Scattered Pieces
Part 1
You know how you get that
weird feeling in the pit of your stomach when you’re laying in bed during a
thunderstorm? You run down the hall and race to your parent’s room because you
feel safer and you decide if you get there the storm won’t follow you or hurt
you? I guess that’s sort of the way Lizz and I felt about being apart. Since
all this stuff had happened, especially after
“My god woman, how many suitcases do you own exactly?” I sighed as I heaved yet
another floral patterned suitcase through the open front door.
“Oh come on Nick, that was only the third suitcase so far, I think you’re
getting a little soft on me,” Lizz chided. “You trying to tell me that you
travel light on tour?”
“Yes, I only carry two bags---”
“Plus your playstation, plus your games, plus your
laptop,” Lizz interrupted, counting the items off on her fingers.
“Hey! Those don’t count!” I defended, folding my arms across my chest, sticking
my lower lip out for added effect.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah Carter, tell someone that would believe that one, I bet Brian
travels lighter than you do!” Lizz commented as she gently slapped her hand on
my chest as she slid past me in the front door. “My god Nick, you never told me
how big this place was!”
I closed the front door and followed her into the living room. She was acting
like a kid cut loose in a toy store, going from room to room. “Lizz would ya
slow down? You’re staying here so I’m sure you’ll get to see every room ya
know.”
Grabbing a suitcase, I let out a huge fake groan as I started off towards the
stairs. “Your room is the first on on the left, top
of the stairs.”
“Did you want me to carry that?” Lizz asked, one eyebrow raised in question.
“Nah, I got it, besides, I wanted to add hernia repair to my list of surgical
procedures.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be lifting anything like that anyways and neither should
I,” Lizz commented.
“So you wanna leave your bags downstairs for another 4 -6 weeks?” I questioned,
knowing full well that my face was turning beet red.
“Nope, carry on Boy Wonder,” Lizz coached.
Thirteen steps never seemed that difficult until now. God, I was glad to reach
the top of the stairs. I dragged the suitcase to the door that would be Lizz’s room. I stared at the blank oak door and a thought
came to mind.
“Nick, what are you thinking about?” Lizz asked nervously as she saw the smile
play across his lips.
“We gotta get you one of those door name tags, ya know, the cheap looking mini
license plates that say ‘Lizzard’ or ‘Katie’.”
“Only if you get Nicky or Jack on yours and by the way, where’s your room at?”
“Down at the end of the hall,” I said as I nodded my head towards the
direction.
“Okay, and the bathroom?”
“You have one in your room, smart one,” I snickered.
As I opened the door to her bedroom, I could of sworn I heard her gasp. I
smiled as I turned to see here standing in the doorway, staring with her mouth
agape. “It’s your room, go ahead.”
I followed Lizz into the bedroom, amazed by how taken up she was with
everything in the room. My heart lept into my throat
as she looked appreciatively at the view from her bedroom windows.
“Oh god Nick, the water, it’s beautiful,” she sighed.
“Had it shipped in this morning,” I joked.
“The ocean is so beautiful--”
“The gulf, it’s the
“I don’t care if it’s Lake Michigan, well, actually I do care, but hell, at
least it’s water, oh do I have to leave the windows shut? Can I...”
I gently put a finger to her lips. She looked at me as she stopped in mid-
sentence, our eyes locked. Before I lost all nerve, I leaned forward and cupped
her chin in my hands. I closed my eyes and captured her mouth in a gentle kiss.
I couldn’t help but smile
into the darkness. We had known each other for how long now? It still amazed me
that it seemed to take no time at all for us to get as close as we did. Not to
mention how alike we were and then of course that damnable link. We couldn’t
get anything by each other without getting busted almost immediately. The idea
of being too far from him didn’t really sit too well with me. Finally my mind
drifted to what had happened earlier. I found myself smiling again. Then the
smile faded, why was I so worked up about this?
Cause I liked it.
I mentally slapped
myself. I was worried that it would change things. Like, what if we acted
different? Or, what if it didn’t work out? I didn’t want anything to mess up
what we had. Then, with that very thought, it sort of sunk in that everything
was going to be okay. Nick and I had said to each other so many times that
there isn’t anything that could ever come between us, nothing that could tear
us apart. Especially not something that could bring us even closer. I groaned.
I felt a lot better, but I wasn’t going to feel totally better till I talked to
Nick. I slipped out of bed and into the hallway. The moon shining in through
whichever windows it had managed to hit was the only light I had to go by. I
used the wall to guide myself down the hall. The door to Nick’s room was
slightly ajar so I stuck my head in.
“Nick?” I whispered.
“Yeah?” Came the eventual
reply.
I inched in the room
hesitantly. He must have shut his blinds because it was almost pitch black.
“You can’t sleep either?”
“Nope.” I heard him
shuffling in the bed and then he patted a spot next to him.
