A hand touched my shoulder and I rolled over slightly, opening my eyes and looking up into my grandmother's face. "I'm going for a walk," she said. She gave me instructions for breakfast and left me to lie in my bed. The sunshine was flooding through the open blinds and bathing me in its warmth, laying itself down in bright shapes on the carpet and the sheets wrapped around my body. I squirmed and stretched and sighed contentedly, turning the previous night over in my mind. I asked myself if perhaps there wasn't some other guest here and maybe it had all been a dream. Was he really here, sleeping soundly only a hallway away? I sat up and swung my feet over the side of the bed, blinking and stretching and then sitting for a moment, staring out the window and into the quiet street. It must have been real. I stood and up and crept quietly down the hall, with an excitement in my heart like a child on Christmas morning. I knew what I was going to be given because I'd been begging for it for so long and yet the thrill of opening it filled my heart to burst. I quietly opened the door to the den a bit and crept through it, standing in the doorway for a moment to look at him. His eyes were closed so delicately, simple and quiet without his glasses, and his face was peaceful and serene and, best of all, completely real. I stood there for a moment, in heaven just staring at him and smiling softly and loving him very, very much. Finally, I woke myself from my dreamy gaze and plopped down on the bed next to him, leaning over him and planting a kiss on his cheek. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled at me.

"Good morning, sunshine," I said, smiling. The words were so delicious on my tongue after almost six months of writing them every morning that to say them to his own ears filled me with endless joy. He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me down to him. We shared a real kiss and then I pulled him up and into the kitchen. His mom joined us shortly.

My grandma had left frozen waffles on the counter with some butter, syrup, and peaches. I attempted to cook them in the toaster, at which point they not only burned, but got stuck in the toaster, too. I picked them out with a fork and we ate them anyway. They didn't taste quite as burned as they looked. We sat at the table for a while, sharing scattered conversation. I was a little uncomfortable with his mom because I didn't know her all that well and I had very mixed feelings about her, finding myself unsure of what to say. I didn't have to say too much, however, because our conversation led to her expressing her feelings quite articulately about our relationship and her opinion on the practicality of it. I understood where she was coming from, seeing as it was certainly not the first time I'd heard the same views expressed to me, and I listened without argument. But I felt this icky feeling in my stomach, as if someone were trying to take my Christmas present back to the store. I looked over at Matt, at his perfect face and his lovely eyes and his mussed-up hair, feeling a sudden strength blossom out of that teeny voice in my mind that suddenly seemed to yell out to me that there was no way anyone or anything could ever take him away from me or make me give him back. With that strength inside of me, I let the icky feeling slowly fade. Looking at him was enough to make me strong again.

I cleared the plates and put the waffles away. My grandma arrived home again shortly afterward and I called my mom to make plans for the day. We decided that she would take Matt's mom to Old Folsom to shop for the day and we would go to the Fourth of July carnival at Hagan Park and we'd have dinner at my mom's house after. We got dressed and sat on the couch in the den while we waited for them. I slid under his arm and pulled my knees up to my chest, cuddling up to him and frequently looking up to kiss him. I had never been so content in my life.

My mom arrived, I grabbed my bag, and we got into the car. Matt sat in the middle so he could put his arm again. Mike was cracking frequent jokes about how much noise we made when we kissed and I would have smacked him upside the head if I could have reached and if I'd thought he would have even felt it through that thick skull of his. My mom dropped us off at Cordova and we walked across the front to the park. We wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to decide what to do, and finally got roped into one of those dumb carnival games. Matt played at first and lost quite badly, with me giggling at him the whole time. "You're laughing at him, why don't you try?" the woman at the booth said, seeing an opportunity to take more of his money. So I played and did a bit better, but still lost and we laughed at our defeat, wandering through the carnival without really stopping for anything else. We sat in front of a tree by the baseball field and talked for a while, snapping a couple pictures at the same time. A ladybug tried to eat Matt, at which point we decided it might be a good time to run away.

We got up and started to walk, hand-in-hand, towards Cordova so I could show Matt the school. He took a phone call and I threw in some pointless commentary to annoy him, but it didn't really seem to work. We walked around campus for a while and I showed him my classrooms and the places where Kat and I usually sat at lunch. Then, we sat down by the pond in Hagan Park and I pulled out my water bottle, offering him some. He took a long swallow of it, his arms at his side and his stomach an open target, so I, of course, shot out my hand and tickled his stomach. He giggled and almost choked and I continued to tickle him because he's really awful at defending himself. My water bottle was in need of refilling, so we went back on campus and filled it up, wandering around there for a while. We did many silly things, like skipping up and down the amphitheatre steps hand-in-hand and trying to stop in every spot in campus just to kiss so we could make the whole school a monument of luvvvv. We began to talk about the future and about marriage. "Well, don't you kind of have to propose to me first?" I teased. So we stopped walking and he got down on one knee and asked me if I'd marry him someday and I said of course and we kissed and it was perfect.

