"You know." I said carefully, watching as the last few streaks of meteors began to wither out and disappear. "I understand that."

"Yeah?" Dylan turned to look at me.

I nodded. "Yeah, my mom's not married. I don't actually know if my dad's still alive or not but I like to think he is."

"Huh." He replied simply.

"Last time I heard he was in California making movies. Which is strangely very cliche of him to the point where I'm not sure if he's telling the truth or just saying that to make my mom jealous." I admitted.

"Yeah I was thinking that same thing." He agreed.

The all he dug into the pocket of is hoodie and pulled out his phone. The clock read: 1:05 AM. Staring at it made my eyes hurt. I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep recently. The all of a sudden Dylan sat up and grabbed his guitar, zipping in back up.

"Are we leaving?" I blinked, surprised by his sudden eagerness to pack up.

"Yep, it's time for part two of my plan." He explained, extending his hand to pull me up.

"How many parts are there?" I frowned, accepting it and he tugged me up onto my feet.

"Like, four so far. We'll make it up as we go." Dylan flashed me a quick smile and we set off down the woods.

"First off, every boy needs a binder." He started, opening up safari and I noticed he was already on the gc2b homepage. "Punch in your size and we'll officially be on our way too delinquent-hood."

I took his phone hesitantly and obliged. "But how am I going to pay for it if it's online?"

Dylan laid a hand on my shoulder. "Atticus my boy, you have a lot to learn, and I never said you were going to pay for it."

He took his phone back and showed me a photo he had taken of a credit card. "Yep, it's John's."

My eyes nearly bulged out of my skull. "Your stepdad?"

He smirked and nodded, and after a few seconds of that numb disbelieving feeling returning, he gave me a thumbs up. "It's been done."

"Holy cow." I muttered in shock. "Is that going to get you in trouble?"

He shrugged. "Sure it will, but I'm not going to be home to receive it."

"Oh my God. We're really doing this." I realized.

I'm not going to wake up in my bed tomorrow morning. I'm never going to have to hide from Janet again. Or sent to conversion therapy by Mom. It's just me Dylan and the open road now.

"How are going to get away?" I questioned.

Dylan stuck his legs out an extra three inches as we walked. "I'm glad you asked. See John's not home right now. He's staying in a hotel and letting all his savings slip through the drain in order to get laid. If our chances are opportune, and they are, he will have left his car exactly how he always does. With the windows rolled down just enough so he can still reach in case whatever girl he's sleeping with decides to steal his keys. Because that's happened before."

"Man." I marveled. "What a jerk."

"Yep, I've learned to live with it." Dylan shrugged, he seemed to shrug a lot but then again so did I.

"I can't believe we're stealing a car."

He shot me some finger guns. "Neither can I to be honest."

Our shoes crunched along the ground and we walked faster through the forest with high spirits and heavy eyes. I wasn't tired however, I was more hardwired than ever. Some part of me was mixing a little sourly however.

"Are you sure this will work?" I asked him, wringing my fingers.

He scoffed. "Come on Atticus, this was your idea."

I tilted my head to the side. "I know but..."

"But what? Haven't you always wanted to get out of this town? You want to see the world? I mean come on man, have a sense of wonder!"

He spun on the balls of his feet and landed facing me. Dylan grabbed onto my shoulders and grinned from ear to ear, it was so bright I saw the path a little clear in the darkness of 1:00 AM.

"Wonderlust!" He said happily.

I frowned playfully at him. "Don't you mean wanderlust? That's not a real word."

"Who cares!"

He let go of me and jumped off a tree, clearly very energized. "It's my word now."

I paused, then laughed and jogged to catch up with him. "What does it mean?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. A lust for wonder, because we not just wandering. I'll show you all the cool touristy spots around and knock your socks off. You'll be begging for more." He flashed an arrogant smirk in my direction.

I smiled warmly and watched him danced around the path in front of me. We were both clearly very happy, skipping around the forest in the middle of the night. We were making so much noise there was no chance of any wild animal encounters. Unless you counted two lanky teenage boys running away in the middle of the night as animals, which we probably fit the description very well.

"Hey I'll race you." Dylan's grin turned to a challenging look of daring and curiosity.

"You'll race me." I raised an eyebrow, unamused. "To the place I don't know the directions to."

He smirked. "It doesn't matter because you'll be following behind me anyway."

Oh, it was on. He sensed it immediately and let out a cry similar to a luging theme as he bolted away from my outreached hands. I chased him off into the night.