Tinder - D.JH.

twenty-three

     After finally building a fort, watching some random scary movie, inevitably finding it, in Andrea's words, 'totally not scary,' we fall asleep before we're even one fourth of the way through.

     At some point, there's a big jumpscare with lots of screaming and noise. I wake up with a start, gasping as I sit up.

Sighing, I reach for the remote and turn the telly off. "Scared, Maya?" I hear a sleepy Dan ask.

Acknowledging his Harry Potter reference, I whisper back, "You wish."

"Andrea, are you up, too?" I ask her.

I'm answered by silence. That woman can sleep through a house fire.

"Oof." I huff, sitting back down on my butt with my legs stretched out in front of me.

After a few moments, I feel Dan's arms wrap around my waist from behind me. There, he buries his nose in my neck and sighs sleepily.

"Thank you for giving me the true teenaged girl slumber party experience." he mutters.

"It was my pleasure, babe." I let the pet name slip out as I sit in the dark with my boy, my eyes pressed closed.

"Not gonna lie, my heart is normally all, 'womp womp woosh', but you just made it go, "womp-woosh-zoom-nyoom-boom-boom." he says quickly, topping it all off with some explosion noises.

"I know how you feel." I say, suppressing a giggle.

"Then you're just as sleep deprived as me." Dan says, not once removing his face from the space in the curve of my neck. "Can we cuddle?" he asks.

"Never ever ask me to cuddle again." I say.

"Oh, I'm s—," Dan says but I cut him off.

"Like, don't even ask. Just pick up my whole ass body and place it next to you and wrap your whole ass body around mine. I'm always up for a good motherfucking cuddle." I explain.

Dan laughs as he does what I say and pulls me with him to lay down so that he's on his back, his right hand lazily playing with my hair. I'm on his right side on my stomach, my right leg over his. My hand is wrapped at the side of his waist and my head is pressed against his heart, listening to the beat.

"Maya?" he asks.

"Yes?" I answer.

"This is good. You're good for me and you're also good to me. Not a lot of people in this world have been good to me. I barely talk to my parents anymore. They tell my brother lies in order to get him not to want to talk to me. It works. The only person who really took me in and cared for me was Phil. He's like a big brother figure to me, even though I'd never give him the satisfaction to know that. He's always protective and careful over me. Then you came along. You and your friends. They've all made me feel welcomed, but it's mostly you, Maya. You're beautiful to me, inside and out. It blows my mind that we're together. I never fully realized how good someone can be until I met you. I'm so glad I almost got sued by some guy off Tinder, or else I maybe wouldn't have met you. I don't know where I'd be without you. Believe it or not, I was going through a rough patch before I met you. A real rough patch. I was struggling to find myself and my personality and how I've generally grown as a person instead of my branding on the internet. I felt really trapped. But seeing you be so carefree and helpful, it's really helped me accept myself for who I am rather than who people want me to be. Thank you, Maya." Dan says, almost tearing up at some parts.

I sit and listen to it all, gladly. Dan has been through so much, and I know this is only a scrap amount of it. It pains me to know that he's even been through as much as he told me tonight, but it also makes my feelings about him more fierce. I need to protect him. I want to give him the world.

"Dan. I'm not very good with words but I want you to know that I'll always be here for you. I love having you in my life and it'd be so empty and dull without you. You truly are amazing, and even the people who've been hurting you know that. They're just fucking idiots, to put it frankly. I will protect you with everything I have in me because you don't deserve even an ounce of that hurt." I say.

"Thank you, Maya." he just repeats.

"Thank you, too, Dan." I say.

Soon, we both drift off to sleep.