Stranger In A Strange Land: Chapter 6

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secretly alone

Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
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I have finished Chapter 6! Here is most of it. Now...:hyper: there is a piece that I had to edit out :sexywink: towards the end, leaving a strange gap. If you would like to read that part (and I hope you would!) I'll PM it to you :D

~100% fictional, imaginary, etc~

Looking out the window, I could see a faint purple glow on the horizon. The sun was beginning to come up. I yawned and poured two cups of coffee. I was not meant to be up this early. I could barely stay standing up. Bono came into the kitchen, pulling on his wool coat. "Ok, love, are you ready to go?" He kissed me and began buttoning my coat. "Mmm, ready enough. I poured you a cup of coffee, to help you wake up." I handed him the styrofoam cup. "Thanks. Allright, have we got everything then?" He seemed to be checking things off on a mental checklist. I looked around the kitchen. This house had been my home for the past month, and no doubt would be my home when we returned in August. I felt several different emotions, but they were all interrupted by Bono attempting to pick up all five bags at once. He was about to topple over. "Are you out of your freaking mind?! Paul David Hewson, I swear, you do some stupid things..." I pulled a suitcase and my backpack from his reluctant hands. I knew he didn't want me to have to carry anything, which was sweet, but ridiculous. I had two arms.

"Wait." He remembered. "Lilly, call your parents. Before we walk out this door. Please," he implored me. I had promised, and it was the right thing to do anyway. I set the suitcase down and went to the phone, and dialed my number. When I got an operator, I realized I needed the country code. It rang several times, and finally, my mom picked up. "Hello??" It was 12:30 in the morning over there. "Hello? Mom?" "Oh my God, Lil? Is that you? Where are you, are you ok?? Where have you been?" It was the voice of a frantic mother who hadn't heard from her child in over a month and had no idea what was going on. "Yes, it's me. I'm fine... listen, I can't talk long. I've been in Dublin for the past month. I'm flying to LA...I have to leave for the airport now. I'm going to be going around the US with...some friends. I just wanted to call to let you know what was going on, and that I was fine." She was trying to interrupt me, but I kept talking until I was done. When I was, she attempted to bombard me with questions. "Look, mom, I can't talk right now. I have to walk out the door right now or we're going to miss the flight." "Well, will you call me when you get there? And explain what's going on? Who are you with?" I sighed. "Yes, I'll call when I can. I have to go now. Bye." I'm sure she was aware that I had purposefully dodged her last question. The cab honked outside. Bono gave me a meaningful look. "You needed to do that." His voice was full of sympathy. We picked up the suitcases again and headed towards the front door. I took one last look around the living room, flashing back to the first time I had walked through that door, and then pulled it shut behind us.

As we rode to the airport, I looked out the window and watched the dark streets of Dublin passing by. It was quiet; the city was still asleep. None of the people inside those houses were aware that four boys who may one day become one of the country's greatest treasures were off to America. For now, they were just four boys, asleep with their heads on eachother's shoulders. With the exception of Bono. He was awake, and staring out the window as well. He put his chin on my shoulder. "I'm going to miss it. I know we'll only be gone for three months or so, but I'm still not used to being away from home for so long." I realized that in a short time, I had become very attached to this place. It was like home to me. "I'm going to miss it too, even if I haven't been here very long. It's a lovely place...what can I say? I fell in love with the city too." He kissed my cheek. "It's your home now, too."

I was both excited and nervous waiting in the airport. The coffee had woken me up enough that I was alert and aware of my surroundings. I was going to be boarding a plane shortly, and flying was at the top of my list of things that terrify me. I felt that once I was on the plane, I was trapped. There was no going back, and there would be nothing I could do if something went wrong. It was a horrible feeling. Luckily I had the excitement of the coming months to offset the fear. The coffee had done more than wake Bono up. Every five minutes, he ran to check the board to see if there was any new information on our flight. He was bouncing on his heels and grabbing onto me, chanting, "We're-go-ing-to-Los-An-ge-les" over and over again. "Gee, baby, now I know that coffee is not your friend..." He was in my face. "Hey, what do you think the weather is like there, huh?" I had to laugh. He was being ridiculous, but adorable. "Well, probably hot. It's pretty much always summer there." He threw his arms in the air. "We'll have to peel off all our clothes!! I'm going to go check our flight again!" And off he ran. I put my palm to my forehead and sat down next to Larry. He snickered. "You're going to have grey hair by the time you hit 25, you know?" I laughed. "Well, maybe I can push that back to 30, if I limit his caffeine intake." Paul was sitting a few seats down, looking at me. Before, he was more or less indifferent towards me, although certainly not friendly. Now that I was coming along with them, he seemed almost hostile.

"Flight five sixteen...flight 5-1-6 to New York, now boarding rows A through H."