I padded across the floor
and climbed onto his bed. He was sitting up and I was pretty sure he was facing
me, but it was hard to tell with the dark. “Um, about earlier...” I started.
“It’s okay Lizz. I shou--” Nick interrupted.
Then I did the same thing
to him that he had done to me a few hours ago. “Shush.” I whispered. I smiled,
my heart feeling lighter than it had in a long long
time, and I kissed him softly.
~*~*~*~*~
We must have sat and talked until the early hours of the morning. My alarm
squawked it’s annoying tone and it must have taken me five attempts before my
hand connected with it, shutting it off and then brushing it nearly off the
nightstand. I looked at the time with one eye open and groaned when I saw
“I bet Kevin set this time up,” I mumbled as I slowly slid out of my waterbed
and stumbled towards the bathroom, turning the shower on full blast. As quickly
as I had forgotten something important, I remembered and quietly walked down
towards the guest room at the end of the hall and banged on the door.
“Lizz, it’s
Nothing.
Okay, I knew she was a hard sleeper and I always hated trying to wake her up. A
year ago I used to page her when I knew I would be online in the morning and
there were many days that she would sleep through three or four pages before
she would finally come online. I balled my fist up and banged harder on the
door.
“LIZZ!
“Oh, god, ten more minutes, please?” came a tiny voice from the other side of
the door.
“Nope, you gotta get up now, I want to go through the drive thru for some chow
before we get there. You would hate the complimentary donuts they offer with
the weak coffee.”
“Alright alright! I’m getting up now,”
Lizz groaned as she got out of bed.
I shook my head as I headed back towards my room and the inviting shower that
was waiting for me. My eye caught a glimpse of myself in the partially steamed
mirror. I had debated last night about doing the hair color thing to lighten my
hair back up to it’s original blondeness, but I decided I liked my original
color much better. I’m sure that management would have me switch back, but this
was kinda a statement, almost defiant.
After the shower, I stared at my face, doing an inventory. The scrapes were
gone and the bruises had faded to a slightly greenish-yellowish hue. The ones
on my neck were still distinctive to me - fingers that had wrapped around my
neck. The scar on my chest was still a nasty looking dark pink that I knew deep
down was the best it probably would ever look.
Grabbing the razor, I quickly shaved off the moustache and the stubble, knowing
that it would be the first thing to be decreed gone by management. I walked into
the bedroom and started the monotinous chore of
pulling out suitable clothing to wear at this godforsaken press conference that
I was dreading with all my body and soul.
After I got dressed, I walked down the hall past Lizz’s
door and told her she had only fifteen more minutes before I would leave
without her. I heard her cussing and I couldn’t help but laugh quietly. Women
were always holding up the guys and Lizz wasn’t the acception
to the rule here.
Ten minutes had passed finding Lizz plodding down the carpeted steps and into
the living room where I was sitting. I glanced at my watch and gave her a
playful scolding look.
“It won’t work Nick, I had time to spare so save the look,” Lizz replied,
giving me a stern look in return.
I held my hands up in the air as if I surrendered. “Okay, okay, but we oughta
get going so we can swing thru McDonalds, is that alright with you? I definately need my coffee at this early hour of the
morning.”
“Why is it so early anyway?” Lizz asked as she followed me out the side door
leading to the garage.
I wasn’t sure if I should tell her or not, but I knew she would figure it out
eventually. “It’s cause we’re gonna have a live feed on the Today Show, CBS
Morning Show and Good Morning America as well as taping for Mtv
and Much.”
“I can’t do that,” Lizz replied quietly.
I turned around to see Lizz, leaning against the garage wall, her face pale and
she was shaking like a leaf. She quickly cupped a hand over her mouth and
bolted back into the house.
“You can do this,” I called out to her. “Just shake it off, it will be okay,
you don’t even have to talk.” I winced as I heard the distinctive sounds of her
wretching in the bathroom. “Good lord Lizz, we’ve
been through shit and back and you’re gonna let a live feed do you in?”
She emerged from the bathroom, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, her
face as white as a sheet. “That’s so damn easy for you to say Nick, it’s not
fair.”
I took her hand and led her to the car and helped her in. “Don’t worry, you
don’t have to say a word if you don’t want to, I’ll let them know that, it’s
gonna be okay.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
We pulled into the parking lot with twenty minutes to spare. Because of Lizz’s nausea I reluctantly drove past the fast food strip
and opted for the weak coffee and nasty stale donuts that would be at the
conference. Just as I figured, Kevin was standing in the doorway, tapping on
his watch.
“Hey, we’re twenty minutes early!” I yelled in defense.
“Well, they miscalculated how much time for makeup and stuff, hurry up you
two.”
“Skip me, okay,” Lizz begged as she filed in past Kevin.
“No, they want to see you too, Lizz.”
