Parallels | Dylan O'Brien

9 - The Boyfriend/Girlfriend List

New York
-Dylan O'Brien-

It's been a couple of days since that first night together at her place. I clearly remember the morning when I woke up and she was still sleeping next to me. Our legs got tangled up throughout the night, our bodies pressed together. I remember wanting to stay like that, but I didn't. Instead, I got up carefully and left the bedroom before she could even realize. I didn't walk out on her like a one-night-stand. No, I made her breakfast and we spend the rest of the day together. My sister had called me a couple of times, but I ignored it. I wanted to spend time with Lydia and get to know her better. Something in me was telling me I might like this one more than the other Lydia I had a painful crush on for so many years.  That night, we slept together again. She needs to get used to sleeping in an unfamiliar house and if I can help her with that, I would gladly do so.
The next day, I roamed around her house whilst she spent the day with Julia and Skyler. I had to stick around in case something happened and she falls out of character. However, she did pretty good without me.
On the third day, I took her to the city and we just hung out. We had milkshakes, laughed a lot and talked about anything and everything.
"What do you want to do today?" I ask her. It's the fourth morning I'm spending at Lydia's after sleeping here. I'm sure I should head home soon, but I don't really want to. Laying on that bed with her, talking about anything and everything 'til four am is literally the best thing ever. Even though that means I'm very sleep deprived.
"Mmh, what's a fun thing to do with weather like this?" she asks, but I think it's more to herself than to me. I watch her as she looks outside the six-foot-tall wall of windows. The weather is beautiful, it's supposed to be quite hot as well. Her thick, rosy lips pouting and her brows slightly furrowed. I noticed that's the face she always pulls when she's thinking about something. "We could go to the beach!" she suddenly exclaims excitedly. A smile forms on my face. She's adorable when she's excited. But it's settled then: Dylan and Lydia are going on a beach date. Day, I mean day. We eat our breakfast and get ready. Luckily, I had gone home on the second day to pack some clothes and considering she has a pool, I even packed my swimming shorts. When I'm completely ready to go, Lydia comes downstairs. My mouth drops slightly. She's wearing a gorgeous, tight stripy dress. It's quite short, but it makes her legs look a little longer. Her makeup is quite naturally and her strawberry blonde hair is done up into a high ponytail. My eyes glance down to her feet. She's wearing the pair of Converse she had on when she got here. That must be a lot more comfortable. She smirks slightly as she walks up to me.
"Close your mouth, honey," she says with a chuckle whilst closing my mouth with her pointer finger, "you might catch a fly," she pats my cheek with her hand, twice.
"Are you ready?" I then ask her as if seeing her like that didn't turn me on in the slightest way. The girl nods before grabbing her phone -or the other Lydia's phone- and putting it in the handbag she already had hanging on her shoulder when she came downstairs. It still amazes me how we managed to get into the other Lydia's phone. It's not that hard to break into a narcissistic girl's phone. Her password is most likely her own birthday. She changed the lockscreen as it was one of her and Justin kissing. She told me Justin is actually gay in her universe and they actually live together. It made me laugh. It made me laugh very, very hard. And when you speak of the devil, you will most likely see its tail. Because the second we open the front door, the boy stands there with a sheepish smile on his face. His hair is a mess and he looks like he hasn't slept in a year.
"Justin?" Lydia asks surprised. She looks up at me and we give each other that look that says we're thinking the exact same thing. We have to keep ourselves together and not burst out laughing.
"Lydia, I'm so sorry about the other night. I don't want to break up, I love you. I'm sorry," he bursts out crying. The two of us share another glance and Lydia even rolls her eyes. To be honest, I really don't feel up for any Justin drama.
