Some people might hate take-offs, but not me.

The speed of the plane and the intense shaking as it's about to fly into the sky always gave me thrills.

"Amazing," Conner whispered next to me. I looked over and saw that he was gazing out of the window, watching as we rose higher and higher, and away from the airport.

"Have you ever flown before?" I asked, trying to start the conversation again and hopefully make up for the disaster I'd just caused.

"Not on a plane," he replied without looking at me.

Now, that was not an answer that I had expected. And also the way he said it made me even more confused. What did he mean?

"Then what did you fly on? A magic carpet?"

It took him a moment to realize I was being sarcastic. He finally looked at me again, his face a little pink.

"I've been –um– balloning before," he said. Though this reply didn't come out as natural as the first one did. He was hiding something.

"It was really neat, but nothing like this," he continued. "Science is almost like magic these days,"

What a clever way to change the subject. I decided to go with it and not ask any further details.

"You know, Arthur C. Clarke said that magic is just science we don't understand yet," I quoted. I wouldn’t say I was intentionally trying to corner him with my words. Of course not.

Conner smirked, "Not always," I heard him say to himself.

Yup. He fell into the trap.

"Pardon?" I aksed raising an eyebrow.

Conner shook his head and tried for a fake smile. "Oh, nothing. That's a great quote."

I know I'd said that I didn't want to ask for any details, but this boy's behavior was not helping my curiosity at any rate. His replies kept getting more and more confusing.

"Where did you go ballooning?" I was sure my suspicion was all over my face. But hey, he asked for it.

"It's a long story," Conner shrugged it off. "It was with my sister in my grandmother's um state."

"But this is my first time being on a plane," he finished and we looked at each other for a while. He was trying hard to maintain a straight face so I could believe his lie. But those tricks don't work on me. I knew Conner Bailey was hiding something and I was going to find out what it was sooner than later.

"Looks like you're having all kinds of first experiences."
Was I ... teasing him now? Perhaps.

Okay this might make me seem like a bad person, but this boy here, is a guy with a secret and he's bad at lying about it. And you expect me not to tease him? Please.

He looked at me with a confused fake smile. Gosh, I could swear his eyes kept getting bluer.
I broke eye contact and took out one of my novels to read. I tend to always look away whenever I find myself staring into Conner's eyes. You know, don't wanna be awkward and all.

Or perhaps coz you're shy.

Shut up, inner irrational Bree.

I put my earbuds in and started playing some dramatic horror soundtracks. Yeah yeah I like doing that whenever I'm reading something mysterious. It helps me get in the mood so don't judge me.

A few minutes had passed. Then I noticed Conner was shaking his left leg in a very noticeable manner. He usually doesn't do that.

"You okay?" I found myself asking.

He didn’t even wait one more second before saying, "Is there a bathroom on this thing?"

I tried not to smile. Was he ever gonna ask if I hadn't asked him what's up?

I nodded. "There's one over there actually. Down the aisle."

"Cool." He said quickly before getting up and heading there.

Note to self: Conner shakes his leg whenever he wants to drain the radiator.

I tried not to laugh but I probably did.

I resumed the soundtrack and got back to the paragraph I was reading. Actually... I had been re-reading that same paragraph for about four times now but I still had no idea what it said.
Goddammit why was I losing focus like this?

Oh...

I mentally face-palmed. Yup you guessed it. I was thinking about Conner.

But hey wait, not in the way you think. Frankly, I was still thinking about what he had told me earlier about magic and science and stuff. Gonna be honest, that mystery he was hiding was much more interesting than the one I was reading.

See? That was it. That was the only thing related to Conner that I had been thinking about. Definitely nothing else. No... blue eyes or anything....

"Vermont! Vermont he says!"

I heard someone yell suddenly so I looked up. My eyebrows knitted as soon as I saw what was happening.

Those four girls that I wasn't a big fan of –Mindy, Cindy, Lindy and Wendy – were surrounding Conner like a pack of wolves. Okay something definitely must be up.