“She’s a little nerved up over this, got sick before we left and once on the
way and....” I stopped as I watched Lizz duck into the bathroom, hand over her
mouth.
“She coming down with the flu?” Kevin asked as he gazed past me at the bathroom
door.
“No, I kinda told her about the live feed on the major networks and she sorta
freaked on
“Nice one Nick. Hey, how come you didn’t get your hair back to the regular
color? I thought management would have specified that already.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I dunno, I guess I kinda like my natural light
brown color.”
Lizz emerged from the bathroom, not looking any better than what she did the
last time. I took one arm and Kevin took the other and we led her down towards
the greenroom so she could lay back on the couch.
“You really don’t have to go through this if it’s making you so upset,” I
stated as I knelt down beside her on the couch.
“Nick, this conference is really for you guys, not me. Besides, I really don’t
want to barf on national television. I’ll be with you in spirit right here,
safe on the couch,” Lizz stated as she patted the couch.
I looked at her, worried that she had more than stage fright. “Are you sure
you’re gonna be okay?”
“Just peachy, don’t worry go get your make up and stuff done,” Lizz insisted.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Peachy? Yeah, right.”
“Seriously.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
“And......three......two......one.”
“Roughly six weeks ago, Backstreet Boy band member, Nick Carter was delcared dead at an
I shifted nervously in my seat as I listened to Katie Couric drill on about the
false events that had happened over six months ago into the camera with the
flashing red light. I glanced at Brian out of the corner of my eye, he didn’t
look any better than what Lizz had after I left her. He appeared almost gray
and chalky looking, wanting to throw up at any given moment.
“The last that the Backstreet Boys had been seen was at the time of Carter’s
death when band member, Kevin Richardson held a press conference on Mtv to explain the events leading up to Carter’s death.”
As Katie droned on about the details over the past few months, a camera with a
flashing red light slowly started panning. First AJ....then Howie.....then
Kevin.......I baced myself as it panned on Brian and
then suddenly the red light shut off. God, miracle from heaven! I caught
Kevin’s look at me out the corner of my eye. I think he was wondering if I was
going to wig out on him on live television. I gave him a slight “thumbs up” to
indicate that I was fine. He nodded ever so slightly and focused his attention
back to Katie.
“Okay, Kevin, you’ve got some news to tell the world about Nick Carter’s
death?” Katie queried, almost leaning forward in her chair. “I’m assuming that
you’re planning on a comeback?”
Kevin laughed nervously. None of us spoke a word or uttered a sound at this
point. Katie’s question hung thick in the air. Kevin was placed on the spot and
I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I never died,” I blurted out.
I couldn’t believe it, but there actually was gasps coming from the stagehands
as well as from Katie.
She looked me up and down as if in disbelief. “Excuse me? Did you just say that
you didn’t die?”
I nodded slowly. God, I wanted to jump off the couch and run somewhere to hide.
I swallowed hard before I continued. “You see, there was this guy named Marcus
and he was looking for revenge when his sister became paralyzed because of me.
He had told us that he wouldn’t rest until I died and he even threatened to
start picking on fans and hurting them. I was in a coma and Brian and Kevin
decided the best thing for everyone was for me to have a false death to give
the authorities time to pin Marcus and have justice served. So for my
protection and the other girl that was involved in all of this, Lizz, we went
into hiding, getting false identifications and having our looks altered. Marcus
is dead, so it’s safe to come out of hiding.”
“Don’t you think that was mean to tease your fans into this?” Katie bristled.
“It was all over the press that after your death was announced, at least four
teens commited suicide.”
“That wasn’t proven that those deaths were because of Nick,” Kevin interrupted.
“We did what we felt was necessary. Marcus was a nasty, evil man and he would
not stop at anything for revenge.”
“Not all of us had the privledge of knowing that Nick
was alive all that time either,” AJ interjected. “Howie and myself went through
the whole funeral thing and the weeks afterwards thinking that Nick had died in
the hospital, so it wasn’t an exclusive thing to trick the fans or something.”
“And so where are you going to go from here?” Katie asked to no one in
particular.
“A well deserved stress-relieving vacation,” I winked.
~*~*~*~*~
My eyes nearly fell out
of their sockets when Nick announced that he had never died. The camera focused
on him and his nervousness doubled. I didn’t even have to feel it that time, I
could read it all over his face. While he explained it the camera scanned the
other guys and the people in the room. The looks on their faces sent another
wave of nausea through me and I jumped up and bolted for the bathroom.
“Sick.” I muttered after
splashing water on my face. My face was beyond pale and I looked like death
warmed over. I was relatively okay when I woke up this morning, but the more I
woke up the more I started to get nervous. Then when Nick told me about the
live feed I freaked. I guess it was the thought of not knowing how everyone was
going to react to all this. I was almost shocked at how hard this was effecting
me. I never threw up from being nervous and actually, I rarely even got
nervous. Even back in highschool I had pretty big
parts in school plays and I never got nervous. But of course this was
different. I had just come out of hiding with a guy that was presumed dead and
the truth was just getting announced to the whole world.