"Well, yeah, and I'm better," she tells him straight-on. She grabs my hand, and for a second everything is blurry. The touch of her hand is soft, delicate. We walk passed him and shut the door so he couldn't get in and wait for us. "Oh, and honey, I'd try to figure out your sexuality before messing with another girl's feelings. We're not some toys you can play with just so you feel 'normal'. Being gay isn't a bad thing, being an asshole, however, is." I'm amazed by the actions of the girl in front of me. Did she really just say that to the Justin? She pulls me further towards my old jeep that I had parked next to her car on her driveway. I only notice we were still holding hands when she lets go to hop into the car. A weird feeling rushes through my body and I can't really put a finger onto what it is exactly that I'm feeling. So, instead I shake it off and hop into the car as well. It's an hour drive to Long Beach and it's filled with singing along to the music, some chatter and laughs. I feel so comfortable around her, it's crazy. Whenever I was around the other Lydia, I got all nervous and awkward. Not around this Lydia.
"So, Dyl, tell me," Lydia starts as we hop out of the car after the hour-long drive. The soft sea breeze hits my face and it feels good. It feels like we're in a completely different country, far away from the busy New York. "How many girlfriends have you had?" The question comes out of nowhere and I'm still not used to her calling me 'Dyl'.
"About two, I think," she looks at me and her eyebrow raises above the rim of her sunglasses. "Candy was my first girlfriend in sophomore year," she gives me that same look again.
"Your first girlfriend's name was Candy?" she asks and I nod, my cheeks heating up.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, whatever," I dismiss her comment, "my second girlfriend was in my second year of college. Her name was Gage and she was very beautiful, but she just wasn't..."
"Lydia?" she finishes my sentence and I nod.
"Yeah," a soft smile appears on her lips.
"You must be very in love with her," she says as if it's a bad thing. Why is that a bad thing? Instead of asking it, I just nod.
"Yeah... How many boyfriends have you had?" I shoot the question back. She grows silent for a moment as if she needs to count them.
"Three, or four. Kind of, but not really," I look at her, confused about her answer. "Well, at first there was Oliver in sophomore year, then in senior year, I dated the exchange student Ashton for a while and then in my first year of college, there was Kian," she explains.
"Then who is the 'kind-of-fourth' one?" I ask when she doesn't continue. Her head hangs low as if she's embarrassed or it's causing her pain thinking about it.
"Dylan," at the mention of my name, my heart skips a beat, "We weren't really together in college before he went off to his Teen Wolf adventure, but we used to kiss at every single college party. I don't know if he remembers, but I do. Also; we almost went on a date before I got sucked into this world," I nod my head, understanding why she'd be confused at that.
"Maybe I should give you that date the other me promised you, then," the words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them. How did it go from comfortable me to socially awkward me? She looks up at me and I'm not sure what she's thinking. The sunglasses take away my window into her mind. It makes me slightly nervous.
"You know what," she then starts and looks ahead of her, "that isn't even a bad idea." I can't help but smile at her response. For a second there, I thought she'd say no. That scared me a little, I got to be honest. "But can I choose the date? I have this thing where I want to be able to manage everything, because you know, I'm an event manager." It's a relief she says that, because I had no idea where to take her. I chuckle a little.
"Yeah, sure," she gives me the cutest smile in return and it makes my toes curl up in my shoes. We make our way onto the beach and settle down somewhere in the sand. The both of us take out our towels to sit on and Lydia even changes into her bikini. My breath hitches in my throat. How gorgeous can one human being be? Like, gorgeous personality, gorgeous face, gorgeous body. She's... wow. She's a better version than the Lydia I used to know.
"What?" she asks and that's when I notice that I'm staring. She covers her stomach with her arms. I give her a smile as I grab her arms and pull her down to her towel.
"Nothing, I- was just thinking about something," I lie. Why can't I just straight-up tell her how gorgeous she is? Would that scare her, or would she like that?
"What were you thinking about then?" Lydia asks and her arms glide away from her stomach. I stay silent for a moment, thinking whether I should just tell her or not.
"About how beautiful you are," the words come out of my mouth in a deep drawl. I watch her as a smile appears on her face along with a crimson color on her cheeks. It doesn't scare her. That's a first. For a while, we sit in silence and watch the waves crash into the shore. I love the beach so much. It's so calming and therapeutic. I used to come here a lot during the first few weeks after my Teen Wolf fail. It calmed the anxiety down that crawled up in my body every time I thought about it. Even now it still works.
