I Believe in a Thing Called Love

by Maurene Goo

  I wanted to argue, but it was true.

  We arrived at Gwen Parker’s house, a giant McMansion sitting on a beach with a beautiful view of the marina filled with boats and glittering lights strung along the pier. Gwen was the captain of the dance team and her dad was a movie producer. Every year she threw this raging holiday party that the entire school showed up to—it was “romance” themed. Aka fertile ground for hooking up. Aka why Luca called it a sex party. Wholesome holiday activities, high school style—there were rooms for spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven, and everyone was required to wear red, either for holiday cheer or, you know, for general debauchery devil references. But not everyone went there to just hook up. There was also plenty of alcohol and bad dancing. I had never been before, but I’d heard all the gory details from Wes and Fiona.

  Staring up at the front stairs covered in red confetti, I took a deep breath. You can do this. You are NOT flailure girl tonight. You are a K drama heroine destined for love.

  I stopped Wes before we reached the front door. “Hey, hold on a sec.” Then I held up a Santa hat.

  “What’s that for?”

  I plopped it onto his head and adjusted it so that it fit properly. Then I held up a second one, my eyebrows raised, and put it on. “So that it’s clear we’re together,” I said.

  He grumbled, “This is really cramping my style.”

  Once inside, we hung up our jackets and then wove through groups of people drinking and dancing. I instinctively moved closer to Wes, feeling nervous. The hormone levels in here were ridiculous. Was everyone having sex but me? God.

  And then. It hit me that if Luca was here, was he here to hook up?! And ew, what if he came with Violet? Did that not break the no-girlfriend rule? Hm, hooking up didn’t necessarily entail dating …

  I shook my head. I didn’t want to contemplate Luca hooking up with anyone. Well, other than me. And just that thought alone sent mutant butterflies hurtling through my stomach.

  “Hey lovers,” a female voice growled behind me. I turned around to see Fiona and her girlfriend du jour, Leslie Colbert. Girls lined up for Fiona every year. Sometimes it was the classic bad-girl type and they’d make out rebelliously in the hallways at school. Other times it was a hot hipster in a band who would serenade her with a guitar solo onstage. This year it was the captain of the cheerleading squad, Leslie. An odd pairing until you saw the two of them together and it was like being blinded by the beauty of God’s creations.

  Fiona was in a slinky backless black top and high-waisted flowing black pants, her hair straightened tonight into a high, sleek ponytail. The touches of red were her hair and ruby lips. Leslie was wearing a red bikini top. Okay.

  “I’m so overwhelmed. Do you think people are actually doing it in here?” I whispered to her.

  Fiona waved her hand at me dismissively. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry. Guess who I just saw?”

  I sucked in a breath. “Won Bin?”

  “Yup.”

  I looked around, but couldn’t see much in the dim lighting.

  Fiona grabbed my arm. “Don’t be so obvious, Des! He’s loitering with a bunch of those art kids. Including that purple-headed dumb-ass.” Fiona was never one to mince words.

  I frowned. “I wonder if they came together.”

  I was trying to look around as subtly as possible when I spotted Luca. His hair was perfectly mussed under a red beanie. Hot damn. Always. That was always how I was going to feel when I looked at this guy.

  I tugged Wes closer to me. “Psst, Won Bin’s here,” I said in a low voice. I saw his head snap up. “Stop! Don’t look. Anyway, I think you know what this means.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  I held up my fist and said, “Hwai-ting!” Wes looked at me blankly.

  “It’s the Konglish misuse of fighting.” His face remained blank. I rolled my eyes. “It’s the Korean equivalent of Let’s do this!”

  He grinned and bumped my fist with his. “Got it. Hwai-ting!”

  My eyes drifted over to Luca again, and I saw him heading upstairs with Violet and Cassidy.

  “Won Bin’s going upstairs, let’s follow him.” I grabbed Wes’s arm and dragged him to the second floor where I saw Luca and company slip into a room with a sign that said SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN, surrounded by angel wings. What in the world?! Why were they going in there? All three of them?

  I stared at the door. Well, it was now or never. “Ready for seven minutes in heaven?” I asked Wes.

  His eyebrows disappeared into his hair. “Whaaa—are you serious?”

  “Yup. Here we go.”

  Holding his hand, I pulled him toward the door. He protested, “Desi, I don’t want to, like, besmirch your reputation.” I didn’t respond. Instead I paused for just a second before swinging the door open.

  It was a big bedroom (maybe the master?), filled with people and a trail of rose petals leading to double doors, with a sign that said HEAVEN. I saw a couple slip out and then another slip in. Everyone else was casually milling about. As if it was normal to be that close to other people making out.

  And there were Luca, Violet, and Cassidy. Just lounging around and acting normal. I had to find out why they were up there, but first it was time for my grand-entrance moment. Think Young-Shin in Healer, when she whips off her coat to show off her insanely hot red dress at that press conference. Healer the Hottie couldn’t believe his eyes.