By the time I made my way
back to the couch the conference was over. That suited me just fine cause I
didn’t know if I could watch much more of it, not to mention there was nothing
left in my stomach. People started filing back into the green room and I
noticed Brian duck into the restroom, not looking any better than I did. Then
Nick rounded the corner and I pang of guilt hit me. He looked a little
overwhelmed as he came over and sat on the couch that I was curled up on.
“You ok?” I asked
quietly.
“Peachy.” He muttered.
I hung my head. “I’m
sorry, maybe I should have gone on so you wouldn’t have been as alone or
something.”
Nick looked at me and
then smiled. “Like I wanted you puking on me. It’s okay Lizz, it could have
gone a lot worse.”
“I guess.” I said
reluctantly. “Is Brian okay? He looks like shit run over twice.”
“Thanks.”
I know I turned red and
Nick smirked at me when I looked up to see Brian standing over me. I scrunched
up my face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, well you do,
but...”
“You didn’t mean for me
to hear it.” Brian finished with a smile.
I laughed. “Yeah. Are you
okay?” I scooted over so he could sit down too.
“Yeah, glad that’s over
with. My nerves are kind of shot with this whole mess.” He sat down on the
other side of me.
“No joke, I got sick like
four times and I never do that!” I exclaimed.
“Wuss.” Nick teased.
“Shuddup doorknob.” I
elbowed him in the side.
We both cracked up and
Brian looked as us funny. Of course that made us laugh harder. A long time ago
during one of Nick and I’s online conversations he jokingly called Brian a
doorknob. I about fell off my chair I started laughing so hard. Honestly, I
don’t really know what was so funny about that, but I thought I was going to
split my sides laughing. Ever since then that word would sneak into my
vocabulary. And of course whoever I would call a doorknob would bust up too
just cause it sounded so funny.
“You don’t wanna know.” I
gasped between laughs.
“You’re probably right.”
Brian shook his head at us.
“Well, you look a little
better. You got some color back at least.” Kevin observed, a somewhat amused
smile on his face as he strolled up.
“Color?! Try beet red!”
Nick observed.
“Shuddup already!” I
elbowed him again.
Kevin glanced at Brian
and they both shook their heads like we were totally crazy. Who knows, maybe we
were.
“So, Nick, where did you
have in mind for a vacation?” Kevin changed the subject.
“I dunno, somewhere far far away.” Nick shrugged.
“That helps. I think
that’s a good idea though, we all need a break. Figure out where y’all want to
go and we can start making the plans for it.” Kevin suggested.
I looked at Brian and
then Nick. “O--klahoma, where the wind comes sweeping
down the plai--” I started to sing.
“Ugh!” Brian groaned as
Nick clamped his hand over my mouth. “Lizz, don’t even go there or I might just
send ya there on the end of my foot!”
~*~*~*~
I awoke with a start. My
eyes scanned the room somewhat frantically, but I relaxed when I realized that
everything was okay. My attention caught the
I sighed again. The past
week had been a long one. The world was pretty much in shock to discover that
Nick had never died. Then the fact that I had gone into hiding with him raised
a lot of questions. The reality of what Nick used to tell me a long time ago
had hit full force now. About how your life is totally aired into the public
and there are no secrets. Although, no one knew about Nick and I sharing that
kiss. Or the few that had followed after that. Neither Nick, nor I mentioned it
and as far as I knew, the guys didn’t even know anything about it. I think we
were both having fun with it, being sneaky and actually getting away with it. I
knew we were going to get caught eventually, but for now we just pretended like
nothing was happening. Of course, people had their suspicions.
I was playing around on
Nick’s computer just a couple days after the conference and I started surfing
around some fan sites. Some of the ones I used to check out occasionally were
still running so I checked them out. I nearly died when I saw a picture of
myself. I yelled out some obscene words and Nick burst through the door seconds
later. One look and “oh shit.” I couldn’t believe some of the information
people had managed to gather on me and the whole situation. We must have surfed
websites for hours, repeating “oh shit” many times. The worst was one girl that
had a friend that worked at an American Eagle in an
The rest of the week was
full of interviews and trips to the PT for Brian and Nick, not to mention about
a million other things. I had always known they had psycho hectic lives, but
now I really appreciated it. Health-wise we were all doing a lot better. Brian
was stronger every day and was in good spirits. Nick was still a little sore
where he was shot and still under restrictions of what he could lift, but he
was doing a lot better too. His voice was still pretty scratchy sounding, but
it too, was sounding a lot better. I caught him singing one day in the other
room and I must have just stood on the other side of the door for almost an
hour listening. The cut that ran across me was looking better. The doc said it
would probably scar a little, but in time it would fade so it would barely be
noticeable. I had just gotten the bandage off of it and I was enjoying that new
freedom. The bruises from getting smacked were nearly gone too and I was almost
starting to feel normal again.
