Free Fall || Dylan O'Brien Fanfiction

two: cold hands

A cold front is coming through; the perfect start to fall. The leaves haven't started falling from the trees yet, but they will soon. I can feel the warm summer breezes cooling down, and the suffocating humidity giving way to crisp air. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't really pay attention to, but something's changed, something I can't put my finger on. And I think it's for the better.

So, the cold front.

It'll be snuffing out 80° heat, and we'll be getting 60° weather. It's going to be beautiful outside.

Dylan should be here to pick me up any minute. I wonder if he knows about the cold front. I wonder if he'll like my clothes and my dense, brown, not straightened curls. I've never thought about what other people think of me, but for some reason, I really want Dylan to like me. And I really like him, even though I just met him...

Yesterday? Was it really just yesterday?

Wow.

I decide wait for him outside, so I walk towards the door and pull it open.

Dylan stands awkwardly, with his arm in the air, like he was about to knock. I remember the man in the park and step back, before I remember that this is Dylan, not some pedophile.

Pedophile isn't the right word. I'm 23.

"Juliette," Dylan says. "Hey." He smirks. He must think that I was watching through the peephole for him. That's the only reason I can think for him to look so amused.

"I was just about to come wait outside," I tell him honestly, not returning his smirk. I ignore the butterflies in my stomach. I'd like to kill them with a fly swatter. Nobody has ever made me this nervous. "You ready?" I ask, trying to blow over the awkwardness like it was nothing, because it was nothing.

"Yeah, let's go," he says, his face still holding that look of amusement and smugness. He doesn't move forward, though, he just stands still and looks at me.

"I wasn't watching for you to get here!" I burst, not able to contain my smile. He'll think I'm lying, of course. But how could I not smile? His face is an image of perfection, and he just looks so cute. I can hardly look at him without smiling.

Dylan's eyes narrow and his brows furrow. "Okay," he says with the same suspiciousness that I heard yesterday. When I called him hot and told him I didn't say anything. Then his face splits into a big smile. "Let's go."

I follow him away from my apartment. "I was serious, you know. You're so full of yourself."

Dylan chuckles. He actually chuckles. He doesn't tell me that it was rude or mean to say that. He thinks it's funny. I'm liking him more by the second. "I know that you were serious. I'm an actor, Juliette. I can make it look like I don't believe you, even though I do," he tells me. "As for being full of myself?" He chuckles again and opens the passenger side door of his car for me.

An actor. Dylan. Dylan..? Nobody comes to mind. I can't think of an actor named Dylan.

"Thanks," I say as I slide into the car seat. "This should be interesting," I mumble to myself, pulling the door closed as Dylan gets in on the other side. "What are we doing?" I think I know, he said something about going out to eat yesterday, but I want to be sure.

"Don't you want it to be a surprise?" He asks me gently.

"Nope," I reply simply. "I like to be prepared."

Dylan catches my eye when he glances at me. "Now Juliette," he chides, "Would I take you on a date to a ski resort if you didn't own snow boots?"

"I don't own snow boots," I tell him, slightly alarmed. "Is that-"