Virtually in Love

by A. Destiny

  I stuck my phone into my pocket. “Let’s go.”

  • • •

  By twelve thirty, Kaz’s living room was packed. Pretty much every single person we’d invited had shown up, which should have been surprising, given the last-minute invitations. But for Kaz? No surprise at all, really. People liked him. Enough to change their plans, even.

  I was returning from fetching more napkins from the kitchen when I paused to look around, a little amazed as always at the variety of Kaz’s friends and admirers. The entire sci-fi club had turned out, along with his friends from various other clubs and classes, including the popular president of the sophomore class. Speaking of über-popular people, Maya was over near the punch bowl chatting with a couple of random people. She never traveled without an entourage, and today she’d brought her current boyfriend and a couple of her fellow cheerleaders. And of course at least half the music department was there—that practically went without saying. Kaz was into a lot of stuff, but music was his first love. Just one more reason we got along so well.

  “This is fun.” A kid named Wallace wandered over to me, clutching a plastic cup of punch. “Okay, maybe not as cool as the laser tag party I wanted Kaz to do, but hey.”

  I didn’t bother to explain that Kaz himself had requested a quieter, more low-key party this year. Which this qualified as, at least in Kaz’s world. I dropped the napkins onto the coffee table and smiled at Wallace, sizing him up. He was one of the cuter nerds from the sci-fi club, with adorably messy dark hair and a brain like a calculator. Would he make a suitable dance date for Vanessa? Maybe even turn out to be her Dream Nerd so she could be as happy as Trevor and I were?

  “Yeah, glad you made it,” I said. “So, did you hear about the school dance? Big news, huh?”

  Before Wallace could respond, Kaz’s father stuck his head in from the front hallway. “Everything going all right in here, kids?” he called out.

  “Yeah, great,” I told him as everybody else nodded or saluted him with their plastic cups. “Want some punch, Dr. A?”

  Dr. Aratani smiled, which as always made him look like Kaz’s older, sadder, wearier ghost. “Thanks, but I have to go to the office and take care of some paperwork,” he said. “I know I can trust you kids to behave, hmm?”

  “Sure, Dad.” Kaz pasted a big, fake grin onto his face. “We totally won’t roll out the beer keg until you’ve left the driveway.”

  Dr. Aratani rolled his eyes. “Happy birthday, son.”

  Kaz’s smile faded into something more sincere, if a touch sad. “Thanks, Dad.”

  Dr. Aratani waved to the rest of us and disappeared. I glanced at Kaz, who was still staring at the spot where his father had been.

  “Come on,” I said, linking my arm through his. “Let’s dance. We need to practice for the marathon, right?”

  A few people heard me and cheered, and Maya’s friend Toni actually did a little cheerleadery leap and a fist pump. “Dance marathon, yeah!” she cried.

  Maya’s boyfriend, a stout senior wrestler appropriately nicknamed Tank, hooted at her. “Tone it down, Tonester!” he exclaimed.

  “Leave her alone.” Maya gave him a shove, though the effect resembled a flea shoving a brick wall. “She’s just psyched about the marathon.”

  “We all are,” I said. “It’s going to be a blast. And remember, it was all Kaz’s brilliant idea.”

  “Thank you, thank you.” Kaz swept into a dramatic bow. “But I couldn’t have pulled it together without all the little people who believed in my genius.”

  “We haven’t pulled it together yet, genius boy,” Maya reminded him. She glanced around the room. “Don’t forget there’s another planning meeting tomorrow for the fund-raiser, people. Be there, okay? We have a ton to do and only another week to do it all.”

  “Okay,” one of the trombone players said. “But today we’re supposed to be having fun, remember? Not working on the fund-raiser.”

  “We can do both!” Kaz shimmied his hips. “Come on, everyone—let’s practice our moves!”

  Vanessa laughed and cranked up the music. Kaz started spazzing out on the dance floor, finally leaping over and dragging Maya out to dance with him. She laughed and started grooving, barely seeming worried about her cousin’s limbs flying around and threatening to clock her.

  I grinned, my own foot already tapping to the rhythm. “Come on,” I said, grabbing Vanessa. “Let’s get out there.”

