I’m Taking Off

Date: May 22nd 1999

Time: 7:15 A.M.

Place: New York City (The day of the emergency landing)

+ Brian +

I woke up in the most foul of moods today. I just think the last few days with barely any sleep have finally caught up with me. It really doesn’t help that my girlfriend and I had a huge fight right before going to bed.

It all started last night while we were out to dinner with Kevin and Kristin. They made the mistake of mentioning an event we had went to about a month and a half ago. It should have been no big deal except, Leighanne had wanted very much to go to this event and I had flat out lied to her and said no wives or girlfriends were allowed. Once it was brought up, I literally broke out in a sweat trying my best to change the topic but it was too late. Kris kept going on and on about how much fun it was and then as a final nail in my coffin, she asked Leigh why she couldn’t make it.

The look I was shot actually stung me. I was half expecting her to get up from the table and stalk off but luckily she didn’t let it show how much it bothered her until after we left. God, did I not want this dinner to end because I knew I was the walking dead.

She didn’t say one word to me at all during the car ride home and even up the elevators. She hugged Kris and gave Kevin a kiss on the cheek as if she was fine and then the second we entered our room she took off one of her high heels and threw it at me. If I didn’t duck she would have hit me with the thing!

I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming.

The other thing I didn’t really expect was the stream of tears that came shooting out of her eyes by the bucketful. Being mad and screaming at me I could take, even throwing of the shoes but not the crying. I felt helpless when she cried. She knew it was my one weakness. Damn her!

“You don’t love me.” She had said as she sat on the bed hysterically crying.

“Of course I do.”

“Then why did you lie to me?”

Here’s where I could have been honest. I should have been honest. It was Nick’s fault. He convinced me to not ask her to come. He rationalized it as something that wasn’t really meant for other people to share in. He was right, really. It’s not like it was something where I would have gotten to spend any time with her anyway. We were doing a meet and greet with some radio contest winners and then going to an amusement park and riding on rides with them. So even if she came, we wouldn’t have spent any time together. She would have just ended up following me around like the unlucky fans who didn’t win.

“This way you and I can just kind of hang out, come on Frick…we haven’t hung out just the two of us in a long time!”

“It won’t be just the two of us.” I reminded him. I could see him trying to ditch the fans so we could just have fun.

“I know, that’s my point, it’s never just us anymore.” The change in his expression is what really convinced me to do it.

So, I sucked it up and lied to her when she asked if she could come. I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal because none of the other girlfriends were going. I love my girlfriend but she does tend to want my life to become her life and it’s the one and only thing that bugs me about her. Fame is an odd beast, she handles it well for the most part, but sometimes I’m alarmed at her reactions to things.

When we were about to leave for the event and I saw Kris enter the van I remember thinking “I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me on the ass.” And alas my ass has just been bitten.

I did have a good time with Nick that day though. I have to say I didn’t once think “I wish Leighanne was here with me.” I guess now’s not the time to mention that part.

“I honestly didn’t think that any of the girlfriends were going.”

“You told me it wasn’t even an option.”

“I didn’t think it was. Kris was the only one who went.”

“Did you lie about tomorrow too?”

“What do you mean?”

She looked up and wiped at her tears, “You said no girlfriends tomorrow on the plane either. Was that another lie?”

“No, it’s a small private plane. We’re being flown in special for the interview and there was only a limited amount of seats. It’s just the five of us and some people from management. I don’t even think our bodyguards are coming with us on this flight. I think they’ll be traveling with you.”

She stood there staring at me. I felt like at any minute she was going to ask me something else but instead she turned, walked into the bathroom and shut and locked the door. This is something that wasn’t in the handbook of what to do after pissing off your woman. Do I knock on the door and make sure she’s okay or do I just leave it be?

I should have knocked on the door.

