"Now I see, I see it for the first time, there is no crime in being kind, not everyone is out to screw you over, Maybe oh just maybe they just wanna get to know ya'. "

There were a few times in the last fifteen minutes that I found myself glimpsing at my right, at the boy who seemed pretty into his phone. The conversation died down pretty quickly and I was left to do nothing except to stare at the seat in front of me.

Trust me, it got boring.

So instead, I pull out one of those safe scripts that you have scattered across the plane in case of an emergency. I flip through the first page, staring at the drawings of what you have to do if there happens to be an accident.

Then I hear a chuckle beside me. I raise my eyebrow and look at Nick who stares between the paper in my hands and my face.

"What?" I ask him, suddenly annoyed. He doesn't talk to me for a quarter of an hour, completely ignores me like I'm not sitting next to him bored out of my mind and now he thinks he can just interrupt me while I'm trying to learn how to behave when we get stuck inside a falling plane?

"Oh, nothing." He waves his hand and turns his head away.

I reach across my seat and push a finger inside his ribcage. Honestly, the act is so natural, I don't think twice before doing it. I'm surprised he's not angry after he jumps and yelps. God knows I would be. We're just two strangers after all.

But he's not angry. At least he doesn't show it. Instead, he grabs my hand pulls me closer so that I'm huddled next to him.

And I'd lie if I'd say I don't like it.

"I've never seen people read that." Nick points towards the paper in my hands. Then he lets go of my hand and I stumble back into my seat. The part of the skin on my hand that his hand touched feels cold suddenly and I wish more than anything to just lean across the seat and interlace our hands.

But I push that thought out of my mind because I'm getting crazy. It must be the little space. Nothing else can cover up my weird behaving today.

"Yeah? Well I want to be prepared." I admit, I give him attitude in my tone. You can even trace some sarcasm. But that's only because he got on my nerves with his stupid grimaces and his stupid, stupid accent.

"Sure you do." He gives me a small smirk and I suddenly have a really big want to kick him between his legs. Not that I think about what's going on between his legs.

"Relax, I'm just teasing."

I huff and push the paper script of emergencies inside the seat pocket in front of me. Then I push my lips together and give Nick my best glare.

"Anyway, you're really lucky to be sitting next to me."

Nick laughs silently and cranes his neck, "Just in general?"

I grin. Okay, so he's a tease ball. At least he's somewhat nice. Besides there is something really amazing about him. I just can't pinpoint it.

"Well, particularly in case of an emergency." I shrug, trying to tease him back. He leans his head against his seat and shakes his head in mock horror.

"I feel incredibly safe. When I'm knocked unconscious during some sort of emergency landing, I can't wait to see all five-foot-nothing of you carrying me out of here." He says.

I cringe. "Don't even joke about it."

Nick inches closer, "Sorry." He whispers. He places his palm on top of my knee; and it surprises me because it's an intimate gesture, something I didn't expect from him, but nonetheless it hits me right where it should; my heart.

My skin tingles at the spot where his hand is resting, but too soon in my opinion he retrieves his hand back like my leg has burnt him and we're back to that silence.

Now, I only had three boyfriends in my life. There was Jack, who's been my first kiss and the first guy who ever held my hand. Then when I was sixteen, Justin asked me to the school dance and since he was a senior, I was more than happy to go. We dated a few months before he broke up with me because he supposedly wasn't over his ex. At last, there was Liam. A perfect boy for me. He never treated me bad. Always called when he said he will.

But I guess with time I realised that being perfect is boring. And so here I am, eighteen without a boyfriend.

And as I slip another curious glance at Nick I wonder if he's got a girlfriend? He's probably in love, already planning when he's going to propose. He looks the part. A rich London boy who fell in love with a London city girl.

"Ever been to London before?" His voice startles me back from my daydreaming and as I look back at him I realise he's looking at me. It feels strange to have a boy as handsome as he is, looking at you. Even if he's just looking at me like at a stranger.

I shake my head. "Never." It seems a bit forced. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to talk to him anymore. He was like a drug. Once you took him, you couldn't get enough.

Nick laughs. "London's not that bad."

I shrug. "I'm sure it's not." I let myself look at him again. "Wait, do you live there?"

I was kind of hoping for him to say yes. Because, even if I don't want to admit it to myself, there was a part of me that feels for him. A part that thinks he is amazing in ever aspect. And I wanted to erase that part before it even got a chance to reproduce.

I didn't want to be the girl who has a crush on a boy who she met on an airplane. So I begged God to have Nick live in London. Just so he's so far away from me that I don't get any stupid ideas. Any hopes up.

"I grew up there, yes."

I try to push away these damn thoughts –he doesn't live in London!-and try to focus on his dark brown eyelashes as he blinks ever few seconds. I can't think about him that way.

"Wait, you live somewhere else now?" I keep telling myself I'm asking him that because it's a proper thing to do. He started the conversation and it would be bluntly rude to just ignore the guy. After all, I'm stuck on the plane with him for the next eight hours.

But deep down I know I'm lying to myself.

"New Jersey, I already told you." He shrugs. "I go to NYADA."