  We must have danced for an hour. At some point, despite my carefully selected playlist, Kaz took over the music. Everyone ended up doing the hokey pokey for a while, then disco dancing, then switching to square dancing when Kaz selected some ancient country-western song. That was fun, but it was nothing compared to trying to keep up with the wacked-out, breakneck rhythm when Kaz dug up a vinyl copy of “Sabre Dance” by Khachaturian—one of our favorite love-to-hate it numbers from the school band. The clarinet part is brutal but also kind of fun.

  Finally, though, my legs were ready to fall off. I stumbled away from the dance floor, leaving everyone else to face Kaz’s next challenge—moonwalking to some old Michael Jackson.

  Vanessa followed me out to the dining room. “This is fun, right?” she said breathlessly.

  I gulped down half a cup of punch before I answered. “Yeah. What else would you expect from a Kazuo Aratani joint?” I shot her a sidelong look. “By the way, what do you think of that guy Wallace?”

  “Why do you ask?” she said cautiously.

  I smiled innocently. “Why do you think?”

  Just then Maya hurried in, her face flushed and her perky ponytail slightly askew. “Hey, ladies,” she said, dipping a cup into the punch bowl. “What are we talking about over here? Any fun gossip?”

  “I was just trying to convince Van she totally needs a hot date for the dance,” I told Maya. “Can you help me talk some sense into her?”

  “Please don’t,” Vanessa protested. “Seriously, Chloe. Just because you’re sort of dating a future rock star and you think everyone needs to be paired up now . . .”

  “Chloe’s dating someone? Hold up—did I miss something?” Maya went all sharp and interested, zeroing in on me like a laser. “Kaz didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend, Chloe.”

  “Sort of.” I pulled out my phone. “His name’s Trevor. Want to see?”

  “Absolutely.” She watched as I scrolled through my photos, and then grabbed the phone when I held it out, studying the picture I’d chosen—one Trevor had sent of him posing with his favorite guitar. “Very nice,” Maya declared after a moment.

  “Thanks.” I watched as she scrolled around, checking out a few other pictures Trevor had sent of himself. “He’s really cool.” I went on to give her the short version of how Trevor and I got together, a little surprised Kaz had never mentioned him to her. He and Maya are pretty close—he has dinner at her house at least once a week.

  When I finished, she returned the phone and picked up her punch again. “Wow, that’s crazy you found each other online.” She paused to take a sip. “I hope Kaz isn’t jealous, though.”

  “What are you talking about? Jealous of what?”

  Maya set her cup down again and shrugged, reaching up to adjust her ponytail. “I guess I just sort of assumed you and Kaz would end up together, Chloe.”

  “Huh?” I shot a look at Vanessa, who looked perplexed. But for some reason I was flashing back yet again to that awkwardness after the kiss. Was I totally sending out the wrong signals somehow, making everyone think I wanted to get all romantic with Kaz? Maybe including Kaz himself? If so, no wonder he’d looked at me like I was crazy! “Kaz and I are just friends, Maya—you know that,” I said firmly. “Best friends, but just friends.”

  “Okay.” She glanced into the living room, where Kaz was the center of attention as he danced on the piano bench. “Still. Best friends turn into more than friends all the time, right?”

  “Not us,” I said quickly.

  But she wasn’t finished. “And you t
wo are perfect together. You get along great, you spend all your time together . . . .” She smiled as Kaz fell off the bench, almost taking Toni’s head off on his way down. Good thing the girl has quick reflexes from all those years of cheering. “You even have the same weird sense of humor.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Part of me wanted to laugh it off, tell her she was nuts. But for some reason, part of me was thinking about it. Kaz, me, together? Would that really work?

  Before I could come up with a coherent response, Tank wandered past and spotted Maya. “Get over here, woman!” he bellowed. “I want to dance!”

  She rolled her eyes. “Keep your pants on, man. I’m coming.” She hurried toward him.

  “That was weird,” I said when she was gone, still not quite ready to let it go. “Why would Maya even think something like that?”