I took out one earbud hoping I might catch something. Come on I wasn't eavesdropping this time. They were yelling in the middle of a plane in the sky.

"Do you have any proof of this?" Mindy asked. "A photo or a postcard with Alex’s handwriting, perhaps?"

The moment I heard Alex’s name I knew what this was about. They were probably questioning her disappearance. Seems like I wasn't the only one who didn’t buy that story.

"You think I'm lying to you?" Conner said defensively.

Cindy then the blonde girl with braces stepped extremely closer to him to look directly into his eyes. Conner didn't flinch.

For some reason, it made me kinda cringe how close she was to him like that, but I brushed it off.

"We practically live in the library, Conner. And last year we saw some things. Some questionable things." She told him.

I could tell Conner was nervous coz I saw his adam's apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed.

"What things?" He asked.

They started saying things about Alex hugging books and whispering stuff into them. Well, I'd seen her do that once before but I didn’t give it much thought.

"So you're ambushing me in a plane because my sister hugged a book?" Conner asked sarcastically trying to make them feel stupid. Not gonna lie, he was kinda right. Their points weren't completely valid... yet.

"We think she was talking to someone!" Mindy added. "She kept saying things like please take me away and I want to go back."

Okay. Now we're talking.

"And then next thing we know, Alex is gone." Lindy said.

"Left for Vermont or so you say." Cindy finished. Something was up with that Cindy, she was still standing inches away from Conner.

I couldn’t exactly read Conner's face. It was the most expressionless I'd ever seen it.

They kept pushing him further to speak but he didn’t say anything they wanted to hear. He only told them they were insane. I guess that was something they didn't wanna hear either.

Then he pushed his way through them and headed to my direction. I uncrossed my legs so he could get to his seat.

After he'd sat down I waited a few moments before casually asking the same question. Well maybe I was a tiny bit curious too.

"So your sister lives in Vermont now?"

"Yes. With my grandma." He replied without looking at me. I could sense he was deciding on whether or not to talk to me about it as well.

"Vermont's pretty far."

"It is. But we talk on the phone a lot." He was still not facing me, giving me empty replies.

Hmm how do I make him say the juicy stuff?

"So that's where you went balloning then, I take it?" Maybe I was pushing it a little bit too far too. But hey, I wasn't cornering him against the bathroom and yelling at him in the middle of other passengers.

Or maybe this is just me trying to make myself feel better about my undying annoying curiosity.

"Um... yeah," Conner replied to my question after a few seconds. "Why?"

"Just curious."

Hey, did I lie?

"So if you've never flown before, how did you get all the way up to Vermont?"

"Train?"

Conner's features could never have looked more uncertain. Yup. He was definitely lying. Alex was not in Vermont. On the contrary, she never has been, apparently.

I didn't know if I was happy there was much more to him than meet the eye, or if it was because I caught him lying.

Mind you, detecting lies kinda usually boosts my ego. I think it becomes a thing when you're much into reading Agatha Christie's books.

"Interesting....," He must have been confused about my behaviour. But oh well, he's not one to talk, right? I found myself smiling unintentionally.

"I see why they'd be suspicious."

Conner Bailey. The –sort of cute guy– with humour and the most interesting mystery in the world.

That sure was gonna be quite the trip.

We both went back to what we were doing (me reading and him looking out through the window.)

~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~

Some time had passed. And by that, i mean hours. We sat there in silence, eating meals and occasionally dozing off.

I hadn't started any more conversations with Conner coz I was feeling a little guilty for interrogating him earlier. Sometimes when I get too curious, I kinda lose myself. So yeah, I decided to remain shut for some time to make up for it.

"Hey, Bree," he said while gazing through the window.

I won't lie that I got a little excited.

"Yeah?" I said looking over at him.

He had been watching every millisecond of the sunset now. He must have really loved sunsets, I thought.

"When you think of the sun, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?" He asked.

