800+ reads?! Omg, I can't thank you guys enough!!

Also, I should be studying for my three exams that are less than a week and a half away, but guess what? I haven't even started.

--

Ditching Lillian

Dylan had taken me on a date that very afternoon. Obviously, Lillian wanted to tag alone, and I didn't object; I would love nothing more than to spend more time with the little ball of sunshine. Unfortunately, her older brother did object.

After some convincing and the promise of several happy meals and another movie night (girls only), Lillian went for a sleepover to Mia's. Dylan wasn't too happy at the girls only sleepover. Lillian simply stuck out her tongue, mocking him.

We had just finished little canoeing adventure which I enjoyed way too much. Mostly because I had been taking in the beautiful scenery, leaving Dylan to canoe.

I mean I did try to help, but my little muscles did little to nothing. However, he didn't object, watching me as I took in the scenery, causing me to blush way too often.

I also made the risky move of taking my camera into the canoe since Dylan had convinced me. He claimed to be a great canoer, and after the ride, I couldn't deny the fact.

I huffed as we hauled the canoe in. "Next time we'll go kayaking, in the one person kayak," he clarified.

I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he was just joking. The corner of his lip turned upward.

I couldn't help but stare at his gorgeous face longer. He looked very handsome in the glowing setting sun, the light accentuating his jawline and cheekbones. It was a bummer his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses.

"Want to take a picture?" He teased.

"No," I snorted, flipping my hair over my shoulders. Having my hair out was annoying, but Dylan liked it, so I kept it out. "I don't want my camera to break."

As soon as I said that, I turned in the opposite direction and ran, grabbing my camera that was slung around my neck with one hand for support. I heard him right behind me; his footsteps were becoming louder with each passing second.

I squealed when I felt his arms snake around my waist, pulling me into him. "You think you're funny?" He whispered, his breath hitting the tip of my ear.

I turned in his arms, looking up at him. Amusement filled his features as he peered down at me through his tinted glasses. "Very," I beamed, showing off my braces.

I went on my tippy-toes and grabbed his sunglasses, placing them on my face instead. The world looked much dimmer now.

"These look way better on me," I joked, giggling. Good thing these weren't prescription glasses, or I would have been as blind as a bat. In return, he stole the hat, that had the word petty, written across the hat off my head. I made a face, smoothing down my messy hair.

"I know," he grinned, tucking a strand behind my ear. "But this hat suits me way better."

"We can agree to disagree," I nodded, patting his bicep softly. "What's next?"

"You want more?" He asked in disbelief. I smacked his chest lightly, laughing.

"You know what I mean." I looked up at him, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"To the car," he chuckled, readjusting the hat on his head.

"Great!" I surprised him when I hopped on his back, moving my camera to the side so it wouldn't get crushed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, careful not to choke him. "To the car!" I ordered pointing my finger in the direction to where I thought the car would be.

He shook his head, body shaking in laughter before he moved my finger to the right side. "That's where the car is babe." Butterflies swarmed in my stomach and my cheeks heated, but thankfully, he couldn't see them.

After a two-minute walk, we reached the fairly empty parking lot, only a couple of other cars scattered around.

"You want to drive it?" Dylan asked as we approached his car.

"Don't mess with me," I warned, looking back at his beautiful car. Of course I wanted to drive it, but I knew men and their cars.

"I'm not kidding," he grinned, tossing me his keys. My eyes widened in surprise as I caught them.

Immediately, I unlocked the car, climbing into the front seat. I frowned. Not only was the seat too far from the gas pedal, but I also couldn't see over the wheel properly. After some great adjusting, I was finally settled.

"You okay?" He asked, seeming to be amused by my excitement as I fixed the mirror one more time.

"Enzo and Julian barely let me ride their cars, and to be frank, my car isn't as cool as theirs or yours," I clarified.

"You know how to drive though, properly, right?" He asked, buckling up as I did. He seemed to be regretting his decision. I couldn't help but giggle a little.

I started up the car, immediately shifting gears and zooming out of the parking lot.

"Lia!" He gasped out in fear as he held onto the seat.

I slowed down, couldn't able to help my self but to burst out laughing.

"I'm only kidding," I laughed, watching him trying to relax in his seat again. He seemed to be on the edge. I made sure to drive properly as he directed me to the next destination.

"I love this car," I commented, sitting back in my seat once I got comfortable with the car.

"It was my dad's," he breathed. "He bought it a year before the divorce, but it wasn't in the greatest shape. However, he loved it. When he left for Spain, he left it here for me. I loved the car, and after a few retouches here and there, it ran perfectly. It's a piece of him that I have with me," he said, saying the last part quietly.

