attendant grabs a glass from another cabinet and walks over to my mom and pours her a drink.
I look out the window and watch the grass that lines the landing strip as the wind gently blows.
“Miss?”
I turn my attention to the flight attendant. She hands me a bottle of water and I put it in my cup holder.
“Would you like me to bring you a snack before we take off?”
I shake my head. The last thing I’m thinking about right now is eating.
“My name is Tina, by the way, and if you need anything during the flight just let me know.”
“Thanks.”
She smiles at me and walks away. I pick up the bottle of water and look out the window as I twist the cap off. It’s still weird that I’m on a plane, in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention, I never imagined that the first time I flew on a plane it was going to be a private jet.
I feel like if this was any other day, and I was with any other person, I would be so excited.
I hear a whine, coming from outside, that is getting louder and louder as the engines start. It turns into a roar and the plane starts to creep forward. The plane turns so that it is straight on the runway and it starts to pick up speed.
The nose of the plane lifts off the ground and the tail follows. The sheer force pins me to my seat. I look out the window briefly but the ground is so blurred that it makes me feel nauseous.
The plane turns to the right as we continue to climb. I look to the front of the plane and see the flight attendant sitting in a seat that folds out of the wall near the kitchen. She smiles at me as if she can tell that this is my first time on a plane. I force myself to smile back.
After a few minutes the plane levels out and I feel like I can breathe again. I have no idea why anyone would want to travel like this if they had any other choice.
When the plane levels out again I look out the window just in time to see Salem passing below us. It seems so small from up here. Just looking at it reminds me of Logan, and the time I thought we were going to spend there together. I have to look away.
Tina is up and moving around, doing something in the kitchen. I pull out my phone to text Logan. There’s a message from him waiting for me.
We will get through this, I promise.
“You won’t get service up here,” Tina says.
I look down at my phone. She’s right, I have no service at all. I set it on the chair between my legs.
“Here,” she says, holding out a steaming towel. “Wipe your hands with this, it’s warm and it feels really good.”
She smiles at me as I take the towel. She was right, it feels amazing. Tina waits for me to finish with the towel and then takes it back. She smiles again and then heads back to the front of the plane.
I pick up my phone and look at it again, expecting that I will magically have service, but I don’t. I shut it off to save the battery and put it in my pocket. I let out a sigh and look out the window. It’s amazing to watch the ground as we fly above it. It all looks so small and insignificant, which is how I’m feeling right about now.
I have no idea how long this flight is going to take, but I already know that it’s going to feel like a lifetime. I close my eyes and try to push every thought out of my mind.