Unexpected Affection

I was packing my stuff up almost ready to head back to Malibu when I saw my cousin standing in the doorway. She always loved to do anything that involved annoying me, or angering me, that kind of stuff. Sometimes she'd even try to reveal my secret to the world, (we're pretty much twin cousins) but luckily that one hasn't worked.

My eyes made there way up to glare into hers. "What Luanne?" I asked, impatiently waiting to get out the door and into the truck my dad was going to drive to the airport with. She smirked, with a suitcase in her hand. Oh sweet niblets my daddy better not be lettin' that sack of evil come with us!

I glared at her. "What're you doin' with a suitcase?" I gritted my teeth in anger. That witch better not be coming within two feet of our house.

Luanne gave me the fakest smile you could ever possibly see. That's when I knew my darn life would be ruined. My father just had to invite her to come visit. "Uncle Robbie asked me to come stay for the summer." She smirked. Curse you daddy! I thought as I irritatingly stomped out of the room and out into the truck, glaring at my father the whole time it took to get to the airport.

****

Once we got onto the plane about a half an hour later, I took the farthest seat from father right next to the window. And to make things even worse Luanne just happened to take the seat next to me.

I groaned as I took out my cell phone to use to call my girlfriend Lilly. After a few rings she finally picked up the phone. "Hello, Lilly here." Her sweet, squeaky voice spoke into the receiver of her phone. Her voice always cheered me up and boy did I need that.

"Hey Lilly-bear. I miss you. Good news though, I'll be home in a few hours. We're on the plane now. Unfortunately my father just so happened to invite the wicked witch of the west to come stay with us for the summer." I said in a soft tone, but rolled my eyes at the last part. I heard Lilly snicker through the phone, it's so cute the way her laughs sound. Oh gosh how I miss her! Thank God we're gonna be home soon even with Ms. Luanne.

I noticed Luanne rolling her eyes when I called her that but I ignored it, happy I had found something that would anger her. "Miley! I've missed you like crazy…Oliver is the worst person to get stuck hanging out with for a week. I mean seriously, all he does is talk about how cute this girl or how cute that girl is…blah, blah, blah…you get my point." I laughed, she's so cute. Right when I was about to say something, the announcer said it was time for take-off so everyone was to turn off their phones and buckle up.

Sighing, I buckled myself up then told Lilly I had to go. "Hey, I gotta go baby…the plane's about to take off. I promise as soon as I am able to call you back, I definitely will. And when I get home, you better be at my house cause' we are definitely hanging out. Okay, Love you Lil. Bye." I said lovingly, dreaded that we weren't able to talk longer. Then we both hung up and the plane took off.

This is going to be a long, irritating flight… I thought to myself.

****

The plane ride was beginning to make me sea-sick. I could barely sleep with all the bumps it had been hitting. Oh no, please don't tell me the plane's gonna crash. This is always how it began in the movies I watched. The plane hit a few bumps, began spinning around, then soon it was millions of pieces in the middle of nowhere.

I tried to block that thought out of my mind but the plane just kept hitting more and more bumps. My mind began racing thinking we were gonna crash and as I was thinking I felt someone's hand in mine. It just so happened to be Luanne's. That was a shock; I looked at her in surprise. She just gave me a half smile and closed her eyes. Okay, now that was weird… I thought.

"Uh…Please make sure all your seatbelts are fastened…we may have to land the plane at the nearest airport or signs of road. There seems to be too much turbulence to continue this flight. Please prepare for landing." The pilot spoke, scaring the crap out of everyone especially me. Oh Lord, we're gonna crash! My heart started racing as my stomach swerved with pain.

The plane started swerving to the left than to the right, I shut my eyes as tight as I could scared to death of how this was going to end. God, I really wish my Lilly was with me…was the last of my thoughts I could hear before everything went white.

****

"M…Miley…" I heard a girl calling my name…she sounded scared. Her voice was low and deep. Reminded me of…oh wait it's Luanne's voice. My eyes shot open to see her hovering in front of me, she had an awful cut on her cheek which was pouring out blood. I gasped, oh my gosh what happened…I thought!

I looked around and noticed we were the only two people here. Wait where is here? I questioned myself. Luanne had tear stains on her cheeks and bruises all over her arms. That made my hatred towards her transform into affection and sympathy. I pulled her close to me and wiped her blood with my shirt. "Oh Luanne, what on earth happened to you?" I asked softly, while stroking her forehead. She seemed so afraid to even look at me; it must have been because of how I've always hated her considering what happened in the past but this was different.

