2. emeralds

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The silent car ride preceded a silent entry into the airport, which also preceded a silent forty-five minutes of waiting for their plane to board.

They sat in the chairs around the gate, Val grazing through some interior design magazines while Keith scrolled through his social media next to her. Melanie sat across from Val and took a couple of selfies, much to the dismay of the older woman, Diana, who sat right next to her.

Diana mostly observed the airport around them or stared out the large glass front where she could see various airplanes being directed to the take-off strip that would lead them to flight. She had always enjoyed airports and airplanes. Something about the way you could step on a plane in one country and step off it in another always gave her the one feeling she'd spent her entire life trying to replicate—freedom.

As there was no action going on outside at the moment, Diana sighed, shifted in her seat, and listened to the annoying sound of Melanie's phone camera going off every ten seconds. She had silently observed the girl's pattern—take twenty pictures, take the time to filter through them all and delete almost every one besides the one that showed off her cleavage the most, then proceed to take twenty more pictures in the exact same poses, only to repeat the process until she somehow grew tired of looking at herself. That seemed implausible to the aggravated Diana.

She then reluctantly shifted her sunglass-hidden eyes to her son in front of her. She felt a pang of something every time she looked at him, and that didn't refer to only the two hours she had been in his presence. It referred to all 21 years, every tense visit and forced time spent together which was not very much. She had always felt that pang in her chest whenever she looked at Keith, and she couldn't ever quite figure out what it was.

Perhaps that was why she felt like she was always on the run, always being chased down by a dark and looming feeling behind her. There was always a shadow cast over all the moments when she should have been happy—when she was successful, rich, had multiple friends, and was liked and known by every fashion company in New York. But she couldn't quite reach happiness due to the anchoring feeling in her chest. Everywhere she went, she felt like she carried tons of baggage with her.

Shivering in disgust, Diana sighed and combed her fingers through her copper hair, listening to the murmurs and noises of the busy JFK airport. One particular sound, the turning of a flimsy page, caught her attention and attracted her eyes up to her son's girlfriend.

She was fortunate that she was wearing sunglasses that obscured her gaze, but she felt like the girl was too invested in whatever she was looking at to have even noticed, anyway. Straining her eyes, she recognized the magazine as an interior design one. Her eyes flickered back up to the girl's face which seemed to lean closer and closer into the magazine with feverish intrigue.

Her springy black hair danced across the surface of her shoulders every time she moved. The natural light from the window behind the girl cast across the side of her face, illuminating her tan skin speckled with freckles. Her dark brown eyes scanned up and down the page almost analytically, as if she was measuring something out in her head. She looked concentrated and focused, like she was in her own little world and incapable of being pulled out.

But she was pulled out when Keith slipped his phone into his pocket disinterestedly and leaned closer to the girl, wrapping his arms around her shoulder in a rather abrupt way. Diana watched in piqued curiosity when Val seemed to jump under his touch, her entire demeanor tensing in a way that went unseen to Keith.

He leaned into her, whispering something in her ear and looking at her with a dark, expectant look. She kept her eyes on the magazine and gave an obviously forced smile in an effort to wave off whatever his intentions were. Diana was shocked when Keith smiled in satisfaction, completely oblivious that the smile she had given him was not genuine.

She was also puzzled at the new dynamic she sensed between her son and his girlfriend, and she felt a bit of sadness for the girl. She knew Keith was just like his father, and that said enough to confirm that the girl was probably miserable but not self-liberated enough to leave him the way Diana left his father. She seemed too nice, too forgiving, too comfortable with being uncomfortable. Diana looked away before it bothered her too much, for that was her life-long expertise, after all—simply looking away.

The woman just wanted to have a nice vacation. It wasn't that she necessarily disliked her own son, but she couldn't ever see herself thoroughly enjoying his company. However, she was aware of her failures as a mother, and she knew that agreeing to go on the trip would make him feel accomplished. She simply wanted to enjoy a trip to Fiji and then leave and not talk to him for a year. She felt that Keith knew that too.

