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Chapter Forty Two

"Peyton, where are you?"

"Over here!"

"Noah!"

"Sup?"

"Landon?---LANDON!"

"HEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was pandemonium at the airport and it was only five a.m. Dad was doing the role call. Noah was slouched in a chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him listening to his IPod. Peyton was buying a magazine over at the kiosk. Landon was playing hide-and-go-seek admist the hard plastic chairs.

And I was standing by dad watching for Trevor.

Our plane was due to board in just a few minutes. My palms were sweating.

What if he changed his mind? What if he forgot? What if--

"Honey, there's Trevor," mom said. Her eyes widened. "Oh my."

At first I thought mom was seeing things, but the crowd parted and I saw Trevor making his way towards us.

He had a nasty black eye.

"Sorry, I'm late," he apologized. He hiked his carry-on bag up higher on his shoulder.

"What happened?" I asked. He shook his head.

"It's nothing."

"That doesn't look like nothing," dad said lightly.

"I fell," Trevor said. It was a horrible lie. He didn't look at anyone directly.

We didn't have time to discuss it further. The boarding call came over the speaker and mom had to grab Landon. Dad shouted at Peyton to hurry up. Noah got up and scratched his armpit like an ape.

And I was still staring at Trevor. He gave me a lopsided smile.

"I'm fine," he assured me.

Forty-five minutes later, we were all in our seats. The stewardess came by with her bright smile and her 'good morning' greeting.

"Could we have an ice pack?" dad asked.

"I'll get you one as soon as we're in the air," she promised him. Trevor started to say something, but I touched his arm and shook my head.

Landon was sitting behind me. His sneakers pummeled the back of my chair. I whirled around.

"Stop it booger."

"But my feet are all kicky this morning!" he complained. I grabbed his shoe right before it hit my chair again. He squealed.

"I'm gonna eat your toes!" I warned.

"NO!"

"Then don't kick!"

I dropped his foot. I heard him wiggling like crazy. Mom leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

"Was it your dad?" I whispered as we got our seatbelts secured. Trevor looked at me.

"You're not going to let it drop, are you?" he asked. I shook my head. He nodded.

"Yeah, mom and dad were drinking pretty heavily last night. He went after my little brother with a belt and I got in the middle of them," Trevor whispered.

My eyes widened. "A belt? That's...barbaric."

Trevor sighed. "I know."

Once we were in the air and the light had gone off, the stewardess brought dad an ice pack. He handed it up to Trevor.

"Thank you," Trevor said politely.

"Mommy I got to pee!" Landon announced. I'm sure all of the passengers in first class were dying to know that. Noah and Peyton were sitting in front of me. They both slid down as if trying to ignore the fact that they were with us.

Trevor winced as he put the ice pack to his face. I heard Landon and mom working at the seatbelts. A second later Landon's ornery face appeared right by my arm.

"I'm going to make the pee go 'woosh' right out of the plane!" he said happily. He held up his hand for a high-five. I couldn't help but tap his little hand with mine.

"Go for it," I said.

I turned back to Trevor. He was smiling.

"He's cute," he said.

"Yeah, he is. How old are your siblings?"

Trevor leaned back. I was glad that his black eye was towards the window. I wanted to cry just thinking about it.

"I have an older sister who's 20. She's out of the house," Trevor explained. "Then I have a twelve year old sister, a eight year old brother, and a nine-month old brother." He paused. "And my mom's pregnant again."

My eyes widened. "But you said she was drinking!"

Trevor's jaw tensed. "I know."

We faded off into silence. I felt sad and depressed. It was amazing that Trevor had turned out like he did. I was treated like a princess. And he was treated...

I decided to change the subject. I patted Trevor on the knee. He looked at me and smiled.

"We need to coordinate our schedules for the video shoot," I said.

"Grenadine's touring until the last week of August," Trevor said.

"Me too. How about August 28?"

Trevor pulled out his phone. He nodded. "That would work."

"Great. So what's the plan for it?"

I felt my face flush.

"Well, it's a love song," I said. Trevor laughed.

"Yes it is."

"Well I promised Kayleigh she'd be in it," I said. "So you know the line where you go Of all the girls who want you you know that I'm the best?"

Trevor nodded.

"Well I thought that Kay could be flirting with you and I could walk by and..."

"And I'd totally be distracted by how beautiful you are," Trevor said.

I laughed. "Something like that."

"I like it. So are we going for a school setting?"

I nodded. "Yeah for the verses. I told the director for the chorus maybe an outside shot in like a field with some flowers would be romantic."

"Ah, you're a flower girl?" Trevor mused. I flipped my hair.

"I wouldn't turn flowers down," I said.

"Landon Andrew Carter if I see you take one more bite of that crayon you're going to be in big trouble," mom warned behind me. I hadn't even heard them come back from the bathroom.

"I like colored poop," Landon said.

"Oh dear Lord," Noah muttered. Peyton turned around and giggled. Trevor started to laugh.

"Remember when Brooke ate crayons?" dad asked. My eyes widened. I whirled around and looked at him. Mom laughed.

"She didn't know any better. She was only a year old," mom said. She was getting that sappy face she always got when she talked about us as babies.

Dad smiled at me. "I'll stop talking before I embarrass you," he said kindly.

"Thank you," I said. I turned back around. I checked my watch. It was eight o'clock in the morning. We were scheduled to land fairly soon.

Mom had planned way ahead and so we actually got rooms in the same hotel where the reception was going to be held. The wedding was at two. By the time we checked in and got settled it would be at least ten if not eleven. It was going to take me a couple hours to get ready. The church was across town.

I thought about Kayleigh. She was probably getting her hair done at that very moment. I knew she was going to look gorgeous.

I thought back to when we were little and played 'wedding' with our dolls. I would always choose the fanciest dress and make a little walkway out of fake flowers. I would bore Kay to death as I jabbered for fifteen minutes with my little bride and groom before they kissed. Kay usually just married her couple in front of the big pink RV we both coveted and shut the door on them while they 'honeymooned.'

Something told me that those wedding scenarios would probably play out pretty similar after all these years. I wanted the fairy tale. I wanted my daddy to walk me down the aisle and I wanted to write my own vows.

I wasn't in a rush to get married. Like dad, I only wanted to do the marriage thing once. It had taken him thirty one years to find mom.

And if it took me that long to find my husband, well, I was okay with it.

But until then, I was going to dance the night away with Trevor and enjoy being sixteen.

Because as mom often reminded me, you were only sixteen once.