21. Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather
“ Y ou know, when I told y’all to make my birthday something to remember, getting lost in the boonies and possibly ending up in a Wrong Turn sequel was definitely not what I meant.”
I glanced between the GPS display and the road every few seconds to make absolutely certain I didn’t miss a turn. Simone, Maisie, and I had piled into my SUV with our suitcases in tow to go… somewhere that they refused to tell me still. Simone hadn’t even sent me the location until we were in the car and I connected my phone to the CarPlay.
“We aren’t lost , Byrd! The GPS says we are less than five minutes out,” Simone said, leaning on the middle console. “Besides, we aren’t in absolute bum-fuck nowhere! I saw civilization just back there.”
“Simone. That wasn’t civilization. That was a Waffle House, a Dollar General, and a gas station advertising the best fish and deer bait for miles.”
“I don’t know, Bee,” Maisie added. “They had a boiled peanut bar. Over seventeen flavors, including seasonal ones, sounds pretty highfalutin’ if you ask me.”
“Your Southern accent is horrible.” I rolled my eyes, and Maisie laughed. “I can’t believe you sent me a pin , and it was GPS coordinates. Right down to the longitude, latitude, degrees, and minutes!”
“As if you wouldn’t have looked up what the place was if we had sent it to you any other kind of way beforehand?” Maisie snorted and leveled me with a look.
“We have been planning your birthday trips for years, Byrdie. We know how tech-savvy you are and how you will do literally anything to spoil your surprise. You ain’t slick,” Simone teased, poking my sides teasingly.
I laughed at her tickling me and tried to squirm away while still staying on the road. In earnest, I wasn’t trying to ruin my surprise. I loved how hard Simone and Maisie worked every year to go above and beyond in giving me the best birthday ever. They killed it every time with the trips and activities they planned out. The girls never disappointed.
The issue was that I have zero patience.
We had gotten up early to drive over an hour outside of Blackbell. I was fine when we hopped on the interstate, thinking maybe we were going to Atlanta or something for the weekend. But when the GPS told me to exit the highway and go on backroads for the remaining stretch, I really started to wonder what in the world my friends had up their sleeves. I started racking my brain for everything I had said I wanted to do that they could have added to their list of potential birthday trip ideas that could lead us here. Had they rented a unicorn farm for the weekend for us to stay in a renovated barn? I had found a ranch like that nearby a few months back and sent it to them for us to try to visit. Could we be headed to a magical winery to drink fairy wine and smoke enchanted hookah? Was there a festival or something out here that the girls had found and thought I would love? What could it be that would make us come out in the country?
I mean, I didn’t mind a little bit of country—I was born and raised in a modern farmhouse in Northern Georgia, after all—but I definitely hadn’t packed my cowgirl boots for this trip.
The farmlands and spaced out farmhouses with expansive yards soon gave way to a massive fenced-in area of land on my right. I glanced at my car’s display that said I needed to take the next right coming up past this fence. Pulling up to the turn, there was a large sign that welcomed us to… Oakwood Hills Municipal Airfield?
Why are we going to a tiny airport? Wouldn’t Atlanta’s airport have been better?
What in the world did they have planned?
“Uh, I didn’t pack for a flight? Was I supposed to?”
“No worries! You are totally good, I promise!” Simone said, waving me off without any further elaboration.
After a few more turns, we ended up at a security gate and barricade. The guard posted there smiled as I pulled up. I smiled back and tried my best to not show how uncertain and confused I was. I rolled down my window. “Hi!”
“Good morning! How can I help you ladies today?”
“Oh, uh—?” I started, turning to Maisie questioningly.
Simone leaned over me to speak to the guard. “Hi there! We’re here for Byrd’s surprise!”
“Of course! Y’all have fun!” The guard nodded before pressing a button to allow us in.
While the gate was opening, I turned around to look at Simone as she sat back in the backseat. I raised my eyebrows at her. She bounced so gleefully the SUV shook as she asked. “Are you excited?”
“I’m super excited, but I’m also super confused. What in the world did y’all do?”
“Oh, you are going to love it.” Maisie smiled wide. “Just you wait.”
The barricade lifted, and I pulled forward. Without the gate, I could see a series of large plane hangars on the right with private jets parked in front of some of the open ones. As I drove by, my jaw dropped at the sight.
