The New American Dream

Part Four: Amsterdam | Chapter Thirty-Seven

Upstairs, in front of my room, I encountered a problem. In my hurry to leave this morning I had forgotten to take my key card with me, without which I was unable to enter the room. I sighed and knocked loudly on the door, Cassie should have been awake by then.

"Guys, I forgot my—"

"Key card?" Cassie asked with a grin when she opened the door, waving it in front of my face.

"Yeah, that one." I snatched it.

"Good morning," she called with a smile and looked at our intertwined hands.

Dan and I stepped inside of the room, Nate and Jace were still there. We could have just let go of each other's hand but no one had the desire just yet.

"We were actually just about to go look for you, where have you—" Nate started but stopped when he also spotted our hands.

"We've been out and had breakfast at a cute little restaurant, it was lovely," I said, still unable to stop smiling.

Jace and Nate looked at us dumbfounded, only Cassie grinned and turned herself away. "Anything else happened?" she asked with a huge amount of amusement and smugness in her voice.

"Uh, yes. Actually. Might as well let the cat out of the bag," I said and my heartbeat picked up. "Dan and I are dating now." I felt a tingling sensation in my stomach at those words, the thought that this was something that was actually true now and I was able to call Dan my boyfriend excited me and made me feel the happiest I had been in months.

Dan squeezed my hand. "Yeah," he only added.

"Oh well. That's great!" Jace said, awaking from his state of shock. He walked over and patted Dan on the shoulder. "Congrats man,"

I giggled at that. "Boys are so weird.."

"Oh!" Jace said suddenly. It seemed like something had clicked in his mind, like he had just received the missing puzzle piece to unravel this mystery. "That's why you spend so much time together. And why you were outside last night. Damn, sorry for interrupting that, we didn't know."

"Apology accepted," I said with a sigh. "Nate? You haven't said anything yet."

Nate seemed off but shook his head to clear his thoughts. "What is there for me to say? I'm happy as long as you're happy, you know that," he said with a smile.

_____

By the time Cassie and I had gotten properly ready and were down at breakfast the news had already spread to the rest of our friends. I wasn't surprised, boys were even worse when it came to gossiping, at least as far as I had experienced it.

I had by now changed into different clothes and returned Cassie's pants to her. Now I had also had time to do my makeup and hair, I felt more like a proper person again.

I didn't have a problem with my friends knowing about Dan and me, it was inevitable. I only had the problem with the stupid grins they flashed us, or rather me.

"I'm gonna punch them if they keep grinning at me like that," I mumbled to Cassie when we were on our way to the boat for the canal cruise that would be taking place that day. I had only eaten a little bit at breakfast, after all I had already had a huge breakfast earlier that morning.

"While I would love to see that, I think I can't condone this behavior," Cassie snickered. "I think I'd rather you not punch anyone. I'll take care of it," she added and disappeared from my side, now walking between the other boys. I was left with Dan who grabbed my hand, which send a positive shiver up my arm and a warm fuzzy feeling into my stomach.