The sun was in his eyes during the entire drive home, but he couldn't bring himself to care. The giddiness that he was feeling washed away any other emotion that threatened to burst his bubble. Still, when he parked the car, finally having gotten home, he couldn't help to notice the underlying worry that hid under his excitement.
"You're home late," his mother said the moment he'd closed the door.
"I know, I was tutoring," he sighed even though he still wore a subtle smile. Having said exactly that every Thursday since school had started was getting a bit tedious. As he went into the kitchen, his mom was drying her hands on a towel.
"That's right," she exclaimed, "I'm sorry, I forgot... but while I'm on the subject, I would rather you come home directly after school while your brother is here." Dylan frowned.
"I'm grounded because he is here?"
"You're not grounded, honey, I just think that it would be nice to all be together as a family. Of course, Thursdays will be the exception."
"And what about the weekends?" Dylan asked further, becoming more and more panicked as the conversation continued. For the first time, he realized that he was willing to sneak out the window if it was needed.
His mom hesitated. "Well, you can go out on Saturdays, I guess, but I want you home on Sundays. And Fridays."
"Fridays?" Dylan's jaw dropped, noticing that he sounded absolutely exasperated.
"Yes, Dylan," she sighed.
That was going to be a problem. At least later in the semester. He didn't say anything else, though, just turned around and went up the stairs to leave his back and jacket.
Out of all the reasons William's return would make his life a living hell, this was not the one he'd thought would happen. He groaned in annoyance as he threw himself on his bed, ultimately messing up the bedding.
After a moment, he attempted to collect himself. He sat up in the bed, sighing as he let his arms drop onto the mattress. He should read. Or study. But he couldn't get his body to follow instructions and move.
He had one free day a week. One. A wave something like claustrophobia washed over him, making him move toward the window to get air.
Of course, in his moment of panic, the worry about the inevitable meeting with Chris hit him like a freight train. Had he even done the right thing, saying yes. He'd let Chris kiss him. It had been great. Wonderful. The best thing ever.
But now, he wasn't as sure anymore.
"Are you okay?" He twisted around to find Riley standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest.
Dylan took a deep breath as the cold early-November air blew in through the open window.
"Yeah, I'm good," he gave a soft smile, but Riley only raised an eyebrow.
"You don't look so good."
Dylan looked at his sister quietly as the cold slowly got worse and bit at his skin, making it red.
"I'm just stressed," he answered finally, "being a senior is nothing to look forward to."
"Maybe, not, but what comes after is kinda exciting, right?" Riley smiled as she took a few steps into the room. "You're going to catch a cold if you don't close the window."
Dylan chuckled. "When did you get so grown up?" He turned away and closed the window, his heart rate steadily decreasing. Riley didn't answer, she simply walked closer and wrapped her arms around Dylan.
"Don't stress," she said lowly as he rested his chin on her head.
"And when did you become so wise?"
"I learned from the best."
Riley left a little bit after that, carefully closing the door behind her. Dylan returned to the bed after that, grabbing his history textbook on the way. But no matter how he tried, nothing on the pages succeeded in making it into his head, as his mind kept drifting elsewhere.
If he thought about it hard enough, he could still feel Chris's lips against his own. He swiped his thumb against his bottom lip, contemplating the events of the day. A small knot had formed in the pit of his stomach.
He just hoped it wouldn't grow.
After a few minutes, the quiet had turned almost deafening. He crawled off the bed, going over to his Bluetooth speaker and turned it on. Soon, he had connected his phone and searched through his playlist to find one that matched his mood.
Jazz turned out to be the best option. He started it and jumped back into his bed, once again trying to study. It went a little better this time, the soft beats calming his mind and allowed him to focus.
"Did you want dinner or not?" He was ripped out of his thoughts by his dad's voice.
"I'm not really hungry," he mumbled, not even raising his eyes from the textbook.
"You still have to eat something."
"I'll eat tomorrow, dad," Dylan turned over on the bed.
"Dylan," his dad came into the room and sat down on the chair by the desk, turning it so that he was facing his son, "I understand how you feel about your mother's latest plan, but you have to see that she only wants us all to be together. As a family."
Dylan slammed the book closed and looked up. "What I see is that though he left without a goodbye, William is still mom's little golden boy and that he can do no wrong. And now she wants to spend time with him but she needs us there, too, just so that we can pretend to be a well put together family."
"And," Dylan continued, "on top of that, she's decided that I have to be home on the weekend as well! And I assume she gave the same rule to Riley."
His dad nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, it's a little unrealistic. What if I try to give both of you another day?"
"What do you mean?" Dylan raised an eyebrow, thankful that his dad actually had some common sense.
"I'll talk to mom and make her think it over. So that you can be out on Fridays, too."
"You'd do that?"