I peered over at him for a quick second. "Do you still miss him? No wait—that's a stupid question. I mean, are you uh, at peace? You know, with yourself and your father?"

"I would like to think," he nodded. "Yeah, I miss him," he chuckled.

--

It didn't take long before we reached a restaurant. A steak house to be exact. My mouth practically watered at the good food I was going to eat. God, I was starving, my stomach grumbled as we entered the restaurant, the delicious aroma filling my senses.

"Why is everyone staring at me? Have they not seen a teenager before?" I scoffed sitting down at a booth.

"Babe, it's because you're wearing sunglasses. Inside." That was twice he called me that in the last hour.

The butterflies still haven't stop swarming.

"Oh," I muttered, taking them off and polishing them before setting them on the table. "I knew that."

After we had skimmed the menu, I knew exactly what to get. Right on cue, a waiter had joined our table with a smile on his face. "My names Andy, and I'll be taking your order. What can I get you today?"

"Can we have the four-cheese bread to start?" Dylan then looked at me. "Anything you want mi amoda?"

"Crab cakes?" I asked shyly, looking down at the menu to make sure I was ordering the right thing.

"Crab cakes please." Andy nodded. "And can I have the New York Striploin with mashed potatoes?"

"Of course. And for you beautiful?" Andy asked, turning to me.

"I uh, will get the Hickory Smoked Ribs with the s-side of vegetables and fries please?"

"Of course. And for your drinks?"

"Water is fine for me," I replied.

"Same goes here," Dylan grunted. After Andy left I looked at him, furrowing my eyebrows.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't like the guy." He pouted, leaning back in his seat.

"Why?"

"He's too friendly." I laughed. "It's not funny. He was giving you the eyes and everything." I laughed even harder.

"Alright, s-sorry," I hiccupped, trying my hardest not to laugh. "He was just doing his job," I pointed out. "Okay, do you want to play a game?" I asked when he gave me a look.

His gaze softened, and leaned in closer to me from across the table. "Sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Okay, so one person says something about themselves and then other guesses if it's true or false. You can go first," I offered, my mind blank.

He took a moment to think before he spoke. "I once broke my nose when I was twelve." I furrowed my eyebrows and moved in closer. The bridge of his nose was practically perfect.

"False." This caused him to smirk.

"Oh, it's true." I looked at him in disbelief. I opened my mouth but then closed it again. "I know, my nose is practically perfect," he said smugly.

"Oh brother," I sighed. "Don't ruin it now," I giggled.

--

"Do you want to come in?" I asked as Dylan parked in my driveway. "I w-want to show y-you something." My fingers started to twitch, and I clasped them in my hands trying to stop them.

I've been thinking about it for a while, and I really wanted to show him.

"I would love to," he replied softly, getting out of the car and letting me out as well. "Do you know that you stutter more and play with your fingers when you're nervous? Why are you nervous?"

I let us in the front door and led him to the basement. "I want to show you something," I repeated. I opened the door of the guest room, which also posed as my mini art studio.

Onto the side was a bed, with a dresser, and the rest of the room was filled with shelves and drawers containing art supplies and empty and used canvases. What I was most proud about in this room was the accent wall which I painted. It was a mural of a jungle, filled with countless number of different plant species and animals. On the top left, the sky was dark, and a thunderstorm seemed to be rolling in, but as the months passes by and the longer I worked on it, the thunderstorm was replaced by rays of sunlight and cute little animals as I continued to paint.

"Wow. Just wow." He praised, looking over every detail on the wall. He took a moment to take everything in before he turned to the other side of the room. "Is this all yours?" He looked through the large canvases on the ground that couldn't fit on the drawers. "These are amazing Lia," he murmured, sitting on the ground and carefully looking at them. "Why aren't you an artist?" He asked rhetorically.

"After my surgery, I couldn't do anything I wanted. Dancing was m-my life, and not being physically do the one thing I-I wanted, broke me. Dancing was my getaway, and I couldn't even do that." Dylan turned to me, his attention now trained on me.

"I cut myself once," I admitted, subconsciously moving my hands to my thighs. "My therapist suggested that instead, I should d-doodle on my body. I tried that. And soon, doodling turned to drawing and then I switched my body for a sketchbook and then canvases," I breathed out. "And s-so that's what I did. I spend weeks in this room, not leaving at all, and just painted and sketched. The only time I ever came out was to ask for more s-supplies."

