amity // phan

eight.

-phil-

If I'd ever thought that Dan was adorable, he was nothing next to Dan-with-an-ice-cream-cone.

And reckoned that there was probably nothing else that was quite as lovely as being next to him on that golden afternoon. We were sitting on the hood of my car in the student parking lot, and the whole world was drifting past us like clouds.

"What time is it?" Dan asked.

"Two-ish, I think."

He looked up at me, and his eyes had gone wide. "I'm late for chemistry," he said, wincing a little bit.

I came very close to laughing after he said that. I leaned back until I was lying on the hood, with my legs hanging off the front. "How would you feel about being 'late' for the rest of the day?"

I watched him carefully- and that was when I noticed the moonlight that was dusting his face.

"You can't keep skipping like this," Dan said softly. "God- now I understand how you're flunking out of math." His eyes crinkled up at the corners when he started laughing.

"Is that a yes?"

Dan leaned back too, smiling, and then we were both staring at the sky together. There were leaves blowing through the air, and there was liquid sunlight draped over everything.

"It depends," he said. "What did you have in mind?"

I shrugged. "I found a box of street chalk in my garage last night."

I closed my eyes after that, and drank in the sky. I wondered if the birds knew just how lucky they were, getting above everything like that.

"So you want to drive around and draw stuff?" he asked.

"No, I want to drive around and draw stuff with you."

-

After we left, Dan didn't say much. He was staring out the passenger window as he finished his ice cream, watching silently as houses and people passed. The radio was on, but it didn't fill us with electricity, it filled us with flower petals.

Dan was humming along quietly.

Something about that trip- it was a little bit magical. But not the kind of magic that made a big deal out of itself. It was just us and the sky. That might have been the best part, how there weren't any rules left. Somehow even the air felt sweeter than it had in the morning.

I drove away from the school, then away from the busy streets, then away from the subdivisions, then away from everything, until we were on a dusty road in the middle of nowhere.

When I parked the car, it wasn't spectacular or anything. We were up on a hill, but there were only grassy farm fields to see- no big trees, no exquisite views. I think that was the point, though.

We were the special bit, not our surroundings.

I sat on the road. Dan sat next to me. We were leaning up against the side of the car, watching the sky again. Someone had set it on fire.

Then he leaned into my shoulder, and the whole world became a little bit quieter. I could hear the clouds moving.

"I used to come here with Spencer and Amelia all the time," I said. "Whenever people were assholes, we'd lie in the field and watch the sun fade to nothing."

"How'd you find it?"

"We got lost after a party, actually. Then my car broke down."

He laughed a bit.