  “I don’t know.” Vanessa took a sip of punch. “But don’t worry about it. I mean, Maya has dated, like, a zillion guys, right?” She watched as Tank spun Maya around out on the dance floor. “She probably isn’t used to having guys as just friends, you know?”

  “You’re probably right.” My gaze shifted from Maya to Kaz, who was wandering toward the dining room. “Too bad for her—she doesn’t know what she’s missing. Am I right?”

  With a sudden rush of fondness, I hurried forward to meet Kaz with a hug. I was being ridiculous to worry about something that was definitely all in Maya’s mind. “Having fun, birthday boy?”

  He hugged me back, then looked down, his brown eyes a bit startled. I gulped, sort of wishing I’d stuck to a high-five or something. Would I ever learn?

  “Um, yeah,” he mumbled. He leaned closer, staring at me with a weird expression on his face.

  My heart thumped as I flashed back to what Maya had just said. What would it be like? It would be so easy right now—all I’d have to do was stand up on my tiptoes, grab his face, pull his lips toward mine . . . .

  I yanked away from him before my crazy little fantasy could go any further, spinning around toward the punch bowl. “Have some punch!” I exclaimed, my voice ringing a little too loudly in my own ears.

  Whoa. I had to get a grip! Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Kaz looked kind of confused now. No wonder—I was acting like a psycho.

  “Sure, thanks, Chloe,” he said. “That’s kind of why I came in here.”

  I laughed, trying to reset my mood from “weirded out” to “normal.” Kaz and I were friends, and that was more than enough. Anything else I’d just been thinking had to come from a combination of Trevor’s disappointing news, Maya’s deluded comments, and my usual party mania.

  Handing Kaz his punch, I tapped my foot to the beat of the current pop song currently playing out in the living room—obviously someone had taken over DJ duty from Kaz. “Hurry up and chug it, dude,” I said. “I feel like dancing.”

  Chapter Five

  A few hours later the party was finally winding down. A bunch of people had left already, and others were doing the getting-ready-to-leave thing—hovering near the door, carrying their used cups and dirty napkins to the kitchen, and looking around for lost shoes or phones or purses or whatever.

  Maya was flopped on the sofa, talking to Tank and Toni and a few people from band. They didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, which was another hallmark of Kaz’s parties. Several other band members were at the piano, where one of them was using his finger to pick out the tune to one of our band numbers.

  Kaz was over by the windows, deep in a passionate argument about Star Trek with Wallace and another guy from the sci-fi club, who also happened to play percussion in band. I thought about going over and joining in, but decided I didn’t feel that strongly about Original Series vs. Next Generation at the moment. Or ever, really.

  Noticing Vanessa taking a seat beside the others on the sofa, I headed over to join them too. They were talking about the S&D fund-raiser.

  “And Mr. Graves talked the janitorial staff into letting the marathon go until seven, even though they usually lock everything up by five on Sundays,” she was saying when I walked over, sounding pleased.

  “Cool,” one of Van’s fellow flute players said, nodding so enthusiastically that her dreadlocks bounced.

  “Wait.” Tank’s massive forehead was folded into a puzzled expression. “I thought it was a marathon. Like, dance until you drop? Isn’t that how it works?”

  Kaz wandered over just in time to hear him. “Yeah, that was my original idea,” he said, grinning. “You just keep dancing until your legs fall off. People would pay to see that, right? Totally Christians vs. lions.”

  “Yeah, except bloodier, at least if you’re one of the dancers.” Maya rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the modified version will still provide plenty of entertainment.”

  “Especially if we let Kaz dance!” one of the sci-fi girls added with a laugh.

  Vanessa laughed too. “Think of the children!” she exclaimed, putting a hand to her forehead in mock despair.

  “Sorry to disappoint.” Kaz smiled at all of us. “My services are required in band, I’m afraid. But maybe I can sneak in one Watusi or something at the end.”

  I grinned and then glanced at Tank, who still looked confused. “Our marathon’s still going to last for hours,” I told him. “Pretty much all day, actually. The idea is that volunteers from band will play dance music, and people can donate money to dance with a cheerleader or a cute S&D kid.”

