worth the risk • dean portman

chapter thirty one

dean

This is actually surreal.

Even though I'm more tired right now than I've ever been in my life, I don't even care. I'm standing in the Minneapolis airport with my friend group, all nineteen of us together. I genuinely can't believe this is my life.

The parents of Morgan, Ella, Sadie, Adam, and Faith are all chaperoning our trip, so we have the adult supervision that's allowing most of us to be here. I can't imagine what we would've done if the trip got cancelled, but it's luckily something we're not worrying about.

I spent maybe an hour at most packing, because I don't have a crazy amount of stuff here. I just threw a bunch of shit into my suitcase, then waited for Morgan to pick me up and take me back to her house, where I spent the night again.

I won't lie and say that everything was PG, but it was just us in the house when... stuff happened. Besides, I was just approved by my girlfriend's very scary parents, so excuse me if I was a little excited and had a lot of energy.

Back to what I was saying, I don't know how all of my friends are this hyper at three in the morning. Morgan can barely keep her eyes open, and she's currently using me as her personal pillow. What's even worse is that we're in the security line, which means that I'm a standing pillow.

When the line finally comes to a stop, I look down at my girlfriend. She has her head buried in my chest, while my arms are wrapped around her in a hug. I don't mind being a pillow for her, except for right now. And that's only because when I have to walk in order to keep the line moving, I have to drag her along with me.

Of course it's happening again, which is just my luck. I look at Morgan and shake her slightly, watching as she shakes her head from where it's rested my chest. "Wake up babe, the line is moving. We have to walk."

"I don't want to." she whines, all while forcing me to hug her tighter. "I don't want to walk Dean. I'm so tired."

Even though it's partly my fault as to why she's tired, I still feel bad about it. If I knew it was going to lead to this, I would've stopped her before anything happened. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is fun. But, I'd much rather Morgan get a good sleep and be well rested rather than be miserable and grumpy. It's not fair to her.

I kiss the top of her head and take her face into my hands, forcing her to look up at me. "I know you're tired, and I'm sorry. But I'll make you a deal. If you can stay awake and make it through security, which I know you can, I'll buy you a huge coffee from wherever you want. How's that?"

"I like that idea." she mumbles, giving me a small smile.

"I'll even add onto it." I say, watching as her eyes become curious. "You don't even have to come with me to get the coffee if you don't want to. It's completely up to you. And whether it's just me, or both of us who come back to the gate with it, you can use me as a pillow to sleep on until our flight. And, you can use me as a pillow on the flight too. How does that sound?"

Her smile grows wider, and she reaches out her hand for me to shake. "Sounds like a deal to me."

I return the handshake without any hesitation, and smile to myself as I see the immediate change in her mood. I really should make deals with people more often if they're always this easy, because then so many problems in the world would be solved.

Welcome to unrealistic philosophy with Dean, folks.

"Could you two stop being so couple-y?" Averman calls out from behind us. "Some of us are painfully single enough as it is, and seeing you guys act like that is just making it worse."

Goldberg, Russ, and Dwayne all start agreeing with him, while Kenny is watching this all happen and starts to shake his head like he's embarrassed to be around them. I smirk at Averman and flip him my middle finger, which makes him laugh. I love how unserious that dude is, I really don't know why I ever disliked him.

Security only takes another five minutes, and Morgan is tugging on my arm before I even have the chance to put my shoes back on. "C'mon Dean, hurry up! I want to be at Dunkin' before the line gets too long."

"Morgan, it's three in the morning." I respond, unable to control my laughter. "I promise you, there's probably no one on that line."

"You don't know that!" she insists, tugging on my arm harder. "The airport's always busy, even now. Maybe thirty flights just landed and everyone is getting off them at the same time. Maybe they all decide as they walk off their flights that they want coffee, because it's so late. Maybe they'll decide that Dunkin' is the place they want to go, and the line will be even longer by the time we get there. Maybe-"

"Okay, okay! I get it." I interrupt, throwing my hands up to get her to stop talking. "Where did you get this sudden burst of energy from?"

She shrugs and gives me a sly smile. "I was promised coffee, and I'm excited about it. Is that so bad?"

I fight back a laugh as I shake my head, and then wait for Morgan to let her parents know where we're going. I've finished putting my shoes back on by the time she gets back, and I barely have two seconds to breathe before she grabs my hand and starts tugging me in the direction of the Dunkin'.

Like I predicted, there's basically no one in line. I don't rub it in though, because it would piss her off and that's something I don't want to do. So instead, I just let her order some insanely complicated sounding drink and hand the guy my card when it's time to pay.

After we get Morgan's drink, we walk back to the gate and find two open seats. I follow through with my promise and let Morgan use me as a pillow, which I never mind doing. If she likes it, then I like it too.

I could sit here and talk about the rest of our time in the airport, but that would just be boring. So instead, I'll tell you that I'm staring at the most beautiful blue water I've ever seen in my entire life from the plane window. I look over at Morgan, who's currently asleep on my shoulder, and smile to myself.

I'm dating the best girl in the entire world, and we're about to spend a week on the most beautiful tropical island in the world. What could be better?

**a/n**
one more chapter left!!!! i hope you're ready ;)