Parallels | Dylan O'Brien

13 - The Promised Date

New York

-Dylan O'Brien-

Lydia had left before I woke up. I don't know when she left or why, all I know is that it dissapointed me. I wanted to make her breakfast and enjoy it with her before we went on our date. I guess that's not going to happen. I do hope our date is still on. With that thought slipping my mind, I reach for my phone. I need to call her. Right now. My heart is pounding in my chest from the anxiousness. What if she cancels our date?
"Dyl," I hear from the other side of the room and it nearly makes me fall out of the sofa, "Lydia's father had called in the middle of the night. He needed her home, that's why she's gone," my sister tells me and it somehow calms me down a little. However, my sister doesn't seem calm or glad that Lydia is safe and isn't going to cancel our date. She seems worried. The sentence repeats itself in my head. Her father needed her home. Oh, shit. No. I scribble to my feet with my phone in hand. I need to know if she's fine. Julia watches me as I dial Lydia's number with shaking hands. I try to keep my breath steady as my shaking hand brings my phone towards my ear. My other hand finds its way to the back of my head, nervously scratching at the skin.
"Hey stranger," her voice sounds soft, but happy and it makes me sigh in relief.
"Hi," I breathe out. My hands stop shaking and my lungs open up again.
"Are you okay?" she asks sweetly.
"Yeah, yeah. Just got a little worried when I didn't find you next to me," I tell her, my voice a little softer in embarrassment for my sister. I glance over at her and see her pout, her eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. My father, or whatever I should call him, called Julia to get me home," she explains and I silently pray that her stepdad didn't hurt her.
"Are you still on for our date?" I ask her, dismissing my sister from the room by waving my hand to shoo her away.
"Of course, Dyl. I'm just studying some Spanish and then I'm going to start making our little picnic," a little gasp transfers through the phone, "Oh no, that was a surprise," she whispers and I can only imagine her adorable face. Her mouth agape slightly, her hand covering it and her left eyebrow twitching just once.
"Aw, Lydia! You ruined it!" I joke, pretending to be mad.
"I'm sorry, Dyl," she apologizes, giggling a little. She knows I'm not mad at her. She knows I can never be mad at her. Maybe now that I know, I can help her out a little, give her a little surprise.
"But hey," I then start, "now that I know, I might as well contribute."
"What'ya got?" Millions of thoughts pass in my brain, but I can't make any sense of it. It's like when you're dreaming, and you try to read (you can't read in your dreams), but every single letter just slides off the page. A weird sound comes out of my mouth. One that could be described as 'ajdhjh'. Complete gibberish.
"That's a surprise," I conclude, hoping I'll come up with something by tonight.
"Oh, really?" she asks, a teasing tone in her voice.
"Yes, really," I reply with a quiver in mine.
"Alright, you're making me curious," she mumbles. Yeah, and you make me nervous. But I wouldn't say that to her. I'm nervous for the date and I'm nervous because she makes me. Just hearing her voice makes me nervous. In a good way, if that's possible.
"I'll let you get back to your Español, señorita," I say in my best Spanish.
"Meh, I wasn't really concentrating anyway," she tells me and those few words are enough for us to continue our conversation for two hours straight.
"I'll send you my location when I'm ready," I tell her when we finally decide to hang up.
"Yeah, okay. I'm excited," she tells me and I can hear her smile in her voice.
"Me too," I say. To be fair, I don't think I've ever been this excited for a date. Not with Candy nor with Gage. Everything is so new and different with Lydia. I don't even feel the same whenever I saw our Lydia. This is so different. It's like I'm experiencing everything for the first time again.
"I guess she was alright," Julia snaps me out of my thoughts. I clasp my fingers around my phone, bringing my fist up to my lips. Should I tell her and ask for her help?
"Yeah, she's alright. Our date is still on for the night," I say and my sister gets this tender look on her face, "But I told her I'd contribute and help her out a little." Her tender face changed to a pained face. She knows me so well.
"What is the idea? Or well, her idea?" she asks.
"She wanted to do a picnic, so she's going to bring the food, I have to bring something as well. I just don't know what. I want to make it special, Jules. This is our first date," I explain to her and she nods. I can tell she's thinking about it.
"What if we build this incredibly romantic den-thing with fairy lights and candles and pillows and stuff?" she suggests. I think about it and try to imagine how romantic that would be.
"That isn't too bad, actually, Jules," she shrugs, a smile appearing on her face.
"I know," she walks towards the sofa where she had left her purse, "Let's go shopping for decoration," says my sister, nudging me to follow her. We get into her car and she drives to the nearest Macy's. This is going to take a while.
