The Moment I Knew

Dylan and I spent the day downtown, venturing into various antique stores and picking up little trinkets here and there. Dylan had a fascination with these kind of things, which I found adorable. The day overall was very productive. We got a lot of time to talk. For once our relationship felt as strong as it did a few months ago. Although during our afternoon out and about, we accidentally ran into Amanda at a local furnishing store. At first I felt awfully uncomfortable, knowing their friendship had recently grown stronger. Then I loosened up. ‘He’s mine, not hers.’ I had reassured myself. I would casually slip my hand into his and at one point he pulled me closer to his side. It felt nice.

When we got back to my apartment, Dylan offered to go get some pizza and movies, only if I agreed to let him stay another night.

“Of course.” I had said before lightly pecked his cheek. “You’re always welcome here.”

After he was gone I decided to do some quick cleaning up. I hadn’t been able to since we’ve been out all day. I was folding the blankets that were strewn onto the couch when my phone started to buzz like crazy.

“Hello?” I asked, breathless from rushing to answer it.

“Hey! It’s Brian.” I sighed of relief. I thought it was going to be Dylan telling me he had to cancel. He had a tendency to do that sort of thing.

“Hey! What’s up?” I asked, placing the phone on my shoulder, connecting it to my ear. I needed two hands to fold blankets, and I wanted to clean everything up before Dylan got back.

“I was just wondering if you’ve heard from Dylan. I mean, if he explained himself for just ditching you like that.”

“Yeah! He actually came over late last night and told me everything. We’re okay.” I smiled to myself. Dylan and I are okay.

“Good! I’m glad for you guys,” I heard a knock on my door, distracting me from what Brian was saying.

“Brian-” I cut him off mid sentence. “I have to go, Dylan’s here. I’ll call you tomorrow though! Maybe we can do something?”

“Sure, see ya.” He sounded disappointed. I hung up the phone and dropped it onto the couch as I went to open the door.

“I got sour patch kids and crunch bites for dessert.” I laughed as Dylan walked in carrying 2 large boxes of pizza. I grabbed the candy on top and led him to the kitchen as we placed everything down on the counter. Opening the cabinets to get the plates, I felt Dylan place his hands onto my hips and spun me around, hugging me. “You know I truly love you, right?”

“I know,” I murmured into his chest. “I love you too.”

“‘Cause if I didn’t, I would’ve dumped your ass in high school.” I looked up to see Dylan laughing. I mimicked him, causing him to put his hand on my cheek. “Good thing I didn’t.” Butterflies swarmed my stomach, making me feel tingly. He leaned in to kiss me. When he let go, I turned around and grabbed 2 plates and one of the pizza boxes.

“Let’s go.”

We situated ourselves in front of the television with the pizza box placed in front of us, but of course, Dylan wanted to make it ‘better’. He thought it’d be a good idea to build a fort. He went into the linen closet where I had just put the blankets away neatly, and he tore them out and unfolded them all. I sat there and watched in amusement as he ran around me, placing blankets over the couch and where we were sitting.

“Up!” He ordered me as he threw one of the blankets over my head. “I’m not making this alone!” I pulled the large, blue quilt off my head and started laughing. We spent the next 10 minutes organizing the best fort we’ve ever built. It consisted of using the couch, 2 of the chairs from my kitchen table, and about 4 blankets. Dylan placed 2 of those blankets on the floor for us to sit on, and 2 draped over the couch, and hung neatly on the back of the kitchen chairs. It looked like a little home, almost. We stood back and admired it. “It’s nice,” Dylan said, placing his arm around my shoulders. “Now let’s mess it up.”