The Paris Trip

I nuzzled my neck on what I thought was my pillow. I wrapped my hand around what felt like a strong, muscular arm. I paused, why was my hand wrapped around an arm? I opened my eyes to find my head resting on Liam’s shoulder and my hand brushing the insides of his arms.
“Oh…” I jerked suddenly.
“Oh, good morning.” Liam said as his face got red.
“I’m so sorry, Liam. I didn’t realize…” I tried to use my fingers to comb through my hair, which was getting quite messy.
“No it’s fine. I’ve been awake for about an hour now and I didn’t want to wake you. And by the way, you looked really cute when you’re sleeping.” He smiled sheepishly. I tried to imagine Liam sitting still for an hour straight with me on his shoulder oblivious to how uncomfortable he probably was. What if he had to use the restroom? Oh I felt so bad for him!

“Liam, that is so sweet. But I feel horrible!” I turned to face him. My hand landed on his. Liam looked down at our hands together, staring for a few seconds before he shook his head and excused himself so he could use the bathroom.
“Hey, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He squeezed my hand and winked. My heart was beating faster and faster, I blushed as he made his way down the aisle to the restroom.
“Psst! Casey!” I heard someone whisper behind me. Of course I couldn’t mistake the slight Irish accent on the tip of his tongue.
“Yeah, Niall?” I turned around.
All of a sudden, I saw him standing up and taking Liam’s seat.
“Hey, what’s up?” I questioned as he turned to face me.
“Well, not that I’ve been spying on you two, but well…. I have.” He admitted. I chuckled while he continued, “I just wanted to say that Liam has never looked at someone the way he looks at you; I thought you deserved to know. We see a lot of girls everyday but he hasn’t looked at them they way he does with you. So yeah, I just wanted you to know that I think he really may be into you. That’s my opinion but yeah…” He looked me, contemplating whether or not he should have said anything.
“Yeah, that’s really sweet. No one has every looked at me that way…” I look at my hands, trying to recall anyone that has told me that they had a crush on me. The truth was that no one liked me that way at school. Not a single guy would take a second look at me to be honest. I never even bothered to ask a guy out because I thought he would reject me. No one called me “pretty” or “beautiful”. I was nothing to the guys at school and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
“Yeah, thanks for telling me, Niall. You’re a really great friend to Liam.” I put my hand on his shoulder.
“If it means anything Casey, I like you, you seem like a great girl, and exactly what Liam deserves.” He smiled.
“Thank you. It means a lot.” I blushed.
“Um, Casey I was wondering if you could tell me about your friend, Leah? She seems very nice and I was wondering if we could chat sometime?” He asked, trying to avoid eye contact with me.
I smiled slyly and leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of Leah. She was sleeping with her face in her lap. I laughed and said, “Yeah, I think she’d love that.” And with that, Niall made his way back to his seat. I saw Liam returning from the restroom and decided that I needed to use the bathroom as well.
I got up and made my way towards Liam. I stared at him, smiling as I came face to face with him. The aisle was too small for both of us to pass at the same time. He blushed as he realized what we both had to do. We both turned sideways and slid past each other, our bodies briefly brushing agianst each other’s. I blushed as I passed him, biting my finger as I made my way to the restroom.
I looked in the mirror as soon as I closed he door behind me. What was it about him that made me like this? I blushed just thinking of him. There are millions of girls out there that would die to be in my position, yet I was the one here. I was the one who spent all of last night watching a movie and joking around with Liam. Did I even deserve this? Looking into the mirror, I fixed my hair and touched up my mascara. I finally walked out of the restroom and back to my seat. Liam stood up so that I could get to my seat. Once seated, I sighed looking out of the window.

“You okay over there?” Liam asked.
“What happens when we land?” I asked randomly, still staring out the window, refusing to look at him.
He didn’t answer for what seemed like an hour. He finally said, “I’m not sure.” Obviously, he hadn’t thought about it. What could he possibly say? That he would try to see me?

“I don’t know either…” I said, finally turning to face him. He then sat up straight and pulled out his phone and gave it to me.
“Your number? Please?” He winked at me. I just sat there staring at his phone and looking back at him. “Here…” He urged me to take his phone. I slowly reached for it, unsure whether he was serious. I put my number in it and then gave it back to him. “Thanks, babe.” He smiled.
“My turn.” I pulled out my phone and gave it to him. He put his number in and handed it back to me. I giggled as I saw his contact name, “Liam Payno A.K.A BATMAN ;)”.
“Loving the contact name by the way!” I laughed.
“Thanks!” He smiled his usual cheeky smile.
A few minutes later, the breakfast cart came around and we ordered something to eat. We kept glancing at each other while eating and usually ended up laughing for no good reason.
“Wait!” Liam said abruptly as I continued to giggle.
“What?” I said, out of breath due to the recent laughing fit I was having.
“You’ve got cream cheese on the side of your lips.” He pointed to the small amount of cream cheese from my bagel. I used my tongue to whip around my lips trying to get the spot.
“No, not there, there!” He pointed.
“Liam, this is not working!” I giggled.
“Here, let me just…” His thumb reached over to the side of my mouth, his eyes narrowed as he focused, his soft touch sent shivers down my spine but I managed to stay still. His thumb grazed part of my lips, pressing slightly. My eyes followed his finger and then they looked up at him. I felt his finger trail down my lips, wiping the cream cheese off. His other fingers were underneath my chin by now; he slowly pulled my chin up and leaned in. I looked at his lips and leaned in closer to him. Our noses started to touch when all of a sudden we both jerked back.
“WE WILL BE LANDING SHORTLY SO PLEASE PUT YOUR TRAYS UP AND PLEASE BRING YOUR SEATS TO THEIR UPRIGHT POSITION!” The intercom blared. Many of the other passengers were startled as well and sat up straight.
I avoided looking directly at Liam till I felt like we were slowly descending. I sighed quietly as I slouched back into my seat, my heart was still beating hard and it took awhile for it to return to its normal pace.

Notes