Classics in Summertime

I had spent all night the night before packing my bags so I would be ready to leave with Dylan in the morning. We had a long drive to the airport, and apparently you were supposed to get to the airport a few hours early for reasons that didn’t make sense to me, so we had to be up early.

With all the excitement and nervousness I was feeling, I barelly slept the night before, but luckily I was too excited to be tired.

There was only one thing still standing in the way of me going to Cali with Dylan and that one thing just happened to be the biggest one of all: my parents. They were asleep by the time I got in, though I’m not sure I would have even told them then. I had put it off as long as I could (a measley 8 hours) and had no choice but to tell them now.

At the worst, they would kill me. At the best, they would just forbid me from going. Either way, the outcome wasn’t going to be good, which made me wonder why I had agreed to go at all.

When I went downstairs, Dylan was sitting at the kitchen table with my parents, who looked to be happily sipping coffee. I’d always heard that laughing at inappropriate times was a sign of insanity, but it had never meant much to me until now.

“Good morning,” I said nervously, waiting for my parents to stand up at any moment and slit my throat.

“Good morning.” Dylan stood up from the table and took my hand, guiding me over to the table. “I hope you have your bags all packed and ready to go.”

If Dylan was trying to get me killed, he was doing a pretty good job. “Yes, I do.”

“Great,” Dylan said with a smile. “I was just telling your parents all about the rodeo camp we’re going to. They both agreed that it’ll be a great experience for us both.”

I looked at Dylan with my eyebrows raised up, never as confused as I was at that moment. He was clearly up to something, though I had no idea what.

“We’re so proud of you, Everly,” my mom said, smiling at me as she set down her coffee cup. “We had no idea you wanted to pursue rodeo.”

At this point, I had no choice but to play along, though I had no idea what was going on. “Rodeo, yeah. I thought it would be good experience and maybe now Dylan can learn to properly ride.”

Both of my parents laughed, because apparently rodeo and I were absolutely hilarious.

“Well, we’ve gotta get going if we’re going to make it to the ranch on time,” Dylan said to my parents before looking back at me. “Do you need any help with your bags?”

“No, I’ve got it,” I said quickly, turning to go upstairs to grab my suitcase before my parents could question me further. I couldn’t believe that Dylan had just lied to them without asking me first, regardless of what his intentions were. My parents weren’t stupid, and they were bound to find out that something suspicious was going on eventually.

When I made it back to the kitchen again, bags in hand, Dylan was still waiting for me, not yet murdered by my parents. Since he wasn’t dead yet, I figured he hadn’t done anything to mess up his lie.

I said a quick goodbye to both of my parents before following Dylan out to his truck and tossing my suitcase in the back.

“So, are you excited?” Dylan asked, smiling at me as I hopped into the passenger side of his truck.

“I can’t believe you just lied to my parents like that,” I said quickly, ignoring his question.

Dylan’s face immediately fell, as if I had punched him right in the gut. “I’m sorry, Ev. I didn’t think you’d be angry. I knew you’d be nervous about telling them so I thought if I took care of it for you, you’d be more excited about going.”

“What am I supposed to do when I come back from my ‘rodeo camp’ and I’m not a professional bull rider? My parents aren’t stupid, Dylan. They’re going to find out.”

“Ev, I’m sorry. I should have thought this through. Please, don’t hate me.” Dylan paused, letting out a long sigh. “If you don’t want to go anymore, I understand. I swear, I didn’t mean to screw things up this bad.”

I could tell that Dylan felt really bad about lying to my parents. A lot worse than I wanted him to feel, actually.

“It’s okay. I appreciate the gesture. Just, from now on, let me do all the lying.”

Dylan let out a long sigh of relief before nodding his head at me, leaning over the center console to place a soft kiss on my forehead. When he pulled away, he was smiling at me as he turned on the truck. “So you are excited then?”

“Yes,” I said with a nod of my head, smiling back at him. “And a little nervous too.”

“Don’t be nervous,” he said as he chuckled. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll be right next to you the entire time. Planes really aren’t that scary.”

I laughed and shook my head. “It’s not the plane I’m nervous about.”

“Oh really?” Dylan said, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to look at me. “What is it then?”

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to tell him why I was nervous. It was stupid, really, and I had always been a somewhat nervous person by nature anyway.

“All of it, I guess.” I shrugged my shoulders, looking over at him though he still had his eyes on the road. “It’s just all so new.”

“Well, there’s no need to worry,” Dylan said, reaching his hand over to rest it on top of my leg for a moment before he had to move it to shift gears. “I’ll be right here.”

It probably would have made me feel much better to have Dylan by my side if he wasn’t part of the reason I was nervous. I was nervous to travel somewhere new and meet his friends, but I was also nervous that while we spent a week together we’d find some reason not to like each other anymore, and that was much worse. And we weren’t even anything official yet, which only made the situation all the more weird.

I thought about telling him all of my worries, but before I could decide whether or not it was a bad idea, we pulled up to the airport and Dylan paid for a week of parking. I’d never been to the airport before, or on a plane, or on a vacation of any sort, because we always had horses to take care of and my father would never leave the farm for that long.

It was something that probably seemed so trivial to Dylan, though it was so new to me, but I could tell by the smile on his face that he was excited to show me everything.