With You┃Dylan O'Brien ⓵

Chapter One : Welcome to the Warmth

"I told you your money was going towards a good cause," I smile at her comment.

She laughs and sets the box on the coffee table, "We have a lot to get done today, you know."

"Yeah, I know. That's the only reason I would wake up at this time on a Saturday. Did dad already head down to the fields?"

"Sure did. Just a few minutes before you came down."

"We should be on our way then too, don't you think?"

My mom turns her brown eyes to the clock; it's nearly eleven.

She then nods at me, "Go ahead and take my car keys. I just have to get my things and I'll be there."

"Okay!" I exclaim before grabbing my own purse and taking her keys down from the hooks in the entryway.

All three of our cars are very different. My mom drives a small, white, four-door Fiat; My dad drives a gigantic black Chevy truck. As for me, I am now lucky enough to drive a brand new, black Range Rover. Our second day here, my parents surprised me with it as a late seventeenth birthday present which I cried about because of how happy and grateful I was. Apparently they wanted me to be able to get to school easily but warned me not to abuse my privileges.

It's not like they had to worry, though. I'm not a trouble-maker; I hardly get into trouble, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

I turn the key to start mom's Fiat and wait patiently for her to come outside. Passing the time by looking for the good radio stations in California, I finally see her walking down the front stairs. She climbs in the driver's seat and adjusts the mirrors, then pulls her sunglasses off the top of her long blonde hair and down to rest on her nose. We pull out of the driveway and onto the long gravelly road ahead.

It takes us an entire three minutes just to get off of our property and we begin to pass a lot of other pretty houses. My mom uses the GPS on her phone to get to the studio we're looking for. She's a photographer, and has been looking at a new studio to buy for her business.

She has had her eye on this one and we're going to look at it in person together. My mother came down to Cali about a month ago to look at it herself and she loved it. Today, we will probably seal the deal.

We pull up to our destination and just from the outside, I'm able to tell how lovely the studio is. A man clad in an all black suit and blue tie meets us at the doors with a large smile on his face. I smile back at him as he shakes mother's hand and introduces himself.

"Mrs. Burns!" he has a smooth voice. "Lovely to meet you again!"

"It's a pleasure," my mom grins back at him. "This is my daughter, Anita​."

"Nice to meet you, Anita! Hank Roscoe," he shakes my hand firmly. "Shall we step inside?"

"By all means."

It's easy to see how ecstatic my mother is about this.

Mister Roscoe takes us on a tour of the open, rather large studio. It's even more fabulous than it appeared in the pictures online, and from the smile on my mother's face I can tell she's thinking the same thing. She tells me about the things she pictures herself doing with different areas of the studio and I smile at her side, imagining with her.

"So what do you think?" Mister Roscoe asks with a grand gesture of his large hands.

"I'm in love with it!" My mother exclaims. "Even more than before!"

He smiles then turns to me, "How do you like it?"

"I think it's amazing," I nod. "Not that my opinion really matters."