Kissing Fire by A.M. Hargrove

mean?
    Now I was surrounded by a bunch of men, chuckling,
Preston included. I flashed him the meanest look I could muster.
Then I added, “Go ahead and keep that up mister.”
    Then some rat bastard sitting a couple of people
away from me leaned forward and said, “Oh, and what are you gonna
do to him? Drool some more?” There were other comments that started
flying around, but I couldn’t hear all of them for the noisiness of
the plane. It was probably my saving grace, because I was filled
with mortification. There was not any hope of extracting myself
from this embarrassing predicament. Should I try to dab the drool
from his crotch? Or would that draw even more attention to my major
faux pas? Crap. What to do? Where was Melissa when I needed her
most? I decided on silence as my best course of action. Apparently,
I had a pouty look on my face because Preston leaned over and
whispered, “I wouldn’t stick your lip out that far if I were you.
Those men over there would probably give you good money to get
their lips on it.”
    “Ah! Of all the...”
    “Hey, I’m not the one pouting Avery.”
    “Hrmpphhth!” That was it. No more talking for me.
This man was sending me so many mixed signals, I didn’t know if I
was up or down anymore. Cheezits, and then there was that little
thing about some mean people out there that might want to kill me.
What the hell had happened to my normal, mundane boring life? I
mean, one minute, I’m living in Charleston, bored to death, killing
myself with fried chicken and chocolate covered donuts, and the
next, I’m flying in a humongous military jet, with some hot DEA
agent, fleeing from some evil Mexican drug lords that might want me
dead.
    Suddenly, I couldn’t seem to get any air into my
lungs, and it wasn’t because my face was squished in hot DEA
agent’s crotch. I seriously could not breathe. I was sucking in air
like crazy, but my lungs didn’t seem to be working properly. My
head started jerking around, and then I hopped up to my feet and
started running. I didn’t have a clue where I was going. I just was
getting the hell out of wherever I was. A roaring filled my ears,
way more than what the plane was making and my vision was starting
to get covered in little dots. Someone’s hands latched onto my
shoulders and I tried to scream, but again there was that no oxygen
thing, so I cowered and fell to my knees instead and curled up into
a ball. God, where had all the damn air gone? What was happening to
me? My hands covered my ears because it had become so noisy in
there I couldn’t stand it.
    Someone put something over my mouth and I felt a
warm hand on mine moving it away from my ear. “Take some deep
breaths Avery. Long and slow.”
    I tried, but I didn’t think I was able to. Then I
heard that soothing voice again. “That’s a good girl. Take another
one.”
    That voice kept coaching me along and all of a
sudden, my throat and lungs opened up, and voila! Precious air
flowed in.
    “Not too fast honey. Stay with the long and slow
breaths for a bit.”
    Whatever had been on my face was removed and the
cool air hit my mouth. I opened my eyes and Preston’s face was
hovering over me.
    “Hey. You back with me?”
    I kept blinking, trying to figure out what the heck
had just happened to me.
    “I’m not sure. Where are we?”
    “We’re on a plane flying to Andrews. Remember?”
    “Ugh.” I rubbed my face. And then I did the most God
awful thing ever. I started bawling. I mean the kind of crying
where snot bubbles out of your nose and runs everywhere and you
start hiccuping and all that crap. He patted my back and didn’t say
anything. What a goober I was. I could not for the life of me pull
my shit together either. This was so unlike me. My attempts at
apologizing sounded so stupid. They came out like those damn
gurfing noises that pigs make when they’re eating. They made me cry
even harder. And then when I thought about where I was, the
floodgates really opened