The burnette stepped on the plane and cautiously sat down in his seat next to a gorgeous Asian girl. 'She's hot' Zack noted to himself. Then, still in his head, he added 'But Freddy's way hotter.'

As the plane started to race down the runway, he noticed the girl tighten her grip on the armrests. She had her eyes closed and she was biting down on her lip.

"Are you ok?" He asked slowly.

"I hate flying."

"Oh..."

She closed her eyes again, leaning forward slightly.

"Yeah, it sucks. I can't fly. Shit."

"Umm...do you want me to call a flight attendant?"

"No, it's ok. We're in the air. It's a little better once we take off."

"Ok, I'm Zack, so..." He was going to say 'if you need anything, just let me know, I'm going to get in some Z's' but her eyes were so round and bright and scared he couldn't.

"I'm Melanie." She was biting her lip, he noticed. A sure sign she was nervous as hell. He did that whenever he had to give a speech. Freddy had made him quite aware of that in 8th grade when they had to give oral presentations. He missed Freddy so much, already. And it had only been 2 weeks.

"Cool...So what's your favorite band?"

"OutKast." Zack resisted the instinct to roll his eyes. OutKast? What kind of band was that?

"Oh. Well I'm going to get some sleep before we get to New York. I'll have my headphones on so if ya need anything..." He has lost all interest in her. I mean, really. OutKast?

He hit the play button on his iPod, selecting his favorite playlist. He called it "Tribute to Dewey", and it was a list of all the songs Dewey had liked or taught them to play. With a collection of AC/CD, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, among many others, this mix was pretty kick-ass.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have started our descent into the New York area, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins."

"Oh shit, here we go again." Melanie sighed. Zack had taken off his headphones only 30 minutes after he had put them on, because he felt guilty for ignoring the girl next to him.

"We'll be fine. It's ok. Deep breath." He was so nice.

A few minutes passed, Melanie leaning forward on her seat, her eyes shut tight.

"I think it's over, Mel."

"Thank God. I hate airplanes."

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to La Guardia airport. Local time is 6:18. For your safety and comfort, we ask that you please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. This will indicate that we have come to a complete stop at the gate and it is safe for you to move about. Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought onboard with you. When you open the overhead bins, please use caution as some heavy objects may have shifted during the flight.

On behalf of the entire crew, it has been a pleasure serving you today and we are looking forward to see you in one of our future flights. Have a nice day and thank you for choosing Delta Airlines"

"Such bullshit." Zack noted.

"Yeah, they're always so happy."

"Yeah, it's rather scary, like attack of the airline people. I can imagine them with knives in their hands, smiling all happy and big."

She laughed, her smile glowing. "Yeah. So where are you headed to?"

"The hoapital. My best friend got in a car accident."

"Would this friend happen to be a girlfriend?"

"No." It wasn't exactly true, was it?

"In that case, would you maybe like to...call me?"

"Umm...I don't know...I guess..."

"You don't have to, if you don't want to or whatever. Sorry I asked."

Zack blushed. He didn't want to be having some long distance relationship with some girl he sat next to on an airplane to see his boyfriend, no matter how pretty she was.

"Well I guess I'll see you..."

"Yeah, nice meeting you, Zack."

Zack stood up and left the plane behind an old man, already forgetting the girl. "Gotta find a cab.." he muttered to himself, walking briskly through the unfamiliar airport, following the signs leading to the main exit.

As he left the airport and stepped out into the rain, he shuddered. He hadn't been thinking about anything but Freddy for the whole day, but he had been remembering him like he was before he left. What if New York had changed him? What if he had turned into some preppy ladies man? And what about his injuries from the accident? He had sounded pretty cool on the phone, but what if he was completely broken?

He would just have to wait to find out.

A/N: First day of summer vacation and it's raining. Figures. But I've got really really bad sunburn all over, from the pool party yesterday, so it hurts to type. That's how bad it is. So be thankful and leave a line of loving review pour moi to make me feel better! I'm out..xxxxx

PS-Melanie is not a Mary-Sue. Don't kill me. I made her up just because I wanted to use all the airport airline talk, you know? lol.