“Did y’all charter a private jet for my birthday?!”
“No, we didn’t,” Maisie said.
I looked at her incredulously. “Okay, now, I’m really fucking confused because we are driving by private jets right now, so it seems like you chartered one.”
“Well, we didn’t charter anything,” Maisie said with a shit-eating grin that made me want to pinch her.
“But take a look at what we did do.” Simone pointed ahead.
A massive banner floated on its own in front of a very clean, newer cerulean, navy, and slate gray jet. A pastel galaxy full of cotton candy pink, periwinkle blue, and lavender purple moved with cloudy wisps of stars going across it. Planets glowed distantly in their orbits as the scene played out like I was looking through a telescope at a distant universe. Fireworks blasted from the bottom to the top of the banner, exploding to say “Surprise!” Spelled in the stars below like a constellation of words linked together in brilliant white was “Happy Birthday, Byrd!”
I covered my mouth as I cried. Like big-fat-ugly-tears cried. I was speechless.
“I told you we definitely shouldn’t have let her drive,” Maisie said, using her magic to take the wheel from me to stop me from swerving into the jet.
I shook my head. “I’m so sorry, I just can’t believe this! It’s—It’s just—I have no words! Thank you both so much. I can’t believe y’all.”
“Oh, we can’t take full credit for this. Maisie did the banner, of course. I helped with some of the logistics and planning. But the rest?—”
“How about you park and then we will show you the rest?” Maisie smiled, guiding the steering wheel still.
My jaw found a way to drop even further. “There’s more ? What’s more than a private jet and this beautiful banner?”
Maisie’s smile widened. “Park, and we’ll tell you.”
I shook my head, shocked, but I wiped most of my tears away. I took hold of the wheel again and pulled the car forward to park on the side of the hangar where I had seen other cars do the same. I turned off the car, and the three of us stepped out. I pressed the trunk button for us to start pulling out our luggage.
“Now, I know that isn’t the birthday queen thinking she can get her own luggage like a peasant,” a deep, husky voice said from behind me, immediately scattering butterflies within my tummy.
I looked over at a beaming Simone and Maisie, mouthing “No fucking way” to them, even though every part of me knew already.
“You wanted to know what more we had in store. Welp.” Maisie gestured behind me, and I turned.
Quinn approached with Cole and Cody beside her from the direction of the jet. It had only been a couple of weeks since we had last seen each other. I had no idea if it was just because I liked her so much or if it was just a lesbian thing, but I had missed seeing her in person. Even though we had talked every day either via text, phone, or FaceTime, seeing her here and now just hit different and turned me into a mess of giggles and nervous energy.
It didn’t help how she always found a way to look good in the most normal, regular clothes. Today, Quinn wore another pair of those freaking jeans that hugged her hips and thighs so well, and an olive green shirt with the sleeves rolled to show off her thick biceps and triceps. Her curls were pushed back today with a headband, but somehow it made them look more wild as they tried to rebel and frame her beaming face. Her rich hazel eyes glowed so brightly toward me that I could see them from where I stood.
If I was honest, if Quinn was the only gift I received for my birthday this year, I would be totally fine with that.
I took off in a run toward her. Ever the considerate one, she bent down a little just before we met in an embrace. I wrapped my arms around her neck, and she literally swept me off my feet as she encircled her arms around my waist and lifted me from the ground. I laughed in pure joy as she spun us around a few times. Soon, she set my feet back on the ground, but her arms remained around my waist, holding me close and tight against her.
In her arms, this near to her, I felt Quinn’s heat seep through my cropped teddy hoodie and leggings. How had I forgotten so quickly how toasty she was, how warming being in her arms was? More so, how had my body already started to crave it, starve for it like I needed it to survive? I had started to miss her sweet and smoky scent of melting chocolate at a bonfire in the short time we had known each other and been apart, too. I breathed it in from her shirt along with the citrus smell from her hair.
“Happy birthday, sweetness,” Quinn whispered in my ear before peppering me with enough kisses to make me giggle. “I hope you like what I have planned.”
I pulled back a bit, but I remained in her arms. “Thank you, but wait. What you have planned?”
