By the time the movie is over, it's around ten o'clock and Dakota is currently passed out, drooling quietly on my shoulder.

"Dakota." I whisper, closing the laptop and immediately regretting it because I'm left in the pitch dark. "Dakota, wake up." I shrug my shoulder up and down.

He shifts mumbling, "Calm down, I'm awake." Before lifting his head and looking around.

My eyes begin to adjust to the darkness but I still feel a little unsettled just sitting here blindly. "Can we turn a light on?"

"Yeah just give me a second." I hear him sigh, a shadow from the light coming through the window casting a shadow on his face. I watch with squinted eyes as he slowly climbs off of the bed and walks to the door, his hands feeling for the light switch. He trips a few times, mumbling an, "Ow." on the last one.

"You good?" I ask into the dark room, not earning any reply. I'm about to ask again when the lights flicker on and I flinch on instinct, my eyes fighting to stay open against the harshness of the light.

Dakota stands in the doorway with a squished expression, his hand still on the wall as he blinks at me. "I stubbed my toe." He grumbles before stumbling tiredly to the bed and flopping down his stomach right in front of me.

In my tiredness, I reach forward and glide my hand through the front of his hair and fist it, pulling upward until he's looking up at me with red eyes. "Ow." He mumbles, "What do you want?"

"You need to take me home before you pass out and I'm stuck here. Or I could always walk home but I figured you wouldn't want that."

Dakota sighs and I release his hair, his head flopping back down and his face burying into the blankets. "Give me two minutes." His voice is muffled by the comforter beneath him.

"Fine." I chuckle, pulling out my phone to pass the time.

In the two minutes that go by, Dakota manages to completely knock himself out yet again and the current situation I have is a lightly snoring boy who mumbles in his sleep and no ride.

Before bothering trying to wake him again, I sit and decide it's better to just sit her for a little while and let him take a short nap. I don't need him crashing his Jeep on the way to or from my house.

Even though I'm almost one hundred percent sure that Dakota never goes to bed at ten on weekends, I think it's in my best interest to just leave him be for the time being.

Grabbing his laptop from underneath his left arm, I carefully pull it out and push it open. Dakota shifts, scooting forward with his eyes closed so his legs aren't hanging off of the bed and his cheeks rests atop my leg.

I watch him closely to gage whether the movement was conscious or just a side effect of his insane sleeping habits.

That's something I've discovered; the reason for Dakota's crazy hair. He's an absolute crazy sleeper. His hands constantly run through his hair and his fingers play with the ends like a four year old girl. I can't decide if I find it cute or weird.

Probably both.

With one last look at Dakota's smushed cheek against the skin of my thigh, I shake my head and blow a breath of air through my cheeks, focusing on the screen of his laptop.

Through pure curiosity, I click on his photo album. My eyes lock onto an album titled Photography before my index finger glides over to it and slowly clicks.

I look down at Dakota to make sure he's definitely asleep, as to not catch me snooping in his computer, before staring in awe at all of the portraits of people I've never met, his family, even himself. I click on a photo of the sunflower field in our spot off the road.

It must have been taken the day they discovered it because this was captured at sunset, the colors in the sky blending with his own editing and the golden yellow coming in clear from the sunflowers. They seem to stretch to the sky by the angle he got on it.

I click the next button on the slide, leaning forward slightly as a beautiful bright photo of Sam comes up. I smile at the huge grin she's wearing, her nose scrunched up as she laughs. Probably at something stupid Dakota said.

I hit the next button again and, this time, it's a dark black and white portrait of Dakota sitting in the backseat of a car. Sam must have taken it from the front without his knowledge because his eyes are cast to the side out the window as it rains, the glass covered in droplets and streaks of water.

I'm almost sucked into the photo as I study his serious expression almost as if he's deep in thought. The headphones in his ears and the beanie on his head contrast well with the mood of the photo and the rugged denim jacket he's wearing.

I feel caught off guard by the vibe of it. Maybe because I'm not used to seeing him so, I don't know, serious I guess? With reluctancy, I go to the next photo and immediately chuckle.

