Lyra Parish - Weak Without Him

"James Cameron? Yeah. Who hasn't seen that movie?"

"The end made me cry. I never got enough of the young Leonardo DiCaprio. Like I had such a mega huge crush on him, posters in my bedroom, and I even signed DiCaprio behind my name as practice. I had the whole movie almost memorized verbatim."

Luke laughed. "Really?"

"He was an artist. You know, Jack."

"Yeah. He was."

I looked into Luke's eyes, and he swallowed.

"Would you paint me like that one day? The same setting as Jack and Rose."

His breath tingled on my skin, and my heart pounded in my chest.

"You'll always be my Rose, Jennifer. And if it would make you happy, then yes."

I laid my head back down on his shoulder. Only the armrest separated our bodies.

It was easy and comfortable being with Luke, and at that moment I was the happiest I had been in a while.

Luke patted me awake after I had fallen asleep on him. I would have four hours to rest until the flight connected in New York. We walked through the tunnel, and boarded the plane. The window seat had my name written all over it. Before we took off, all the rules and regulations blared over the loudspeaker. Buckle your seatbelts, blah blah blah, then the plane lifted and soared above the ground. Being above everyday life as it continued down below was an odd feeling. Almost as if I were detached from the real world, viewing it from a bird’s eye, in a sense.

Luke leaned over my body and glanced out. Rusty mountains and desert surrounded us. I moved my body back in the seat and closed my eyes.

"I will never get tired of looking out the window of a plane."

"Me either," I said and looked at Luke.

He leaned back in his seat, pulled out a sketchpad, charcoal, and drew. Positioning his pencil at an angle, he drew dots and small lines that were followed by shading. Then an eye, eyelashes, and eyebrows were formed. With his thumb, he smudged lines, then continued drawing lips and hair. Although my eyelids were heavy, I watched him work. The way he would close his eyes and reopen them, then close them again and reopen them, made me admire him even more for being able to draw from memory. Luke was completely involved in his work, despite the crying baby in the background or the chatter a few seats over, focused entirely on the drawing. He bit his lip and finished the picture with an eraser. Once complete, he looked down at it, then over at me with a grin.

"How's this?" he asked.

The picture was of me sleeping.

"What you're trying to say is you could draw me exactly how Jack drew Rose?"

He laughed. "I could."

"That eraser thing, it's neat."

"It's actually called a blender. Helps smear the charcoal and emphasize the shading."

"How long have you been doing this, drawing and painting?"

"Since I was seven. My mother insisted we find our creative side at an early age, so she enrolled us in art and music classes. I always loved to draw. Painting came before music. Violin. I love it."

"Really? You play the violin?" I couldn't stop thinking about the night that he was going to make me his, and the violinist that played during dinner. Every piece of that night had meant something to him. It was perfectly planned, and I was too stupid to see it.

"You said we. Finnley took classes as well?"

"Oh yeah. He can draw too. He's extremely talented. Better than me, I think. A natural. He can cook, and play the piano. He has many secret talents."

If Luke only knew…

The thought of Finn having that much creativity… just, blew my mind. I couldn't imagine it. But other than that, Finnley was a closed book; a cliffhanger that I would never have the full story of and it frustrated me. But then again, learning about him was half the fun of it all, right?

After repositioning his body, Luke closed the sketchpad. "Did you tell him you were coming with me?"

"Haven't talked to anyone but you since yesterday afternoon."

"He's going to be pissed, you know."

"I know."

The thought of it made me uneasy. When I sucked in a deep breath, Luke grabbed my hand and squeezed.

"When I have a chat with him, I'm going to tell him you confessed your undying love for me and we ran away together to get married in Paris."

I laughed. "Can't wait to hear his reaction. Promise to have him on speaker when you tell him."

Luke let out a yawn. So did I. He stopped the airline attendant and asked for a blanket, and I yawned again. Why were they so contagious? She brought a thin blanket over to us, and he plopped it over our legs. The warmth relaxed me and together we drifted to sleep as we soared through the clouds.

We woke as the plane landed. I knew I had sleepy eyes, and so did he. When we were allowed, we grabbed our carry-on bags and made our way off of the plane. If Vegas had been cold, New York was freezing.

Blankets of white surrounded us, and the snow steadily fell. We grabbed our bags and checked them in for our connecting flight.

A little restaurant beckoned us forward.

"Hungry?"

"Starving," I said.

We walked inside, ordered a few waffles, and more coffee. I needed a gallon of it.

"Are you going to call Finn before we board?" he asked over a hot mug.

"No."

Once we were finished, we made our way to the waiting area where the attendants boarded the plane. In six hours, I would officially be in another country, viewing a different set of bright lights and fast paced atmosphere.

Luke stopped before entering the hangar and finished typing on his phone, then stuck it in his pocket and continued with me. I might be jetlagged, tired, and hungry for a real meal, but I didn't give a shit about any of it. The thoughts of being somewhere else would fuel the flight, and that was enough to keep me going.

If I didn't hear from her soon, I would have the entire city swept from top to bottom to find Jennifer Downs. The Honda was missing, she was missing, and I had no idea where the hell she had gone. I was so desperate to find her that I even called Abbie. Damn it, I fucking hated doing it, but I had to track her. I turned into a giant pussy overnight, and I was worried. Worried that something terrible had happened to her. How could I not be?

Nothing would lift the feeling of desperation, loneliness, or worry. As I sped down the streets of Vegas, looking for her car, I received a single text from Luke.

Jennifer is with me. Boarding now .

I let out a long sigh of relief. Relief that she hadn't been kidnapped, relief that she didn't lose her fucking mind and pull another one of her ridiculous stunts like the last time I almost lost her. Jennifer fucking Downs had run to my little brother, and of course, he had taken her in. He was always a sucker for damsels in distress.

I smiled at the thought and at how stupid I had been to not contact him first. God, she was so predictable. At least I knew that she was in good hands, and hoped he would keep his hands to himself.

Another piece of me was pissed the fuck off. Why would she run to Luke if he meant nothing to her? She just called him up and ran into his arms. I wouldn't play these games. I wouldn't be left wondering about us, or her and Luke. If my brother were to choose between my happiness and his, he would choose mine. Luketon Brand loved me and would do anything for his big brother. He also knew how I felt about Jennifer, and without a doubt, if it came down to choosing, he would walk away. But would Jennifer?

She was the common denominator, and I couldn’t change her regardless of how much I fucking wanted to. There were times when she would fold for me, but other times when she stood so strong that a nuclear explosion couldn't knock her down. Smart ass, stubborn, and hardheaded—all character traits that described her perfectly. I really had met my match.