The Trick is To Keep Breathing

Chapter 1

"Come on, Shane! We have to go now if we're going to catch our flight!" I called out upstairs.

"Coming!" my brother shouted. Shane came out of his room, suitcase in hand. He ran down the stairs and we raced out the door. I loaded up our luggage in the trunk of my car and then drove away.

We made it to the airport and checked our bags. When we got to the gate, they were already boarding. I was so grateful that the plane hadn't already left.

Shane turned to me. "Call Nate. Make sure he made it to New Jersey alright,"

I put an arm on my brother. "He'll be fine. You always worry about these things,"

He gave me a half-smile. "You know I'm afraid of airplanes. I just wanna make sure he didn't die or anything,"

"He didn't die, Shane. Stop being so pessimistic about everything,"

"Me? Pessimistic?"

"Oh yeah,"

We boarded the plane. We were sitting in the middle of the plane, right by the wings… only I haven't told Shane this yet. If I had, he would have never gotten on this plane. Shane has an extreme fear of planes and I don't know why. Maybe he watched a scary movie about a plane crash or something.

I led Shane to the seats and sat down by the window. I quickly closed the blinds so that he couldn't see that we were right by the wing.

Apparently, he saw, because he stood in the isle, refusing the sit down. "I'm not sitting here if we're by the wing," he protested.

I sighed. "Shane, this is a fully-booked flight. If I could have gotten better tickets, you know I would have. Just sit down," I pointed to the people behind him, "you're blocking people,"

He shook his head. "I'm getting off the plane,"

"Shane, you sit down right now!" I yelled. He shook his head again, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him down.

"You don't have to be so mean, Jason," he hissed.

I shrugged. "If you're going to be irrational, then I have to be mean,"

Shane rolled his eyes. "Whatever,"

The flight attendant started ranting on about safety. My brother turned to me. "Pay attention; this could save your life,"

I scoffed. "Shane, you don't actually think anything could happen, do you?"

"Don't be so sure, Jason," he growled and pointed to the flight attendant. "Pay attention,"

The flight attendant rambled on about not smoking in the bathrooms.

My brother turned to me. "No smoking, Jason. Remember,"

I rolled my eyes.

"And remember that your seat cushion can double as a floatation device," Shane said and pointed to my seat.

More eye rolling. "That would be helpful if we were going over seas… but since we're not…"

Shane grabbed something out of the pocket of the seat in front of him. It was the safety thing. "Memorize this," he commanded and shoved it at me.

I pushed it away. "Stop being so ridiculous!"

"You have to know where the safety exits are!" Shane exclaimed, handing me the pamphlet again.

I took it with a scowl and put it in the pocket in front of me. I turned back to my paranoid brother. "You need to calm down. Close your eyes and sleep, ok? We'll be back in New Jersey before you know it,"

Shane grabbed my hand. "We're moving!" he exclaimed, squeezing on my hand really hard.

"Ow! Stop! You're hurting me!" I cried out. He ignored me and dug his nails into me. "Stop! Stop!" I yell-whispered.

He let go of my hand and decided to torture his armrest instead. We took off and Shane started breathing heavily. Everyone around us was staring. I closed my eyes and buried my hands in my face.

Shane closed his eyes and screamed as we started to ascend. I groaned and turned to my brother. "For the love of God, shut up!" I yelled. I was starting to get a headache. Most of all, people were staring at it was very embarrassing.

My brother looked taken a back, so he screamed again (only this time, softer and more high-pitched.) When he bent over, screaming to his feet, I slapped him. "Pull yourself together!"

He screamed even harder now that I had hit him and I groaned, hitting my head on the side of the plane. Everyone was looking at us and I started blushing. Why does Shane always have to do this when we fly? Maybe we should just give him a sedative every time we board a plane.

Once we hit our cruising altitude, Shane finally shut up. He closed his eyes, focusing on evening out his breathing. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. Shane had kept me up all night last night, crying over this plane trip. I feel so bad for him; he always gets so scared on planes.

After about three hours, I had fallen asleep. Suddenly, I heard screaming. Only it wasn't just Shane; everyone else was screaming. I opened my eyes and suddenly my stomach dropped. Shane was crying and screaming, "We're all gonna die!"

The plane was tilted forwards, doing a nosedive. I looked over at Shane and grabbed his hand. We really are all gonna die! I turned to him. "Shane, there is one thing I want to say to you – I love you. No matter how much you embarrass me in public, you'll always be my little brother!"

Shane nodded. "I love you too! Quick, duck your head and get into the brace position! This is exactly what it said in the pamphlet!" He got into position. I did the same thing he did and we all screamed as the plane quickly fell. The lights went off and I heard the engines stop.

Suddenly, there was a sickening crunching sound and I screamed. I felt a shooting pain all around my body and then everything went dark.