"What you're seeing here, are my canvases from the past several months. The months after my... i-incident had not so happy colours," I admitted. I got up from where I was sitting and pulled out a huge bucket full of my old artwork. "These are the dark and ugly art." I bit my lip as I watched him go through them, my heart beat accelerating.

"These are still beautifully breathtaking, Lia," he choked out. Dark greens, reds and blues filled most, if not all the canvases through abstract. Mostly reds. Reds were used a lot. "Looking at these makes me feel something. I'm not an art person really, but your artwork really tells a story."

"Thank you," I replied quietly. That's something every artist wants to hear.

I watched as he went through almost every piece of art I created, asking me questions which I answered on who or what the art was inspired off of, or my personal story behind the piece; he was trying to understand what was going on in my crazy head. He hung the last piece back where it belonged before turning to my shelves and drawers of supplies.

He opened a drawer causing my breath to halt. I hadn't looked in that drawer since she passed. He pulled out cases of cds. "What are these?"

I stood up. "T-they are recordings. Of Shane, Scarlett and I. From dance. Do you want to watch?" He nodded. I grabbed the old laptop from the desk, and we found ourselves comfortable on the guest bed.

I put in the first cd. It was in a ballet studio where Shane and I first met Scarlett. "Shane did ballet?" He asked with surprise, recognizing the five-year old Shane.

"I dragged him there with me. I didn't want to go alone," I admitted, chuckling. Shane had always been with me wherever I went, and five-year old me couldn't handle being without him for an hour, especially when I would be surrounded with new faces. "This is where we first met Scarlett," I pointed out, her bright red hair easily seen through the poor quality of the video.

We moved onto the next video. This time we were older, about fifteen. I didn't know how I didn't notice Scarlett's affection for Shane. It was quite obvious with the chemistry they had when they were and weren't dancing. "This is my favourite video of them," I spoke, pulling out another video of the two a couple years later.

https://youtu.be/5Hqp0tai_qs

Both Shane and Scarlett were geniuses. Their musicality and their creative ideas flowed so well together, and combined with their chemistry, they were an unstoppable force. It's what they wanted to pursue together; dance. Shane was now carrying both their dreams.

We went through several more videos, working their way to the fairly recent ones. I tensed up when the video played, the smile wiping off my face. "That's Riley isn't it?" I nodded, biting the inside of my cheek looking away. This was the first time I've seen his face since court. I shut the laptop, not wanting to see him.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He gently pried the laptop away from my hands, collecting the cd's as well. He returned them back to their place. "You have a lot of supplies," he murmured, trying to take my mind off it. I appreciated it. "What's your favourite... medium? Is that the right term?"

I smiled a little, liking how he wanted to get me talking again. I got up, pulling out a small bucket. "It is. My favourite would be painting. I love working with them, especially acrylics." Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. I knew Dylan noticed it too.

"What is it?" He mused, spinning around in the desk chair.

"Can I paint your back?" He stopped spinning and launched onto the bed.

"As long as I get to paint yours," he grinned, hanging his head upside down off the bed. I got off my position and ground and hobbled over to the bed. The position was a little awkward, so I don't know how Spiderman did it, but his lips looked really inviting. His lips lifted into a smirk, thinking the exact same thing as I approached him. I leaned over and gave him a peck on his lips, sealing the deal. "Spiderman who?" I couldn't resist and gave him another peck.

"Come on, I want to paint your back," I whispered, still close to his face.

"But I like what we're doing here," he countered, eyes lowering to my lips.

"Well, I can promise there will be a lot of this," I murmured, looking at his lips, "after we paint," I giggled, moving back and heading to my supplies grabbing the paints and brushes needed. Behind me I heard Dylan fall onto the ground. I turned to find him quickly taking off his shirt, fumbling as he did.

"Where do you want me?" I laid a sheet on the ground to protect the floors.

"The floor is fine," I giggled as he slept on his stomach, waiting for me. "I'm going to have to straddle you," I warned.

"Let's go women," he demanded, laying his left cheek on the ground, peering at me with a goofy grin.

"Be patient," I mused, not being able to help myself by kissing his cheek after I straddled his back.

My eyes roamed his tanned and very obvious back muscles. "God you're hot," I muttered. My eyes bulged out of my sockets and my cheeks flamed when I realized I said it out loud.

"Thank you, Lia," he chuckled, his eyes finding mine.

"Look back at the ground again," I muttered, lightly grazing the pads of my fingers over the beautiful contours of his back causing him to shiver. I grinned at that. "You're ticklish, aren't you?"

