Virtually in Love

by A. Destiny

  “No way,” I assured him, twirling him carefully out of the way as Kaz and Shani boogied past. “He won’t mind at all. You’re doing him a big favor, actually.”

  “I am?”

  “Yeah. See, Trevor lives really far away. Like, three hours drive at least.”

  “Huh?” Aidan exclaimed. “What are you talking about? How can he be your boyfriend if he’s way far away like that?”

  His voice was louder, and his eyes were bright and curious. Yay! Apparently, Vanessa wasn’t the only one who could bring a shy kid out of his shell.

  “Trevor and I met at music camp when we were just a little older than you,” I told him. “We bonded over our love of music.”

  I smiled at the familiar memory. Back then Trevor had been a violinist. He was first chair in his school orchestra and had even gotten to play at the governor’s mansion once. At camp they encouraged us to try out different instruments. At first Trevor hadn’t been interested, but then one of the counselors offered to help him learn guitar. And the rest, as they say, is history.

  “So he’s been your boyfriend since you were my age?” Aidan asked in amazement, snapping me out of my reminiscing.

  I twirled him around again. The kid was actually a pretty good dancer, even though he was more focused on what I was saying than what our feet were doing.

  “No, definitely not that long,” I said. “We stayed in touch for a little while after camp ended. Trevor’s family lived only about half an hour away then, so we even got together a couple of times. But then his family moved out of state, and we lost touch.”

  “Oh.” He looked confused. “But he’s your boyfriend now?”

  “Yeah, we found each other online a few months ago.” Once again I couldn’t help drifting into the familiar but still delicious memories of that day. “True Romance” had just hit number one on the charts, and I was on my favorite music message board talking about it when one of the other members—one I’d chatted with lots of times about other cool bands—said he was a guitarist whose band had done a cover of the song. He posted a video link, and when I played it, I recognized the guitarist immediately. It was Trevor! He was taller than the last time I’d seen him, of course, and much cuter, with floppy dark hair and contact lenses instead of the wire-rimmed glasses he used to wear. But the delicate fingers, his sharp little chin, those intense green eyes—I would have known him anywhere. As soon as he knew it was me, it was as if camp had ended five minutes ago instead of five years.

  We’d been flirting nonstop ever since. At least I guess that’s what it was. I didn’t have much experience with flirting, given that I’d never even gone on a real date before. Not unless you count dressing up in tuxedos and ball gowns with Kaz and Vanessa for all the school dances and going as a threesome. Which I totally don’t.

  But I’m not shy, and I got the hang of the flirting thing quickly. Before long Trevor and I were texting daily and talking on the phone at least a couple of times per week. It wasn’t long after that when my friends started calling him my almost-boyfriend and agreeing that the way we’d reconnected was the most romantic thing ever.

  It had been a few months now, and things between us were hotter than ever. I mean, we were pretty much living out the lyrics to “True Romance”—at least the first verse, which starts with:

  You meet cute, and the sparks fly.

  You know you just met your dream girl or guy . . . .

  Pretty much us, right?

  Although when I thought about it, we’d never really talked about exactly what we had going. Friendship? Or true romance? I definitely knew which way I was leaning, and I was pretty sure Trevor felt the same way, but neither of us had ever brought it up. Which made me wonder: Was that what he wanted to tell me—what he was hinting at in that text? That he wanted us to be, you know, boyfriend-girlfriend? If only I’d thought to ask him when he’d called at the diner earlier . . .

  “Ouch!” I blurted out as I felt someone poke me in the shoulder.

  It was Vanessa. “Who’s your friend?” she asked, smiling at Aidan.

  “I’m not telling you,” I said, clutching Aidan’s hands more tightly. “He’s all mine!”

  That made the little boy giggle, which made my heart happy. He wasn’t turning out to be such a tough case after all.

  “I’m Aidan,” he told Vanessa. “I like your hair—it’s pretty.”

  “Why, thank you!” she said, touching her blond bangs. “I like your hair too. Will you dance with me?”

  Aidan shot me a slightly worried look. “Um . . .”