It's the same setting as the one before except Dakota must have discovered his sister's antics because one of his earbuds is out and his hand reaches for the camera, an annoyed smirk on his lips. There's the Dakota I know.

"Watcha doing there, Snoopy?" Dakota's tired voice rumbles and my heart lurches into my throat as I scramble to change the photo. The idea of Dakota catching me staring at photos of him even sounds humiliating.

"I'm looking at your photography." I clear my throat, "You're really good."

"Thanks." He breathes tiredly, rolling onto his back and adjusts his head on my lap. "Still doesn't distract from the fact that you're snooping."

"I'm not snooping. I just wanted to see them." I defend, my cheeks reddening because I know he's right.

Dakota's lips pull into a lazy smirk as he looks up at me. "Just tell me you didn't find my naked photos."

"Dakota!" I gasp, not able to contain the laugh that comes out.

"I'm kidding!" He laughs, closing his eyes. "I do have a photo of a Naked drink though if you'd like to snoop that."

"Shut up you butt cheek." My hand slaps his cheek but his only reaction is to scrunch his face and laugh.

"I'm not a butt cheek."

"Yes you are." I laugh at my own insult as he folds his arms over his chest, his blonde hair brushing against my legs.

He doesn't say anything while I close the MacBook and set it aside, his eyes blinking tiredly before his eyes focus on me. "Lillian."

"Yeah?" I look down.

"How about that drive now?" He asks.

My brows furrow. "You mean you drive me home or...?"

"No." He winks, "I mean you drive me around. Be my chauffeur."

"Are you serious?" I ask him with a disbelieving laugh as I get ready for him to yell just kidding!

But, instead, he sits up and grabs his keys from his nightstand. "Yeah, let's go. But I get aux." He points a finger at me.

"I thought you were tired." I tell him, pushing myself up from the bed.

Dakota shrugs. "I was but now I want to go watch you drive." He shoves his feet into his shoes.

"Why?" I follow him out of the bedroom, turning the light off as I go.

He looks back at me with a wink. "Because I think it'll be fun."

"Okay." I laugh, shaking my head with a smile. I can't hide the fact that I'm excited to drive his Jeep. Anyone in their right mind would be ecstatic.

We don't come across anyone on our way to the door which doesn't surprise me considering Dakota informed me earlier that Sam is going to be at Winter's until late.

"Are you sure about this?" I ask with my hands on the steering wheel as Dakota buckles up, zipping his hoodie.

"Yeah yeah." He waves off my concern, "Just don't kill us and we should be fine."

"Thanks for that." I mumble, putting hr vehicle in drive. It feels so much more high up when I'm the one driving. "Where should we go?" I ask him.

He leans back in the seat. "Anywhere we want, Lillian. Anywhere we want."

"Okay seriously, where." I laugh at his theatrics.

His head lulls to the side to look at me. "Let's go to the park."

"The park? Really?" I ask him, memories flashing through my mind.

"Yeah I mean it's the only place I can think of that we can take the backroad to. That way we can go fast." He gets a wild look in his eye while I roll my eyes.

"Fine. The park it is."

On the way there, Dakota get a sudden burst of energy and, very stupidly, unbuckles his seatbelt and stand up on the seat, sticking his body through the top of the Jeep as he holds on tightly. I yell at him to get down but there's not much I can do considering I'm focused on driving and not wrecking into a tree.

"I'm being liberated!" He yells into the wind.

"Well please liberate yourself back into a seatbelt before you get yourself killed." My hand reaches over and slaps his leg.

"Ow, okay fine." He hollers before squatting down and carefully taking a seat and buckling himself back in.

As soon as I know he's secure and safe, I press the gas peddle down and speed up slightly, earning a laugh from him.

As we pull into the lot of the vacant park, I take in the sad looking swing sets and jungle gyms with a frown. "I haven't been here in forever." I say as I pull the key from the ignition.

"I come here a lot." Dakota confesses.

"Really?" I look over at him, slightly surprised.

