Outside

36

Van laced his fingers with mine as we walked toward his car, I didn't question where he was taking me this time, mainly because I knew he wouldn't answer, but also because I was beginning to enjoy these spontaneous trips he always planned for us.

Van and I only saw each other a few times a week now, we were both so busy with our lives that we lost time for each other. It wasn't so bad though, because when we did see each other again, we made the most of our time by going somewhere completely random.

He shoved his keys into the ignition and looked over at me, "you're gonna love this one" he said, winking before he turned back to face the front as he drove us away.

"Oh yeah, Why's that?" I challenge, knowing he won't answer me completely but he'll most likely give me a hint.

"Because I just know you will" he doesn't hint to me at all, just said the same thing he says every other time I ask.

I rest my head on the seat and look out of the window and Van puts his music on. He keeps glancing at me from time to time, checking to see if I've caught on to his mystery, which I definitely haven't in the slightest. I keep glancing at him from time to time just to feel my stomach do front flips and my heart melt. He really is so beautiful.
You don't realise how amazing your life is until you look at Van Mccann sat beside you in his car, you don't realise how lucky you are until you introduce him to people as your boyfriend, until you're able to call him up every time you miss him, just to get an earful of reasons why he loves you more than life itself. It truly is the best feeling in the world.

"Stop staring, I can feel your eyes on me and it's distracting" Van laughs, catching me out. I didn't even realise I was still looking at him, I guess that's just the effect he has, once you find one reason to stare at him, you find a million more and you lose yourself in his eyes, in his beautiful features.... And then you get caught and you blush, shyly turning away because he now knows how deeply in love you are with him.

"Sorry" I laugh in response.

"You're so gorgeous, did you know that?" He speaks my thoughts, except he aims them at me and I blush even harder, my cheeks turning an even darker shade of red.

I look at him and smile, appreciating the compliment, nobody ever said anything like that to me before, it was so rare to hear someone compliment me or even say anything nice to me at all. I hadn't experienced it in so long I forgot how to even respond, so I just smiled and hoped he realised how much I loved him in that moment.

"You are too" I replied after a few minutes, I didn't know what to say at first but I came to the realisation that he deserves to know that I feel the same about him. I look at him and think he's beautiful, he's so so perfect.

He blushes the same way I did, but focuses on the road so I can't tell that his cheeks have turned the same red, and lips are twitching into a wide smile.

Tiredness washes over me as I listen to the mellow music, as I listen to the sound of Van humming along to it and the sound of the rain patting the window. I had a lot of sleep the night before because Van firmly told me to go to sleep early for the long trip. I didn't question him on it, I just did what he told me to do, due to the fact I didn't want to be sitting in his car all sleepy, about to shut my eyes and fall into a deep slumber... Which is exactly what I'm doing now.

"Hey, baby what did I say yesterday?" Van looks over at me, noticing that I'm on the verge of falling asleep, "as cute as you are when you're sleeping, I really could do with you not doing it right now... Okay?"

"Okay fine, sorry" I take my head away from the window and swivel my body so that I'm sort of facing him, he looks at me with confusion, "let's play a game"