I woke up to her throwing things around the room. It was early. The sun hadn’t come out but was toying with the idea and I found myself dreading the day ahead. Nothing was worse than realizing that someone you loved was mad at you and there was not enough time in the day to sit down and just resolve things. It wasn’t as simple as kissing and making up. Not when every second of every day of your life is catalogued and planned.

I sat up and picked at one of my crusty morning eyes. “Hey babe.”

She didn’t look at me at all, “You should get up. You slept right through your wake up call.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried.”

Her icy tone sent chills down my back. Yup, this is not going to be a good day. I sighed and made my way into the shower. Hoping that maybe by the time I got out, Leighanne would be ready to forgive me.

No such luck. In fact, when I came out of the bathroom she had already left for the lobby, leaving me a note that simply said:

I guess I’ll see you at the airport.

~ L

“Great”

About fifteen minutes later I knew the knock on the door was Nick, even before I answered it. It’s like he had some kind of sensor when it came to fights between my girlfriend and I. He doesn’t like her and I try my best to ignore that fact. It kind of bothers me that someone I consider my best friend so readily wishes that this relationship will fail. No matter how many times I tell him that she’s the one. He always tells me I’m thinking with my downstairs brain and not my real one.

“You ready to go?” He seemed tired and less than energetic.

“I guess, are you? You kind of look like hell.”

“Howie and I had a really long night, fun, but long.”

I smiled, “I forgot about that.”

He nodded and yawned. “I guess I can always sleep on the plane ride.”

“Right buddy, you keep thinking that.” I tousled his hair.

“Bye Leigh!” He yelled into my empty room oblivious to the fact that she wasn’t in there. I wasn’t about to correct him.

The trip to the airport was uneventful. All of us looked worse for wear, except for Kevin who looked surprisingly upbeat and happy. AJ had his shades on and Howie was asleep. Luckily since we were going to be on a small private plane, we could bypass the real airport and just go into the smaller tarmac where the plane was waiting for us.

Our family members were waiting. AJ’s Mom, Kristin, Howie’s sister and Leighanne were standing there. We all exchanged goodbyes. Everyone’s seemed to be nice and warm except for mine.

We had a stupid little argument about her wanting to come on the plane with me and how that would prove to her that I felt like she was worth my time. I thought it was dumb and just ridiculous. I made the mistake of rolling my eyes at her. That was the end. I told her she’d have Kris to keep her company and she turned and walked away from me. I actually took one step towards her before stopping.

“She’s going to apologize to me this time.” I whispered to myself and I turned away from her and walked towards the plane.

I am not a fan of tiny planes. My cousin on the other hand, seemed a little too excited. If he could knock out the pilot and take over he would.

“Wow, this is like…really small.” Nick said when we finally got inside.

The word small didn’t do this plane justice. Tiny is more like it. When you climbed inside it was more like a flying minivan than a plane. There were three rows of two seats, just enough for the five of us and whoever decided to come with us from Jive. They were trying to figure that out. I wish I had a camera so I could take a picture and show Leighanne how small this plane was. Yeah, I’m totally winning this argument and she’ll be apologizing to me.

“Guess we won’t be getting peanuts and champagne on this flight.” Howie added as he plopped down in one of the seats at the back. AJ sat in the seat in front of him. I decided I wanted to be closer to the front so I sat on the first seat and Nick came and sat next to me. Kevin took the middle with AJ leaving the last seat for whoever Jive chose to be our babysitter on this journey.

“We are going to die in this thing.” AJ said as he put his seatbelt on.

“Shut up AJ, can we not complain for this entire ride you think?”

Both Nick and I looked at each other and laughed, so much for my cousin’s upbeat mood.

About ten minutes later, Matt boarded the plane. He didn’t seem happy. I guess he lost the bet. Why was it I got the impression that no one from Jive really enjoyed our company much? “Okay, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” He said to the two pilots hidden behind a tiny curtain in front of us.

