They Bet On My Flight, So I Booked One To Iceland Chapter 01

They Bet On My Flight, So I Booked One To Iceland Chapter 01

The night before our trip, Mason tagged me in our group chat.

Mason: [Check your flight reservation.]

I opened the booking and found that my ticket had been canceled three days earlier.

Before I could type a response, more messages flooded the chat.

Chloe: [Mason and I made a bet about whether you’d check your reservation before the trip. I said you wouldn’t, but then he told you to look. That’s cheating!]

Mason: [Whatever. You still lost. She really didn’t notice until now. Just book another one. The only problem is there aren’t any seats together.]

They were having a great time.

It was just like the last time they had bet on how long it would take me to notice that they had changed our hotel arrangements so all three of us were crammed into one room, with me stuck on a rollaway bed.

The time before that, they had bet on whether I would notice that the only art museum on our itinerary had been replaced with an escape room.

Whenever I told them it bothered me, they always gave me the same answer.

“How were we supposed to know you cared if you never said anything?”

But they had never once asked.

I didn’t book another ticket. Instead, I opened another travel app and searched for a flight to Iceland.

Watching the northern lights in five-degree weather, all by myself, might be exactly what I needed.

***

The lock clicked just as I stuffed the last pair of wool socks into my suitcase.

Mason and Chloe walked in carrying snorkel masks, rash guards, and a pack of brightly colored stickers for their pool floats.

Chloe spotted the heavy winter coat on my couch. After staring at it for two seconds, she doubled over laughing.

“Mason, pay up.” She pointed at my suitcase, laughing so hard that tears gathered in her eyes. “I told you she’d be mad and pack winter clothes just to scare us.”

Mason leaned against the entryway and paid her on his phone, a helpless smile tugging at his lips.

“Fine. You win.”

He put his phone away, walked over to me, and reached up to ruffle my hair.

“Avery, I bought you another ticket. We took the joke too far this time, okay? Don’t be mad. Now unpack all these heavy clothes. You won’t need them in Maui.”

I stepped aside, avoiding his hand.

Mason’s hand stopped in midair, and his brows drew together slightly.

“You’re seriously making a whole thing out of this?”

I closed my suitcase and pulled up the handle.

“I’m not going to Maui. Have fun.”

The smile on Chloe’s face faltered for a moment. Then she hurried over and reached for my arm.

“Come on. He already bought you another ticket. If you don’t want to sit by yourself, Mason can trade seats with you, and I’ll sit in the back. Would that work?”

I looked down at the hand reaching for me.

“Don’t touch me.”

Chloe froze.

Mason’s expression darkened.

“Avery, you’re doing all this over one stupid ticket prank?”

I looked at him.

“You canceled my ticket, bet on my travel plans, and now you’re asking whether I’m overreacting?”

Mason pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, visibly reining in his irritation.

“I already fixed it, didn’t I? I bought you another ticket last night. I didn’t actually stop you from going.”

Chloe nodded along, her voice turning aggrieved.

“Exactly. We weren’t going to leave you behind. We were just teasing you. You never used to act like this.”

She paused as if something had suddenly occurred to her, and her eyes lit up.

“Oh, right. I have good news. I was going to tell you during the trip to cheer you up.”

My stomach sank.

Chloe pulled out her phone, found a screenshot, and held it out to me.

“I submitted your final-round portfolio for the Northstar Emerging Artist Prize the day before yesterday. You’ve been staying up night after night, and I felt bad for you, so I went ahead and hit submit.”

My fingers clenched around the suitcase handle.

“You messed with my submission files?”