"You do?" I can't mask my surprise. NYADA? That's for some really talented kids. Of course, after I learned how to play the piano there was always a part of me that wished I could go to NYADA but with my grades that was really hard to do.

And anyway, it wasn't really about NYADA that I was so surprised about.

"Let me guess, I don't look the part to study music?" He cocks an eyebrow.

"No, it's just so close."

"Close to what?"

I didn't mean to get my excitement out so soon. Actually, I never meant to say that out loud. And now I feel the warmth tickling my cheeks.

"To where I live, I guess." I realise what I say after it's to late so I just rush up trying to clean up the mess I made. "It's just with your whole accent and everything, I thought you were—"

"A minted London boy who's flying across the world to his governess wedding?"

I shake my head quickly, completely embarrassed now. But he's laughing. The kind of laugh that can make your stomach churn with delight not the pretended laugh you hear all the time.

"I'm only messing with you." Nick winks as he settles into his seat more comfortably. "Anyway, weren't we over this conversation at the diner?"

He's right. We were. But I completely forgot about the fact that this boy lives in New Jersey. That he's so close to me. And I wonder how I've never seen him before.

I know this isn't some Disney movie. I know I'm not going to meet the love of my life on this plane. Hell, Nick is everything but that. And besides, I don't even believe in true love. I don't believe in love at all. But I guess there was a small part of me that hoped something ridiculously amazing would happen on this trip just so I can still believe like a little girl that good things do happen.

But now as I sit in this seat next to a guy I can literally say is so perfectly unperfected –if that even makes sense—I can't help but to think about all the times life failed me.

All the times my dreams were a total let down because life just doesn't function like that. Life isn't some stupid fairytale and it was time for me to wake up.

Unfortunately, I found out about that the hard way. I can still smell the burnt pancakes as my mother begged my father to stay. I remember how heartbreaking it felt to watch two people who were never supposed to let you down, break you heart.

I hated my dad so much. I still do. It's his fault I'm even in this plane. And it's his fault I had to leave mom to herself for the next three days.

Suddenly I'm consumed by hatred. I hate my life, I hate my parents and I hate everything that's going on right now. I even hate Nick for being himself. I grip the armrest with all of my force; digging my nails into the plastic.

"Are you alright?" Nick leans closer.

No, I think. I want to scream to the world that I'm seriously messed up. That I hate people because all they do is hurt each other, but then a soft warm hand soothingly settles over mine and I let out a sigh.

And then I'm calm again. Okay, not exactly, because he's playing with my fingers and I find it really hard to stop thinking about his hand on my body, but it's not the anxiety attack again. For a second, I let myself believe there really is some good in the world.

And then I pull my hand away.

"If you haven't already, please buckle on your seat belts. The plane will be in the air soon." The flight attendant says loudly as she stands at the top of the aisle. I check if my seatbelt is safely tucked and once it is I look outside, too scared to look at Nick again.

Through the window, I see a few men in neon orange vests circling the enormous plane. The old man coughs in his sleep, and I turn back around, but he's resting peacefully again, his eyelids fluttering.

"Fifty-six years," Nick says, letting out a low whistle. I know it's stupid, but his whistle makes my skin prickle with sweat because it sounds so hot, so damn attractive. "That's impressive."

I shrug. I need to act like he's not getting to me. Even though he's already deep inside my skin. "I don't believe in that."

"In what?"

"In love, I guess. Marriage." I look back at his confused face.

"Aren't you afraid you'll end up alone?"

I shrug again. Weddings are not a happy thing. To me, they're just a failed attempt to rub in everyones faces how happy you are when in reality once the honeymoon phase is over you're left with nothing except a hollow hole in your heart because you get disappointed at how life can seem meaningless in a second.

"That's exactly what I mean," I tell him. He looks at me blankly. "It shouldn't be this huge fuss where you drag everyone halfway across the world to see you get married to your so called true love. If you want to share your life together, that's really beautiful. But it's between two people who will spend forever and that should be enough. Why the big show?"

Nick runs his hand along his jaw, obviously not sure how to answer this. I realise it's another thing that makes him even more attractive.

"It looks like it's the weddings you don't believe in," he says at last, "not marriage."

"I'm not a fan of both at the moment."

"I don't know," he says. "I think they're kind of beautiful."

I shake my head. They're not. They're all just a big fat show. Like circus only worse. "They're not beautiful. If anything, they're ugly. Because people don't do weddings for right causes. They do them because they want to rub their happiness into everyones faces. But what they don't know is that once the honeymoon phrase is over, the happiness is too."

"Wow." Nick leans his elbow on my armrest.

"I mean, think about it. You shouldn't need to prove anything if you really mean it. It should be a lot simpler than that. It should mean something."

"I think it does." Nick says, "It's a promise."

"I guess so." I finally whisper. I sigh, because I feel so tired suddenly. It's like Nick took every ounce of my power. "Not everyone keeps that promise, though." I whisper. My mind flashes back to my father.

I look at the man again, "Not everyone makes it fifty-six years, and if you do, it doesn't matter that you once stood in front of all those people and said that you would be with this person for forever. What counts is the fact that you had someone to stick by you all that time. Even when everything sucked."

