Crash

 

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Chapter 1

1

Present Day

Addison

 

 

“This is your last boarding call for Flight 196 to Halifax.”

Addison could hear the announcement repeated in french as she made her way into the large jet, the wind whipping her hair around her face. It was October 13, and it was a Friday.

Addison had never been one to cry when she broke a mirror at the thought of 7 years of bad luck, or worn rabbits feet or freaked out because a black cat crossed her path. She thought all of that superstitious stuff was a bunch of rubbish, to be honest. To her it just seemed to prove how idiotic people were.

Despite this, there was something about Friday the Thirteenth that Addy didn't like. She wasn't going to stay inside and avoid doing anything or refuse to fly or do anything as juvenile as that: she wasn't actually crazy, after all. But she did find herself eyeballing the plane that she was climbing into with more trepidation than usual, and watching her feet very carefully as she stepped into the plane, walking past the flight attendant and down the isle to her seat near the back of the jet. Addy was no stranger to flying and had never felt any real anxiety at the thought of it, but as she sat down in her window seat she had to quell a general sense of unease. It was probably just the anticipation of going home, she decided. She had been away for three weeks, and while she was far from homesick she couldn't wait to see her twin sister Ever and the rest of her family.

Ever was Addy's best friend. Younger than Addy by exactly three minutes and thirty three seconds, she was also Addy's polar opposite. Where Addison was quiet and reserved, an obvious introvert, Ever was as extroverted as a person could possibly be. She was loud and friendly, easygoing and fun loving. While Addy loved her, she had always found that she was living in her sister's shadow- the loud, pretty twin and the quiet, plain one. It was too stereotypical for her liking.

Addy sighed as she pulled a blanket out of her carry on, getting ready for her two hour flight to Halifax. It wasn't a very long flight, but she had been up since 6 am to give herself enough time to make it to the airport in Washington. A two hour and some odd minute flight to Montreal and then a two hour layover had left her feeling tired and irritable and ready to be home.

She looked up as a young man about her own age sat down in the seat next to her. He was tall and what Addy would describe as 'gawky,' with nerd glasses and messy blonde hair that he hadn't even bothered to brush out before coming to the airport. He was talking on his cellphone with his girlfriend, judging by the repeated use of the word 'baby'.

Addy grimaced to herself at the word and dug around in her Coach purse until she found her IPhone5. She plugged in her earbuds and blasted Lana Del Rey's 'Summertime Sadness' in an attempt drown out the incredibly sappy conversation going on beside her. She ignored the twinge of jealousy that she felt as Loud Boy told his girlfriend emphatically that he missed her so much already. Who needed a relationship like that? She hoped she had never been that annoying. Surely not. Her chihuahua, Kira, had more social skills than him. At least she knew when to shut up. Loud Boy didn't even seem to notice the disapproving look of the matronly lady sitting across the isle. He just kept jabbering on, saying over and over how much he loved whoever was on the other end of the call, how much he missed his 'baby' and that he would see her soon. After about three minutes, Addy swore that he had told her these three things approximately twenty times. Finally they seemed to be saying goodbye- Loud Boy was telling Lisa (apparently that was her name) that he would call her as soon as he could and that she was his whole world more sappy stuff that made Addy want to gag. She cast him a cold glance as he finally ended the call, after the whole 'I love you more' 'no, I love you more' 'that's not possible I love you most' and 'I said it first' exchange that young couples were required by law to make. Judging by this, Addy guessed that they had been dating about two to three months. Long enough to say the L word, but not long enough that the novelty had worn off and they realized that the other person was only human and not a perfect soulmate as they had previously believed.

“I was talking to my girlfriend. She's back at home, in Texas.” Loud Boy said, stating the obvious. He smiled at Addy and extended a hand. He had a nice smile- it almost made up for the distinct drawl that Addy found rather aggravating. “I'm Jason.” Ahm Jay-sawn.

“Addison” Addy said grudgingly, shaking his hand briefly. Finally her upbringing won over and she smiled at him. “What brings you to the frigid north?” she asked, starting a pleasant conversation although she really wanted to sleep and ignore the stranger (and his accent). Addy was raised to be kind and polite to everyone, no matter what you thought of them, and could not just blow someone off no matter how much she wanted to.

“I'm going to visit my grandma. She's not doing so well” Jason answered easily, tilting back his seat and crossing his legs.