They all stood up. I was confused...were we moving to another waiting area? "Hey, why are you guys standing?" Edge looked a little confused as well. "That's our flight, Lilly." He was confused as to why I was confused. "But...I thought we were going to LA, not New York!!" He looked at Bono. "Bon, you didn't tell her?" "Well, I didn't want her to be more exasperated that there were two flights..." He turned to me. "There aren't any direct flights from here to Los Angeles. We have to make a connection in New York." Great, two long flights. At this point, that wasn't even what bothered me. I already knew I was going to be on the plane for a long time. It was the fact that we were stopping in New York. It made me feel really weird. I swung my backpack over my shoulder. "Gee Bon, thanks for not telling me about this," I snapped. "I'm sorry, Lilly...I should have told you. I just, I don't know, you were already nervous about the ONE flight, and then the connection in New York, I thought-" I interrupted him. "That it would bother me? It does feel a little weird. And it's still a long time on a plane, either way. But you should have told me." He looked upset. "I'm sorry I made it worse." I didn't answer him. We were about to go through the gate and I felt a sort of ringing in my ears, so I tried taking a few deep breaths. He gathered me in his arms and pulled me close to him. "Don't be scared, love. I'm here." I couldn't be mad at him. I remembered that I knew as long as I had him, everything would be ok.

The flight was loooooong. Around seven hours, but it seemed like forever. After a while I got tired of being scared, and I was just plain bored. Finally, the pilot's voice came over the PA. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our descent into New York. Thank you for flying Aer Lingus, and enjoy your stay. For those of you making the connecting flight to Los Angeles, you will need to go to Terminal 7. That flight leaves at 10:30" I looked out the window in spite of myself, and I could see the familiar city below. As we got closer I could make out Manhattan Island, and I could see the Statue of Liberty. I certainly hadn't expected to be back so soon, even if it was only for an hour or so. My mother would have a fit if she knew I was here. That reminded me that I would be here, probably for a few days, at some point on this trip. I was sure that would prove to be a very interesting situation, one that made my head spin and that I preferred not to think about at the moment. Bono leaned over me so he could see out the window. "A sort of homecoming for you, huh? You know, for an hour." We both laughed.

JFK was at least twice as crowded as the Dublin airport had been. Voices of a million different tongues shouted back and forth, and I could hear the familiar New York accent. "What time is it?" Adam hadn't spoken much all day, probably because he had been asleep most of the time. I looked at my watch. "It's 2:00. Oh no, wait...9:00. We have, uh, not much time to get to Terminal 7. Walk faster." "Well what terminal are we in now?" "Aer Lingus is at Terminal 4. So it's a decent walk to 7." It was a horrible walk. We were practically running. There were people swarming all over, and it was deafeningly loud. The flight was already boarding when we got there. They looked shaken. "Welcome to New York, guys. Life at double-speed." I hadn't had any time to feel weird that I was home. Suddenly, Paul spoke from behind me. "You know, I think we would have missed this flight if you hadn't known exactly where to go, Lilly. Thank you," I hadn't expected that. "Erm, well, you're welcome...I guess it's just lucky that I happened to be a New Yorker." That was interesting, and unusual, to say the least.

When we finally, finally landed at LAX, the excitement kicked back in. It was hot outside, as I had predicted. We had gone from winter to summer in a single day. All our heavy coats came off immediately, and I couldn't wait to get to the hotel so I could switch my sweater for a t shirt. In the cab on the way there, it dawned on me that I was back in America. No longer was I the foreigner in town. I felt a very slight twinge of what may have been a cross between relief and joy. Not that I had any plans to come back here for good, but it was still sort of nice. Maybe, just maybe, somewhere deep down inside, I was a teeny-tiny bit proud to be American. I had never been to LA, but it looked just like New York, and so it was familiar.

We were sharing a hotel room, all five of us. Each one of them apologized with red faces several times. I assured them that it wasn't that big of a deal, even though in my mind I was going to have to get used to the idea. My mom would have a fit if she knew I was sharing a hotel room with four boys, and it did seem an insanely tarty thing to do. But it wasn't, considering that one of them was my soul mate, and the other three like my brothers. I changed in the bathroom, while they all changed in the room. When I came out, Edge, Adam, and Larry were gone. "Hey, where did they...........go?" Bono was tearing through the suitcase, obviously looking for a shirt, because he wasn't wearing one. I shivered. "Oh, they went to go, y'know, look around, explore. I told them we'd catch up so we can get something to eat. I'm starving. But I can't find my orange t shirt, you know the one..........what?"

I jumped a foot in the air when there was a knock at the door. It was Edge. "Hey! Are you guys still in there?? I left my wallet...please be in there...hello?" I burst out laughing. There sat his wallet on the table. "Yeah, we're here...one sec. We're coming out anyway." Bono had opted for a t shirt that was a bit longer than the orange one he had been searching for. Holding back more laughter, I opened the door and handed Edge his wallet. "We better get going. We've got a few hours before jet lag sets in, and we best be out in the sun. And YOU-" I pointed between them. "You guys need to be rested for tomorrow, I think..." The first show was tomorrow night. And so the madness would begin.
 
* would like edited chapter*

Nice chapter, I love the birching about flying! Paul still sounds like a meanie!:fist:
 
I would definitely like the PM version :) and count that for the rest of them too?

Good lord, Bono is like a hyper little puppy! "We're going to Los Angeles, we're going to Los Angeles!" :giggle:
 
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