The best and probably
most patience-trying thing about the week was trying to decide on a vacation
place. Everyone had suggestions and then reasons why a particular place
wouldn’t be a good idea. Nick and I both argued for a beach. I knew the ocean
had the same peaceful effect on both of us. That was one major drawback to
living in
Sleep was totally out of
the question so I parked myself in front of one my 6 windows. The sun was
getting ready to come up and I couldn’t think of a better way to start a
totally perfect day. I couldn’t help but sit there and grin like an idiot. As
stressful as the week had been, I had a lot to be thankful for. Everyone was
okay, Nick was letting me stay with him, and we were going to
Finally, the sun shining
bright in the sky, I couldn’t wait any longer. I ran and took a quick shower,
dressed and wrapped a towel around my wet hair. Then I went to the kitchen and
set the coffee on to brew. Back up to Nick’s room and of course there were no
signs of life coming from the other side of the door. I grinned evilly. This
was going to be totally unexpected. He knew full well of my incoeherence
in the morning and my inability to get up early without major help. What he
didn’t know was the one thing that could easily wake me up and have me in a
great mood was a vacation. All growing up, the morning I would be leaving to
start a vacation, I was wide awake and beyond excited. This morning was not an
exception. I rubbed my hands together, almost feeling little red horns poke
through my head.
“Time to wake up, Nick.”
I whispered.
~*~*~*~*~
“Nick?” Lizz whispered as she quietly approached the bed.
I heard someone’s voice, but chose to burrow down further into my bed, drawing
the blankets up tighter to my chest.
“A-hem, Nick?”
God, this person was persistent. It had to be Brian. I grabbed a pillow and
flung it towards the general direction of the offending voice and put the other
pillow over my head. I winced when I head the distinct sound of something
crashing onto the floor.
“Hey nice one dork, you broke the picture frame!”
I quickly threw the pillow off my face and sat up, staring at Lizz’s face. Looking over her left shoulder, I saw the
picture frame that once held a photo of my sisters and brother, now laying in
pieces on the deep blue carpet.
“Aww, shit! That was one of my favorite pictures,” I mumbled as I threw the
covers off and stood up. I looked at the time on the alarm clock after I
slipped my glasses on. “
“I, um, I couldn’t sleep,” Lizz defended. “Anyways, we should be getting ready
to leave. Kevin told us we had to be ready by
Groaning, I threw myself back across the bed, closing my eyes, wondering if we
couldn’t post phone leaving for another four hours or so.
“So, anyways, I’m gonna go back down to my room and watch the sunrise. My bag’s
already packed,” Lizz announced cheerfully. She glanced over towards the
closet. “I take it you’re already packed too?”
I groaned again. Packing was not one of my favorite things to do. Packing,
unpacking. Just the basic idea of living out of a suitcase. Needless to say, I
planned on packing light and would go out buy the things I would need while we
stayed in
“Okay, so you didn’t pack?” Lizz questioned, her arms folded across her chest.
“I will.... I will, just go on and watch the sun rising, I can do this with my
eyes closed, been packing for years.”
~*~*~*~
“And as usual, we wait for Nickolas to arrive,” AJ announced in a sarcastic
voice.
“Give it a rest, jar head,” I snapped at AJ.
“Guys, come on, let’s make this an enjoyable trip, please,” Kevin directed to
no one in particular.
As we walked towards the chartered private jet I suddenly realized that I had
forgotten one important item for this trip, make that the only important item
for the trip. I stopped in midstep, causing Brian to
run into my back.
“Something wrong, Nick?” Brian asked from behind.
I could feel the panic rising in my body. “I can’t go.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Brian asked as he stepped around to face me, the concern
evident in his face.
“I forgot my Dramamine.”
“It’s all in your head Nick, you’ll be fine or just do what I do and toss a few
down on the flight,” AJ suggested.
“AJ, getting Nick wasted isn’t gonna help him on the plane,” Kevin remarked in
a stern voice. “Okay Nick, all the shops are closed, the plane is running and
we basically don’t have the time to run to a 24hour store, I suggest getting on
the plane and taking a nap.”
“Besides, I’ll be beside you all through the flight,” Lizz added.
I smiled a tight lipped smile. This was not gonna be easy. I hated flying with
a passion. I’ve flown more miles than I care to think about and I never got
over the idea of how a big hunk of heavy steel could stay suspended in air,
traveling up thousands of miles above the earth with only four small engines
doing the work. A crash was always waiting to happen and if the flight had turbulnence, forget it, I would be one sick puppy.
Part of me wanted to kiss the tarmac before I got on the plane, but the macho
testosterone levels in my bloodstream wouldn’t allow it. I glanced over at Lizz
and tried my best to cover my nervousness as I swallowed the lump in my throat
and nodded for her to get on ahead of me.