“I'm sorry.” Addy wasn't sure what she was supposed to say other than that.

“Thank you. She just had heart surgery and needs some help so I'm staying with her for a couple of months until she's okay to be on her own. Grandpa died last year and she's pretty lonely... she lives in the country and has some people that come out and help her take care of the animals, but she's all alone in that house and I think she'll be happy for the company.”

Wow, thanks for that scintillating look into your boring life Addy thought sarcastically. “That's good of you to visit her. I'm sure she'll be glad to have you visit.” She smiled politely, her words sweet even though inwardly she was rolling her eyes. If Ever had been there she would have burst out laughing at what she called 'Addy's dead-eyed smile.' Addy could have the sweetest smile on her face but her eyes made it clear that she was not impressed.

“I think she will be.” Ah thank shay way-ell be. Jason glanced down at his phone, swiping the screen a couple of times. “This is my girlfriend. Lisa.” He held up his phone, which displayed a picture of a curvy blonde wearing a crop top and sticking out her tongue while she leaned towards the camera, her green eyes sparkling.

“She's very pretty” Addison said sincerely. Someone who did not consider herself pretty, she was always quick to recognize beauty in others. She had a round face that made her look quite a bit younger than her eighteen years, white skin, cupid's bow lips, plain brown eyes, straight brown hair that she could never seem to manage, and to add insult to injury she stood at an unimpressive 5'2. Her curvy figure was one of the only things that Addy liked about herself. Of course, she wasn't one of those people who knew she wasn't gorgeous and took that as a license not to try. Whenever she went out in public she made an effort to look her best- her eyes were always done in the Naked pallet by Urban Decay, lined with black liner, her mascara done perfectly. Thankfully she didn't have to worry about her skin- she had inherited her mother's clear complexion and the most she ever did use on her face was a light dusting of powder and a touch of blush. Finished off with a nude lipstick, Addy considered herself a solid 5 on a scale of 1-10. On a good day. On a bad day, she was approximately a -2. This in itself would not have been so bad if she had been the prettiest of her friends. But she wasn't. Ever was tall and slender, with strawberry blonde hair, perfect pouting lips and high cheekbones. The fact that they were twins was unbelievable to Addy. The only thing that the two shared were their large brown eyes, often the thing that revealed to people that they were sisters. On a bad day, Ever was a 5. On a good day, she was an easy 8.5. She hardly even wore makeup, to Addy's annoyance. Next to her, she always felt overdone, like she was trying too hard.

And then there was Aria. Best friends with Ever and Addy since they were young, Aria was 5'5, with perfect fair skin, huge green-grey eyes, and wavy blonde hair that was currently dyed purple ombre. On anyone else, the colour would have looked ridiculous. Aria looked like a model. On basically every day, Aria was a 12. Not only was she gorgeous, but Aria had a confidence that drew people in, a vivacious personality that made people want to be her best friend. Some days, Addy loved her for it. Other days, she hated her. When she was with Ever and Aria, she was never the centre of attention. Girls would rather be friends with the bubbly, friendly duo than with pessimistic, withdrawn Addy. Boys only had eyes for the rebellious beauty Aria and everyone's dream girl Ever. No one ever noticed plain Addy, standing in the corner and watching.

Well, one person had. But she didn't want to think about him.

“How long have you two been dating?” Addy asked Jason, wanting to get him out of her mind.

“Ten weeks now. I asked her out after she graduated, since she didn't want to date in highschool.” Ten weeks. Two and a half months. Just like Addy had guessed.

Jason smiled at the picture, then up at Addy. “I love her, you know? I know we're young- I'm only nineteen, after all- but I know she's the one. I want to be with her forever. I haven't told her yet- I don't want to tell her too soon or whatever, but I know that she's the only person I want to be with.”

“Don't say it too soon” Addy said sharply. “Make sure that you're sure before you tell her, make sure that you aren't just going to leave her. If you tell her too soon then she'll feel pressured to say it back and once she does then you'll leave her and she'll hate herself for giving that part of herself to you and she'll question everything you ever said or did.” She clenched her jaw, staring straight ahead at the seat in front of her. “If you tell her that she's the only one too soon, she'll wonder how many other girls you said that to, she'll wonder how many 'one and only's' you've had. And she'll wonder if maybe she's just one in a long line of girls.” She laughed suddenly, awkwardly. “Then again, maybe I'm completely off base. Maybe you should tell her, maybe she is the one for you. It's not like I have any experience.” She ignored the look that Jason gave her, the look full of pity and understanding that she hated. Because really, what right did anyone have to look at her that way? Like they knew her, knew what she had gone through, and felt bad for her, like they knew better and pitied her for being so hard. No one understood.