Okay, that was not a question I had expected. But alright let's go with it.

"Well, let me guess." I wasn't actually about to guess anything, the answer was clear and obvious like the...well, sun.

"It's a huge fiery ball made of hydrogen and helium and it lies about one-fifty kilometers away from Earth." I stated blankly.

Conner let out a loud laugh. "Of course you'd say that."

"Oh yeah?" I asked with a smirk. "What else am I supposed to say then?"

Alright I kinda missed his laugh since class.

"You remind me of my sister some times." He added.

I wasn't sure how to feel about that but okay.

"Anyway," Conner said after he'd stopped laughing. "I like to think of the sun in a .... um ... a..."

I could tell he was struggling to find a word. "In a what?" I chuckled.

He scratched his hair. "You know these things they use in poetry? One that has a number in it? Uhh something like meta-five or something."

It was my turn to laugh. "You mean metaphor?"

He snapped his fingers. "Yes! That one!"

I smiled again. What a dork.

"Okay so what I was saying is that I like to think of the sun in a metaphoric way kinda."

"How so?"

He gazed out the window again to look at the sun and took a deep breath. "You know, think about a person who is... really kind and really lively and energetic. And that person.... they make people happy and gives them life." A faint smile slowly started surfacing on his freckled face. "Someone who only gives but doesn't receive. Everyone loves that cool person."

I was listening to him intently. I wasn't sure where he was going with this, but something about his tone made me so eager to listen to him. It wasn't all shaky and rambly like before. It was calm and relaxing.

"Then when that person is in need of people's help... they don't show up." He said, his face falling into a sad expression. "They are just not there for him like he was for them. It's like they got what they wanted from him and that's it. They don't care about him anymore."

Listening to Conner talk like that in a deep thoughtful manner was new to me. And even though he was telling a sort of sad story, I still found it endearing to be finally listening to him telling story instead of me reading it.

"Just like the sun." He said with a smile as he looked at me.

"Wait, how?" I asked.

"Well, look at it." He said. "In the morning, it's all shiny up there, providing people with light and life. People do all their vital activities in the day time, thankful for the sun for being there to light up their lives. Kids are playing, adults are at work, and ice-cream is melting which might make said kids cry but whatever, you get the idea."

"And then by the end of the day, when the sun is leaving and drowning in the ocean like that... no one seems to give it much attention anymore..." he said with an absent smile. "They got what they wanted, finished their tasks and everyone is happy and ready to rest. No one no longer cares about the sun."

I was quiet for a moment.

"So that's why you...,"

"That's why I love watching sunsets so much." He beamed just like a sun himself, letting that little dimple show. "I like to appreciate the beauty of it." Then he scratched his nape and said, "kinda like letting the sun know I care about it and what it did, you know."

I would say I was speechless. I never knew that Conner had so much depth inside him. Never in a million years would I think about a star like that. Conner was like a doorway to a fantasy world I never knew existed.

I felt a warm sensation inside me covering me like a blanket.

"Wow Conner that was so.... thoughtful and cute." I said with a genuine smile. He looked at me with shy eyes and a small smile formed on his face too. "Thanks, I guess."

"Although that was not a metaphor, it was a personification."

The look Conner gave me made me burst out laughing. At this point I would admit that I liked teasing him so much.

A couple of seconds later he started giving in too and we both laughed together for a while.

"I like your laugh," he said after we both calmed down a bit. "It's contagious dang it." His cheeks turned a little pink.

I smiled. "Well, you make me laugh so."

As he looked at me, I could see his cheeks getting redder and redder. Then he looked away and tried to suppress his smile in a failed attempt.

This might be an extremely long flight but it was certainly not boring by any means.

~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~

After what felt like an eternity we finally arrived at our last destination and reached our hotel.

I walked inside the room which I was supposed to share with Mindy and Cindy. It was actually quite cozy, nothing too fancy. I liked that. I hopped on the farthest bed and took out a bag of chips from my handbag.