We each took an upright seat in the middle row and I strapped my seatbelt on as
tight as I could. Lizz reached out and squeezed my hand.
“Don’t worry, I got ya covered,” she whispered.
I managed to smile a lopsided grin. “You gonna protect me when it plummets into
the ocean?”
“NICK!” Lizz reprimanded.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it but I really needed my motion
sickness meds,” I whined.
Before anyone could reply to my outburst, the plane’s engines started to make
that awful sound associated with the increase of speed as it started to taxi on
the runway. I closed my eyes and gripped the armrests, silently praying that
this would be a smooth flight without turbulence. As the plane leveled off, I
eased my death grip on the seat. It didn’t help out too much with AJ making
sounds of planes screaming downwards and then ultimately crashing.
“AJ! Could you knock it off? Can’t you see that Nick is a little nervous here?”
“Lizz, just ignore him, I don’t need you fighting my battles with him, he’s not
worth it,” I quitely scolded.
With that being said, it seemed that AJ was losing interest in picking on me
and got up and left his seat and walked over towards the wet bar.
Lizz didn’t back down. “Yeah, but still, that’s pretty mean.”
“If you don’t have a problem, I usually listen to music and try to relax during
a flight, so would it be okay if I.....” I gave Lizz the sad puppy dog eyes as
I held up the headphones.
“It’s ok, do what makes you relax, I’m gonna get up and get a soda, do you want
anything?”
I shook my head as I slipped the headphones over my ears. Soon I was listening
to Nirvana and I could feel my body almost instantaneously relax and I drifted
off to sleep.
~*~*~*~
I woke up when I felt Lizz’s hand grab mine in a
tight grasp. I was disoriented at first but after a few moments, I got my
bearings and looked around the plane. When I looked at her, I could see she was
nerved up about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I slipped the headphones off with my free hand.
Before she could reply, I felt the plane take a big dip. My heart literally lept into my throat. AJ was screaming like a banchee and I glanced over at Brian, his face looked pale
and he was never unnerved about flying....ever.
~*~*~*~*~
update:
“We’re going down.” I told Nick, my voice shaking.
Nick’s head whipped back
around, his eyes wide with fear. “Wh-what?”
“We were hit by
lightning. It hit an engine.” Then for added emphasis lightning flashed again,
illuminating the small cabin of our plane. Not even a second later a crash of
thunder ripped through the angry sky. The plane shook again and made another
sharp dip.
“Oh god...” Nick
whispered. “We’re- we’re going to crash?” He looked around frantically.
“No, emergency landing.”
Brian said hurriedly, gripping the arm rests.
“Emergency landing my
ass!” AJ shouted over the racket. “No fucking way we are going to land in the
middle of the ocean and live.” He turned around and glared and Nick and
Before either of us could
respond, Howie laid a hand on AJ’s arm. “Man, you gotta calm down. We need to
keep our heads.”
“He isn’t thinking
clearly.” Brian assured us. I wanted to laugh. Not ha ha
funny laugh, but delirious, petrified, looney laugh.
How the hell did this happen? This was supposed to be our vacation and now we
were going to make an emergency landing in the middle of the
For a brief moment my
mind drifted back to a family vacation. We were on our way home and there was
quite a bit of turbulence on the plane. I was loving every minute of it. I even
put on my walkman and started jamming to the turbulence. Ever since I could
remember my dad had always recorded the theme song to all the movies we watched
on a cassette. The Beetlejuice theme song was perfect for the harsh rocking of
the plane. Everyone around me was slightly nervous about it, yet there I sat, bouncing
all over my seat to Beetlejuice. I snapped back to reality and I ridiculously
wondered if I could play the Beetlejuice song, everything would be okay.
Kevin stuck his head out
from where the cockpit was. I think he had disappeared up there almost immediately
after take off. “Put your head between your knees and try to cover yourselves
the best you can. Wrap your arms through the seat covers, now! We don’t
have much time. Make sure you are buckled in. The only chance we have is to try
to skid the jet across the water. When it hits, it’s going to sink fast. And I
mean fast! The pressure is more than likely going to break some of the
windows and they are going to immediately flood with water. We need to get the
emergency door open as fast as we can before the water pressure makes it
impossible to open. Then we need to get out and get as far away from the jet as
possible. Did everyone get all that?” He shouted above the racket.
