As I’m dragging my luggage towards my car, realizing I packed way too much for an overnight trip, I’m kind of regretting not letting Wyatt meet me at my place since I know he would have carried it for me in a heartbeat. On the other hand it’s worth it to be able to see where he lives, since I’ve never been to his house. Wyatt lives at home with his family, quite far from campus, since it’s too expensive for him to move closer alone and his particular scholarship didn’t include accommodation at a dorm or the like. Although I’m about to go pick him up at his house, it's not like an official meet the family type of situation, since both his parents are at work and his younger siblings are at school. I’m actually not sure if his parents even know he’s dating anyone, mine sure don’t know yet. 

I finally manage to get all my bags in the car. I hope everyone else packed light or it’ll be an uncomfortable ride since there isn’t much space left now. Oops. I get in the car, connect my playlist and crank up the volume. I made the perfect road trip playlist so I sing along by myself, feeling great. It takes longer to drive to Wyatt’s place than I thought it would, I mean I knew he didn’t live super close to campus, but I didn’t realize how far away he lived. And to think that he comes by my place everyday when it must take him even longer to get there by public transport than it takes by car. I feel even more appreciative that he does that now that I know. 

I’m turning in on Wyatt’s street and the GPS announces I’ve reached my destination. I turn down the music as I scan the street and park the car by the curb. It’s not so bad, it’s not a horrible part of town, but it doesn’t look like anywhere I’ve ever lived. The houses are small and dull, showing a bit of wear and tear, but the street is clean and calm. I spot Wyatt coming out, walking towards my car with just a backpack as his luggage. I thought he might show me around his house, but I guess not as he gets to my car before I can even get out to meet him. 

“Hi, thanks for picking me up.”, Wyatt says as he gets in and leans over to give me a kiss. 

“Of course.”, I say and kiss him back. “You don’t want to put your backpack in the trunk?”, I ask before I remember the trunk is full.

“No, it’s fine like this.”, Wyatt says to my relief as he puts his backpack by his feet. 

“I thought you might give me a tour of your house, but it seems like you’re in a hurry to leave.”, I point out, slightly amused, as he’s already put his seatbelt on. 

“Oh… yeah, right.”, Wyatt doesn’t look too thrilled, he seems a bit embarrassed. “There’s not much to see, though, but if you really want to we can still go?”, he suggests.

“Since I was already a bit late picking you up, maybe just a really quick tour?”, I suggest, thinking maybe the pressure will be lessened for him if I don’t stay for too long at his house. 

“Okay, let’s go.”

It really is just a quick tour and as he said, there really isn’t much to see as he shares a room with his little brother, so everyone doesn’t even have their own rooms. It never even occurred to me that some people don’t have a room to themselves. I’ve only ever shared a room when I’ve slept over at Eve’s house and that was out of choice not necessity. I am an only child so I never really had to think about it. Of course, I’ve also never lived anywhere that didn’t have at least a few guest rooms or a guest house, so running out of rooms has never been a thing in my life. 

I don’t have a lot of time to comment on anything as Wyatt rushes us through the tour, but I make sure to find details about each space that I genuinely like as I think it would make him feel even more uncomfortable if I forced myself to give compliments that I didn’t mean. I can see him visibly relax and slow down a bit when he sees that I’m genuinely appreciative of being let into his home and that I’m not trying too hard with fake reactions. 

“Aww, you were such a cute kid!”, I say as I look at a family photo they have framed on the wall. In the picture Wyatt is smiling brightly, dimples out in full force, as his little brother clings to him and his mother looks at them adoringly, hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. His dad is holding what looks like his new born twin sisters, one baby on each arm. The same dimples that Wyatt has are on his father’s face, it’s easy to imagine that Wyatt will look like him when he gets to that age. I’m smiling while looking at the picture, but I also feel a twinge in my heart, knowing all my family photos were taken by professionals, with fake smiles and parents that felt more like strangers than family. There’s so much love in Wyatt’s family photo, it radiates a warmth, that same warmth that I always feel from Wyatt and now I know where he gets it from. 

After the house tour we get back on the road. I pick up Camilla next, who unfortunately brought quite a bit of luggage, so it’s a thigh squeeze when we make our last stop at Noah’s place, who thankfully only brought one bag. I should have taken one of our bigger cars, but that would have required me to go home to my parents, which I wanted to avoid. Fortunately, my friends don’t seem to mind and we have fun singing along to my road trip playlist and talking about what we want to do on the trip.