Classics in Summertime

The airport was much more crowded than I expected, which made it make a little more sense that they wanted us there a few hours early. It was especially true considering all of the security protocol and how slow and lifeless all of the employees were.

We went through an hour of taking off our shoes, getting things scanned and checked in and having our IDs and tickets checked. When it was finally over, we still had a few minutes before our plane was boarding, which Dylan decided was a great time for us to gather up snacks to eat on our flight.

“Are you in the mood for anything in particular?” He asked as we began popping our heads into the various stores and restaurants before we finally stopped at a small convenience store.

I shrugged my shoulders as we browsed through the store, where Dylan picked up a few magazines and books before we stopped at the snacks. “Just some candy, I guess.”

Dylan looked at me with a smile and nodded before he started grabbing a few random bags. “Perfect. Pick your favorites.”

He had a small mountain of candy stacked on top of his books and magazines, which amounted to more than a bucket of Halloween treats. I grabbed a bag of twizzlers and some starburst, which he promptly took from my hands and placed on his stack.

“Anything else?” He asked, motioning his head towards the chips behind us with a small smirk on his face.

I shook my head and laughed. “No, I’m good thanks.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged his shoulders before grabbing a bag of Cheetos and walking towards the register.

When we got to the cashier, Dylan placed my candy on the same stack is his so the cashier rang it all up together, and he handed her his credit card.

“I could have paid for my own snacks, you know,” I said as Dylan grabbed the bag from the cashier, thanking her before he began digging through it.

“I know you could have.” He looked at me with a small smile before he handed me a few magazines and a thick book, with my candy on top. “These are for you.”

“Well. thank you,” I said, taking the stack from him as I thumbed through the magazines. “I don’t read Cosmo, though.”

“Oops, that one was for me,” he said as he winked at me. He looked absolutely gorgeous when he winked, and I couldn’t help but to involuntarily blush.

I pulled the magazine to the top as we reached our terminal, holding it up so he could see. “Oh, really? I didn’t know you were interested in ‘7 Ways to Give Your Man Better Oral’.”

Dylan chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know, Ev.”

“Well, I hope you’re not interested in men,” I said as I clutched my things to my chest, looking at him with my eyebrows raised up.

He shook his head and smiled at me, leaning over to place a soft kiss on my forehead. “Don’t worry. The only thing I’m interested in is you.”

I blushed again as he pulled away, looking toward the hostess as she spoke so Dylan wouldn’t see how red I was. She was announcing our flight to board, and because Dylan was Dylan, our tickets let us board first.

Getting on a plane for the first time was quite a strange experience. It was bigger than I expected, somehow, though I still thought I might get a little bit clausterphobic. I was just happy Dylan and I had rather large seats in first class, right next to each other. He took the aisle seat and I took the window, hoping that being able to look outside might make me feel a little less stuck.

It took a while before everyone was boarded, and then the flight attendants began giving disaster instructions and telling us all the rules of the place.

As they were speaking, the plane started moving forward, which made my palms sweaty and my muscles a bit tense. I kept my hands gripped tightly onto the armrests to try to keep myself distracted from our possible doom. We hadn’t even made it into the air and I was already feeling a bit scared.

Dylan’s hand fell on top of mine and he gave it a quick squeeze as he smiled at me. “Don’t worry. I’m right here. If you get scared, just squeeze my hand.”

I was already afraid enough to be squeezing his hand hard enough to cut off his circulation, but I didn’t want to worry him too much, so I just kept holding onto the armrest with my knuckles going white.

Dylan was still smiling at me when he took his hand and slid it under mine, so he was holding onto it, and he placed both of our hands in my lap. His thumb was rubbing over the top of my hand to try to take my mind off of everything.

With my eyes shut tightly, I rested my head back on the headrest and tried to focus on Dylan as the plane started lifting up. The whole plane felt a bit heavier, like it might fall apart if anyone made a wrong move, but it went steadily up until it had reached its point in the sky.

It finally leveled off I loosened my grip on the headrest and Dylan’s hand, causing him to look over at me with a small smile. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”

“It wasn’t terrible, but it was a little bad,” I said with a nervous laugh. “I think its the landing we should be worried about, anyway.”

Dylan shook his head and puffed out his lips, resting back in his chair. “Landing is the easy part.”

Dylan and I spent the entire flight eating our snacks, trying to talk quietly and browsing through our magazines. The flight wasn’t all bad, except when the plane shook, and it was over before I knew it.

When the pilot announced our landing, Dylan grabbed onto my hand again and held it tightly while I squeezed him. He had a small smile on his face, which made me wonder if he was getting a kick out of having to make me feel better. He seemed to be doing that quite a bit.

Somehow we managed to get back on flat land with both of Dylan’s hands still in tact, and we were the first ones out of the plane. We made it to baggage claim quickly, where Dylan pulled both of our bags off the carousel, and then we made our way out of the airport.

The air felt surprsingly crisp and fresh, despite all of the buses and tourists around us, and I took a minute to soak it all in before Dylan hailed us a cab. He threw our bags in the drunk and opened the car door for me before we slipped into the back of the taxi.

After Dylan told the driver the address to his apartment, we began the quick, 18 minute journey by the GPS’s count. I was getting nervous to see Dylan’s place for the first time. I wondered if he kept it more tidy than he did back home or if he had some fancy California designer decorate it for him.

“So, are you excited to see my apartment?” Dylan asked with a smile, looking at me with his eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s great.”

“Now, just keep in mind, I haven’t been here in a few months. It might be a little bit stuffy.”

“Oh, that’s alright,” I said as I tucked my hair behind my ear. I hated to seem like the Debbie Downer all the time, but there were a few things we probably needed to address. “Will you have food, soap and all that?”

“It’s all taken care of,” Dylan said, nodding his head as the cab came to a stop. “I had my friends stock up for us.”

“Well that was very nice of them.”

Dylan nodded his head as he paid the cab driver and thanked them before turning back to me. “I have some pretty good friends.”

He stepped out of the cab before coming around to my side to open the door for me. When I stepped out, the sun hit my eyes and lit up Dylan’s face, making him look even more gorgeous than he usually did.

Dylan grabbed our bags out of the trunk and began carrying them both up the sidewalk, towards his apartment building. It all looked so beautiful with the sun, flowers and trademark palm trees. I was excited to see what Dylan’s apartment was like and to spend some time with him without my parents watching us around every turn, but I was still so nervous to find out what would happen.