We all nodded numbly and
began doing as Kevin instructed. He went back up with the pilot and I looked at
Nick. Neither one of us said anything, but we didn’t really need to either. Not
that either of our brains were functioning clearly enough at this point to come
up with something coherent to say. Instead, I shifted my crossed arms so I
could grab Nick’s, holding it in a death grip. Another pocket of turbulence and
this time the plane dipped sharply to the left. I heard stuff fall and
screaming. I’m sure I was one of the ones screaming. The next thing I saw will
forever be etched into my memory. If I survived this, that is. Lightning
flashed once again and now with the tilted plane, the ocean looked like it was
less than 50 feet below us. The waves crashed and reflected the lightning as it
rushed to meet us. I stared out the tiny airplane window with sort of a morbid
fascination. This was it. I squeezed Nick’s hand tighter, shutting my eyes. I
didn’t want to see this. In seconds, it would all be over and I didn’t want to
see the destruction it left in it’s path. I could barely hear anything anymore
above the noise. I wondered what everyone was saying. Shouting out their
good-byes, praying, or merely screaming wordlessly.
There was one last
shudder and then a massive crash. My scream was cut off when my head was thrown
forward. It hit something and I lost consciousness.
~*~*~*~*~*~
When I came to, the only
thing I was aware of was a strange sensation of weightlessness. Almost like I
was floating, or perhaps sinking. Everything was dark and all sounds were
muffled. Was I dead? Was this what it was like? I started to open my mouth to
call out to someone, anyone. I didn’t want to be alone. Unfortunately that was
a big mistake and suddenly I felt like I was choking. That caused me to panic
and try to scream, but I was suffocated even more. Just when I felt like
everything was getting real distant, something grabbed me. It renewed my will
and somewhat fueled my panic and I thrashed against my attacker. Was this hell?
I really couldn’t have been that bad, could I?
The attacker strengthened
their hold and I felt myself moving up. After a few seconds I broke surface and
suddenly I could breathe again. Sort of.
“Lizz, stop fighting me!
It’s me, Howie!” A strangely familiar voice called out. Then reality hit and my
eyes snapped open. I gasped as I took the scene in around us. The storm was
still raging and there was debris everywhere. I turned my attention back to
Howie, panicked.
“What? Where-??” I
stammered, still coughing and choking on the inhaled salt water.
“LIZZ!”
I whipped my head around
and saw Nick swimming frantically towards me.
“Oh god...” I choked as
he wrapped an arm around me.
“Are you okay?” His eyes
traveled up to the side of my face. I reached my hand up to the outside corner
of my eye, right in front of my left temple. When I drew it back, it was
covered in blood.
“Just a scratch.” I
gasped, wincing. “What about you?” There was blood just under his hairline and
it looked like it traveled half way down his forehead.
“I’m fine, my god, I
thought you drowned!” He tightened his grasp around me, trying to keep us both
afloat.
“Did you find AJ and
Brian?” Howie yelled, his eyes darting skyward as another flash of lightning
made everything light up.
“Yeah, AJ sprained his
shoulder or something and Brian got trapped under some of the wreckage, but
they are both okay. They are trying to help Kevin get the raft inflated.” Nick
shouted back. “We need to get around to them!”
The three of us started
to swim around a some wreckage, but a huge wave sent tore us apart. I started
to panic from being separated, but immediately was faced with another rolling
wave. I couldn’t see Nick or Howie and if I didn’t think quick, I was going to
get slammed hard by it. Still winded from my near-drowning, I took the deepest
breath I could and dove into the wave. Growing up in
When I broke through, I
saw Nick fighting the wave that followed mine. I swam as hard as I could
towards him and thankfully he saw me and grabbed my arm just before the wave
hit. This time, we didn’t let go.
“Howie!” I cried, looking
around after breaking through.
“He’s fine, come on!”
Nick yelled back, keeping me with him.
Everytime the sky lit up, I gasped at the
site of everything. The jet was gone except for some of the pieces that were
still scattered and floating. Avoiding those were difficult, but slamming into
one of those sharp edges would have meant instant death. After what seemed like
forever, the raft came into sight and that gave us an added boost of adrenaline
to get there. Kevin and Brian leaned out from the inside as Nick and Howie
helped in from the water. I all but collapsed into Brian’s arms, and we both
fell back against the side. A moment later Nick was in the raft and I grabbed
him in a tight hold.
“Is everyone okay?” I
whispered, looking around the small raft.
“All of us except Jason.
The windshield exploded and he died instantly. Miraculously, Kevin didn’t get
hit. None of the rest of us were seriously hurt.” Nick explained, his voice
somber. “I don’t know how the hell it happened, but we are all okay.”
I finally pulled back and
looked around. The storm has weakened considerably and the waves were calming
down. It was dusk and the setting sun peeked through the parting clouds. It
glowed a deep red and cast an amazingly beautiful glow across the water. I
studied everyone carefully. Unbelievably none of us were seriously hurt. A lot of
scrapes and bruises, but we had all escaped without anything that was too bad.
I was filled with sorrow for the pilot, even though I hadn’t known him. Why was
he killed and the rest of us okay? How did we survive something like that when
the chances of survival for that sort of thing are between slim and none?
