Parallels | Dylan O'Brien

36 - Six Months Later, Part One

New York
­-Dylan O'Brien-

We only needed one week to adapt to living in the same universe again. It felt weird waking up next to her again, but good weird. The new academic year had started as well, and we both went to college again. Only this time, Lydia chose to do something different. She didn't want to do the bio-engineering and linguistics, that was a different Lydia's choice. No, this Lydia really wanted to get her diploma for tourism and leisure management in this universe too. Which meant she had to do all three years again, but she didn't mind. As long as she was with me, she said. I'm doing my very last year of journalism and will be doing an internship with the local news and report about the sports. It's not exactly what I want, but it's a step in the right direction.
Today is a special day though. It's December the twenty-eighth, three days after Lydia's favorite day of the year, and we're finally moving in together. We've been saving money together, working our asses off after school and now we're able to pay for our own little apartment in New Jersey. It's not much, but it's enough. One bedroom that's big enough for a double bed, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room that fits one big-ass sofa. I've been packing my stuff since last week and I'm still not finished. Lydia is, of course. And she's helping me now packing the last bits.
"So, when's the wedding?" Julia jokes as she watches the two of us run around my room, collecting all the junk I've been hoarding. My head snaps up at my sister, giving her a weird look.
"Probably in like, five years or something," Lydia blurts out, I'm not even sure if she thought about the answer. When she stops in her tracks and her eyes are wide, I'm certain she didn't mean to say that. Or not out loud, that is.
"You want to marry me?" I ask her, a smile tugging at my lips. She tucks her hair behind her ear, a slight blush forming on her cheeks. She's adorable.
"Well, yeah. That's the dream, remember? Like, at some point, I do want to get married to someone. And I'm kind of hoping that would be you," she mumbles, the blush only spreading across her cheeks.
"Aw," Julia coos and that makes me blush a little. Why does my sister have to be here at that moment? If she wasn't, I probably would've scooped Lydia off her feet and kissed her passionately. But I'm not that big on PDA.
"But like, in five years or something," Lydia tries to brush it off, "And only if he asks," she points at me, making me smile a little. I'll definitely remember that. We continue collecting my stuff while my sister watches until she gives that up. The second she leaves us alone, I turn to Lydia and grab her by the waist to pull her close, a shriek escaping her mouth. I press my lips to hers in a loving, sweet kiss, and I can feel her smile. It's making me smile.
"What was that for?" she asks me when we pull away.
"For being so amazing," I reply and kiss her again. This time more passionately. Passionately enough for her to put her hands in my hair, twirling the strands around her finger. That feels so nice. No matter how many times she does it, it never gets old.
"Let's get you packed up and get our asses to our new home, yeah?" she suggests and pecks my lips once more before backing off and getting back to the box she was filling before. She looks so gorgeous. Her hair is thrown up into a bun, no make-up on and a pair of joggers and a shirt of mine cladding her body. I'm going to be sharing a freaking apartment with this goddess. How'd I do that?
"Do you really need this?" she questions and when I come back from my train of thoughts, I see her holding a baseball bat. "Do you really need a baseball bat? Do you even play baseball?" she knows the answer to that, I wonder why she still asks.
"I need to practice in case I get to play with the Mets, Lydia," I say, grabbing the bat from her hands. She rolls her eyes and goes back to her box. The metal feels cold on my hands, and I almost feel overloaded with power holding this thing. Do I need it? Is it really necessary? Or could I without? I glance over to Lydia, who's hunched over to tape the box shut. I put the baseball bat where she found it and fill up the box of clothes with the last pieces.
"Can I seal it?" she questions, holding up the roll of duct tape. I smile at her and nod, holding the box shut as she puts the tape over it. I stay on the floor for a second, on one knee and look at her again. I still cannot believe we're moving in together. She looks down at me too, and dips down to meet me for a kiss. It's sweet, and quick, but amazing as ever. "Let's go home," she then whispers. We both take the last boxes to her car and then get in. Julia is standing at the door, watching us as usual. I smile and wave at her. I'm going to miss living with her and annoying the crap out of her. It's been good. And it's time for something new. Lydia drives off and a silence falls over the car. It's a good silence. I like it. It gives me time to think. Think about the past six months and what we've done so far. We've gone back to college, went on a trip to Los Angeles, just for the heck of it. We celebrated Christmas. Twice. Once with my family, on Christmas Eve, and once with her mother, her new PA, Holland, and her new boyfriend. Lydia had a talk with her mother, showing the bruises and cuts. That was enough for her to dump the bastard. A month ago, she met someone new. His name is Chris, and he's pretty cool. He's super nice, a real father-figure, even though he doesn't have any kids of his own. He's a perfect father for Lydia. After Lydia's mother met Chris, she realized she was practically exploiting Holland, giving her impossible tasks – like cleaning the entire house within a day – and promoted the girl to Personal Assistant. Now she treats her as her second daughter, and I'm sure Lydia feels like Holland is actually her sister. No one would actually believe them if they were told otherwise. Tyler, Holland, Arden, Lydia and I, we're pretty much the best of friends. We do pretty much everything together; studying, finding out more about the multiverse, ... We even tried to find a way to communicate with the other universe, but kind of failed. It's harder than it seems. My family is closer than ever. Mom and dad helped Lydia and I find an apartment, and they even paid one fourth of the rent. A Christmas present, they said. Julia had some great news last month too. She finally decided it was time to come out of the closet and brought her first girlfriend home. Skyler Romero. There hasn't been a moment in my life when I could say I was truly happy. Except for now. Today I can say I'm one truly and utterly happy boy. With the girl of my dreams, sharing a home with her, two amazing families surrounding the both of us, and amazing friends who look after us.