  “Go ahead,” I told him with a smile. “I need a drink of water anyway. But hey, maybe we can jam together later when we switch over to music, okay?”

  “Sure.” He grinned at me and then turned back to Vanessa.

  I winked at her over his head as they started to dance. Then I wandered off, looking for any other kids who might need a partner. As I passed Kaz, he broke away from Shani.

  “Be right back, okay?” he told her. “I just want to talk to Chloe for a sec.”

  He grabbed my arm and steered me to a corner of the room, away from the others. “Everything okay?” he asked when we were more or less alone.

  “Sure.” I shrugged. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “No reason.” He hesitated, cocking his head and looking at me kind of oddly. “It’s just, you—um, before. Why’d you kiss me like that?”

  “Why not?” It wasn’t as if I’d never kissed him before. We’d traded hand kisses and cheek kisses and even one hilarious elbow kiss for various silly photo ops. We’d even kissed on the lips once when we were around five, just to see what it was like. At the time, our conclusion had been that it was weird and kind of icky.

  None of those kisses had been awkward at all. But suddenly this one was, at least after the fact.

  “Okay,” Kaz said, looking uncomfortable. “I just thought I’d ask, you know, in case you—”

  The buzz of my cell phone interrupted him. It was Trevor’s text tone.

  Kaz recognized it too. “Mr. Wonderful,” he murmured. “You’d better get that.”

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t so sure. What was going on here between me and Kaz? What had he been about to say? Still, I couldn’t resist glancing down at the text.

  U around later? Big news!!!

  I felt a shiver of curiosity—was he finally going to spill that secret he’d mentioned? When I glanced up again, all I saw was Kaz’s back as he danced away from me.

  Oh well. Whatever was up with Kaz, I could figure it out later. I quickly texted Trevor back, then hurried over to join Vanessa, who was dancing with Aidan in a circle with three giggling little girls.

  Chapter Three

  “No phone at the table, Chloe,” my mom said.

  I glanced up sharply, my hand freezing halfway to my phone. I swear, the woman has ears like a bat. Or whatever animal can hear a pin drop from a mile away—or a phone vibrate on a daughter’s lap at the dinner table.

  My younger brother, Timothy, smirked at me through a mouthful of peas. “She can’t help it, Mom,” he said in his snottiest voice. “All teenagers are, like, addicted to their phones.”

  “Just wait,” I told him. “Your turn’s coming. Only a year to go until you’re a teenager too.”

  “And we can’t wait,” my dad said dryly.

  As my mom glanced at him with a chuckle, I sneaked a quick peek at the phone screen. It was Trevor, just as I’d expected.

  “May I be excused, please?” I blurted out.

  Dad raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

  “I think that’s a yes?” I said hopefully.

  Mom shook her head. “You know the rules, Chloe.” She reached for another helping of fish. “It’s your turn to clear tonight. That means no phone or computer until the dishwasher is full and running.”

  “But, Mom—” I began.

  “Enough, Chloe,” she cut me off. “Whatever dire emergency is brewing in teen
land, it will just have to wait.”

  I gritted my teeth, wanting to argue further but resisting the urge. I was dying to hear Trevor’s voice. I mean, sure, I’d talked to him at the diner earlier. But that hardly counted.

  It seemed like a million years later when the last plate was scraped and tucked into its slot in the dishwasher and I was finally able to escape to my room. As the door swung shut behind me, I was already calling Trevor.

  “Hey, Chloe,” he answered on the second ring. “What’s up?”

  I smiled and sank onto the bed. “Hey,” I said. “Sorry I couldn’t answer before—parents, dinner table, you know.”

  “Yeah.” He sounded a little distracted. “But listen, huge news!”

  “What?” I leaned back against the soft bulk of my favorite stuffed animal, Gordo the wonder pig, wondering if this was it—the moment Trevor would tell me I was the girl for him. Sort of like that line from “True Romance”—When you know it’s right, it’s time to declare / Make it a memory you two will always share . . . .

  I was so distracted by humming the rest of the verse in my head that I almost missed what he said next: “We’ve got a lead on the Scene!”