My eyes filled with
tears. It was nothing short of a miracle. Of course that started a chain
reaction and I wasn’t the only one crying. Between the relief, shock and
exhaustion, I think we were all beyond overwhelmed. Finally after a little
while, we had all calmed down and the reality and graveness of our situation
started to sink in.
“Now that we survived
that crash, we have a big problem.” Kevin started. “We’re stuck on a raft, out
in the middle of the Pacific. I know
“Well maybe when it rains
again, we can get water that way?” AJ suggested, tipping his head back against
the raft edge. He was cradling one arm in the other.
“And what? Open our
mouths for a few drops?” Nick rolled his eyes.
“Shut up ass.”
I laid a hand on Nick’s
arm and Brian gave them both a disapproving look. “Guys, please don’t fight.
Things are bad enough.”
“Ya know, it could be
worse. It could be in the middle of the winter. At least it’s somewhat warm.”
Brian offered.
I looked at him and had
to smile. Somewhat...I was smooshed between him and
Nick, my head on Nick’s shoulder. Shivering.
“Aren’t there a bunch of
uncharted islands around
I followed his gaze, but
in the darkness, I couldn’t see anything. Every once in awhile some object would
float by. Usually a small piece of the plane or part of a seat or something.
“Yeah...” Kevin trailed
off.
“Maybe in the morning
we’ll see something. There’s no chance of seeing anything near us in the dark.”
Nick pointed out.
“We should take turns staying
awake just in case.” Brian suggested.
I was trying real hard to
pay attention to the conversation, but the exhaustion had caught up with me. My
eyes kept falling shut and then I would jar myself awake.
“Give it up, Lizzard. Go to sleep okay?” Nick smiled down at me.
“No.” I mumbled, my eyes
shutting again.
I heard them chuckling at
my expense, but was too out of it to tell them to stuff it. Before I knew it, I
was out like a light.
Surprisingly I slept
really well through the night. The gentle rolling of the waves was soothing and
the fact that we were okay helped too. When I woke up, I was relieved to see
that it wasn’t really sunny. That would have been murder on my sensitive eyes.
The sky was overcast and the air was warm. I couldn’t help but smile. The
amazing fact that we had survived encouraged me and I figured it was for a
reason. That made me confident that a plane would spot us or that we would
somehow get rescued. I shifted against Nick, but immediately regretted it. I
didn’t want to wake Nick, not to mention I was kind of stiff and sore. Instead
I looked around the small raft and saw that Brian was the only one awake.
“Mornin.” He whispered.
“Morning to you too. It’s
beautiful isn’t it?” I grinned at the water.
“Sure is. Hopefully we’ll
get some help though so this wont be the end of getting to see it.” Brian said
wryly.
“See anything at all?” I
asked hopefully.
“No, except some more
wreckage.” Brian sighed.
“Crap.” I sighed too. We
fell into silence, not wanting to wake everyone up. I kept my eyes trained on
the water. After a good half hour, I saw something sticking up, sort of a
greenish color. When I saw what it was I gasped.
“What?” Brian looked at
me sharply.
“My backpack! It’s got
our meds in it!” I uttered, my mouth agape.
Brian stared at me, mouth
agape. Right before Nick woke up, when we found out the jet’s engine was
struck, we put all of the meds in the backpack. I don’t know why really,
because I think we all doubted we would survive.
“I have to get it!” I
started to move and it rocked the whole boat. Kevin and Howie barely moved and
AJ groaned, but Nick woke up immediately.
“What the hell?” He
growled, sleepily.
“Look!” I pointed.
He squinted out to where
I was pointing. “What? More plane debris? You woke me up for that? Lizz, we’ve
been seeing it all night!”
“No, dumbass. It’s my
backpack! And that has all our meds!” I exclaimed, exasperated.
“Holy shit!” Nick looked
at me, then out at the backpack. Then he scrambled up and then jumped into the
water.
“Hey, I found it first!”
I yelled, jumping in after him. I vaguely heard Brian laughing before I hit the
water. It felt good when I jumped in, but I didn’t take time to enjoy it. Nick
was already ahead of me so I started swimming as fast as I could to claim my
“prize.”
“Beat ya!” Nick hollered
out, holding the backpack triumphantly over his head.
I started to fire back a
reply, but something in the distance caught my eye. Something moving back and
forth on the other side of Nick, about 30 feet away. My breath caught in my
throat and my heart started pounding. I was almost halfway between Nick and the
raft, but closer to Nick.
“Lizz?” Nick called out,
perplexed by my sudden weird behavior.
“Oh god. Nick! Don’t
move!” I cried back, my voice laced with fear.
I whipped my head around,
afraid to move either. “Brian? I called.
I heard him swear softly
and I turned back around to Nick and very slowly started to move towards him.
His eyes were darting back and forth between the moving fins and me. “What do I
do?” He said quietly, a hint of terror seeping through his voice.
***