Within half an hour, our shopping cart is filled with a bunch of candles, different strings of fairy lights, bunting and some extra pillows Julia wanted for herself.
"So, are you excited about your first date with Lydia?" she asks and I simply nod. I'm a little too nervous to talk. I never really talk about girlfriends or boyfriends with Julia. We do things together and we talk, but it never goes deep into feelings and things. I find it hard to talk about feelings anyway. Even with Posey. "I think you two make a cute couple, even though I wouldn't ever think of putting you together, you know?" Julia rambles beside me, but I can't really pay attention. I'm thinking about what I'm going to say to Lydia. How to tell her that I like her. How to tell her how much I want to kiss her. Because I want to. Even just thinking about it makes me giddy. It's weird, because we haven't known each other that long. However, I feel so at home whenever I'm with her. People always say they're glad they're home when they go through that one door, but I can say that one sentence when I see her face, hear her voice or smell her perfume. Sometimes, home isn't four walls and a couple windows and doors. For me, home is two arms and a heartbeat. Her two arms and her heartbeat.
"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" my sister's voice makes me snap out of my thoughts. I look up at her, her honey brown eyes looking back at me. I can tell she's happy, but I'm not sure it's for me, or just in general.
"Yeah, I am," I reply shyly, but honestly and walk away from Jules to grab one gigantic piece of white fabric she wanted for her tipi, or whatever she called it. We quickly finish up our shopping, pay and get everything in Julia's car. There is still a lot of time left before we have to get ready at the spot I had in mind.
"What are you going to wear?" Julia asks the question I hadn't even thought about before. This is why I need a girl in my life. Why I love my sister. I don't know what I'd do without her to be honest. My hand finds its way to the back of my head, my nails softly digging into the scalp.
"Just a flannel and some jeans, maybe?" I suggest, but Jules rolls her eyes and grabs my hand to drag me up the stairs and into my room. She pushes me down on the bed and moves to my closet. I watch her as she browses it like she's at a shop, looking at an item, then pushing it further. Some pieces get a second glance, but neither of them makes it through the cut.
"It's just a picnic, Jules. Keep that in mind, please," I tell her and she simply hums, not giving me any more attention than really needed. I groan and fall back on the bed, but it only takes ten seconds before I'm attacked by a couple pieces of clothing and hangers. Most of them hit my face, a pang of pain shooting through.
"Ow, hey, I'd like to go on this date without a black eye, thank you," I snap at her, giving her a glare at the same time. She holds her hands up in defense, giving me a sheepish smile. My eyes roll back as I get up to change really quick. Julia and I are confident enough to change in front of one another. I mean, we used to take bubble baths together when we were younger, just changing into our underwear isn't that terrible or awkward.
"Ah, yes, bro. That looks awesome!" my sister exclaims as she looks at my outfit. I furrow my eyebrows and make my way to her bedroom for her full-length mirror. The black jeans that clad the bottom half of my body look great with the black shirt and the red and blue checkered flannel. I nod, satisfied with the outfit. I hope Lydia will like it too.
"Alright, it's four by now, let's get your butt to the park and get this picnic up and ready," she tells me, putting her hands on my shoulders and pushing me out of her bedroom. We get in her car again where we left all the stuff we needed. Julia drives us to the park where I told her I wanted to spend my date with Lydia. We set up the tipi, or like Julia called it 'the tripi'. A tree tipi. Basically, all she did was hang the fabric we bought from a branch and pin it down to the floor. We put some blankets and pillows in it and some sort of crate we stole from our dad in the middle where we'd put the food on. While I hung up the battery-powered fairy lights, Julia put the candles and a little vase with flowers in them. Shortly said, it looked very adorable.
"Are we ready?" I ask when I'd hung the last string of bunting.
"Yes, I think so," Julia replies as she gets up from where she was sat to put the flowers on the crate. I nod, grabbing my phone from my pocket to send Lydia my location. It's already half past five. We've been working on this for about an hour and a half. That's not even half that bad. The both of us look at the result of our work. It looks so cute.
"Alright, brother. I'm going to leave you to it," Julia says as she reaches up to kiss my cheek, "Have fun and be a gentleman, will you?" I smile and nod, the nerves kicking in for real now. I sit down in our tipi and wait for Lydia. I hope she doesn't take too long, I don't think my nerves can handle that. To keep myself busy, I get my phone out and start scrolling through Facebook. A couple of people I knew from school are going out tonight, some are going on holiday to Greece or Spain or something. It's one thing that stops me from scrolling for a moment.