The Trouble with Flying Read Online Free PDF Page A

down too. I scoop the runaway ice block back into my glass and notice that Aiden still hasn’t said anything. I look up, but he’s watching the aisle. The tops of his ears are red.
    “Um, are you okay?” I ask. Still he refuses to look at me. “Okay, so, I hope you’re not embarrassed or anything. I mean, turbulence is scary if you don’t know what to expect. I’m the real freak here, remember? The one who’s scared of social interaction with perfectly harmless people.” I laugh to let him know I’m joking. Trying to lighten the mood.
    “It is embarrassing, though,” he says quietly, his gaze still focused on the aisle. “That kid over there didn’t even put her iPad down.”
    “Well, you know, she’s probably too engrossed in catapulting birds at pigs or something. If she were even remotely aware of her surroundings, I’m sure she would have been scared too.”
    Aiden gives me a small smile. “I doubt it. But thanks anyway. And thanks for saving my wine. When you start off with such a tiny drink, it would suck to lose half of it.”
    I laugh. “It would. We should start a petition for larger aeroplane cups.”
    “Yes. Right after I figure out where my blanket is. Where’d you get yours from?”
    “It was on my chair when I got here.”
    “Which means I’m probably sitting on mine.” Aiden reaches beneath his butt— don’t think about his butt! —and pulls out an aeroplane pillow.
    “How did you not know you were sitting on that?” I ask.
    “Is this what they call a pillow?”
    “I’m afraid it is.”
    “Ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to get a good night’s sleep on this pincushion? I should have bought one of those blow-up pillows that wrap around your neck.”
    “Are you planning to sleep now?” I try to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I’m tired, but—as insane as it is for me to admit this—I’d rather stay awake and talk to Aiden.
    “After that turbulence?” Aiden shakes his head as he pulls his blanket out from beneath him. “Not a chance. However,” he adds, “if I’m about to die, perhaps it would be better if I didn’t know it was coming.”
    “We’re not about to die.”
    Aiden drapes his blanket over his legs and pulls it up to his lap. It’s exactly what most people do when they’re flying overnight, but somehow it looks cuter on him. Like he’s all ready for bed now. “If we were about to die, though,” he says, “what’s one thing you wouldn’t miss?”
    “Hmm.” I wrap my arms around my knees and pull them closer. “Going back to varsity. I’m not too excited about that.”
    “Which one are you at?”
    I give him a sideways look. “Not the one you’re thinking of.”
    “How do you know which one I’m thinking of?”
    “Because people from other countries only ever know about one South African university.”
    He hesitates before saying, “Okay. Guilty as charged. I only know the Cape Town one.”
    “Exactly.”
    “So you don’t go there?”
    “Nope.” The prospect of travelling across the country to study at a massive university with thousands of people I don’t know was just a little too terrifying for me. I opted for the small campus an hour away from home and the tiny garden flat in my mom’s old school friend’s back garden. And it didn’t hurt that Matt had already chosen to go there …
    Get out of my head, Matt!
    I blink and find Aiden watching me. “What?”
    “Just waiting to see if you’ll carry on talking if I don’t ask you anything else.”
    The dreaded blush creeps up my neck again. “Okay, you see? This is the problem. I want to keep talking to you, but any time it’s my turn to bring up a new topic of conversation, my brain can’t seem to pick anything.”
    “So ask me a question.”
    Right. That’s the normal thing to do. You get to know people by asking them questions. If I could stop being so self-conscious, maybe I’d remember that. “Um … tell me three random things about