Dylan was kissing me.

I couldn't even register what was happening for a moment. It all happened so fast. His lips were pressed up against mine and it was such a soft movement filled with incredible fear and longing. I forgot about the rest of my body as I closed my eyes. My legs were numb, chills ran down my spine, my fingers were cold and Dylan's face was so warm. This was all I ever wanted and more.

He leaned back and it hadn't been long enough. I had barely started to enjoy it. I stared at him, speechless and dumbfounded. Dylan however looked terrified, his hands shook even though his face was flushed a bright red.

"Oh." I mumbled out, finding no other words.

What a dumb thing to say. The boy of my dreams just kissed me and that's the best I could come up with? I had been waiting for this for months and that's the only thing I could think of?

To make things even better Dylan started to cry a little, he forced out a tiny laugh in embarrassment. "Oh God, sorry. I'm not sad I'm just freaking out a little. I'm also sorry for kissing you I mean I didn't even ask and it was a stupid thing for me to do-"

I reached forward, spurred with god-like confidence and reached my hands around the back of his head and kissed him again. I finally got to curl my fingers into his hair like I had been waiting ever so long to do. His sighed through his nose and I felt his tears against my cheek. It was so good and sweet and I never wanted to let go of him. I just wanted to stay here and kiss him until we both wasted away.

Eventually Dylan leaned back and gasped. "Att?"

"Yeah?" I breathed out.

He glanced up at me. "I... um. I mean I thought this was my confession for a little bit but now I guess we have to decide who goes first."

I laughed. "You go."

He nodded. "Okay um. I've had a crush on you since long before we met. I didn't stalk you or anything I just noticed you in the background. It really threw me for a loop for a bit because I'm positive I'm not attracted to girls, you know. Then we finally crossed paths and everything started to make sense and every day I spent with you was so great. I guess I started to fall in love because when you threatened to leave, it scared me more than anything has ever scared me before."

His voice cracked up again like a gently tapped hardboiled egg. "Oh no, here I go again."

"Hey it's okay." I said to him as gently as I could.

I grabbed his hand and held it in mine tenderly, because I can do that now. That's right, time to abuse my new title as someone who Dylan Clark was interested in romantically.

"Yours is better than mine," I chuckled. "You've just been unbearably cute this whole time and I couldn't help it."

"Oh, stop it."

He was grinning, I was grinning. Were we in love? Probably. There's definitely a good chance.

I smirked. "Never."

Dylan smiled and sighed happily and laid back into the grass, patting the ground next to him. I shifted to lie down next him and he glanced over at me with this strange happy look in his eyes. He pushed the hair away from eyes and leaned in to kiss me again, which I gladly reciprocated. Then he grinned again, and I noticed he had a little gap in his teeth.

"Does that mean I can officially ask you out now? Because most of my planned outings have been like, date ideas but I didn't know if you liked me so they weren't like "date" dates, but man, I'd redo them all if it means I can do it with my boyfriend."

I smiled (there was a lot of that going around.) "Sure thing."

It felt really good to hear the word boyfriend on someone else's lips.

"Oh you know what else?" Dylan sat up suddenly. "Okay stay right here I'll be right back."

I sat up was watched him zoom through the field back to the car, and he came rushing back, ukulele in hand. Dylan skipped a little on his way back and it was just, almost too much for me

"Okay!" He said, plopping down next to me again. "You remember that song I sung you the night we ran away? It was about you. I've got a bunch more."

I shook my head in disbelief. "You're going to out-boyfriend me Dylan."

"Shut up I've waited long enough for this." He insisted.

He caught don't gently and readied himself, adapting a natural position. I pulled my knees up and waited eagerly. He paused though before he started.

"Okay this is a dumb one but it's a parody of Riptide I guess? No wait it's just the same tune. Golly this is making me nervous now." He laughed in an awkward but wholesome manner.

"It'll be fine." I assured.

"Okay... okay." He took a deep breath.

"I met a boy in the middle of the night. He said his name was Atticus and I started to fall over, my feet and my knees. The boy was like the softest summer breeze." He hummed to the tune of the next part, like the original song had done, and I brought my hands up to my face. "Oh, Atticus most mysterious boy on the west coast, definitely more handsome then most, boy after my own heart."

He stopped. "Okay that's all I have. I stopped there because it's really stupid, I know and it's cheesy and I mean now that I'm singing out loud I kind of feel like imploding? I could really go with a good implode right now."

I grinned from ear to ear behind my hands. "Oh my God."

He blushed and laughed again. "Yep."

"I love it? Oh my God Dylan, and there are more of these?"

He nodded. "There's a bunch, but I don't think I have it in me to do any more without screaming or giving myself a heart attack. Maybe both."

I saw his hands were shaking gently against the wooden surface of the ukulele. "Aw, babe."

"I know I'm pathetic." He responded with a shaky pair of finger guns.

"No! No not at all."

I scooted forward to grab his hand. Then I gave it a small gentle pat of reassurance. Dylan smiled shakily and made a noise that resembled a small drowning mouse. I laughed and he couldn't help himself and laughed too. It was just like when we first met and he would keep telling those jokes that made me laugh way too loud out of anxiousness. We really had come full circle, hadn't we?

The afternoon dragged on, but time had no weight on us now that we had broken free. It was like the bar-headed geese, straining for breath as they cleared over Mount Everest. Then descended down the Himalayas. I feel like we made it over our own Everest, things could start to get easy now, maybe, even hopefully.

The night crawled in eventually and I was shivering as the stars opened their eyes and blinked wearily down at us.

"We should sleep." Dylan sighed, from the roof of the car.

I hummed out a weary reply from his shoulder. He brushed back my bangs gently and kissed my forehead. After a few hours he became less tense about showing affection and was extremely cheesy about it. I mean... not that I mind.

"You can see Orion." He whispered, pointing up at the sky. "Look there's his belt."

I looked up at the stars and followed the tip of his fingers, staring up at the giant hunter in the sky. "Rad."

He chuckled. "Yeah, you're tired."

"Am not."

"Come on, sleepy."

We slid off the roof of the car and folded the seat down to make our beds, then settled in for the night. It was dark and my eyelids were just starting to give in to the weight of fatigue when I heard Dylan's voice.

"I am so incredibly thankful for you, Att."

I rolled over to face him and grabbed his hand so I could claim ownership of it for the hundredth time today. He was tired, I was tired, but we were doing okay.

"Me too."