"Want to go for a swim? It's hot as an oven out here," her melodic voice makes me snap out of my thoughts. I look at her and smile.
"Yeah, you're right," I say and get up. I help Lydia up too and then the most brilliant idea pops into my head, "Race ya to the water!" I shout and turn around to run towards the water. I can hear Lydia squeal behind me, but she doesn't catch up to me. The cold water hits my legs and it makes me shiver a little. It feels nice, though. Lydia runs towards me and before she can stop herself, I grab her by the waist. A loud squeal escapes from her mouth, but she grabs onto my shoulders for safety.
"I won," I tell her as I put her back down. She rolls her eyes and splashes some water at me.
"Well, yeah, you're the Maze Runner, dude, of course you can run." The second she finished the sentence, she shut her mouth and brought her hand up to cover it. She clearly forgot which Dylan she was talking to. "I mean, just because you're not in this world, doesn't mean you couldn't be," she corrects herself and it makes me chuckle a little. This girl...

The rest of the day was spent either in or out the water. Whatever we were doing, we were having fun. Constantly talking and laughing. We had some ice cream and had lunch together. Even after dinner we still stayed. Lydia wanted to see the sun set before we went back, so I gave her that.
We sit on the beach, watching the sun go down. Not an inch is left between us. Our shoulders are practically sticking together. It gives me a weird, giddy feeling and my toes constantly curl up. Neither of us is saying anything, which is good. That way, I can peacefully thinking whatever I want to and besides, it's a comfortable silence.
"Thank you for today, Dylan. I really needed this," Lydia whispers next to me, breaking the comfortable silence into an even more comfortable conversation. I give her a smile and wrap my arm around her shoulder to pull her in for a side-way hug. Her head falls onto my shoulder as if on automatic and a sigh leaves her body. I keep my arm around her. It makes me feel safe for some reason and it possibly does the same to her.
"That's okay, Lyds. I'm happy you enjoyed yourself. As did I, FYI." She chuckles. I can tell she's tired. So am I, but I want to enjoy this moment for a while without thinking too much about how tired I actually am. It takes a couple more minutes before the sun has set completely and that's when we decide it's time to go home. We pack up and get into the car again. Within a span of a mere second, Lydia falls asleep on the passenger seat. I smile to myself. I love the fact that she's so comfortable with me that she can just fall asleep right next to me. On the way home, I try my best to avoid bumps so she sleeps fine. When we arrive at her house again, I debate whether or not to wake her up. I could just easily carry her inside, but my dilemma is already solved when her eyes flutter open.
"Oh, we're home," she whispers and stretches a little. She looks over to me and smiles lazily. "Are you staying over tonight?" she asks, half asleep.
"No, I'm sorry, Lyds. Not tonight. My parents would like me to sleep in my own bed every now and then," she frowns and it slightly breaks my heart.
"You still live with your parents?" she then asks. I roll my eyes at her, but I can't help but smile.
"Yeah, I can't afford my own apartment yet," I tell her honestly.
"Are you really not going to stay over?" she asks again.
"No, darling," I whisper and I'm surprised by the nickname I just used on her, "but if you want, I can FaceTime you until you fall asleep so you won't feel alone," she nods and opens the car door. She looks so tired, I don't think there'll be much of a FaceTime session when I get home. I watch her as she saunters into her house. Before she closes the door, she gives me a small smile and a wave. I return the favor before driving home.
Like I predicted, there wasn't a FaceTime call at all. I tried calling her, but she must've fallen asleep already. So, I went to bed too. Today was a beautiful day. Both in terms of the weather and company. I just enjoy spending time with her. She's an amazing girl, and amazingly beautiful as well. I was right when I said I was born in the wrong universe. I should've been born in her universe. That would've saved me a lot of years of pining and heartbreak.