I felt Quinn’s fingers fidgeting on the small of my back. She shook her curls, and I could tell from the twitch of her hands that she wanted to run her hands through them despite her headband. It was her nervous tick.“I, uh, kind of took over your birthday plans? I’m so sorry. I really hope that’s okay.”
I don’t think I would ever be able to find my jaw again as it buried itself into the earth. “ You planned my birthday weekend?”
Quinn nodded sheepishly. Her eyes darkened, and they refused to meet mine anymore as she looked anywhere else. “I—I just had so many ideas after the party and after talking to you the past few weeks. When Simone was talking to Cole about planning your birthday weekend, I—I just jumped in and volunteered to help, but it kind of just became this whole thing instead. Simone and Maisie mentioned that they planned it every year, and they made it like it wasn’t a big deal and they didn’t mind at all.
“But then, Nat made this stupid comment about how it seemed like I had just commandeered the whole thing. And I know it was stupid. I know it was a silly joke. But I can’t stop thinking about it. I can be kind of a control freak, but I don’t mean to. So, if this seems like that, that wasn’t my intent at all. I just—I just really wanted you to have a great birthday—not that your friends wouldn’t have planned one—but I wanted to gift you a great birthday since it’s the first one we get to spend together. And I—I like you, and—that was a shitty time to say that, but I’m just trying to say that I hope everything is okay—perfect, actually. And I hope that it’s all that you wanted—would want for your birthday. I would just hate to ruin anything?—”
I interrupted Quinn’s rambling with my lips using my arms around her neck to pull her down into a kiss. At first, she froze when our lips met. All her uncertainty and confusion were there on her soft, cool lips. But as I kissed her, I could feel the tension ease. I felt her calloused hands settle directly on my lower back from my cropped hoodie riding up, sending sparks through my whole body. I felt her melt into me. I felt her relax. The kiss was like a lamp left on for when you came home: soft, present, and comforting.
I broke our kiss and met her eyes again, moving my hands to hold her face on each side. There wasn’t any darkness in her eyes now. Instead, they were a bright honey color, sweet and precious. The kiss wasn’t enough to make me breathless, but just staring into Quinn’s eyes had that effect on me. “Hey.”
One side of her mouth quirked up. “Hey.”
“So, you know you could never ruin my birthday, right? Just you being here is more than enough of a present, starlight. But you took the time to plan something for me? You thought of me to organize something? You took initiative— wanted to do something—all for me? That is so insanely sweet and means so much to me. You have no idea. I know I’m going to love whatever it is you have planned because you planned it. That’s more than enough for me to love it already, okay?”
Quinn nodded.
“Good.”
Quinn gave me a quick kiss on the lips before resting her forehead against mine. “God, I missed you so much, baby girl.”
“Ditto.” I smiled.
Simone appeared beside us then. She playfully punched Quinn’s arm. “I told you that she was going to fucking love that you planned everything! Now, let’s get this party started!”
Laughing, Quinn, Cole, and Cody grabbed my and the girls’ luggage like well-mannered significant others before I locked my car. Quinn carried my suitcase and duffel with ease, even though I knew it was heavy from my overpacking. With no idea what to wear for my surprise birthday weekend, I had packed an outfit for nearly every possible occasion, which meant I had needed Everett’s strength to carry all of it downstairs and place it in my car. I still remember his head-shaking and mumbles about how my indecision would be my downfall. Seeing Quinn transport it easily definitely did things to me.
We all boarded the plane, and it was exactly what I would expect of a private jet from what I had seen on movies and reality TV. The seats were oversized, leather, and plush, something I could sit in for hours on end. The interior was all shiny luxurious woods that I could see my reflection in and carpet that was as good quality as the one in the condo. Don’t even get me started on the legroom and storage space.
I don’t know if I could ever travel commercial again.
Already onboard were Nat and Cooper. Nat had her legs crossed, sitting close to the cockpit of the plane. Her sunglasses were perched above her bangs and in front of her ponytail. She looked stylish as ever in her cashmere sweater, leggings, and designer sneakers. She rose from her seat to hug me, cocktail perched in one hand.
“Happy birthday, sugarplum!” Nat said.
Cooper, who was seated in the back of the plane, grunted without looking up from the tablet in his lap. “Happy Level-Up Day.”