Dakota chuckles, "Yeah. Just to...I don't know, think and stuff."

"Huh." I hum, looking out ahead, "Alone?"

Dakota gives me an odd look as he laughs. "Yes, Lillian. I do like to get alone and have some peace and quiet sometimes. I don't always feel the need to entertain all the time."

"I know I wasn't meaning to insinuate anything." I tell him. "You just don't seem like the type of guy to just park and contemplate life."

My attention is drawn to the sound of an unbuckling seatbelt and then Dakota's feet hit the pavement. "Come on." He says to me as he looks at me expectantly.

"What are we doing?" I sigh, hopping out of the Jeep with his keys in my hand. My fingers find a mini flashlight on the key ring so I leave my phone behind in the center console and I switch on the light.

"We're swinging." Dakota informs me in a duh kind of tone.

"Okay well no need to get sassy."

"There's always a need to get sassy, Lillian."

With a sigh and a small smile that I made behind my long hair, feeling very thankful that the strands have managed to finally dry a decent amount. Having thick hair is a hassle but driving and having the wind blowing around me rapidly helped me out.

After Dakota yells at me to hurry up, I groan and quicken my pace. The humidity that clung to the air when the sun was out has now dissipated and there's a slight chill in the breeze that whips around the skin of my legs. I wrap my long sleeves around my hands and cross my arms tightly as I take a seat next to him on one of the swings.

"I used to come here too." I confess, looking around at the dreary park equipment and dim streetlights in the distance. I feel Dakota's eyes on me but he says nothing as I stare ahead, "But I haven't in a good while." I chuckle a little, looking down at my feet digging into the shredded tar beneath me.

"Why'd you stop?" Dakota asks, "If you hadn't, we probably would have met a lot sooner." He laughs a little, nudging my swing.

I shrug, "Just as you would expect. My mom used to come with me when her and my dad would fight." My eyes meet his has I release an ironic laugh, "I didn't even know that was why we came until later. It's actually crazy how oblivious I was." My words die out, my fingers squeezing the braided metal beneath my palms.

Dakota says nothing for a few seconds as I look away, feeling little emotion. "You know," He begins, "for someone who has a hard time expressing feelings, you do a great job with me."

My gaze flickers to him as I fight a smile. "Yeah." I reply, "I guess you're right."

"Well now isn't the time to be sad." Dakota slaps his legs with the last word before standing up and offering me his hand. "Let's do something crazy, Lillian Perkins."

I laugh, taking his palm in mine and allowing him to pull me up. "Like what? There's nothing crazy to do in this town."

"Let's go swimming." I shine the flashlight in his direction, catching a glimpse of the wild glint in his green eyes.

"Dakota," I chuckle just before he jerks on my hand and pulls me towards the vehicle. I trip over my own feet and stumble slightly before pulling my hand from his and stopping, "You're insane. We're not swimming! It's almost midnight." I tell him, waving my arm around.

Dakota stops in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders, "You think way too much. Now let's go."

Before I can even comprehend what's going on, Dakota has pulled me to the vehicle and has taken off.

"Where are we going?" I scream in frustration, having trouble with the whole let go and have fun concept.

Dakota grins over at me, "You'll see."

"No no no no." I back up as we stand in front of Mr. Wilder's house, an old man who's lived as an overgrown brat ever since his children left for college and never reached out to him. Now he hates every teenager who ever lived...and that probably includes his past self. "We are not doing this."

I look over at Dakota, who fails to respond, just as he pulls off his shirt and balls it up, tossing it into his Jeep as he hops on one foot aimlessly, pulling his shoes off. With a wink in my direction, he takes off towards the fenced backyard that contains an eight feet deep pool inside.

"Dakota." I seethe through my teethe, looking around desperately before sighing in defeat and slipping my shoes and socks off, tossing them into the Jeep and taking off after him.

When I catch up, he's already unlocking the fence door and slipping through it. With one last look behind me, I follow suit. Nerves swirl in my stomach as I look at the house, praying that Mr. Wilder is fast asleep.

