People Miss Planes

By:  Lara

 

A tear ran down his face as she started to leave/He said, baby, please don’t do this, I’m begging you please…what can I say to stop you from walkin’ out on us/I’ll do anything to save our love…

 

Kevin came running into the house, tears streaming down his face.  “Stef?  STEPHANIE!”  He yelled, thumping up the steps.  He found her in their bedroom, packing two suitcases.  He skidded to a stop in the doorway.  “Stef?”  His voice was filled with hurt awe.

“What does it look like I’m doing, Kevin?  I’m leaving.”  She zipped a carry-on bag shut and tossed it towards the doorway.  It landed at Kevin’s feet.  She refused to look at his face.  She already knew the pain she would find there.

“Leaving?  Come on, honey, let’s sit down and talk about this,” he said, though his voice held no conviction. Kevin knew that talking was the last thing she would do.  They had both talked, yelled, screamed and cried, and things were no better.  “I couldn’t believe it when I got that voicemail message.  I drove over here as soon as I listened to it.”

“Well, I knew you had a production meeting, and I didn’t want to bother you,” she said softly, in a voice so low he hardly could hear her words.

“Didn’t want to BOTHER me?  You’re running out on our marriage but you didn’t want to BOTHER me by telling me in person?  That’s fucking ridiculous, Stef.”  Kevin sat on a chair, running his fingers through his short dark hair.

“I’m not ‘running out’ on anything,” she retorted, “Because there is nothing left to run out on.  It’s obvious to everyone, Kev.  Everyone but you.  We just don’t have it anymore.  Whatever tied us together is now gone.”

“What did happen, Stef?  We were so happy…so in love…nothing could ever change that…but I guess it has.”  He stared up at her sorrowfully.  The pain in his green eyes cut through her heart like a knife.

“Well, those little messages from Kristin that I keep finding on the machine when I get home definitely are no help,” she snapped, dragging one full suitcase off the bed and onto the floor.

“I told you about that, Stef.  We used to be engaged.  I can’t just ignore our past.  She needs a friend now, and I want to help her.”

“No…she wants you back, and you can’t find it in your heart to say no to her.  What does that say about us, Kevin?”  Stef stared at him.  “But that’s just one of the many things.  There’s no spark between us anymore.”  She closed the second suitcase and began to drag it towards the door.  Kevin remained where he sat, looking at the floor.  Stef took one look at him over her shoulder, and saw his back heaving with deep sobs.

“What can I do to make you stay, Stephanie?”

She said I’m through with talkin’/You know I’ve tried my best/I gotta leave right now/I’ve got a plane to catch…

 

Stef took the bags downstairs, waiting for Kevin to follow.  He didn’t.  She slowly made her way back upstairs, once again trying to ignore his sobs.  He was crying unashamedly now.  She sat down on the bed.  “Kevin…” she was amazed at the harshness of her voice.  She took a deep breath and started again.  “Kevin,” she said more gently.  “Don’t you think I want to work all this out, too?  We’ve been married three short years…but it’s still something to work for.  I’ve talked all I can talk…screamed all I can screamed…cried all I can cry.  I have to go.”  Stef stood and placed a hand on his shoulder.  “My flight leaves in an hour and I have one or two more stops to make.”

“You’re FLYING somewhere?”  Kevin looked up at her.  His green eyes begged her to stay.

“Um…yeah.  And don’t ask where; I can’t tell you that.  I need some time to myself,” she added quickly.

“Is there someone else, Steffie?”  Kevin asked.

“No…God, no, Kev.  Would I freak about this whole Kristin thing if I had someone else?”  Stef gasped.  “This is all about us…you and me.”  She reached out to touch him again, but decided against it.  “I really have to go.  My plane…” Stef went out the door of the bedroom.

 

And he said people miss planes/It happens all the time/They cancel their plans, they change their minds/Listen to your heart/Before you go too far/Baby turn around before it’s too late/People miss planes…

 

As Stef bent down to pick up her suitcase, she felt a hand on her arm.  “Stef.  Wait.”  He whirled her around to look him in the eye.  “Tell me that you feel nothing when you look at me.  Tell me that none of this is worth making one last effort.”