I laughed, sitting in a seat across from Nat. “Thank you so much for coming!”
“Of fucking course! Everyone deserves to have a good birthday! I also would never pass up a chance to see Quinn shit bricks like she has been with planning this—Ouch!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Natty. I didn’t realize you were sitting right there until I heard you talking shit,” Quinn said, bumping Nat with my luggage before placing it in the overhead cabin. “Shouldn’t you be offering the Birthday Queen a refreshment instead of gabbing?”
“What do I look like? A flight attendant?” Nat rolled her eyes. But to me, she said. “Do you want a cocktail or something? I would be happy to make one for you.”
I smiled. “I’m okay, actually?—”
“I will take hers, if you’re offering,” Maisie said, taking the seat in front of Nat, who smiled.
While Nat got to work on Maisie’s drink, I asked. “Are there flight attendants on private jets?”
“Sometimes if it’s a long flight. This one is going to be short, so we didn’t think to hire one.” Nat shrugged.
“I still can’t believe y’all chartered a private jet for me.”
“Oh, we didn’t rent this, shugs. We own it.”
“ Technically , Cody and Quinn own it. They just let you ride in it when they are feeling charitable, pipsqueak,” Cole corrected Nat as Simone sat in his lap.
As Natassa stuck out her tongue at her brother, I raised my eyebrows. “So sorry, did you say y’all own a private freaking jet ?”
“It’s handy for work when you need to quickly get somewhere and can’t deal with commercial flights.” Quinn shrugged. “Plus, I really wanted to be a pilot as a kid, and Mama thought it was a good investment in my future.”
Cooper rolled his eyes and mumbled something about Quinn always getting what she wanted. Quinn shot him a glare.
I cleared my throat. “So, if you got a plane because you wanted to be a pilot, does that mean?—?”
A ding sounded on the PA system above our heads. Even without it, I could clearly hear the voice from the open door of the cockpit nearby. “Goo-oo-ood morning, passengers! Welcome aboard Flight B924 with nonstop service from Oakwood to—” Nat tossed a tiny bottle of Fireball into the cockpit area. She must have hit her mark, as we heard, “Fucking ouch! That’s no way to treat your captain!”
“I know you mean co- captain, and that’s being generous.” Quinn rolled her eyes.
“ As I was saying , the weather is a perfect day for flying. You can expect a short flight today. But in the meantime, do sit back, relax, and have a very happy birthday, Dirty Byrdie. We know you have a lot of choices for your transport, so thank you for choosing Cousins Private Charters!”
“That nickname is not allowed to stick, Cody! That’s a birthday decree!” I yelled into the cockpit.
“Stop goofing around and go get us ready for departure, please,” Quinn ordered.
Cody emerged from the cockpit with a smile, and he winked at me as he left. I shook my head.
“Wow, he should be really grateful his dick is huge and he knows how to use it. He sucks otherwise,” Maisie said.
“Well, that is what he and Nat are best at, sucking otherwise,” Cole retorted.
Nat threw a bottle at Cole, somehow able to miss Simone. He was able to dodge the first one, but before he could retort about how she had missed, she tossed a small can of soda and hit him on the side of the head just behind Simone. When he cried out in pain with Simone helping to nurse the inevitable bump growing there, Nat sneered. “I hope it leaves a mark, you shit rag.”
“We are truly off to a great start,” Quinn said, ever the exhausted parent of toddlers.
I chuckled, standing up and grabbing her hand to hold. “I’m having a great time actually!”
Quinn smiled at me, her eyes softening and her shoulders relaxing. “That’s all that matters then.”
“The flight is already a hoot, but I hear one of the pilots is pretty hot.”
“Yeah? I hope it isn’t the pain in the ass pilot you’re talking about. Hopefully, it’s the nervous wreck one.”
“You have nothing to be nervous about, babe. You are a freaking pilot, and you are about to whisk us to some faraway land or something—I still have no idea where we’re going. But you have beyond impressed me. This weekend is already phenomenal, pumpkin. Don’t stress about it!”
Quinn took my face in both her hands before resting her forehead against mine. She closed her eyes, and I could feel her breath caress my face softly. “I just want it to be perfect for you.”
I placed my hands over hers. “I think you have very high expectations of what I define as perfect. I promise, spending time with you is perfect enough for me. But I think it’s so cute that you are so worried about me having a good time.”