All four of them seemed to exhale in relief when they finally announced that their plane was boarding. They stood and picked up their carry-on bags, and Diana took the lead as they walked past the flight attendant and handed her their passports before boarding the plane.

"I couldn't get us all to sit together, so we will be mixed up," Keith said as he entered the plane after Diana, the other two girls following him.

Diana strolled elegantly up the aisle and was quick to find her seat, B7. She stuffed her carry-on bag into the overhead before taking her seat in the very middle of the three-seated column on the left of the plane. She groaned at the fact she would have to be squished between two people and hoped whoever sat in the window seat next to her wouldn't show up so she could take their seat.

Keith also found his seat, D3, which was on the right column and near the front. He turned to Val and gave her a strained, apologetic smile that they wouldn't be sitting together as he took his seat. Melanie then found her seat, which was right behind Keith's, leaving Val to struggle to find hers.

A line of people gathered behind her, impatiently waiting for her to hurry up and find her seat. Her face began to flush from nervousness until she saw the row with the number seven on it, and she smiled in relief.

But then she looked up and was thrown completely off guard when she saw that right in the middle of the three seats sat Diana, still shaded in her sunglasses, looking right back up at her.

"O-oh," Val stuttered, glancing down at her ticket to make sure she had the right row. Alas, her seat was A7, meaning Diana was sitting in B7. She looked back up at the woman and gave a small, sheepish smile. "Um, which one is A?"

Without even checking, Diana motioned to the seat on the other side of her right beside the window. She then pursed her lips and pressed herself against her seat, moving her legs to the side to allow Val to step through.

Hesitantly, Val slipped her small backpack off her shoulders, holding it in front of her and turning her body forward so she could slip between Diana's knees and the seats in front of them. Regretting that she had involuntarily adopted her mother's curvy butt, the girl shuffled through the seats, feeling the woman's knees brush against the back of hers, before she made it to the other side and plopped down in her seat. She let out the breath she had been holding, but now she felt a bit trapped between the wall and the woman who was making her so nervous.

Poking her head over the seats, Val glanced forward and watched as Melanie just so happened to glance in her direction at the same time. Her best friend gave her a face that was readable by no one other than her, an expression that sarcastically said look how lucky you got with your seat.

Val playfully rolled her eyes and smiled, leaning back against her seat and turning her head toward the window. She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the growing fear inside her. She had never been on a plane before, nor had she ever even been out of the country. Now they were about to go halfway across the world and across the ocean. To make matters worse, she was going to be sitting next to her future mother-in-law for sixteen hours.

Hearing movement beside her, she glanced over to see that an older man was taking the empty seat next to Diana.

"Howdy!" he exclaimed as he very stiffly sat down in the seat, his knees apparently unable to bend, probably due his age. He ended up just plopping down in his seat, nearly hitting Diana in the process. "Oh! Pardon me, ma'am! Old age has gotten to me, I reckon!"

Wondering why he was talking so loudly and a bit offended that he had hit her, Diana wiggled over to the left to give him room and ended up brushing against the girl beside her.

Shocked at the sudden contact, Val awkwardly tried to scoot over to give the woman room, but she forgot there was a wall right beside her and ended up bumping her head right against the window.

"Ah!" she whispered, holding her head where she had bumped it. She immediately froze when she felt Mrs. Sunglasses look in her direction. Not wanting her to see that shortly after she had literally fallen out of a car, she had hit her head like a bumbling idiot, Val tried to play it off by scratching the part of her head she was holding and casually glancing out the window.

"I'm Neal, by the way," the man said after stuffing his bag under the seat. "It's very nice to meet you two ladies!" Val noted his deep Southern drawl right as he stuck out his hand for them to shake.

Diana tried to hide the disgust she felt at touching a stranger's hand as she limply shook his hand and gave a tight smile, not caring to return his words.

