A Beautiful Forever - By Anderson, Lilliana Page 0,2

‘Teensville’ starts floating into my ears as I close my eyes and lean my head against the window. I keep the sound at a level that is just enough to mask the sounds of the plane but quiet enough to lull me off to sleep.

Elliot

Seriously, I just want to go to sleep. Although, this woman sitting next to me won’t stop yammering in my ear. I’m trying to listen and answer her politely, but I have been awake for over 20 hours now, and I’m really struggling.

My eyes stray towards the girl sitting in the window seat, her hair has fallen forward to cover most of her face as she sleeps at an awkward angle against the window. I so wish I was her right now.

“Is London the end of your journey?” the woman asks, leaning slightly so her face blocks my view.

I nod my head and exaggerate a yawn. “It is, how about you?”

“Oh no, I'm going to travel onto Scotland. My sister lives there, in Dundee, I’m going to stay with her for a whole month!”

Opening my mouth, I exaggerate another yawn and add some sleepy eyes in this time for good measure.

“You poor boy, I’m keeping you up. I’m sorry; I don’t sleep very well without one of these,” she tells me as she takes a packet of sleeping pills out of her bag and puts one in her mouth, swallowing it dry. “I’ll be quiet now. You sleep.”

Gratefully, I close my eyes. Exhaustion washes through my body, and I drift off.

Paige

In my dream, there’s a bear growling outside. I’m aware it’s a dream because Australia doesn’t have bears in the wild, so it confuses me to hear one. My consciousness moves forward as the rumbling sounds vibrate through me. It’s the sounds of the plane and…. snoring? My eyes flutter open and I remove the buds from my ears, the album I was listening to long since over, and turn my head toward the exasperating noise.

The woman who was talking to me earlier has her head tilted back, her mouth is wide open and the noise is emanating from her throat. I squint at her, willing her with my mind to stir enough so the noise will stop. When she starts making a small choking sound, I flinch, surprised and slightly impressed with my new mind control ability as she quiets and her breathing evens out.

I breathe out slowly - glad the noise is over; and move to replace the buds in my ears. But I’m paused, my reprieve all too brief, as my skull starts vibrating when she starts up again – so much for my awesome mind control skills…

I cross my eyes in agitation and reach my hand toward her, clamping my fingers on either side of her nose. She makes a guttural sound, and I withdraw my hand quickly, looking out the window and pretending nothing happened. I start counting seconds as I wait to see if it worked, feeling safe when I reach a full minute in silence.

“Thank god,” I say to myself as I lean my head back against the window. The second I begin to relax however, she starts up again.

The guy on the other side of her starts laughing, and I find myself smiling as I lean forward to look at him.

He's quite frankly, the most beautiful man I have ever seen but looks almost too large to be in such a small seat. His long legs are angled so that one is in the aisle, and the other is wedged in the minute gap between the seats in front of him. He has broad firm shoulders that span further than the width of the seat. His hair is light golden brown and a little longer than I like on guy, but it kind of suits him. He’s wearing a good day or two worth of stubble - which I’ll admit is a bit on the sexy side. But it’s his eyes that are most striking. They look like someone took the clearest, bluest part of the ocean and dropped it into his irises.

“I’m sorry,” he says, “I’m not laughing at you. I've been trying to make her stop snoring for ages. I’m laughing at the situation.”

He’s smiling at me; his smile is textbook perfect and creases the corners of his eyes that are watering a little from his laughter. It’s a killer smile - if I hadn’t sworn myself off men years ago, I think I’d go all