Prompt 153 - Jet Lag - Skinthief - Skins

[skinthief.livejournal.com]

Title: New York.
Author: skinthief.
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins; not making any money from this, either.
Prompt: #153 – Jet Lag.
Rating: PG.
Characters: Sid; mentions of Cassie.
Summary: Sid heads to New York to find his girlfriend.

Sid had never been good at flying. It made his head spin and his knees weak; and it took everything he had not to double over and throw up. The last time he’d been on a plane was when he’d gone to Russia with the others, for their history class, and that had hardly been a pleasant experience. He had had drugs up his ass for the whole time there; they had only started passing back through when he was on his way back to Heathrow airport.

Now, he was flying for a much, much more important reason. Tony and Michelle had gotten him an airplane ticket straight to New York; where Cassie had fled. The blonde girl wouldn’t be easy to find, he knew – but he also knew that he couldn’t live without her. He loved her.

The plane touched down, bumping just enough to make him shiver and glance at the window. There was an old man between him and the window, though, and he couldn’t see the outside world through the man’s broad shoulders and wild, tangled grey beard.

“Aw, shit,” he muttered; the airplane had finally stopped, but his stomach still rolled. His shoulders jerked, attempting to heave – but there was nothing in his stomach to throw up, and all that slid down his chin was a thin trail of bile. He repeated the mutter and wiped the back of his hand across his chin.

“Get aht!” the old man beside him suddenly screeched, reaching across as if to claw at his face with thick, broken, yellow nails – “Get aht!”

“What?” Sid glanced worriedly over his shoulder for a flight attendant, but none seemed to be in sight. “Er, can I help you with anything…?”

“Get aht!” he shouted back, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting Sid squarely on the face. He slumped forward then, spit-coated beard falling across his knees, his head rolling to one side. Sid stared at the man, then looked away and swore under his breath.

Within a few minutes he was off the plane. His legs were trembling fervently, his throat closing up and then opening again, leaving him gaping like a fish. He had never felt so tired in his life – being Tony’s best friend and crazy Cassie’s boyfriend had always exhausted him mentally, but this was mental, physical and emotional. He felt like if he went to sleep, he would never wake up.

He produced a photograph from his pocket and showed it to people who passed by. The few people that stopped to answer couldn’t give him what he needed – the location of his lovely, crazy, too-skinny girlfriend. “Have you seen… hey, have you seen this gi… Please, hey, have you…”

He reached a café and paused beside it. He looked up the street, then down – it was a mass of buildings and people, and he couldn’t see her. Jetlag made his eyes heavy, and he felt exhausted tears well up as he glanced into the café window. He wouldn’t ever find her, though; there was too much life here to find one small, blonde, anorexic girl.

Sid sighed to himself, pressed his photograph more securely against his chest, and carried on walking.