A little surprised that she had yet to hear Diana say a single word, Val leaned forward to eagerly shake his hand, noticing the way Diana leaned far back to avoid closeness. "It's very nice to meet you, sir!" she politely exclaimed as she firmly shook his hand.

He smiled a bit more brightly at her, although he seemed oblivious to Diana's rather impeccable lack of social skills. "Do you two know each other?"

Glancing at Diana but seeing that she was only silently staring forward with a completely blank expression behind her sunglasses, Val respectfully smiled and answered, "Uh, well, yes, we came together." She tried not to blush in embarrassment that she'd told the man that they had come together, yet they did not know each other.

He didn't seem to notice, though, as he adjusted his Hawaiian shirt and pulled out his phone from his cargo shorts. "It seems a lot of people are taking a trip to Fiji," he said genially as he looked around the plane. "Well, I hope you two enjoy the plane ride. Try not to mind me too much; I'll most likely get some shuteye most of the ride!"

"I hope you enjoy it, too!" Val told him, watching him give her one last smile before he turned away and faced forward, politely ending the conversation.

The next several minutes were a bit awkward as Val kept her eyes trained out the window while Diana stared straight forward, until finally, the flight attendant announced that they would be taking off shortly.

Seeing movement in the corner of her eye, Val glanced over and watched as Diana finally slipped her sunglasses off her face, revealing two dazzling emerald eyes that were surrounded by dark, thick lashes and a bit of eyeliner. Val was struck by the woman's immense beauty, which had somehow been totally concealed by the glasses that had rested on her face. Her eyes were cat-like and green, seeming to pop out against the black of her button-up shirt. Her face held faultless beauty, her skin unblemished and naturally contoured. It was obvious the only makeup she wore was a bit around her eyes, the rest of it being her very own beauty.

Everything about her, from her captivating eyes to her chiseled face structure, her swan-like neck, her perfectly arched eyebrows, and her supple lips, all added to her icy allure that made Val shift in her seat.

Keith, admittedly, did not get looks passed down by his mother. The only similarity between them was their dusty brown hair. The rest of Keith's features were adopted directly from his father.

Val quickly looked away upon realizing that she was staring and began to feel even more nervous about who she was sitting by. Not only was she her boyfriend's mother and an affluent fashion designer, but she was also extraordinarily bewitching, which only added to her intimidating refinement. As she stared out the window, she could only think about those green eyes and dark copper hair.

The flight attendant informed them to buckle up their belts, which incited the metallic sound of everyone messing with their belts to buckle them.

Val's raven hair bounced down her shoulders as she looked around her seat, digging her hand into the space between her seat and the wall and finding that side of her belt. Then she turned to the left and dove her hand towards the buckle without thinking, gasping when her hand immediately touched Diana's, which was also searching for her belt.

"Sorry," she quickly murmured with a nervous chuckle as she jerked her hand into her own lap.

A small smirk played on Diana's lips, one that was amused at how embarrassed the girl always was even in the mere few hours she had been around her. As she buckled her own seat belt, she murmured a small, "It's alright."

Val's eyebrows perked up upon finally hearing her talk. "So she speaks."

Glancing over towards the girl, Diana locked eyes with her and saw the way her tan cheeks were tinted pink. The girl's chocolate eyes widened a bit, obviously a bit thrown off by making direct eye contact with the woman for the first time. This made that subtle smirk return to Diana's lips as she responded, "On occasion."

A reluctant grin grew on Val's lips, one that seemed a bit cautious at first. But then it blossomed, and the light that seemed to glow from the girl's very own face made something in Diana's chest quiver.

"How mysterious," Val playfully said, still feeling a bit unsteady with the woman who was a stranger to her. She was also caught off-guard by the husky yet smooth nature of the woman's voice, the way it was guttural yet light at the same time.

Diana glanced down to her lap, a small smile resting on her lips. "That I am," she countered humorously, biting the inside of her cheek.

Val smiled in return even though the woman was not looking at her, feeling a bit too shy to go on with their sarcastic charade. She returned her attention to her seat buckle, her dark eyebrows threading as she tried to get it to click properly.

