The airport didn’t know what hit them.
We were all standing on the sidewalk outside O’Hare, waiting, as group after group showed up.
Matt. Tony. Chester. Guy. All of whom had been quiet at Matt’s party. I kept forgetting they were there, but they were. Then my group: Torie, Tamara, Melissa, Liam, Carl, Dax, Shyam, and three more of the guys. Hoda. She was in the classmate crew.
When everyone arrived, three vans pulled up. We were all loaded inside.
We were driven to a private section of the airport, and everyone piled out. We were led into a private sitting area, and that’s when my bad-idea-surprise was waiting inside. Cedar and Fleur were all smiles to the guys, all chilly attitudes to the girls—except to me. With me, they were just wary.
Matt pulled me aside, wanting to know what the hell I’d been thinking.
I told him the truth. “You need distracting. I don’t know who’s more distracting than those two girls.”
He scowled. “They’re bitches.”
“Exactly.”
The idea, though horrible for me, did have merit, and Matt was seeing that now.
He still scowled at me. “You know they’re going to torture you.”
I nodded. I was already tired and it hadn’t even started. “I know.”
Then he softened, drew me in for a hug. “What’d I do to deserve such a good sister?”
I grinned. “Our father likes to have unprotected sex.”
He barked out a laugh, letting me go. “No doubt. I didn’t inherit the unprotected sex part, but I think I got my weakness for women from him.”
“Matt.” I hit him in the chest.
He shrugged just as an airport staff member approached the group, saying our plane was ready to board.
Matt sighed behind me. “I asked to use the jet, but we got too many people.”
“Poor Matthew Francis, having to fly on a commercial flight.” We were led onto the plane first, taken in to cut in front of the entire line of passengers waiting at the desk. They’d put us on a big-ass plane. Most of us were in first class. The rest of the group was put in the Economy Plus section.
“Miss Francis. Mr. Francis.” The flight attendants were all bright smiles. Now I got why we were getting the special treatment. I hadn’t forgotten, but at the same time, I had. Taking one of the seats by the window, I swung in and leaned forward to Matt, who’d taken the seat in front of me. “I’ve been so wrapped up in who Kash is that I forgot who Peter is.”
Matt threw me a look, a slight tug at his lip. “We can get sequestered away from the real world sometimes. Makes it easy to forget.”
Tony dumped his bag onto the chair next to Matt but kept going to a back seat.
Melissa took the seat next to me.
Torie and Tamara sat next to each other, but I saw, once we were in the air, that Tony was next to Tamara and Guy was next to Torie.
I texted Kash.
I feel like I’m on a school trip.
I waited, but no response.
Maybe he was somewhere he didn’t have reception.
I wouldn’t think about it until later.
But later would be too late.