Page 1 of The Holiday Disaster

ONE

ETHAN

I’d always thought of myself as the unluckiest person in the world. It would thunderstorm on days I didn’t have my umbrella on me. I’d miss the bus by a mere second or two. Or every time I wore white, it never failed that I’d somehow get a stain even when food was nowhere in sight.

However, today had to be my unluckiest day on this damn Earth. “Kingsley fucking Sharp,” I whispered under my breath as I paced back and forth in the airport’s bathroom.

The couple of people who walked in on my trance might have cast me curious glances before entering the stall to quickly do their business and duck it out of there, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to give a fuck right now. My entire focus was on a certain man and figuring out how I could avoid him, knowing that we’d be on the same flight.

When I saw him sitting outside Gate five, the same gate for my plane heading home, I’d immediately bolted into the bathroom and hid there until they called for boarding over the PA system.

To be fair, I should have anticipated this happening when I decided to attend the same college as Kingsley. We both came from the same town—heck, we even lived on the samestreet—so it wasn’t surprising for us to take the same plane back home for winter break.

I hadn’t seen him on campus all semester, which wasn’t unusual considering we had different majors, and a junior like him had no reason to hang around with freshmen. I didn’t expect that he wouldn’t have exams on the last Friday before break and would fly home today instead of waiting for the weekend like most of my classmates had.

I stood in the back of the crowd and brushed my short bangs across my face. Kingsley was somewhere in the front of the line, presumably already seated by now, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that he would discover me at any moment.

“Boarding pass, please,” the flight attendant instructed when it was my turn. I pulled the crumpled piece of paper out of my pocket, flattening it as best as I could before handing it to her. The lady took my ticket to scan and shot me a weird look as she gave the stub back to me.

I didn’t blame her. I looked like some teenage runaway with my shifty eyes and feet. Thankfully, she let me pass without saying anything, but that didn’t stop me from checking my surroundings like I was keeping an eye out for a stalker.

Kingsley was no stalker. It was the exact opposite, in fact. He wanted nothing to do with me. I was just his best friend’s dorky younger brother, and he had no qualms about reminding me how dorky I was.

What got me the most was how much I loathed the way our current relationship was. It hurt to see the hesitation in his eyes when he spoke to me and the distance he created when we were in the same room as each other.

His family had moved next door to ours when I was nine. My older brother, being the extrovert that he was, made fast friends with him over their shared love of all things sports.

I, on the other hand, was allergic to exercising. I was the cliché nerdy younger brother that had more interest in playing with our family pets than other humans.

Walking through the narrow aisle of the plane, I kept my head low and kept my eyes trained on my next step. My stub showed that my seat was all the way in the back. I was bound to have to walk past Kingsley, and I preferred it if he weren’t aware of the fact that we were on the same flight.

My pace was slow as I tried to maneuver around the other passengers who took their merry time getting their butts into their seats despite the line of people waiting to get by them.

It always shocked me how inconsiderate people could be of others, hence the reason I preferred hanging around animals. They, at least, didn’t make me want to tear my hair out in frustration.

A huge sigh of relief escaped me when the overly excited lady blocking my path finally moved aside. I didn’t have much patience after already being on edge from finding out that Kingsley would be on the same flight as me.

It wasn’t that I was trying to avoid him… Okay, maybe I was. But being around him always made me nervous, and knowing that he hated being in my presence frayed my nerves until I was tapping my foot like an angry rabbit.

Glancing up occasionally to see the seat numbers, I continued down the aisle until I was at the back of the plane. Thankfully, I had the aisle seat, so I didn’t have to do the awkward dance of going around my seat mate.

The brown boots connected to the black jeans in my view looked familiar, but I was too eager to get my carry-on stowed so I could finally sit to take a proper look at who I’d be sitting with.

It didn’t matter, anyway, since I wasn’t one of those weirdos who engaged in conversation with random strangers. I’d act like a normal person and listen to music with my headphones on as I drifted into a long nap through this flight.

I quickly glanced up at the overhead bin on my side of the aisle to find it closed. It must have already been full. And there was my bad luck making its ugly appearance again.

Turning to the bin on the other side, I prayed there was enough room to fit my suitcase, and the world must have finally cut me some slack because there was still one space left.

I was internally jumping for joy as I rushed to stow my luggage away. But in my rush, I’d miscalculated how heavy the dang suitcase actually was when I lifted it above my head.

My thin arms trembled under the weight, but my pride didn’t allow me to call out for help. If I could exert a tiny bit more strength, I’d be able to get the damn thing inside the bin and avoid embarrassing myself.

I pushed harder, but that only caused me to lose my balance. All the energy seeped out of my arms, my life flashing before my eyes as the suitcase was sure to tumble down on my head and crush me to death.

With no more strength in my body, I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. I always knew my bad luck would get me one day, and it irked me that I’d be known as the guy who was done in by his luggage, but at least it was a memorable way to go down, right?

Instead of feeling the fatal weight of all the textbooks I’d packed—which I was now greatly regretting—a warm hand wrapped around my waist. The suitcase that loomed over my head was safety tucked into the overhead compartment, and a familiar voice that I’d had too many dreams about to even count spoke in my ear. “Watch out.”

---