“Kev, my flight…”

“Fuck that.  People miss planes all the time, Stef.  You wouldn’t be the first.  Look at me and listen to your heart…not your mind.  What do you think?  What do you see?”

Stef looked into the green eyes that were so full of hurt.  She saw the man she had fallen in love with so deeply just a few short years before.  Where had it all gone?  He was right…she could tear up the ticket and make a new start of it with him…then she saw the lonely nights while he was working at the studio and she was home alone.  She saw all the times she showed up at his cousin Brian’s house and saw Kristin waiting there to pounce on Kevin as soon as he walked in the door.  She saw the fights…the tears…the heartaches.  “I have to go, Kevin.”  She pulled away and lugged her suitcases out the door.

                She made it to the airport/in the nick of time/in a moment she’d be gone/yeah she’d board that flight…

 

 

Stef glanced at her watch as she parked her car in the long-term parking lot.  What luck…she still had about fifteen minutes to spare.  There had been an accident on the highway, and she had been worried she wouldn’t make it.  What she had told Kevin about making other stops was a lie.  She didn’t need to make any stops.  She just wanted to drive for a bit and calm down…to make sure she was doing the right thing. 

She lugged her suitcases to the door and a skycap helped her check them in.  She sighed as she watched them wheel away.  She had to go now.  Stef found her gate and sat down to wait, pulling out a magazine from her carryon bag.

 

She’d fly away from trouble/from the struggles that they had/and from everything that they had shared…

 

 

She groaned as she looked down at the magazine she had grabbed from a coffee table at home.  She hadn’t even looked to see what she picked up.  It was the latest issue of People Magazine, and the Backstreet Boys were staring at her from the cover.  Her finger gently traced her husband’s face.  He was so handsome, and he looked so happy in the picture.  She knew that he truly enjoyed performing with his friends, even though he had told her he would leave the group to start a family with her.  He didn’t want her to have to raise their children alone, he had told her.  He wanted to be there for every minute of it.  That’s what the article had been about, actually, whether the group was done or if it was all rumors. 

“Oh, Kev,” Stef said softly to the man in the picture.  “Where did we lose us?”

She had wondered this very thing many sleepless nights when they lay in their large bed with their backs to one another.  At one time they couldn’t even fall asleep without touching somehow.  When had everything started to go wrong?  Stef tried to think.  It all went back to when she had started to feel as if she was holding him back by wanting to start a family with him.  She had never, not ever, told him that she wanted him to quit the group.  That had been his decision.  She knew what it meant to him.  But he insisted on it, and then he started to get worried and distant, so she retaliated by getting just as distant…and then Kristin had come back into the picture.  Kristin was good friends with Brian’s wife LeighAnne, and she was at any function the Littrell’s had at their large home.  Kristin brought some kind of light back to Kevin’s eyes that Stef hadn’t seen for a while.  Maybe it was a reminder of happier, more carefree days.  Stef wasn’t sure.  But she WAS sure that Kristin wanted Kevin back…and looked like she might get her wish.

Stef looked down at the picture again.  She looked at Kevin’s strong hands, which were casually draped over the shoulders of Nick and Howie.  Those hands could make anything, could be so powerful, but could also be soft and gentle and give her hours of passion.  Those lips.  She loved to make them curl into his beautiful smile.  She loved to feel them against her neck as they snuggled together just before falling asleep.  Those famous green eyes.  They brightened when he laughed, darkened when he was angry, and could be filled with such passion and intensity that she would shiver just by looking into them.

She looked up suddenly as a voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that flight 41 would be delayed taking off.  Stef pulled out her ticket.  Sure enough, her flight was flight 41.  She sighed, and jumped as something splashed down onto the ticket.  She reached up and wiped the tears away.  How embarrassing, to be caught crying in an airport.

 

A tear fell on her ticket/as she thought about their love/in just another minute/she’d give it all up…

 

“What’s your name?”

Stef turned to look at a little boy leaning over the seat behind her.  “Kevin!  Sit down!”  The child’s mother smiled apologetically at Stef.  “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”  Stef turned in her chair.  “Your name is Kevin?”  He nodded solemnly.  “My name is Stef.  How old are you?”