Just a few minutes later, we were off and running. It was pretty loud in the plane. I didn’t realize how much noise the engines made but I guess when you don’t have that much steel to buffer the sound, you can’t help but hear it.

“Looks like sleeping is out of the question.” Nick shifted in his seat and tried to get comfortable. His long legs had nowhere to go. “This thing is built for Ewoks not full grown people.”

Of course he smirked as he looked down at my legs and how much room I seemed to have. “Well maybe you should stop growing like a weed then.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

I looked out the window and down at the ground as it became smaller and smaller. My ears were popping so I grabbed a piece of gum out of my pocket and offered one to my friend who declined.

“Leigh and I had a huge fight last night.”

I’m not sure why I felt compelled to tell him about it. I knew in the end his response was going to make me mad. I guess I just had to get it out.

“See? If you had come out with Howie and I you wouldn’t have fought.”

I shook my head and was about to answer when the plane suddenly started to shake. “Shit!” I heard from behind me, “What the hell is that all about?”

“Relax AJ, its just turbulence.” Kevin answered as he sat up straight. Make sure you are all buckled in.” He glanced over at Nick when he said that knowing full well that he wasn’t. “Nick!”

He sat up and wrapped the belt around his waist. “Relax I was just about to do it. God, you’re so intense.”

Just as quickly as is started it stopped and we all let out a sigh of relief. Nick looked over at me, “I hate turbu…” Once again the plane started to violently shake this time so much so that the oxygen masks fell from above and a weird buzzing sound started to come from the front of the plane.

By instinct I reached over and opened the curtain from my seat to see pure panic and chaos coming from the cockpit. “What’s going on guys?” I asked over the beeping of the equipment.

At first they didn’t answer and were instead talking to each other about what to do. The co-pilot was shouting mayday and for the first time I felt like I might die. Nick’s face was pale and so were Howie, Kevin, AJ and Matt’s as we all sat helpless.

“We are going to have to make an emergency landing…” The pilot shouted to us without bothering to turn around.

“We need you to put your heads down to your knees and be prepared for a crash landing.”

“Brian, I’m scared!” was the last thing I heard before placing my head in my own lap.

I wanted to tell him it would be all right but I couldn’t find my voice. It was so eerily quiet in the minute’s right before we landed that I thought maybe we had already died. Then what felt like hours later we finally hit the ground. I had to put my hands in front of me to avoid hitting the wall and Nick did the same. We were going very fast and the tires below us were screeching. I started to pray over and over again. My eyes remained closed even after the plane came to a stop. I was afraid that if I opened them, the plane would explode. It wasn’t until I felt a hand on my shoulder that I finally allowed myself to look.

 “Are you okay?”

It was my cousin who was bleeding a little bit from his head.

I nodded at him and then we both looked over at Nick, “What about you?”

He didn’t say anything but he looked fine.  I quickly glanced over to Howie and AJ who both looked shaken but otherwise okay. Matt was getting up and walking towards the cockpit where the voice of one of the pilots was still trying to talk to anyone who would listen.

“I think we should get off the plane.” AJ said as he unbuckled himself and stood up.

“It’s weird that I haven’t heard any sirens or anything. You’d think that they’d be all over this by now.”

I looked out the window and Nick was right, there was no one coming. “That’s odd.”

“I really need off of this plane.” AJ said as he walked towards the door. “Does anyone know how to open this?”

The Co-pilot who was also bleeding from his head walked over and unlatched the door. “Normally I would say we should wait, but I think it’s a good idea to de-board the plane.”

I nodded at him as I helped Nick up off his chair and move to the door. I needed fresh air and to touch the ground.

Once down the few steps and on the ground the five of us looked at each other still in disbelief. “Did that just happen?” I asked no one in particular as the pilot walked back into the plane.

“Why is it so quiet here?” Kevin asked just as the faintest whistling sound came out of nowhere.

“What is that?” I asked just as a burst of heat filled the air and knocked us all off of our feet.