Her heart pounded inside as she felt her stomach drop unexpectedly when the plane lurched into another bout of turbulence. Her hands shook as she tried to tear open the white business envelope that lay in her lap.

I should never ever fly again, she thought to herself as she forced her eyes to stay closed. I don't know how anyone can allow themselves to be put through this torture. The plane shook again and an involuntary tremor vibrated through her body. She grabbed her stomach. Oh God, she prayed. A tear escaped her shuteyes and her hands left her stomach to grip the armrests, painfully transferring her fear to her rapidly whitening knuckles. Please, please… someone, something, help me. The tears now streaming down her face. No, no, help. Oh God, please, I don't want to die, please, no…

She screamed as she felt a hand urgently hold hers and wrenched her eyes open. Turning her head, her own watery eyes met a pair of worried green eyes. She tried to register if she knew whom the guy holding her hand was before she realized that he was the passenger had sat next to her and upon sitting had fallen fast asleep.

He pushed up the armrest between them up and pulled her trembling body close to him cradling her head against his chest. He sat back against his seat stroking her hair while she cried into his T-shirt. "Shh, it's okay. Everything's going to be okay." He murmured in hopes to console her. Poor thing.

Ow… why does my head hurt so much? Ugh, feels like I just got hit repeatedly with a sledgehammer while getting a major brain freeze from chugging a slurpie. Yum… grape slurpies. Those sure sound good, maybe I'll get Lacy to run to Quicktrip with me. Then maybe later we'll go see that new movie. Oh, it looked so cute… what was it? Oh yeah, dancing penguins, how much better can that get. Wait, when does that come out? Huh. Did my bed just move? I could have sworn my bed just moved. That's odd…

She opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was that she was not in her room but on an airplane. The next she noticed was that it was pitch black outside of the window and that was shortly followed by her jolting to a sitting position. Her 'bed' was the passenger sitting next to her.

Oh my God. WHAT WAS I DOING??? She stifled a gasp as she realized that she must have fallen asleep against a perfect stranger. Her face started to grow warm and she quietly gave thanks that it was dark and no one else was awake.

I can't believe that just happened. Actually, what did just happen? I must have fallen sideways when I fell asleep. Great, it's just my luck that I fall on him instead of against the window, like a normal person. I really, really, really hope he doesn't know what happened.

She twisted around so that she could take a look at the guy sitting next to her. Well, at least he's not, like, old and disgusting. Hmm, he actually looks my age, and thank goodness that he's dead asleep.

She was comforting herself with that thought when his eyes snapped open and she realized the embarrassing position she was in. She was leaning over him staring at him, her face hovering only inches away from his own.

She jerked back as he blinked wearily a few times and shook his head to try to clear the drowsiness from his mind. It's not everyday that some crazy emotional chick has a massive breakdown next to me and then wake up to see her staring at me. Maybe she's a stalker. Oh that's creepy. Wait, what if she was this crazy juvenile delinquent murderer that first stalks and then kills really good looking guys, yeah that's right I'm pretty good looking if I say so myself. Umm, she doesn't really look like a crazy psycho axe murderer but looks can be deceiving. Actually, I should probably say something. Man, she's probably really embarrassed. I'd be, I mean if I was a girl and I had woken up on some random guy's shoulder after having an emotional breakdown, but I not so… ugg, I should just say something.

"Umm… hi. It's good to see you're not crying anymore. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean that. I, um, meant that you look refreshed and happy." Oh no, I've got one of those really cheesy smiles on. If there's one thing that I hate, it's really cheesy smiles. Like those cheerleaders that you see on those Disney Channel original movies or those Hallmark ones. Wait, I really don't watch those. I have really got to stop these conversations with myself. But back to important matters: I had just messed up big. I've got sisters and no one says what I did to any girl after she's cried for hours. No one. I'm screwed.

She stared at him in wonder. Was that supposed to be comforting or was he just laughing at me. She blinked and slowly felt her face grow warm. I'm blushing, again, and this time he's looking right at me. It's dark, right, so he can't really see me. Could this get any more embarrassing? "I-I'm fine. Um, thanks for…"

…silence…

Okay, this can be more embarrassing. What do I say? Hey dude, I don't know who the heck you are but thanks for letting me sob into your shirt and then fall asleep on you for the past few hours. Yeah, not going to happen.

"I'm Ben." He simply stated putting out his right hand. She jolted her eyes from staring at him to look, confused, at his hand. It seemed to take her a second to recognize what to do but then she put her hand out to timidly shake his.

"Alex, well, it's actually Alexandra but… um, you could call me Alex." I'm on the verge of babbling. If he doesn't say something soon, I'm going to burst with my family history or some anecdote about my dog or something equally annoying. This isn't embarrassing anymore; it's embarrassing AND awkward. Maybe I could just explain what happened last night. Yeah, he deserves an explanation.

"Last night I was just really scared. I don't really handle planes very well. It's just that they're so high up and its just this hollow tube-like think shooting through the air with nothing to hold it up and not to mention the fact that I'm inside along with lots of other people. Do you know how much this thing probably weighs? It's like a billion trillion pounds and not to mention that a stranger would be flying this thing and if the driver made one, only one, mistake then we could be sent hurtling down to death in one of those plan crashed where no bodies are found except for the smithereens of plane parts." stammered Alex. It became Ben's turn to stare. She had started her rant quiet enough but by the finale she was nearly screaming.

She dropped her head into her lap and groaned. I babbled.

Ben looked at her a chuckled. She was so embarrassed. Not that I want to laugh at her but this is a little comical. "Hey, Alex, it's fine. No big deal. Everyone gets scared at some point. It's good to let your guard down once in a while and let others help you."

She took her head out of her hands to look incredulously at him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know it's cliché but it seems to work." Ben replied to her silent questioning. He laughed again and said "Sorry to cut off our conversation but it's still quite late and I would like to get some sleep while I can. If you'd like to stay up, please feel free to use the light. It won't bother me." He smiled nonchalantly and then turned toward the isle and leaned back on the chair.

"Good night." She said and then whispered, "Thanks for everything."