“So tell me about her. Tell me why you love her” Addy said quietly, still not looking at Jason.

“That's like asking me what water tasted like” Jason said thoughtfully. Or maybe that was just his slow accent that made his words sound careful and thought-through. “Well, she likes to laugh. And she makes me laugh at the stupidest things. She doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her but she cares what I think. I like that she cares. She pretends to be all brave but I know she's terrified of kittens and thunderstorms.” He pronounced it like 'ki'en' instead of 'kitten', so it took Addy a second to realize what he meant. “And when she smiles, it makes me want to smile too.” He shrugged, seeming for the first time to be self-conscious. “Y'all don't even know how much I like this girl. It's sort of crazy and it scares the heck out of me.”

“Believe me, I know” Addy muttered, too low for Jason to hear. “She sounds really nice” she said lamely, suddenly done with the conversation. All she wanted to do was blast her music and tune out the world for the extent of her flight.

“She is.” Thankfully the flight attendant started his safety spiel and Jason seemed transfixed by the man's french accent, giving Addy a moment's reprieve to turn her back to Jason as best she could. She pretended to listen to the flight attendant, but she had heard it all before and could basically do the routine herself so she really just stared at his face and tried to figure out if he was wearing makeup or if his eyelashes were just unnaturally long.

As soon as the flight attendant- Addy mentally called him Lashes- finished his instructions, she put her earbuds in and popped a piece of gum into her mouth. She offered a piece to Jason, who was looking quite pale. He stared at it like it was a foreign object.

With a sigh, Addy pulled one earbud out. “You okay?” she asked, praying that he wouldn't puke as soon as they took off.

“Yeah, I think so. But this is only my second time on a plane- this morning was my first flight- and it's sort of scary because you know we're in a hunk of metal and it's being propelled through the air at thousands of feel and it's full of highly flammable fuel and there's not much that the pilot can do if something happens and last time I flew my ears hurt and I couldn't hear anything-”

“Jason, shut up. Take a piece of gum, it will help to keep your ears from popping. Just keep chewing.” Addy pressed a piece of gum into his hands, meeting his hazel eyes evenly. “Now breathe, just calm down. Statistically speaking, flying is much safer than driving. Pilots have a lot more training than your average driver, and the amount of safety precautions that they take are unbelievable. You'll be fine. You're not going to puke.” She added this last part as she noticed that he was turning a pale shade of green. “Jason! Focus on my voice. You. Are. Not. Going. To. Puke. If you do, I will kill you.”

Jason managed a weak chuckle. “You sound like Lisa. That's what she says when I look like I'm going to throw up in the car. That's the one thing that I don't like about her- she never lets me drive because she says I'll get sick.”

“You mean you have motion sickness? Did you at least take Gravol or something?”

“Well...” Jason trailed off sheepishly. “I was going to but I was talking to Lisa and-”

“Seriously?” Addy's voice jumped a pitch and she went digging through her bag. “For goodness sakes” she muttered, finally coming up with a pack of the small purple tablets. “Swallow” she demanded, popping them into Jason's hand. “And don't you dare puke them up because they're my last ones.”

“But I have gum!” Jason protested.

“SWALLOW. Now.” Addy was done trying to be polite. She glared at Jason. “I swear that if you puke I will make you hurt. I hate puke. If you puke, I will puke. And I am not going to throw up on a plane in front of people, so you'd better shut your mouth and swallow the freaking pills before I have a nervous breakdown and smash your face against the back of that seat. At least then I'll have some peace and quiet.”

“I can't swallow the pills if my mouth is closed- you know what? I'm going to shut up now” Jason said, catching the cold glint in Addy's eyes and shuddering ever so slightly. He swallowed the pills, choking a bit since he didn't have any water.

“Now. We're about to take off. Remember Jason. Don't you dare throw up.” Addy turned her back to Jason again and put in her other earbud, cranking up the volume on her iPone until she was immersed in Maroon 5's 'Misery.' For awhile at least, the world faded away and she was alone with herself. And her memories.

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