"We're here," Lydia announces after the two-hour drive. I look up at the building. It's not that high, not like New York city buildings, but it's perfect. The two of us get out of the car and take a box each to take inside.
"You can do the honors, baby," I tell her as she reaches the keys towards me. She smiles a little and opens the door to our apartment. We had already put the large furniture – like the bed, the couch, etc. – in last week, now it was time to fill up the house with our own junk. I sigh happily before turning to my girlfriend. She snakes an arm around my waist as my arm goes around her shoulders.
"Happy?" I ask her.
"Very," she replies. I chuckle and press a kiss to her temple. "Let's get the other boxes and start unpacking," she then suggests and dashes off again. I follow after her, like an obedient puppy. This is going to be amazing.

After an hour, everything is in its righteous place. Clothes in the closet in the bedroom, which we had to fight for who got which side of the closet, bathroom stuff went into the cupboards in the bathroom, and the kitchen stuff her parents got us for Christmas are in the cupboards in the kitchen. Everything's gotten a spot. Everything's in the right place. Everything's perfect.
"We can put a Christmas tree there," she says when we are cuddled up on the couch, watching the TV. The old thing was a gift from her mother, it's the one that used to be in her bedroom. She points to the corner right next to the TV. I hum, then kiss her head.
"That would be perfect, baby," I assure her. She's adorable when it comes to Christmas. She wants everything to be perfect, Christmas lights everywhere, a tree in every room, and don't forget the Christmas songs she knows by heart.
"Next year, yeah?" she then asks, and I hum again.
"Yeah, definitely," I say, "Maybe we're even in a bigger house by then," my eyelids begin to feel heavy, and I don't even fight the sleep that's building up inside me. Moving to a new house is exhausting. Putting everything into place is exhausting. Today was exhausting.
"Yeah, who knows," she whispers and cuddles closer to me. I think she might be tired too. And I'm sure I'm about to fall asleep when suddenly someone knocks our door. We both glance at each other. Who could possibly be at our door right now? Lydia gets up and goes to open the door.
"SURPRISE!" three loud voices scream into the apartment, making me jump.
"Oh my God, guys!" Lydia exclaims and lets our guests in. When I'm fully recovered and my heart stops beating so fast, I can finally see who's disturbing us on our first night in the house. It's Posey, Holland and Arden. The strawberry blonde girl carries a bottle of champagne with her, and I'm sure this is going to be a fun night.
"Thought it would be a good idea to initiate the new flat together," she says, showing us the bottle. Lydia nods and goes to the kitchen to grab some champagne glasses – heritage from her great-grandmother. She comes back while Posey opens the bottle of champagne. My girl's reflexes are the greatest as she puts a glass underneath the bottle which is overflowing with alcohol.
"To the new flat and our favorite couple finally moving in together!" Arden says, holding up her glass. We all imitate her, and all say something in terms of "Here's to the new flat".
The fun goes on until two am, when the three finally decide to head home as they'd have to travel two more hours before they were home.
Lydia plops down next to me in our new bed, in our new apartment, after cleaning up the glasses and the champagne and cola bottles. We had put a little stash of drinks and foods in the back of her car, just in case something like that would happen. Thank God, Holland was responsible enough to only drink one glass of champagne and then sober down with coke. If Posey had to drive, I don't think he would even be able to get to his car. He was pretty hammered.
"Look at us, in our new bed, in our own apartment," Lydia then says as she turns on her side and props her head up on her hand. The other hand twirls my chest hair around her index finger.
"Can you believe it?" I ask her, putting my hand behind my head, the other on her cheek. She smiles and dips down to kiss me.
"Now I'm starting to believe it," she whispers, the smile still decorating her gorgeous face. What she does next, catches me off guard. She flips her body further, landing on top of me, and she kisses me again, lustfully. I could really get used to this. Like, really.