"Maybe we should - " My words get stuck in my throat when a sudden wave of water splashes me, my mouth open in shock. "Dakota." I hiss.

"What?" He asks, swimming in the deep end, his hair flattened by the water. "You're getting in anyway. Come on, hurry up."

"I don't want to." I whine, looking at the house warily.

"Lillian!" He whisper/yells, "Live a little and jump in the gosh darn pool."

"What if we get caught?" I ask, "Then what?"

"Then we run." He says bluntly as if this is obvious.

I chew in the inside of my cheek as I watch him stare at me expectantly. "Fine." I sigh, rolling my eyes.

After thinking for a moment and considering the looseness of my long sleeved shirt, I bundle up the bottom and tie it in the front. My stomach is showing but at least it won't fly up and give Dakota an embarrassing view of my bra.

After taking one last look at Dakota's smug expression, I leap over the side of the pool and land in the water near him, hopefully, splashing him in the face.

I come up, pushing my hair out of my face. "I just washed my hair." I whine before Dakota's hands fling the pool water into my eyes. I blink it away, trying not to worry about my contacts getting ruined. "You're the worst." I can't help but laugh at the insanity of it all.

He chuckles, swimming in front of me above the water. "This isn't so bad, is it?"

"I guess not." I hide my smile, "You're still crazy though." I laugh, watching a grin appear on his face, the pool lights illuminating his features and making his green eyes appear lighter.

"Am I?" He asks me with a teasing turn of his lips.

"Yes." I reply quietly, now aware that the owner of this pool could come running out with a shotgun at any moment.

"Well then I guess you're crazy too." He tells me, "You're here with me after all."

"I suppose you're right. I've caught your crazy." I chuckle a little as we swim face to face in the cool water.

"There's worse things to catch." He shrugs, "Like herpes." He smirks at me, making me laugh loudly, holding my hand over my mouth.

"Shut up you weirdo." I look at him, my heart warming and swarming with butterflies as I watch the rection to my teasing words appears on his face.

"You like it." He replies quietly, his eyes flickering to the windows of the house behind me before returning to me.

I pause, a small smile appearing on my lips. "Maybe I do."

"Oh really." He presses his lips together mischievously before I feel his arms wrap around my waist, holding me up. I laugh, placing my hands on his shoulders.

There's something contagious about Dakota's personality. There's something almost intoxicatingly happy about being with him. Even being friends with him has brought me more mini adventures and more carpe diem moments than I've had in my whole life.

I look at him as he looks at me, a feeling of pure comfortability coming over me as we reach the shallower end of the pool, Dakota's feet touching the bottom but not quite mine.

"Hi." He smiles softly, making me laugh a little bit.

"Hi." I reply, my hands moving to rest against either side of his neck.

Dakota hesitates for a moment before leaning forward, my heart calm in my chest. I don't feel nervous and my pulse doesn't race. I simply feel at home; in complete peace being here with him. The feeling scares me but feels so natural at the same time that I can't deny it or push it away. His nose touches mine a tiny smile slips onto his lips making me smile in return.

I hear a door open and I immediately push him away with force. He gives me a confused look before his eyes look past me and his eyes widen. "Lillian...run." He tells me lowly before leaping out of the pool, his heavy shorts dripping as I follow him.

My heart stutters and beats hard when I see a short plump man step outside with a scowl. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!"

"Dakota." I squeak, reaching up for him to grab my hand and pull me up. He squeezes my hand and pulls me out of the fenced area and sprints through the yard.

Just as we make it to the Jeep, I hear the front door open and my eyes widen with fear. "Start the car!" I screech, slapping Dakota's arm as he shoves he keys into the ignition, his hands fumbling with the keys.

"Okay okay!" He says.

Mr. Wilder begins running down the driveway, shaking his fist as we drive away soaked to the bone. The air is cold against my wet skin but I barely notice it as I laugh victoriously, feeling like I could take on the world. Who knew such a small thing could give you such a huge adrenaline rush?

"That was close." I laugh, leaning back in the seat.

"Yeah." He looks over at me with a smirk, "It was."