The flight attendant walked down the aisle and checked that each person was buckled up, swiftly arriving in row seven and seeing that both Neal and Diana were buckled up. Her eyes almost grazed over Val out of habit before she noticed that the girl was still buckling her seat belt. She stopped and waited patiently since she was required to make sure every person was properly buckled.

Noticing that the flight attendant was staring, Val glanced up and sheepishly smiled at her, breathing through her teeth as she continued to struggle with the belt, much more nervously this time.

Diana side-eyed the girl, chewing her lower lip at the second-hand embarrassment she was receiving from the situation. After several moments of the flight attendant just staring down the girl with that plastered smile that probably only made her more nervous, Diana huffed and turned towards Val. "Stop," she mumbled rather bossily, her tone causing Val to immediately pause all her movements.

The girl froze and held her breath, watching carefully as Diana leaned over rather close to her and reached down into her lap, taking the two ends of the seat buckles and immediately buckling them together with ease.

The flight attendant gave an amused grin and an affirmative nod before walking away to check the rest of the passengers.

Diana slowly took her hands away and stared into Val's eyes with her emerald ones, a smirk resting on her dark pink lips. "Nervous much?"

Squirming in her seat, Val felt her cheeks heat up as she averted her gaze, which seemed to waver under the woman's intense one. "Not until I met you," she mumbled, hoping that her words didn't seem too sassy. If Diana was anything like her son, she would probably take offense to that sarcastic retort. But when Val cautiously glanced over to her, the brunette was only glancing down at her feet and grinning to herself.

Val wanted to ask why she was grinning with those pristine ivory teeth, but the intercom loudly interrupted to tell them that they were about to be taking off. Taking a deep breath, she leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes, waiting to feel movement.

Diana watched her, the way her plump lips formed an 'o' shape to breathe through, the way her eyebrows—which matched her dark hair—scrunched together. "Is this your first time flying?"

Regretful that the woman was seeing her act so fearfully, Val nodded and tried to look less frightened for her life. "Yea," she answered, grinding her teeth as she stared out the window, everything outside starting to fall backward as the plane moved forward.

Diana got more comfortable in her seat, completely relaxed since she had flown countless times for fashion shows all across the world. Her eyes glanced across the plane and locked on the back of Keith's head, that same pang reverberating in her chest. She quickly moved her eyes to his girlfriend who, strangely enough, was quite amusing to her.

The girl was now gripping the arm of the seat so hard that her knuckles were turning light yellow, her head locked on the window as the plane began to move faster down the strip of road. When the plane suddenly took off and became airborne, the girl's entire body slammed itself against the seat and stiffened, a small gasp emanating from her mouth.

Diana chuckled to herself, the sound causing Val's ears to burn in embarrassment. She felt stuck against the seat. Her eyes squeezed shut as her heart pounded against the inside of her chest. The woman next to her watched her, her eyes casting down Val's tense body and noticing the way her chest heaved with her shaky breaths. Those emerald eyes also caught sight of the way the girl's ribs peeked through the tight fabric of her peach tank top every time she inhaled, her thin waist deflating each time she exhaled. Feeling something burn in her throat, Diana quickly shifted her eyes away, feeling heat rise to her own cheeks.

Val stayed frozen like this, utterly glued to the seat, through all the turbulence that made her stomach feel like it was on the verge of coming right up her esophagus, until it finally smoothed out. She relaxed a bit, releasing the grip of her now aching hand from the armrest.

Sighing, Val pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and glanced across the plane, peering between the two heads of the people in the seats in front of them until she could see the back of Keith's head. She could see that he had his phone in his hand, apparently having connected to the plane's wi-fi and was again scrolling through social media.

Biting her lip and trying not to let her brain wander too much about why he was on his phone so often, she reclined against her seat and let her eyes shift to Diana. The woman was now sitting with one ankle resting upon her other knee, although she made sure not to take up too much of Val's space, and was reading a

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