Chapter 35 - Spring

                                    

                                          
A/N: so this is gonna sound goofy as fuck but I've been having severe writer's block because I started casually seeing a guy and lowkey forgot about julian for a minute. sorry. so yea this is kind of a filler chapter.


"I spy with my little eye, something... blue."
Meg yawned. Sylvie's head was on her shoulder, like a great big bowling ball with hair. "Is it the sky?"
"Bingo," said Brian, tapping his pointer finger.
They were on a flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. The band was scheduled to play this year's T In The Park the following day. As such, they were halfway into a seven-hour journey.
Sylvie's head bounced with a spot of turbulence, but she didn't open her eyes. She only stirred, eyelids barely flickering.
"You suck at this game," said Rowan. Brian shrugged.
"Yeah, you do," Sylvie murmured.
Brian peeked at her through the gap between seats. He was in the row ahead of her. "You're one to talk. You always choose something impossible. Like, how were we supposed to guess the red thing you picked was one singular bead in Farrah's earring? I can't even see her earring from over here."
Sylvie tilted her head a few degrees towards his seat. Her eyes were glassy, reflecting the light that shone down through the plane window. "I spy a little bitch," she said, looking directly his way.
"Oh, har-har. You really got me with that one, Sylvie."
Sylvie did not respond. She was too busy laughing at her own joke.
"Another round," Rowan pleaded, to everyone's chagrin. Brian was the only one to reluctantly agree.
When the two of them had gone back to the game, Meg said to Sylvie, "I hope you're not that mean to Julian."
"Please don't get her started on Julian," said Farrah, who had been eavesdropping from the row behind them. "Bad enough I have to hear about the two of you from the media."
"Ok, ok, shut up. I got it," said Sylvie. "You people are no fun."
"You're no fun, since you stopped hanging with us after shows," said Brian. He turned all the way around. "You and me used to be afterparty buddies. Remember that?"
"Not really. I was usually shitfaced."
"Ooooooohhhhhh, is someone jealous?" Rowan asked. He stuck a finger in Brian's ribs.
"Er, no," said Brian. He scratched his bald spot. Sylvie and Meg shared a look.
"We all could've been afterparty buddies, if you guys ever cared to come to my usual spots. Even you, Farrah and Yosef," said Rowan.
"I know exactly what you do with your afterparty buddies, and I don't want to be one of them," Meg retorted.
"Brian? Are you game?"
"Don't answer that, Brian," said Meg, saving Brian from a very uncomfortable response. "I wish they'd pass out peanuts. I'm hungry."
Must be nice, Sylvie thought, to say you're hungry without worrying what people think.
Even though she was tired, there was no use trying to sleep on Meg's shoulder anymore. Her back ached from the effort. There was a beachy romance novel in the purse tucked under her seat, but she didn't feel like reading it.
She resorted to digging out her eyeliner. Meg lent her an arm to doodle on. She started with flowers, then tried to copy the band's logo. It was hideous. 
"I can't draw for shit," she told Meg.
"I know. No offense."
"Are we there yet?" Rowan whined like a child, loud enough to be heard by everyone behind him.
Irritated, Meg chimed in. "You won't make it to Scotland alive if you keep up all this moaning and groaning. I'll wring your neck with my bare hands."
"Kinky. I'm not usually into that type of stuff, but I'd try it for you, sweet thing."
"There are children on this airplane. Have you no sense of decency?" Despite herself, Meg chuckled a little.
"That wasn't a no," Rowan said. 
She scoffed and sipped ginger ale out of a little plastic cup, hoping it would soothe a plane-sick stomach.
Sylvie let Meg's arm free. "I wouldn't get this tattooed if I were you."
Meg whispered in Sylvie's ear, "You think he's over it? Vera, I mean? He seems like his normal self again."
She whispered back, "I doubt it. He's never really been one to talk about feelings, though. He likes to bottle things up."
"Says you."
"What do you mean, 'says me?'"
"Ladies, please, no bickering," said Farrah. "You know, I never wanted to have children, and here I am, looking after four of them. Funny how life turns out."
"I pay part of your salary, Farrah, so please continue to call me names," Sylvie responded. It was an obviously empty threat. She lowered her voice back to a whisper and said to Meg, "Yeah, I says."
"That doesn't make any grammatical sense. My point is, you know how you and me are having a whisper-conversation about Rowan because we're concerned about him?"
"What about it?"
"Well, that's what we've been doing about you for like, five years. You got all mopey after our first album came out."
Sylvie shot her an evil look. "I'm a grown ass woman. All of you ought to mind your own business."
"I always wanted to ask what happened to you. Why you've been half yourself for so long. You've been physically here the whole time, but I've been missing you for five years. And maybe now's not the best time, but fuck— I mean, screw it."
"Half myself? I disagree. The bitch side... it's me through and through." She hated it, but knew it was true. Her voice was flat and unambiguous.
"That's completely false."
Sylvie glanced around her. Brian and Rowan were still playing their game. Farrah had put in a pair of headphones, and Yosef was busy scribbling into a book of accounts. Nobody was paying attention to them.
Meg continued on, "You say Julian loves you. And I believe it, but if he loves you now, in this long winter, imagine how much he'd love you in spring."
"It's the middle of summer? Is this some sort of metaphor?"
"Something like that. I guess I'm lucky, because I get to look at you and remember spring. And hope for it to come again."
Sort of catching on, Sylvie said, "I think you're wrong. It's been winter for so long the whole world is frozen over, and all the people in it are dead."
"I think the permafrost is thawing — even if the wind still howls."
"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Sylvie whispered back. Despite herself, she wondered if spring really was on its way after all these years. She looked out the plane window. The sunlight that poured through it warmed the bridge of her nose.