New Year's Eve of 1939 was an unseasonably hot one. I spent the better part of the day sipping lemonade on the porch. It was hard to believe we were a week or two into winter but it might as well have been summer. Ironic, considering that Dill was able to spend the Christmas holidays in Maycomb that year. Summer was always our time and mother nature seemed to know it. I will always assiociate Dill with warmth and light.

My eyelids had grown heavy by eight that evening. I thought for sure that I would not be able to stay up until midnight. I figured that I would not be missing much anyway. Jem was bringing Dill along to a guys-only high school party and Atticus would surely be off in his own room, reading the night away as a matter of course. With all my reasoning, I waved Dill and Jem goodbye and kissed Atticus goodnight and headed for bed.

I was woken up by the sound of footsteps on the porch. I rolled over to check the clock on my wall and saw that it was only eleven-thirty. Did the boys really come home that early? I swear Jem said it was going to be an all-nighter and sleepover type of deals. I crept out of my room to go greet them at the door. If Atticus had fallen asleep, I wanted him to stay that way so I was being very careful to be quiet.

The first sight I see out the door is a pensive looking Dill swinging gently on our porch swing. He was looking up at the stars with such wonder in his eyes that I couldn't help but smile. He was so cute sometimes, honest to God.

"Mind if I join you?" I ask, getting closer to him.

"Sure," Dill replied, patting the spot next to him on the swing.

"How come you didn't stay with Jem?"

"Football and girls all the time? That ain't my kind of good conversations."

"You can always go to a high school girl party. They talk about dancing and boys!"

"Haha, very funny. I ain't interested in those either."

"Well, what are you interested in?"

"In you."

"Well, I knew that," I say with a shrug. This was going to get a little embarrassing for me. I can feel me getting red in the face.

"No, I mean it. I think you're the only girl I ever really liked."

"C'mon," I say sheeplishly and then give him a punch to the shoulder. "What's so special about me, anyways?"

"You're different. You're real."

Yep, this was starting to get awkward. Not because I didn't like what he was saying, not at all. I was liking it a little too much. It felt so good to hear those things especially coming from Dill. He never stopped loving me and that means the world to me.

"Oh," I say, randomly looking at my watch. "It's midnight..."

I didn't have a chance to finish my sentence before Dill grabbed me by the face and gave me a lip-smacking kiss on the lips. Whoa, talk about liking things too much. Dill and I have shared a lot of kisses but this one was more, deeper I guess. I can only stare at him dumbfounded for a while.

"They say to kiss someone at midnight."

"Well, um, thank you, I guess?"

"You're welcome. I'm going back to bed now."

"Okay, good, I'm tired," I totally lied. There was no way I can go back to bed now. I was way to overstimulated from that New Year's kiss under the stars to shut my eyes. I follow Dill back into the house anyway. Before he reaches Jem's room, he gives me a kiss goodnight and it felt just as good.

"I love you, Dill. Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year. I love you, too, Scout."