His Rotten Apple

42 ~ Dirty Old Sneakers

"This is the final boarding call for passenger Zailey Marisol Tsang booked on flight 372A, please proceed to gate 6," A voice on the speaker announced, as she sounded a xylophone pattern.

    Disregarding the announcement, Zailey remained at the spot looking at him. She finally tore her eyes away from him as she looked down to answer her phone.

    "Babe, where are you?! We're boarding," Gavin said from the other line.

    "Y-Yeah... I'm coming. I'm running there right now," Zailey answered.

    Trying her hardest to resist the urge to stay, she abruptly faced the other way and ran away. There was ringing inside her head and she was haunted by a million memories flashing before her eyes. She felt knots in her stomach and a stabbing sensation in her heart, of which she could only distract herself from the pain by running. She wiped off the tears that welled up in her eyes, as she reached gate 6.

    Once the plane took off, Zailey took the complimentary sleeping mask and placed it on her eyes.

Realizing there was something off, Gavin held her hand, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing," Zailey tried to say calmly. "Nothing at all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..." She said, suddenly feeling breathless.

If there were words to describe what she felt, she failed to come up with them. She could do nothing but drown in the tight bundle of anxiety stirring in her chest.

She remained silent throughout the flight, thinking up the countless ways the encounter could have gone. After five years of silence, was this what everything summed up to? More silence? Why did she want to see him again? Where would she start? Why did it still hurt? How was he still able to set off the alarm inside her?

    "I'll be back... I just need to go to the bathroom," she told Gavin.

    "You sure you're okay?"

    She nodded, "Diarrhea."

    "Damn, it can't be traveller's diarrhea, we're not there yet. What did you eat?"

    More like, who did I see?

    Zailey looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and wiped her dried tears. She placed her fingers on the "fearless" tattoo, she had gotten two years ago.

Don't be scared, Zai... It's gonna be okay.

Calm... Down...

    "Okay," she said, feeling confident.

    She slapped her cheeks and ruffled her hair, gathering it up to put into a ponytail. As she was about to tie it up, she realized something was missing from her wrist.

    "Huh? My lucky hair tie..." She looked through the cubicle sized bathroom. "Where is it?"

    "Your wrist..."

    "Conny!"

    "Winnie, why is her hair tie on your wrist?"

    "Zai..."

    "Don't say her name," he scolded her.

    "Zai!"

    He chuckled, "Are you trying to tease me, Winnie?"

    Winnie giggled, handing him the blue hair tie.

    He examined the hair tie, "Only she would wear this kind of hair tie."