literature

Anything To Make You Smile, Part One

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Literature Text

He was finally going to see John.

It was finally going to happen. Outside of the Game, anyway.

And he was sort of

maybe

just a little bit

freaking out about it.

Of course, he wasn't going to show any sign of it.

Well, not to John. Rose, however, was a slightly different matter.

He didn't actually mean to tell her about his anxieties, but she kind of....wormed it out of him, in that way she has. With her reverse psychology, or whatever. Not only had she managed to get him to confess to being nervous about his first offical meeting with John, but she also got him to spill his closely-guarded secret of having a crush on his best friend.

Oh yeah, that was a thing. He'd been harbouring a seriously embarrassing crush on his best bro for probably years. And had managed to keep it a secret until his ectosister pounced on him in his weakened state. She had a nose for that, he swore it.

In any case, the plane was leaving tomorrow morning, and it was one thirty-four, and he had yet to fall asleep. Oh well, he didn't really want to be fully present in mind for the plane ride anyway.

He laid back, and stared at the ceiling, willing sleep to come.

It was going to be a long night.

-----

The next morning dawned, with Dave having had around three hours of sleep. And the hours he did get could barely be considered restful.

You could say he wasn't in the best of moods.

Having already packed far too early, Dave was left with nothing to do until it was time to leave, other than checking his luggage again. After he did that twice though, Bro told him to chill the fuck out, so now he was sitting on the couch, bouncing his leg.

Finally, Bro told him it was time to go. Perhaps taking pity on Dave's already frazzled state of mind, he even helped Dave carry his suitcase out.

The ride to the airport seemed to take ages, and even with the windows rolled down, the car was sweltering. Dave stared out the window the entire time, his mind going through every possible thing that could go wrong.

When they pulled up at the airport, Bro walked in with him, pointed in some direction, and said "That's where you go, little man." And then he was gone. Of course. Dave didn't even see where he had pointed to. He sighs, and does the obnoxious ordeal of checking his luggage and going through security. The looks he gets going through bag check make him think Bro snuck a smuppet in his suitcase after all. But he gets past that, and grabs out his ticket. His plane still doesn't leave for some time, so he takes a seat close to his terminal. Or, what he hoped was his terminal. He wasn't going to ask for help from any of the overeager-looking staff, that was for sure. After a few moments of doing nothing except watching people, Dave digs out his iPod and turns up the volume. He almost misses the voice telling him his flight is boarding, but it just happened to come as he was flipping through songs.

Gathering his stuff up once more, he makes his way to his gate, and then he's on the plane, stuck between the window and some professional-looking dude. Dave can't imagine what business would require him to fly from Texas to Washington, but he decides he doesn't really care. He grudgingly takes out his headphones and turns off his ipod and phone. He guessed they were going to ask him--well, everybody--to do it soon anyway.

And sure enough, a voice comes over the speaker, telling them to do just that. The voice also warned them that they were preparing for takeoff.

The plane started to rumble, and Dave grips the armrests tightly. Why anybody ever thought that something big and metal and full of people belonged in the air would always be beyond him. Once the plane was in the air, and the voice told him it was alright to turn his iPod back on, he did so without hesitation. He turned the volume up, and tried to not look out the window.

After a little more than four hours--he had chosen the shortest possible flight, of course--the announcement came that the plane was landing. Dave was glad to finally be off the flying deathtrap, and got off as soon as he could. Right away, he started to search through the crowd for John and his dad.

Before he spotted them, he felt somebody barreling into him from behind, arms wrapping around his stomach. His heart did a weird flip-flop thing, and he turned around to see John. John backed up, but took ahold of his hand, grinning at him.

"Hey, Dave!" John said cheerfully. Dave couldn't help but smile in response, answering with a simple "Hey."

Looking around, Dave saw that John's dad was standing just to the side, holding a sign that read DAVE STRIDER!!!, and smiling slightly. Dave cleared his throat and offered a hand to Mr. Egbert.

"Hello, uh, Mr. Egbert." He grabbed Dave's hand, but then pulled him into a hug, John still holding his other hand. Dave froze, and Mr. Egbert laughed, and then released him.

"Please, call me Michael. After all I've heard about you, you're practically family." Dave's face heated up, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

"Now then, how about we head out of here?" Mr. Egbert--he couldn't quite get used to calling him Michael yet--grabbed one of his suitcases, and started walking. Dave grabbed the other, and followed him. His stomach fluttered as he realised John was still gripping his hand, and he tried to tell himself to stop reacting like a chick. So what if the guy he had had a crush on for years was holding his hand, and this was the first time he had ever actually seen him. That didn't matter.

"Hey, Dave? Is something wrong?" Dave had slowed down during his internal agrument, and John was peering over at him suspiciously.

"No, uh. Everything's cool. Everything's fine, come on man, who do you think I am, a sissy?" He really had to get his cool under control. This was embarrassing.

"Haha, okay, whatever, dude. Let's just get going."

"Yeah," he agreed, and they sped up again, catching up with Mr. Egbert.
.
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BirdoftheCrypt's avatar
Oooh this is fantastic!!