Mindy and Cindy were fighting over the other two left beds.

I wasn't annoyed that much. I'm used to being around girls fighting all the time. Need I remind you, I've got three sisters.

After they'd finally settled down, they started gossiping about all the boys and girls in our school (and at some point, other schools too). Then argued about who was the most handsome One Direction member.

You could definitely tell I was silent during their entire interesting conversations. I wonder what gave it away?

I was about to open another bag of chips when Mindy said, "But oh my god, Cindy you were acting so obvious with Conner on the plane the other day."

Cindy's cheeks turned pink. "I wasn't! What the heck! What are you even talking about?!"

Mindy smirked. "Come on, Cindy admit it! You were standing so close to him when we ambushed him."

I knew it. Cindy's behavior on the plane wasn't random and didn't go unnoticed.

Cindy blew her bangs out of her face. "I – uh to intimidate him so he would tell us the truth!"

Mindy laughed. "Well it seemed to me you were about to kiss him!"

Cindy gasped and threw a pillow at Mindy from embarrassment. "No no no no! Ewwww that's so disgusting!"

It slowly started dawning on me. Cindy has a crush on Conner?

Okay, that's something I would have never guessed to be honest. Why? Well maybe because these girls throw glares and scowls at Conner whenever they see him. So that was definitely news to me.

Mindy was laughing so hard at Cindy to the point she started tearing. Cindy on the other hand was glaring at her with a scarlet face.

"I don't like Conner Bailey." Cindy said crossing her arms. "What is there to like about him anyway? He's boring and not funny."

Wow... okay.

"I'm sure his lips taste like insect anyway." She muttered under her breath.

Mindy smirked "Uh-huh, I'm sure that's what your diary says too."

Cindy's eyes widened as she watched Mindy talking out her diary from underneath her.

"Hey bring that back!" Cindy said trying to take it back from her but Mindy had already opened it and started reading out loud.

Oh gosh I could already tell this was going to be disastrous.

"I wonder what Conner's rosy pink lips taste like," Mindy quoted from Cindy's diary.

Good lord. Make it stop.

Cindy was screaming nonsense while Mindy on the other hand was having the time of her life. "Ohh oh look at this one!" She said excitedly and cleared her throat. "Oh my gosh, puberty hit Conner Bailey like a bus! He's much taller! His face is not round anymore and –"

"GIVE IT BACK!!" Cindy shouted and attempted to take the diary again. Wow, I guessed the next line must have been a catastrophe.

"...and his jawline is to die for!"

Yup. I was right.

Although I, myself was interested in Conner Bailey, I couldn't help but cringe so hard.

Cindy finally snatched the diary from Mindy, giving her a dirty look. "I hope you had fun." She scowled. "Maybe if I mentioned Raphael though, you'd start having more fun huh!"

I had heard this name before in history class but I didn’t even recall whose face it belonged to.

Mindy started blushing this time and Cindy smirked.

"W–what about Raphael?" Mindy asked in a small voice.

Alright alright, I've had enough cringe for one day.

I got up, put my earbuds in before I heard them describing anything I didn't wanna hear about Raphael and went for the window. Thankfully, the view was by all means fantastic. I leaned on the railing and played Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift on full volume in my ears.

~He said let's get out of this town
Drive out of the city, away from the crowds~

I started fantasising about what it's like to actually run away with someone. Explore the world, experience magical moments. I started to imagine how awesome it would be to have a cool adventure like that with someone who is special.

~He's so tall and handsome as hell~

I smirked. Taylor was reading into my thoughts probably.

Conner had stayed in the elevator after I'd got out, so he was probably on the floor above me. I decided to look up maybe I could spot him.

That's when I found Conner's bright blue eyes already staring down at me.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the amount of huge but cool coincidence that just happened. I was just thinking about him and he turned out to be right there and looking at me at the same time. I wondered if he had been thinking about me too then.

I smiled and waved at him. He gave me a nervous laugh and what looked like a wave too