“Five.”  He looked at her seriously.  “Why are you crying?”

“I am about to leave someone I love very much,” she told him. She couldn’t help but stare at him.  This was too creepy.  His name was Kevin.  He had dark brown hair, and bright green eyes.  She could have been staring at a five-year-old version of her husband.

“Why?”

“Things just aren’t working out, and I had to get away for a while,” she told the little boy.

“Kinda like when my mommy gives me a time out?”  Little Kevin asked.  Stef smiled and nodded.  “Did you tell him you were leaving?”

“Yes, I did,” Stef said softly.

“And he letted you go all by yourself?”  The boy asked in awe.  She nodded again.  “Wow.  I can’t go anywhere by myself.”

“That’s because you’re not grown up yet,” Stef replied.  The little boy thought for a moment.

“He doesn’t want you to go, does he?”  The boy asked.  Stef was amazed at the questions he was asking.  She slowly shook her head.  “Then don’t go.  If you love him, you should stay.  Maybe he will be scared all alone.”

“He’s big and strong. He’s not scared of anything,” Stef told him.

“But maybe he will be, without you there.  Maybe he needs you.  Maybe you make him not scared.”  The boy’s large green eyes stared at her.  “I love you makes it all better,” he said.  Stef had to look away.

“But, I…” she gasped as she turned back.  The little boy had disappeared, as had his mother.  She frantically looked around but saw no one.

“Now boarding flight forty-one at gate six A,” the voice over the loudspeaker was announcing.  Stef looked down at her ticket, then at the gate, then at the magazine.  You don’t have to go, she told herself.  Turn around and get your ass back in your car.  “Once again, now boarding flight forty-one.”

 

“Kevin!  Kevin!”  Stephanie screamed, running through their house. “Kevin?  Oh, God, where are you?”  She frantically threw open doors.  Maybe it was too late.  Maybe he had run to Kristin to be consoled.  Oh, God, what if she had messed up everything.  “Kevin!” Stef wailed, falling to the floor inside her giant walk-in closet.  She put her head in her hands and sobbed.

“Stef?  Is that you?”  She heard him thumping up the steps.

“In here!”  She called.  Kevin stopped short in the doorway from the bedroom to the closet. 

“What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you and I just ended up…”

“No…I mean here.  Home.  I thought you had a plane to catch.”

“I couldn’t go,” she said softly.  Something flickered behind his green eyes.  He sat beside her on the ground but didn’t touch her.

“I was going for a walk, and something made me turn around,” he told her. 

“I…I…I thought you might have gone to Kristin’s,” she said softly.  He sighed.

“How many times do I have to tell you that there is nothing between us, whether she wants it or not?”  Kevin asked her.  He finally took her hands in his. “Stef…it has only ever been you.  Only you.”

“But you’ve been so distant lately, and…”

“That’s because every time we try to talk about the future and family, YOU get distant.  I thought you were having second thoughts about us.”

Stef gasped.  “Kevin, no! God, no!  I didn’t want you to leave the work you loved, yet your were insisting on it.  I thought if I made you think I wasn’t interested in family right now you would continue on.”

“So…you DO want a family with me?  You don’t want a divorce?”  Kevin asked in a small voice.

“A DIVORCE?  Kevin, I never wanted that!  Never!”  She crawled onto his lap and began to cover his face with kisses.  “I never wanted to lose you…but I felt I was making you choose between your work and me…and that you were resenting me for it.”

“We were so stupid,” he said, crushing her in a strong embrace.  “We should have just talked this all out.  Can you ever forgive me?”

“Only if you forgive me,” she said softly.  His lips met hers and they kissed passionately.  When they pulled apart, it was only to draw a deep breath.  “I love you, Kevin.”

“I love you, too, Stef.”

“I have to tell you about the weirdest thing that happened at the airport,” she said as they stood.

“Later.  We have some serious catching up to do.” With an evil twinkle in his green eyes, he took her hand and began to lead her into the bedroom.

                Then she heard a voice calling/boarding flight 41/when another voice inside her said/you don’t have to get on…people miss planes/it happens all the time/they cancel their plans/they change their minds/listen to your heart/before you go too far/baby turn around before it’s too late/people miss planes…

 

The End

 

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