Quinn smirked. “I’m only like this for you. Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold, after all.”
I chuckled. “Your secret is safe with me, starlight.”
Quinn kissed my lips softly, as if to seal it as a promise.
“All right, kiddos and kiddies and theydies in between!” Cody declared as he returned, closing the door behind him. “The banner is away, and we have been cleared for departure!”
“Go and fly this plane for us, starlight. I’ll be here when we land.” I kissed Quinn’s nose before I started to pull back from her to take a seat.
“You know, I have an idea,” Cody said.
“I was wondering why I smelled smoke,” Nat teased.
“Honestly, someone should call Hell and see if it’s frozen over,” Cole joined.
Cody flicked them both off and continued. “What if you let the Birthday Queen sit with you?”
“Wait,” I turned to him. “Are you being serious? Can I do that?”
“Ah, that’s such a great idea!” Simone exclaimed.
“That’s actually very sweet of you,” Maisie said.
“You sure, Cody?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah! Besides, maybe it would turn you into less of a lovesick puppy and maybe I could join the mile-high club again, but this time with a certain babycakes of mine,” Cody wiggled his eyebrows toward Maisie.
“Oh, there he is,” Nat noted.
“I will stab you with this champagne flute until you die,” Maisie said, sipping from her cocktail while glaring at Cody. Still, I knew that look in her eyes. Oh, they were definitely going to bang.
“Well, let’s do this shit then,” Quinn said, wrapping her arm around me.
Cody and Quinn finished getting the jet ready for departure, which took no time at all. Then Cody went up to Maisie, lifted her up, and sat her down in his lap. She looked shocked and offended, but I noticed that she didn’t pull away from him. Yep, definitely going to bang. Most likely, more than once.
Quinn led me to the cockpit then. It was tiny, most likely due to the size of the jet. There were two seats even more comfortable and larger than the passenger chairs. The control panel in front of them held a number of buttons, switches, screens, gauges, and more that I could not even begin to comprehend. But then, there was the windshield and its view stretching in front and to the sides of us.
“Guess it’s a good thing I’m a window seat girl, huh?” I joked.
Quinn smiled. “Oh, do you have any sunglasses? It can get pretty blindingly bright up here.”
She took her own pair of polarized sunglasses from a compartment and passed me a pair with orange lenses. “Always prepared, huh?”
“Oh, I never joke about preparedness and safety,” She said, dramatically putting on the sunglasses and making me laugh.
Quinn took the seat to the left, so I took the one on the right. She lifted the large headset up and over her head before she passed me mine so I could do the same. She pulled the microphone down and spoke. “Can you hear me there, baby girl?”
“This is so freaking cool. I feel like an astronaut!”
Quinn laughed.
“Are you sure you are going to be okay without Cody here as your co-pilot?”
Quinn gave me a look. “I promise you that me telling you which buttons to flip is just as good as having him up here. Trust me.”
Quinn got to work preparing us for take-off. As I sat back in the seat, I was enamored at how she knew when and which button to press or switch to flip out of the hundreds of controls. She steered the aircraft like it was a compact car, guiding us to the runway. I tried my damnedest to not stare at how her large hands gripped the steering handles. I swear I did everything I could to stop my mind from wondering how they would look gripping other things. I could hear the Air Traffic Control Dispatcher through my headset, and Quinn was able to answer her easily in the appropriate lingo and all. Nope, her knowledge didn’t make me crush harder on her than before. Neither did her smolder and wink toward me when she caught me with my face hot from a blush.
Gods, there was no reason that driving anything should be this insanely hot.
“Ready for take-off there, sweetness?”
“My dad’s favorite movie was Top Gun . I was born ready.”
As Quinn laughed, we moved into position on the runway. The Dispatcher said we were clear. Quinn checked a few more gauges and controls. Then she accelerated toward the horizon, taking off into the sky.
I watched through the giant windshield as we lifted higher and higher into the air, the city and land growing smaller under us. I was a (mostly) human girl who lived in a world of magic —hell, one best friend was a mermaid and the other one was a witch and a fairy, so I was surrounded by it—but I still found magic in the little normal things like this. Cruising through the sky was like sailing through a different world to me: the waves of white clouds below us, the infinite blue ahead of us, and feeling closer to the stars above than the ground below. It was one of the places where I felt the most at peace.