  Sitting up, I blinked, momentarily picturing Trevor staring at a landscape painting in a museum. “Um, the Scene?” I echoed.

  “That under-twenty-one club near here?” he said. “I told you about it, remember?”

  Oh right. Now I did. “Sure, the Scene,” I said. “What do you mean, a lead?”

  “Zach was talking to this girl who works at his dentist’s office or something, and she told him her cousin’s friend knows a guy who takes tickets at the Scene on weekends.”

  He was talking kind of fast, and I wasn’t sure I totally followed. But whatever. The point was, he sounded happy. “That’s great,” I said. “So you think this dentist chick or whoever can get you some shows at the club?”

  “Fingers crossed. If we got a couple of gigs there, it could really open things up for us.”

  He sounded so excited that it made me smile. Well, smile even harder than I already was just from talking to him. He took his band superseriously, and I just knew they were destined for the big time. Which was awesome. I mean, how cool would it be—me, the girlfriend of a rock god? Especially one as sweet as Trevor?

  “I’m sure you’ll get those gigs,” I told him. “You guys are amazing, and soon the whole world will know it.”

  “Thanks.” I could almost hear him grinning through the phone. “You’re amazing too, Chloe.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I twirled a curl around my finger. “It’s a gift.”

  He chuckled. “Anyway, I should probably go. I just wanted to share the big news in person.”

  “What? You can’t go yet.” I’d sunk back against Gordo again, but now I shot upright. “We barely got a chance to talk! And listen, I was going to tell you about this new kid who came to the meeting, and—”

  “Sorry, babe,” he cut me off apologetically. “I’m not even supposed to be on the phone right now. My mom and stepdad have really been riding me about my grades lately, and I have a big bio test coming up tomorrow. If I blow it, they’ll ground me from rehearsals, and that’s not going to happen.”

  “Totally,” I said with a sigh. “I understand. My parents are completely ridic like that about grades and stuff too.”

  “Yeah. Text you tomorrow?”

  “Definitely. Good luck on the test.”

  “Thanks.”

  As I hung up, I sighed loudly, wishing he’d been able to talk longer. It wasn’t until I set my phone down that I realized once again he hadn’t even mentioned his big secret. At least I didn’t think he had.

  “Maybe that was it?” I murmured.

  But no, his bandmate had just gone to the dentist that afternoon—after Trevor had texted me that first tantalizing hint. So what was it he’d wanted to tell me, and why hadn’t he told me yet?

  I picked up the phone, tempted to text him about it. But I held back, not wanting to distract him from his studying. Even future rock gods had to make decent grades, right?

  Or not. But Trevor cared about stuff like that, which was just one more thing to love about him. I grabbed Gordo and hugged him. “I mean, it shows Trev’s not just gorgeous and talented,” I mumbled into the stuffed pig’s squishy pink belly. “He’s supersmart and responsible, too. Basically, the perfect boyfriend.” I paused. “Or almost-boyfriend. Whatever.”

  Gordo didn’t have much to say, so I tossed him back by my pillows and hopped to my feet. Grabbing my phone again, I plugged it into the tiny set of speakers on my desk and turned on the music app. Trevor had sent me a demo of his band playing “True Romance” a while back, which I’d listened to about a million times since. And I was ready to hear it at least a million more. Setting it on repeat, I flopped back onto my bed and smiled as the familiar first riff rang out.

  When Trevor’s raspy voice came in, I closed my eyes, wondering how I got so lucky. If my parents had never signed me up for that camp, if Trevor hadn’t been there at that same session, if we hadn’t both found that music site . . .

  “But we did,” I murmured. “Because it was fate.”

  That was another line from the bridge of the song—Fate is king / It knows what you need / True love is written in the stars . . . .

  I smiled, waiting for the line to come on. Just as the bridge started, though, my phone rang. Or actually, the song cut out, replaced by the theme from The Twilight Zone: Kaz’s current ringtone.

  “Grr,” I muttered, cursing his timing.

  But I silenced the music app and picked up. “This better be important,” I said. “You just interrupted an awesome daydream.”

