With You┃Dylan O'Brien ⓵

Chapter Thirty : New Horizons

California has a lot of winding roads. I bet if you looked at the road from a mile above, you'd see what looked like waves of an ocean. Thirty minutes into our drive, this crazy motion of turns causes Dylan's six year-old cousin, Marcion, to get car sick.

The giant van exits and stops at a surprisingly clean and bright gas station. All eleven of us passengers get out to stretch for a few minutes while poor Marcion relieves himself on the cement an inch away from the bathroom door.

Dylan and I venture inside the convenience store where I get an overly-large bottle of water and some trail mix with m&m's in it. Meanwhile, my boyfriend purchases a giant energy drink, beef jerky, sour patch kids, and a bag of cheetos. There are two kinds of people...

We pile back into the van about ten minutes later when the color has returned to the six year-olds face, and he claims he's good to go. In the furthest back row, Dyl and I prepare for a lengthy journey by setting up the singular pillow I brought and a couple blankets. Basically he uses the real pillow and I use him as one. Yes, I am resourceful.

Thankfully, the roads straighten out a bit so the ride isn't so rough anymore. In fact the movement of the car is quite soothing. Both of us with our earphones in, Dylan and I listen to our perfectly crafted Dylan & Anita's Peanut Butters playlist as I lay on him.

Maybe I took my seat belt off to get more comfortable, so sue me. Believe me, I am a strong advocate for vehicle safety but... It's a road trip. That makes it more acceptable, right?

The warmth from his body heat in combination with the great music in my ears and the motion of the vehicle makes me feel sleepy. I've never been able to stay awake during long car rides anyhow. I feel a little bad because I think he wanted us to do something fun on the road, not be my human pillow for me to fall asleep on.

I wanted to have a fun time on the road too, and for those first thirty minutes we had a lot of fun. But now I am feeling overcome with sleepiness and I can already feel myself starting to drift. I peer up at my boyfriend to tell him about how I'm about to fall asleep. He looks back at me while popping a few sour patch kids in his mouth.

He swallows, "Go to sleep, come on."

I give him a quizzical look, "How do you know I want to sleep?"

"It's written all over your face. Now go on."

"Are you sure?", I ask hesitantly.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

" I don't wanna leave you alone and bored or anything..."

"It's all good, luckily I have books to read and electronics to play with. And as long as you're in my arms, I can't feel lonely."

I smile sleepily up at him, "See you when I wake up, handsome."

He places his lips upon my forehead, "Sweet dreams."

~

I wake up slowly, and at first I find myself very confused. Do you ever wake up and forget where you even are? That's how I feel when I wake up, and it takes me a few moments to remember that I'm in this van on my way to this beach or whatever.

"Well good morning, sleeping beauty," Dylan says sweetly.

"What time is it?", I ask with squinted eyes and a groggy voice.

"It is 1:42 in the afternoon."

"Thank you, Siri," I say jokingly. I look out the window in attempt to figure out our location, but to no avail. "Babe, where are we?"

"Just five minutes or so from the hotel. You've got pretty great timing."

"Wow, I really do. Fancy that."