It reminded me of when I was a kid. On Sundays, when Mom was busy grading papers and Pops was working overtime, Uncle Everett would come over and ask if I wanted to go on one of our “road trips.” We would go on all sorts of adventures that Everett had planned out in advance. One day, it might be going to the library to get more books for me to blaze through in a single afternoon. Another day, we would go on a drive through the mountains, stopping at shops and enjoying treats from the adorable mountain towns.
Most of the time, though, we would walk through the forest until we reached one of her many summits. It was always a different cliffside, never the same one twice. Once we reached it, Everett would shift. His tan skin would fill with feathers and fur. His ever-present wings grew larger, greater than they already were. His hands became talons, his feet lion paws, his mouth a beak, and he grew a long lion’s tail. After his change, he would always shake his now-towering eight-foot frame. He used to say shifting was like how you pull on clothes to get dressed, that feeling of getting settled into something to wear and making it fit correctly over your body. Fully shifted in his griffin-form, Uncle Everett would crouch down for me. Once I was aboard, he would turn, walk back toward the forest, turn back around, and gallop toward the edge. The closer we got to the edge, the more my heart would climb into my throat, stopping any screams I might have despite how many times we had done this before.
Soon, we would run out of ground. Then we would be diving. Uncle Everett would let us dive for a while, his wings close against his body and tickling my legs with his long feathers. His head pointed straight down. His talons and paws angled backward. The trees approached fast. The wind pushed my then-black curls back and made my eyes water. My heart would sink into my stomach. But just when I wanted to scream at Uncle Everett to pull up, just before we would hit the trees, he would untuck his wings. And we would soar high?—
No, we would fly .
We flew above the trees, caves, waterfall, and lake. Uncle Everett took us over my house and backyard leading into the forest I knew and loved. Over houses, stores, parking lots, and parks, he flew us among the clouds and near the stars. We flew beyond the world, the only things before us were the horizon and wind.
In the skies like this, my heart fluttered at the freedom, the possibilities. Everything about me felt light and untethered. I would give into the feeling, smiling so wide my cheeks would hurt. I would release my grip on Everett’s feathery mane and raise my arms into the air. The feeling was like holding your hand outside of a car on a windy day but times a million. The air would wrap around my arms like it was lifting me, like what happened in my ballet classes. It was one of the few times I felt weightless. If I closed my eyes, I could see myself flying, my own wings flapping to keep us aloft, my own body able to shift into something powerful. In those moments, I used to want it to be true, used to wish I wasn’t just a regular human girl.
It made my heart ache.
And my whole body hurt with hunger.
Now, something stirred within me, hard, rough, and restless.
Yet, I had no idea why.
What was going on? What was happening ? —?
Suddenly, Quinn reached over the middle console of the cockpit and took my hand. I looked from the windshield to our hands together. I watched them as I rotated and interlaced our fingers together. They fit so perfectly together despite the size difference. It settled something in my spirit to hold her hand. Seeing my tawny brown with her tanned, rosy skin just felt right. It recentered me. I squeezed.
I never ever wanted to let go.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what, sweetness?” Quinn asked, glancing at me.
“You stop me from spiraling. It’s like you know when I do it. How?”
“Well, you have been quiet for a while, so I figured you were thinking about something. I also saw you clutching your necklace really hard.” At the mention of my grip around my mom’s pendant, I released it immediately. The corners had left indentations in my palm from my hold around the obsidian. I could also feel a cramp building. “Aside from that, I don’t know. I just get this feeling sometimes. Like, something tells me that I need to text you to make sure you are okay or I need to touch you. I can’t explain it. But I’m just, like, called to get rid of it? You have the same effect on me, too. No one calms me down when I’m anxious like you do, which is wild since we haven’t known each other that long. I don’t know, is that weird?”
“A little, but it’s the kind of weird I like.” I smiled.
“Good.” Quinn squeezed my hand. “I wish I could say it gets less weird and crazy from here, but you aren’t so lucky.”
If having your hand like this made me unlucky, I would walk under every ladder, break every mirror, and let a million black cats walk by me to give me the worst luck for an eternity .