She needed help, her body was covered in bruises and her mind was full of fear. I turned her face so she was looking directly in my eyes. "Luanne, look at me…I am not gonna do anything to you. Please just tell me what happened sweetie. That's all I need to know, okay?" I said in a soft, soothing voice. I kept her close to me trying to keep her warm, her body shivered at the touch of my skin.

Luanne shook her head while pulling herself out of my arms. I sighed, forgetting what a stubborn girl she was. "How can you not remember what happened Miles? You were screaming your head off! Did you even look at how awful you look? Did you happen to notice that we're in the middle of freaking no where?! And that we have no idea where your dad or brother is…I mean look behind you! There's a wrecked up plane that not so long ago we were sitting on Miley! I don't understand how on earth you could forget that! Did you hit your head or something?" Her voice began to crack into sniffles while tears formed in her eyes.

I did as my cousin said and looked behind us. My mouth gaped open. Oh My Gosh. She was right, there was a huge plane lying there shattered to pieces. Still I couldn't remember being inside of that thing but Luanne said I was. That would explain all the bruises on her face and everywhere else I've seen them. I really needed to get some help for her but there was no way we could find anyone to help around here considering we were the only two.

"Do you have a phone on ya, Lu? You need to get help; you can barely sit up on your own." I said, pulling her into my arms. She shook her head burring her face into my shoulder. Without realizing anything my hands began to run through her hair as I watched her every move. I never thought that Luanne and I would ever get along like we are now…but I guess tragedies can change the way a person feels for someone because all I wanted to do was keep Luanne as close to me as possible…

Obviously Luanne was thinking the same as I was. She snuggled closer into my arms, resting her head atop my shoulder. She looked up at me, her eyes searching into mine. "Miles, I need to tell you something really important… something I should have said to you the minute it happened." I nodded my head for her to continue. She still seemed a bit unsure of herself but I wrapped my arms around her to assure that it'll be okay whatever she had to say.

She took a deep breath before beginning to speak again. "Okay, well first of all I am so, so deeply sorry for every awful thing I have done to you in the past. I never meant to hurt you, Miles. Which I don't expect you to believe, I've been so horrible to you! I wish I knew how to make all of that up to you but I don't…Now I guess it's time I tell you why I've done those things to you all those years." My mouth dropped open again this time in shock. I couldn't believe that, the cousin I knew as a child would have cared less to apologize for her behavior…In my entire life I would never have expected of Luanne to apologize.

Maybe she finally realized that doing awful things to people won't get you anywhere in life. It took her 16 years and I assume a plane crash for that to finally process through her brain.

The only thing I was able to do at the moment was hug her even tighter, I could not even come up with words to say to her. I couldn't begin to explain how shocked I was to hear her apologize and actually truly mean it.

"You don't believe me do you Miles?" She clenched her teeth together to stop herself from crying anymore. My heart filled with sympathy towards, making it so it was hard for me not to believe her. I couldn't, not believe her; I mean she seemed pretty sincere to me…besides poor thing's never been seen this upset before.

I pulled my cousin close to my chest, letting her cry for as long as she needed. "Luanne, that is the most sincere thing you have ever said…I'm proud of you sweetie. But why on earth would you ever be jealous of me? Don't you know what a sweet person you can be?" That was the biggest shocker of all, I never really sensed Luanne as the jealous type. She just seemed a little lost in the world and that's why I knew deep down that she was just afraid to show her true self or true feelings.

She shook her head with the least of confidence. "I'm nothing near as perfect as you Miles. I mean ya got yourself a perfect career…you're the world's biggest friggin pop star for cryin' out loud! How am I to top that?" Man, that girl's got no confidence what so ever…I told myself sadly. It really made me feel bad that she thought so poorly of herself. God, I really wish I would have known that was the reason she'd done everything she done.

Maybe then things would be different, maybe we would have had a better relationship and maybe we'd actually be ecstatic about hanging out all summer long. Maybe even this awful thing would not have happened and it wouldn't friggin be stuck in the middle of no where!

I shook my head at her while running a hand gently through her hair. There's gotta be some way to make her feel happy with herself, some way to not be so hard on herself. "Lu, none of that is true…just because I may have a good career doesn't mean that you are a bad person…I know you can be a sweet person if you wanna be but you don't let anyone see it. You're scared of your own shadow and I have no clue why. I mean if you'd just show people who you really are you'd have so many good friends, sweetie. You really would, Lu."