  Toni nodded. “Plus we’re all signing up people to sponsor us,” she added. “The longer we can keep going, the more money we’ll make that way too.”

  “At least until seven p.m.,” Vanessa put in.

  “Oh.” Tank looked at Maya. “Is that what you made me sign the other day?”

  She smiled sweetly. “I explained it to you then, babe,” she said. “Don’t worry. I only put you down for ten dollars per hour.”

  Everyone laughed as Tank looked alarmed.

  “This is going to be fun,” one of the other band girls said. “Thanks for the idea, Kaz.”

  “Yeah,” Toni put in. “Definitely an improvement over some stupid car wash or whatever.”

  Kaz jumped to his feet and bowed. “You’re very welcome,” he said. “I can’t wait to serenade my lovely cousin and her peppy friends all day long.”

  By then everyone in the room was listening to the conversation, including the band members over by the piano. “Speaking of serenading people, I think we forgot something at this party,” one of them said.

  She started picking out “Happy Birthday to You” on the piano. A few people started to sing along. But Kaz dove for the hall, returning a moment later holding his trumpet.

  “That’s not how you play ‘Happy Birthday,’” he declared with a grin. “This is how you play ‘Happy Birthday’!”

  He started to blow, swinging into a jazzy version of the familiar tune. This time almost everyone started singing or humming along. Tank even drummed out a steady rhythm on the coffee table.

  I laughed and darted out into the hall, immediately spotting Kaz’s clarinet case sticking half out of the closet where he usually kept it. It took me only a few seconds to fit the instrument together and moisten the reed. Then I hurried back into the room, joining in with some sick harmony.

  “Go, Chloe!” Maya shouted, shooting me a thumbs-up.

  I joined Kaz in the middle of the room. A guy named Bill who plays the organ at his church had already taken over from the first girl and was playing full out on the piano, his hands flying up and down the keys like a pro. Tank was still drumming along, and everyone else was whistling or singing. Basically, it was a full-on jam session.

  When we all got tired of “Happy Birthday to You,” we switched to “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Maya, Toni, and a few others got up and danced, clearly channeling some wild Mardi Gras parade. Kaz leaped to the head of the line, dancing as he played, which made me laugh so hard, I couldn’t continue playing myself. One of the other c
larinetists grabbed the instrument from me, taking over while I collapsed onto the sofa next to Vanessa, who was singing in her clear soprano voice.

  “This is fun, isn’t it?” she said, interrupting herself.

  I smiled and leaned my head on her shoulder, catching my breath. “Yeah.”

  Then I felt something vibrate in my pocket. It was my phone—the music was so loud, I hadn’t heard the text tone. Pulling it out, I saw it was a message from Trevor.

  I hesitated, glancing at the raucous parade, itching to join in. Trevor knew I was busy today; he wouldn’t mind if I checked in with him later . . . .

  But curiosity got the better of me. Trevor was supposed to be busy all day too. Why was he texting me?

  “Be right back,” I told Vanessa.

  I hurried out to the kitchen, wanting a little privacy. Opening the text, I scanned it.

  Hey, C! What’s up? Figured I’d check in while we’re taking a break. The next drummer is due in, like, five. But there’s probably no point in seeing anyone else—we just auditioned this totally awesome drummer, and I’m pretty sure she’s going to be the one.

  I blinked, my gaze catching on that word: she. “A chick drummer, huh?” I murmured.

  Interesting. Not that I was going to freak out about it, though. I didn’t want to be that almost-girlfriend. The one who got all jealous when her guy was friends with other girls. No way, that so wasn’t me.

  “Is it Trevor?”

  I looked up, realizing Vanessa had followed me into the kitchen without my even hearing her. No wonder. The ruckus in the next room had gotten even louder as everyone switched over to our school fight song. It would be a miracle if the neighbors didn’t call the cops. Then again probably not. They all loved Kaz too.

  “Yeah, it’s Trevor.” I showed her the text. “Guess they found their new drummer.”

  “It’s a girl?” Vanessa shot me a surprised look. “Are you okay with that? I thought the band was all guys.”

  I shrugged. “So now there’s a girl. It’s no biggie. Trevor is into me, not her.”