Dear Lily,

I think I got better and better high school with you helping me than I did throughout the entire rest of my life without you. And I'm not just talking about math. You'd managed to change me from an absolute asshole into a compassionate guy who cared about things beyond himself. Right at the beginning of our senior year, like I promised, I took you out after school. I have to admit that I was beyond nervous. You'd been my friend and wingman through a lot of crappy dates, and I'd helped you through a breakup or two, but I was so scared that this date wouldn't go well, because you were (well, are) my best friend. I didn't want to lose you and the friendship we'd built together over the last year and a half, and I didn't want to mess anything up. I know this sounds super cliché, but you really weren't anything like any other girl I'd ever dated.

"Hey, Dandelion, you ready to go?"

When I didn't get a response, I walked farther into the library, rounding the bookcase to our normal meeting spot. The table was empty with no sign that she'd been there at all. It was weird because Dandelion was always here when I got here after class. For the first time since I'd met her at the end of sophomore year, worry started to well up in my gut. I looked around frantically for anyone I could ask, because I was scared, genuinely scared, for my friend.

"Alex!"

Her breathless call washed relief through me, and I turned to see her running over to me, face red and chest heaving. When she skidded to a halt, she doubled over, hands on her exposed knees. That was how I noticed she was wearing a black pleated skirt. It wasn't the type of thing I'd ever pegged her to wear. She was wearing a grey tank top with Captain America's shield on the front under a denim half-jacket. Red converse I'd never seen before rose up past her ankles.

"New Chucks?"

She nodded. "You got new jeans," she observed.

"How did you know they're new?"

"They still have the size sticker on them, dumbass."

I looked down at my leg, and damn, she was right. Clearing my throat, I peeled off the sticker, crumpled it up, and shoved it into my pocket. "Anyway," I said once she stopped laughing at me. "Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?"

"Somewhere fun with me?"

She smiled brightly, nodding happily. "I don't have anything else to do but sit in the library and read."

"Great," I said, gesturing toward the door with one hand. "After you."

I walked Dandelion out to the school parking lot and unlocked the passenger side door of my truck for her. "Oh, here," I said, reaching over her shoulder, "We can put my guitar in the back," I told her, grabbing the instrument by the neck, gently setting it on the bench seat in the back. She climbed into the truck and I shut the door behind her, going around the front to the driver's side, giving the hood a loving pat as I went by. I hopped into the cab and started the truck, glancing over at Dandelion where she sat picking at a loose string in the seatbelt across her chest. Like she could sense me watching, she tilted her head over and smiled.

I couldn't help but smile back as I put the truck into drive and pulled out of the school parking lot.

"So where are we going?"

"That's on a need to know basis, and right now, sweetheart, you don't need to know."

I could see her tapping her fingers annoyedly against the armrest, and I smirked. Getting under Dandelion's skin was fun.

"What kind of truck is this," she asked. "Or is that classified too?"

"You've got clearance to that. It's a 1990 Ford F-150."

"Where'd you get it?"

"My Grandpa. It was sitting in his shed for years. I used to beg him to let me sit in it and pretend I was driving when I was a kid. When I was fifteen, he and I fixed it back up together so I could learn to drive in it once I got my learner's. I never thought he'd actually leave it to me in his will. I didn't find out until after he passed away two months ago."

"Your Grandpa meant a lot to you, didn't he?"

I nodded sadly, reaching over to the glovebox when we were at a red light. I handed her a small photo album, tapping the cover with my fingers as the light turned green. I didn't have anything sarcastic to say this time. "Those are all my favorite pictures of us."

I could see her flipping through the book in my peripheral vision, but I wasn't paying too much attention to her. I turned down the road leading to the main entrance of the next town's park, stopping the truck and parking under a huge oak tree.

"Dandelion, we're here."

She looked up, her head swiveling around. "Where are we?"

"The park."

"This doesn't look like our park."

"It's not," I said, getting out of the truck and going to open the door for her. "We're in the next town."

"Really," she asked with wide eyes. "I didn't even notice!"

"There were a lot of pictures to look at," I said, looking at the book in her hands. It was open to a picture of me leaning against the hood of my truck with my arms crossed, all cool and stuff. I've got my beanie off, and strands of dark brown hair are sticking off my head like I'd pulled the hat off just for the picture and hadn't bothered to brush it. My eyes were shining, the smile on my face reaching them. I was so proud. That picture was taken the day Grandpa and I had finished fixing the truck, and I knew that on the back he'd written, "Alexander, I am so proud of you. You'll go far one day, my boy. Never stop shining like the star you are."

"What?"

I looked at Dandelion, who was looking up at me with her head tilted to the side and one eyebrow raised. I don't know how she does that.

"What do you mean, 'what'?"

"You mumbled something. I didn't catch it."

"Oh," I said, not realizing I'd said it loud. "It was nothing. Come on, let's walk around some."

"Okay," she said after a moment. She put the book carefully back into the glove box, shut the door, and together we started off on the first date of many

                                                                                  *~*~*~*~*~*

I took her to get ice cream in that park a bunch of times throughout our senior year of high school, and I learned a lot about her every time we went. She loved dogs, and I couldn't wait to introduce her to mine. Her favorite color was green, dark green, she told me, like my eyes. She liked DC comics, but Marvel was her favorite, and Captain America was her hero.

"He's a lot of people's hero, babe," I told her one evening as we walked along the path winding along the river in the park. Dandelion had her fingers laced in mine, and we were looking for a place to sit down to watch the sunset.

"Hey," she said after a while, "I'm going to run to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

I nodded, because I couldn't come up with a verbal response. I stood under a tree for about fifteen minutes, waiting for her to come back. I spent the time scrolling through stuff on my phone and texting my mom to tell her I wouldn't be home until late.

I'd only just pressed 'send' when I found myself on the ground, pinned by a cheekily grinning Dandelion who had jumped on me from the tree branch above my head. After the initial surprise of suddenly being in grass had subsided, I started to laugh. I laughed harder than I had in ages, probably even the hardest I'd laughed since Grandpa died. Dandelion laughed too, laying her head down on my chest, her legs tucked together under her. I pressed a loving kiss to her forehead, resigning myself to watch the sunset from under a tree and my girlfriend.

"Alex?"

I looked down at the top of her head, since that was all I could see, and made a noise of acknowledgement.

"I love you," she said for the very first time as the sun turned the sky a thousand different colors, my heart exploding into a thousand different colors with it.

I tilted her face up and kissed her lips softly, lacing our hands together again as we laid there in complete bliss.

"I love you too, my Dandelion."