"No," he denied. I let him go, for now.

I grabbed the first colour, brown, getting ready to draw the center of my favourite flowers; sunflowers. "It's going to be cold," I warned. I enjoyed watching him squirm as the paint hit his skin.

--

I hopped out of the shower; hopefully I did my best to wash out all the paint off my back. I wrapped my short hair into a towel after slipping into a t-shirt and sweats.

I found Dylan on my bed, his head stuffed into a book. He lifted his head, a gorgeous smile spreading across his equally gorgeous face. I felt his eyes on me as I tried to dry my hair down with my towel, disregarding the fact that my hair was probably frizzy now.

"What?" I asked, suddenly self conscious, turning around to the mirror to fix my hair. I caught his eyes in the mirror, and his eyes were still locked into mine. "Stop," I muttered.

"I still can't believe it," he mumbled, causing me to turn around. I waited for him to elaborate as I made my way towards the bed. Deciding to venture outside of my little box, I straddled his waist. By the look of his face, he was clearly surprised too.

"What can't you believe?"

"That you're all mine," he admitted, burying his face into the crook of my neck. I squirmed slightly as my damp hair touched my skin. "God, I really do love you Lia, and I can't wait for what our future holds for us," he muttered into my skin, pressing a soft kiss to my neck, suckling lightly.

I bit back a moan as he continued to pepper kisses up my neck, sucking its skin and making its way to my jaw. "Y-you see me in your future?" I breathed out, trying to stop my eyes from fluttering shut.

"Of course," he mumbled into my skin, causing a vibration to spread across the surface of my skin before pulling away. "I know we haven't been together for a long time, but," he paused. My eyes wandered to his red, swollen lips. "I've... I've been with other women, and none of them make me feel the way you do." A hint of jealously surged through me. "You're my first thought when I wake up, and my last before I go to sleep, and I wouldn't mind continuing that for the rest of my life."

"You've mentioned k-kids before?" I asked, voice thick, remembering all the times he had.

He peered up at me through his long lashes. "Several," he muttered, pulling me in a little closer. "I'm going to kiss you now, okay?" I nodded, leaning in and waiting for his soft lips to capture mine. Our lips connected in a fluid motion, but I couldn't help but give in to the nagging thoughts and pulled away.

"You want kids." I stated, pushing the hair out of my face.

"More than anything," he promised with twinkling eyes. "Obviously after a couple of years, but not too late," he chuckled. "Maybe in three or four years; I wouldn't mind having kids early," he admitted as his eyes bored into mine. "Just the thought of having little ones who are a mixture of you and your loved one, I don't think it can get better than that," he said softly.

"What future do you see with me?" I gulped, untangling my arms from his neck and bringing them down on my lap.

"Don't freak out, okay?" I furrowed my eyebrows, but he continued. "In a couple of years, I see us settling down," he whispered, moving a hair strand away from my face. "I see us living in a cozy home, not too big or small. I see Shane living next door, because there's no way you two will ever separate," he chuckled, moving his gaze to my hair, running his fingers through it gently. That cracked a smile on my face. "I see little Lia's and Dylan's running around the house, possibly a triplet or twin somewhere along in the mix, and maybe a little puppy. Best of all, I see you in the centre of all of it. I see a future with you, mi amoda, and I can't wait to live it with you."

"You want kids," I breathed out. I tried to remain my composure.

"You don't?" His tone was no where near judgemental. He asked in a calm and curious tone.

I looked away and made a move to get off his lap. His hands that rested on my knees were pulled off, leaving a cold absence in its place. "I would love nothing more," I nodded, blinking frequently. "I'm tired," I said lamely a moment later, falling back onto my pillow, and pulling up the blanket to cover most, if not all my face and turned away from him.

A moment of silence was met on his end, before I felt him get off the bed. I bit on the inside of my cheek as I heard him leave my room and go down the stairs. Not a minute later he returned. "Sorry, I just went to make sure the front door was locked." He turned the lights off and slipped under the covers.

He kept his distance when he realized I had scooted to the end of the bed. "Don't read too much into this, mi amoda, I didn't mean to scare you off," he slightly chuckled to ease the tension. I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. I tried to, but I couldn't form any words. "Buenas noches mi amor," he spoke softly after a quiet sigh when I didn't say anything.

I waited, and I waited, and it must've been hours until all I could hear were the sounds of his heavy and even breathing before I let it out. A silent sob racked through my body, my body slightly shaking. I knew what I had to do, and the thought alone sent more tears down my already stained cheeks.