Many times while we were talking, I'd get mockingly offended at something he said (as I do to people a lot) and turn my head away, going "whatever." "Don't you whatever me!" he'd say like an angry husband and I'd continue to "whatever" him until he grabbed me and kissed me and I was too busy laughing to pretend to be mad. So it became a little tradition and if I wanted him to kiss me, I'd just say "whatever" to something he said. At one point, he told me I was better than every other girl in the universe and I kissed him and he began to say it just to get me to kiss him and it got to the point where I was interrupting his sentences. He did the same to me and it became a little meme we carried on throughout the week.

Finally, my mom picked us up. I didn't realize how it would feel to have him in my house. I'd spent months in this tiny apartment, picturing him there and dreaming him there, and now he really was there, in my very own home, standing in my very own bedroom, sitting on my very own bed. I almost couldn't bring myself to move, so caught was I in the shock of beautiful reality. But my mom needed ice, so we walked to the corner store (the one I have lovingly dubbed "The Kwik-E-Mart") and got some ice. Matt also bought us a Diet Coke, though we arrived home only to discover that Mike had bought some. We decided to save it for later. Holly came home shortly and I introduced the two of them. They got along very well and Holly invited us to come to the park and see the fireworks later under her watch if my mom would allow us. She then hopped off to the park again. We had tacos and Mike, overjoyed to discover that Matt liked onions, gave him half of one to eat. He was caught in quite a dilemma because he wanted to eat it but I told him there was no way in hell I'd kiss him if he ate it. Finally, however, I gave in and told him to eat the onion and I'd get over his breath. He couldn't finish his half and Mike gave him quite a bout of teasing over his manliness. It was all in good fun, however, and I simply smacked Mike later for being such a butt. When we were finished, Matt and I went into my room to edit and upload the pictures we had so far. I was so excited to show everyone proof that we really were together and how happy I was. My mom came in and we discussed the fireworks idea. She agreed to take Matt's mom back to my grandma's house and then take us back there afterwards.

My mom dropped us off in the back of Cordova and Holly and Daniel met us. We walked into the park and Holly told us we could walk around the park by ourselves for a while so long as we came back eventually. She suggested that we get on the ferris wheel when the fireworks started, as she had the done the same the night before and they looked best from up there. We bought some tickets for it and then walked around, waiting for the fireworks to start. We walked down the road on the side of the park and attempted to dance, which failed badly, and Matt also attempted to pick me up, which also failed badly. It was a little dark and we stopped to kiss by a tree, when a pair of bicycle stopped to question us as to where our parents were etc. etc. We assured them that we were in no kind of trouble and told them our little story and they were overcome by the sweetness of it all. They started talking about their teenage love lives and one of them said he didn't have a girlfriend until he was nineteen and we were so young. Finally, they told us we were cute and let us go, telling us to just leave the trees alone.

The fireworks started and we ran to the ferris wheel. I told Matt that, even though it wasn't a super big wheel, I was a little nervous about getting on it because I'd never been on one before. He promised he'd hold my hand the whole time, so I got on. We stopped at the top and I gripped his hand tightly, gazing at the fireworks throwing sprinkles of color into the sky. I looked from the colors to his face and found something far beautiful and couldn't help but lean over and kiss him. "I love you," I said, grinning widely and squeezing his hand, looking back up at the fireworks. The night air was warm and empty around me and it swept me up in its arms as the wheel began to move and the air flowed past my bare shoulders. I cannot recall a memory that could ever quite compare to that.

We got off the ferris wheel right as the grand finale of the fireworks was sent up into the sky and, grabbing Matt's hand, giggled and raced backwards and side-to-side, trying to see over the tall trees. We mostly missed it, but I could see the explosions of color and sound coating the sky like a rich blanket through the bushy treetops. We found Holly again and walked to a street corner to wait for my mom. She picked us up and took us back to my grandma's.

The night was growing slightly late, but we were not quite ready for bed, so we went outside and sat down on the driveway. Matt lay back, and I rested my head on his arm. The neighbors were ranting about some sort of car theft or something and were being very, very loud but I blocked them out as I gazed up at the stars and felt the warmth of this wonderful boy beside me. We pointed out one star that was particularly brighter and more beautiful than the rest and I found its glow filling me with a wonderful light and I turned my head to him. "Matt, can that be our star?" And so it was our star.

We went inside and changed into our pajamas. My grandma and his mom were already asleep, so I asked him if I could cuddle with him for a little while before I went to bed. I crawled under the blanket with him and lay my head down happily on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and I realized how safe I felt here. Nothing could ever bring me down from this warmth and happiness. The fountain in the atrium was gurgling gently as the water trickled from the fish's heads, an unsteady, lazy noise that covered up the ticking of the clock in my mind that ticked down to the end of the week. For now, there was no time and no limit to the happiness we could have together. I was safe and free and my joy was boundless.

We lay in silence for a while. "I can hear your heart beating," I said quietly.
"Well, how does it sound?" he asked.
I turned my head to look up at him. "It sounds happy," I said, smiling softly.
"It is, Abbey."

I kissed his heart happily and closed my eyes. Without even realizing it, I began to absently sing, as I often did when I was alone and thinking of him, "Boats and Birds" by Gregory and the Hawk, a song that had been a favorite of ours since I had shared it with him. "If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky," I sang quietly.

"If you'll be my star,
I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me
And come out at night
When I turn jet black
And you show off your light
I live to let you shine."