Nick's starring at me with his dark brown eyes. I think he's trying to figure me out, but it's hard when I myself don't know who I am.

"How else do you know that it means something? Unless there's someone who's holding your hand during the good and bad times?" I insist. Sometimes, when I get into an argument not even God can stop me.

"So that's it?" Nick says. "No wedding, no marriage, just someone there to hold your hand through everything?"

"That's it." I nod.

Nick shakes his head in amusement. I watch as his curls shake along with his head. "So I guess we jumped right into the deep end, huh?"

I watch as the lights stretch out as far as I can see, like reflections of the stars. My hands are braided in my lap, and I take a deep breath. "What do you mean?"

"Just that the discussion about the definition of true love is usually something you talk about after three months, not three hours."

I nod towards the old man. "According to him," I say, "three hours is more like three years."

"Yes, well, that's if you're in love."

"Right. So, not us."

"No," Nick agrees with a grin. "Not us. An hour's an hour. And we're doing this all wrong."

"Why's that?" I turn fully to him.

"I know your feelings on matrimony, but we haven't covered any important stuff yet. Like for an example, you're favourite colour or your favourite food."

I give him a small smile. "Blue and Italian."

He nods appraisingly. "That's fine. For me, yellow and fish."

"Fish?" I make a face. "Really?"

"Hey!" He smiles. "No judging."

"Fine fine!" I giggle. The lights turn off inside the plane and the darkness sets over us. "Favourite animal?" I ask. At least I can pretend we can be friends tonight.

"I don't know," he says. "Dogs?"

I shake my head. "To boring. Try again."

"I guess, horses then."

"Really?" Nick nods.

"How come?" The question is out of my mouth before I can stop it. He licks his lips and then looks at me again.

"When I was a kid, my parents had this ranch just outside of London. We used to go there every summer." Nick mumbles, a shadow of a small smile stretching his lips.

"And when I was about ten, my father bought me a real horse."

"So you know how to ride?"

Nick nods. "I even trained him myself. God, I loved that horse."

I can't help but to feel my heart swoon as he looks away, his eyes glazing. I wish I was there to hold his hand during all the bad times. Suddenly, I can imagine him at year of ten, riding his horse down green meadows. I smile at the thought.

"So what's your favourite animal?" He asks me with a sly grin.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." I say, trying really hard not to end up laughing in his face. Nick seems taken back by my response but then he just leans back into his seat and shakes his head.

"And here I was thinking we were becoming friends." Nick places his hand over his heart and sniffs.

I punch his shoulder. "Now you're just making fun of me."

"Maybe a little," He says with a grin. "So, is it working?" He suddenly grows serious.

I raise my eyebrows, "What, me getting closer to throwing you off this plane?"

"No," He says quietly. "Me distracting you."

"From what?"

"Your claustrophobia."

I have to say, I'm taken back by that sentence. I worked so hard from the moment I saw him until now to try and act normal. I didn't want him to know I had a problem. I mean, I've been okay for a while now, but being inside a plane, in such a small corner...It was terrifying.

I smile at him, kind of grateful he did what he did. The problem was always up in the air. "A little," I admit. "Though, it's not as bad until we get up in the air."

"Why is that?" He asks, "Plenty of wide open space up there."

"But no escape route." I answer almost immediately. It's funny how honest I'm being with this guy. We've known each other for less that four hours and I'm already sharing my deepest fears with him.

"Ah," Nick says. " So you're looking for an escape route."

I nod. "Always."

"Figures." He says, sighing dramatically. "I get that from girls a lot."

I laugh. Then I close my eyes when the plane starts speeding up, barreling down the runway with a rush of noise. The plane tilts back until-with final bounce of the wheels-they're set aloft like a giant metal bird.

I wrap my hand around the armrest, and dig my nails into the plastic again. We're climbing higher into the night sky, the lights below us fade into pixelated grids. My ears begin to pop as the pressure builds, and as I lean my head against the window, I begin to fear the moment the ground will disappear beneath us, leaving us surrounded by nothing but the vast and endless sky.

Out the window, the streets, the cars everything is starting to blend together. It's growing distant and I feel my hands shaking. I watch as the world shifts into a big blur, I sit up straighter, my forehead cool against the Plexiglas as I strain to keep the sight of it all. I need to remember all of this once we disappear into the clouds.

What I fear, I guess, is not flying so much as being set adrift. But for now, we're still low enough to see the lit windows of the buildings below.

For now, Nick is beside me, keeping the clouds at bay.

"Now the time is here, Baby you don't have to live your life in fear; and the sky is clear, is clear of fear."

A/N: Hi beautiful people :) Tomorrow is Monday -le sigh- I'm more than taken back by the reviews I got so thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. You're truly awesome. Thank you, jonasluver4ever21, nienlovesjonas, IWantNiley3.0, Simar, mileyforever101, lifesaclimb11, shootinstars, xxiluvnileynjoejxx, Guest#1, A, Guest#2, LetitRainx3, NileyFreakk, niley4eva2012, iHannah, MissQueenyB, and ThoughtOfYou for reviewing! :)