His dad laughed. "Yeah, I would. Believe it or not, but your mother and I have also been teenagers, and I know for a fact that if your grandparents did this to her, she would have rioted."
"Thank you," Dylan grinned.
His dad returned the smile, standing up from his seat in the chair. "Make sure to eat something, okay?"
__
"Okay, you have Fridays," his mom sighed the next morning at the breakfast table.
"Yeah?" Dylan asked, a smile on his lips.
"Yeah. But you have to eat dinner at home. Always."
"That's... fine," Dylan stood from his seat as he noticed that he was almost late, "bye!"
He grabbed his jacket and stepped into his shoes.
"Riley!" He called from the door, "are you done?"
"Yeah, I'm coming!" Riley called back, followed by some thudding. In half a moment, she was downstairs and already had her jacket on. "Here." She smiled.
"Good, let's go."
"See you tonight!" Their dad called as Dylan closed the door behind him and Riley. None of them said anything as they got into the car. While thankful that their dad had gotten them an extra day, both were still irritated and it was best to not discuss it.
Dylan tapped the wheel lightly, not knowing what else to do.
"Are you doing anything this weekend?" He asked after a few minutes of silence. Riley shook her head.
"Nope. The plan was to go to the movies on Sunday, but I had to cancel."
"Oh," Dylan breathed, deciding that it was probably better to keep the silence, even though it was tense. Soon, he pulled up to the middle school. "See you tonight."
"Yeah." Riley stepped out of the car without saying anything else and started walking toward the school. Dylan sighed. It felt a little bit as if he had let her down, and he couldn't stand it. They'd been on great terms the night before, but now, he didn't know.
He continued the drive by himself and headed to the high school building. He had already figured out that it was going to be a slow day, and he could feel his energy draining even at eight in the morning.
As if the school day wasn't enough, he would have to go to soccer practice as well. Usually, the thought of practice would calm his busy mind; It was his way of letting off steam. But today, it felt more like a chore.
"Dyl!" An arm swung around him and he smiled when he saw that it was Shawn. In an instant, most of his worries washed away.
"Hey," Dylan greeted as Landon came up next to them.
"Your brow is healing nicely, I see," Landon said and Dylan nodded.
"Yeah."
"And you're coming to practice?" Shawn removed his arm and took his phone out.
Dylan smiled. "I don't know why you ask that every time. Have I ever missed a practice?"
"Well, I remember once last year when you were sick and-"
"That does not count! I couldn't come, I was sick," Dylan exclaimed with a short laugh.
"Yeah, well, you did miss it that time," Landon grinned and Dylan punched his arm playfully.
"Fine, I admit, I did miss it that time," he sighed as they got to his locker. He opened it, grabbed his books and closed it again.
"Okay, so are you doing anything this weekend?" Landon asked as they walked down the crowded hallway. Dylan was just about to say no when he realized that he did have something to do this weekend.
And on top of that, just as they turned down a new corridor, a certain dark-haired boy caught his eye. He and Chris exclaimed glances, and from that small gesture, Dylan's heart started racing.
"N- uh, yeah, actually," Dylan answered the question with only a slight slip. Shawn raised an eyebrow.
"What do you have planned?"
"I- uh, my parents are taking us to my grandparents over the weekend," he lied, wearing a smile to try to make it more believable.
Landon looked at him with a skeptic expression, but then, he shrugged. "Okay, some other time then."
Dylan nodded. "Some other time."
"See you at practice," Shawn said as he turned and went into the Biology classroom.
"See you," Landon smiled toward Dylan and followed Shawn into the room.
"Yeah," Dylan replied, not sure if they had heard him or not.
As the warning bell rang, he hurried down the corridor toward his class. The giddiness from the day before had returned as he thought about what he was doing on Saturday. At three. With him.
He felt a little stupid as he sat down in an empty seat. How could he not have realized that he liked Chris? Was he really that inexperienced? Apparently. But that inexperience also brought on a worry that he'd tried to ignore last night.
Never in his life had he dated anyone. Not for real, and had never been in a serious relationship. Was that even what Chris wanted? He hoped it was.
He leaned his head on one hand, using it as a pillow, as the teacher closed the door and started the class. The seconds seemed to slow.
"Dylan, are you paying attention?" The teacher asked, shooting a stern glare his way.
"Yes, ma'am," Dylan sat up in his seat, hindering himself from falling asleep.
"Good."
After about half an hour, the bell rang. Dylan had to blink himself awake a few times before standing and collecting all of his books. He'd only sat through one class and he was already exhausted.
At least the next class was Biology. Something he liked. And knew. And they'd get their projects back. Chris would probably get his back after lunch, as Dylan was 92% sure that he didn't have Biology first thing in the morning.
He slapped himself internally, once again trying to get some energy. He dropped his books down at a desk and took a seat, getting out his notes and pens.
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