Have you ever fallen asleep at the end of a dream, then woke up and had to reorient yourself in the world to figure out if you were still asleep? I was really feeling that right now. My eyes were open and I was staring at the side of the car, with the sunlight slinking lazily through the window. My heart was racing, like I had just run five miles straight with no breaks, but I hadn't done and exercising of any sort. It was fear. I was terrified that yesterday had been a dream and I was going to get up and find that Dylan hadn't actually been madly in love with me this whole time, and he hadn't kissed me like he did, and played the songs he wrote for me. It felt very real but nothing of that sort ever happened to me so you can see why I might have my doubts. I don't even know if Dylan was awake yet, I hadn't even bothered to check.

"Hey Att." He nudged my shoulder gently, confirming my question.

I rolled over and there he was, taming a fierce case of bedhead and running his thumbs over the dark blue hoodie I gave him in a nervous manner. Honestly, I had never been more attracted in my life and I smiled despite myself. God, I really hope I kissed him yesterday.

"Yesterday was real right?" He asked, an air or fearful innocence in his eyes.

I sat up. "You too?"

He sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness, it really does seems too good to be true, right?"

"Oh absolutely."

Then a lopsided grin slunk onto his face like a fox on the hunt. "Oh man, oh man."

"What?"

I glanced over at him curiously. He buried his face in his hands and just sighed dramatically. I could see him blush from between his fingers.

"I just really can't believe this is actually happening to me. If I were a teenage girl in a high school, rom com I'd be screaming into a pillow right now." Then he yelled softly into his hands.

"Aw." I smiled at him. "I'm not creative with words but I feel the same."

He looked up. "You do? I mean of course you do I just... wow."

"What now?" I started running a comb through my bangs.

"I mean I don't want to go on and on about how I managed to get one of the hottest guys in the universe but-"

"Oh shut up." I snorted.

"Mm, only if you make me."

I glanced over and he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. I threw the comb in his face. Dylan dodged in it clumsily, laughing his butt off. When he straightened out I reached out for the back of his neck and pulled him I for a small kiss. I felt him smile against it reflexively.

Then I pulled away. "Go brush your teeth, you nasty."

Thirty minutes later we were back on the road and slowly leaving the poppy fields behind us as civilization trickles slowly into view. A house would pop up occasionally and a gas station would crawl past. Dylan drove mostly because I was still a newbie and the closer we got to the city the higher our chances of being pulled over (for whatever reason) were, and Dylan had a license.

"Hey hey." He tapped my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Can I hold your hand?"

"You don't have to ask." I raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Of course I do." He insisted, wrapping his fingers into mine. "Times change, comfort levels change. Who knows, it might be totally okay for me to just grab your cute, little, bony, hand today, and totally inappropriate twenty years from now. I got to be respectful."

"Twenty years?" I blinked.

It's not that I hadn't thought of us being together for that long, but I wasn't aware that he had also.

"What did I say?" He glanced over at me nervously.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just didn't know how serious you were thinking until now." I shrugged.

"Are you not? Because there's nothing wrong with that-"

"No, I am!" I let myself smile. "I want to have a serious, long-term relationship with you."

Dylan glanced at me and he looked like he might cry, when he spoke his voice squeaked out. "W-wow."

I blushed. "I know."

"Well, me too." He promised. "That's is also what I want."

I leaned back in my seat. "Wow so... we're officially dating now I guess."

"I also, am still in disbelief."

I laughed, and he reveled in that, the ability to make me laugh whenever. His thumb swiped over my fingertips lovingly, and I realized just how grossly in love we probably seemed.

"I'm sorry but I can't believe you're my boyfriend. Like, how lucky can a guy get?" He let out a small laugh.

"Mm just think about how lucky I am." I shot his waggly eyebrow look back at him and his next laugh was at a dramatically higher pitch.

"Oh, stop it."

"Make me."

"We're so dumb." He grinned. "This is almost gross."

I leaned back in my seat, no longer worried about the complexities of our relationship. We had the talk™ and it went well because I guess he was as equally in love with me as I was in love with him. I felt like things were reaching their climax but also, there was so much more to life now. We were doing this crazy thing, which was normal now, and now I could do it with Dylan's hand in mine, with his hair tangled in my fingers and his face in my palm. I could make his cheeks turn red and kiss his tears away. Dylan Clark was an entire universe that belonged to me now, and I could look into his eyes, see it there, and call it home.

The radio hummed softly and I caught one line of the song, home is wherever I'm with you. Yep, this is home.

"Not to damper the mood, but I was thinking we should probably shower or something right before we go and try to find your dad." Dylan suggested. "You know, get a good night's rest in a hotel or something."

I felt the warm feeling in my stomach freeze over as I remembered the days before we went and looked for him were trickling through my fingers. "Oh yeah... that sounds like a good idea."

He must have sense that he was indeed, dampering the mood slightly, because he squeezed my hand gently. I looked up and he took his other hand off the wheel momentarily to shoot me a lone finger gun. That lifted my mood a lot.

"It's going to be great." He insisted.

"Yeah, or course it is." I nodded, snapping out of my funk.

Now that I had a boyfriend I honestly felt like I could do anything. Dylan was right, it was going to be perfect, I know it.