  “Okay,” Kaz said uncertainly. “Should I call back later?”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m kidding.” Sort of, anyway. I shifted the phone to my other ear. “What’s up?” For a second I felt nervous, sure he was going to bring up that kiss on the cheek again. Definitely weird. Since when did Kaz make me nervous? Like, ever?

  “I was just thinking about my party,” he said. “I was thinking maybe we should just have, like, a small party at my house.”

  “Really?” I was relieved—and more than a little surprised by what he’d said. Usually Kaz is pretty adventurous, which means we’ve done some wacky stuff for his birthday over the years. “I’m sure we can come up with something more interesting than that.”

  “No, seriously,” he insisted. “It’s what I want. You know—marking the milestone with just my closest friends and family around in a low-key sort of way . . .”

  He did sound serious. I shrugged. “Your wish is our command, I guess. Small, intimate gathering it is. Can we at least dress up for it, though?”

  I could practically hear him grin through the phone. “Is the pope Catholic?”

  “Cool. That’s settled, then.”

  When Kaz says “low-key,” it’s probably not exactly how most people would define that term. More like “only fifty of his closest friends and some really great tunes” rather than “epic blowout.” So, still fun.

  But I wasn’t really thinking about the birthday party anymore. My mind was wandering back to the whole awkward kiss reaction. I didn’t like thinking about that, so I decided it was time to put us back on normal ground before things got any weirder. I twirled a stray curl around my finger. “So, guess who called me earlier?” I said playfully. “During dinner, actually.”

  “The president?” Kaz guessed. “Mick Jagger? The aforementioned pope?”

  “Wrong, wrong, and wrong.”

  “Too bad,” he said. “But hey, if Mick does happen to call, could you get his autograph for me?”

  “Mick who?” I joked, just to annoy him. “But no, seriously, listen. It was Trevor!”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” I shivered, remembering how great it had been to see Trevor’s name pop up on my phone again. “Anyway, he was calling with big news—his band might get to play at this cool und
er-twenty-one club near his town soon. I bet once people start hearing them, they’ll get superfamous.”

  “Okay.” Kaz cleared his throat. “Listen, I should go.”

  Uh-oh. He sounded weird again. Had I really freaked him out this much with that silly kiss?

  “Are you sure?” I said. “I mean, we could do some planning if you want.”

  “Tomorrow, okay?” He sounded more normal now. “I haven’t called Vanessa yet, or Maya, and I want to make sure the gang from the sci-fi club can make it on Saturday . . . .”

  “Oh okay, sure,” I said. “See you at school tomorrow.”

  After I hung up, I stared at the phone in my hand—Kaz’s name still on the screen—feeling troubled. Since when did Kaz react so strongly to me doing something goofy like that impulsive kiss? He hadn’t thought it, you know, meant anything, had he? No way—I was with Trevor. At least, I was pretty sure I was.

  Besides, Kaz and I weren’t like that. We’d never even thought about turning our friendship into something more, even if Maya liked to tease us by calling us Mr. and Mrs. Band Nerd sometimes.

  Trying not to worry about it, I started Trevor’s song again from the beginning. Then I leaned back and closed my eyes, the image of Trevor’s face filling my mind as the familiar notes washed over me again.

  • • •

  “So, I ordered the pizzas last night, and the Aesop’s guy promised to deliver them at eleven tomorrow, which means they should be there by around noon. Maya promised to pick up soda and stuff on her way over.” I ticked off the items on my fingers. “And, Vanessa, you got the napkins, right?”

  “Right,” Vanessa said. “Dad had about a million packages in the basement from his last trip to Costco. Mom practically begged me to take some.”

  Kaz grinned. “I always knew his Costco habit would come in handy someday.”

  It was Friday, and the three of us were in homeroom. Our teacher, Mr. Ortiz, was totally old-school and insisted on seating us in alphabetical order. But thanks to our last names—Aratani, Bell, Bennett—we still ended up sitting together. It had always been that way all through school. We liked to joke it was our own little beginning-of-the-alphabet club. Just one more sign we were destined to be friends.