  So when Luca turned and looked at us, I stood there for a few seconds, letting him eye my lacy red dress and black booties. I started to blush, though, so I headed over to them before I lost my resolve.

  “Hey, what are you guys doing up here?” I asked, losing cool points immediately by asking that nosy question. I could hear Wes’s sigh behind me.

  Cassidy looked uncomfortable when she answered, “We wanted to see … um…”

  “We wanted to see what kind of desperate hornballs came up here,” Violet finished for her, grinning widely.

  Wes threw his arm over my shoulders. “Well, take a good look, sister.” With that he pulled me away toward the heaven doors. I was swiveled around so quickly that I couldn’t even gauge Luca’s reaction.

  “What the hell, Wes?!” I hissed.

  He clamped his hand on my upper arm. “I’m saving you, Des. Come on.”

  When we got to the door, the couple from earlier came out, laughing their asses off. “Have fun!” the girl cackled to me as she walked by us.

  I pulled Wes in close and whispered, “Is he looking?”

  Wes whispered back, “I don’t know, I’m staring at you right now.”

  “Right,” I whispered again. I was too nervous to look behind me, so I just opened the door and Wes and I stepped in. It was a giant walk-in closet, lit with candles, with Sade playing quietly in the background.

  Wes started to laugh but I clapped my hand over his mouth. “We have to make this believable!” I whispered loudly.

  “So what do we do? Just sit here?” he asked, settling down into some pillows strewn about the closet.

  I pushed aside some suits and sat next to him. “Yeah, let’s just chill.”

  I was eyeing the row of women’s shoes in front of me when I got a weird feeling. I turned my head to see Wes staring at me. “What?” I asked.

  He scooted closer to me. “Well, maybe we should take this opportunity to take our friendship one step further…”

  I pushed him away with the palm of my hand on his forehead. He nodded quickly. “Yeah, just thought I’d try.” So we pulled out our phones and stared into our screens.

  A few minutes passed and then someone started knocking on the door. “Hey, lovebirds, get out of there! Your seven minutes are up!” Startled, I stood, but Wes stopped me before I could open the door. He placed his hands on my shoulders and scrutinized me. Then he started messing up my hair.

  “Hey!” I reached up to fix it but he smacked my hands away.

  “You wanna look properly made-out with or what?”
/>   Oh, right. I rubbed my lip gloss off, too, for good measure. Wes nodded his head in approval. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

  “Whoa. You guys?”

  My student government secretary, a short and really buff junior named Eugene Adams, was staring at us, aghast. I brushed him aside as I looked around for Luca. No sign of him. Damn it!

  “Let’s get out of here,” I muttered.

  Wes followed, trying to comfort me. “Hey, maybe he saw us and in a fit of jealousy left the room.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said sullenly, already feeling defeated. I just wanted to go home. But as we stood at the top of the stairs, I spotted Luca down in the foyer. Red beanie in the sea of bodies … and then his face tilted up, eyes making contact with mine.

  My heart surged. Then Wes pulled me super-close and his lips hovered by my ear. “I see him. This is it, Des.”

  I startled. “What do you—” but before I could finish, I felt my heel slip on the edge of the top step I was standing on, and I lurched into Wes, our heads bumping. He lost his balance and my body leaned into his so much that he fell backward down the stairs—holding my hand.

  As we tumbled down together, I felt myself float outside of my own body to watch the train wreck in real time from a safe distance, eating popcorn and shaking my head. But before we could full-on crash all the way down, Wes managed to grab the banister and stop the momentum, his other hand still clutching mine. I grasped it with both hands and used my boot to push against the wall so that we came to a full stop. For a split second, I was able to appreciate how badass we were for managing to do that, in awe of our combined upper- and lower-body strength.

  But then the real world came into focus and I heard the gasps first, then the laughing. I cringed and looked at Wes.

  “Oh my God,” he sputtered, letting go of my hands and taking the Santa hat off his head. “How the hell did you manage to flail on a fake freaking date?” he hissed.

  “It’s a freaking gift,” I hissed back.

  Wes reached over to help me up, but before I could take his hand I felt someone grasp my other hand. I turned to see Luca. A laughing Luca.

  “Thank you, that made this creepy party totally worth coming to.” His voice could hardly contain his damn mirth as he helped pull me up and walk me down the rest of the stairs.

  I pushed a strand of hair off my face and stiffly replied, “You’re so welcome.” His obvious joy at the accident made it clear that he was absolutely not jealous of anything. Plan failed.

  “I’m going to fix … myself,” I said to Wes, who nodded as a couple of girls fussed over him. I ignored Luca and stalked off down a hallway, fuming. I couldn’t even be embarrassed, I was so irritated by the entire evening.

  After I readjusted my hair (tossing the Santa hat in the trash) and splashed my face with cold water in a bathroom, I decided to take a minute to gather my wits, sitting down on a bench in the hallway next to a giant potted palm that kept poking my face. I swatted at it as I stared blankly at the giant gilded mirror across from me. I looked unhinged, and was haunted by Wes’s words when I had first told him about the K drama steps: that what I was doing was downright creepy. Was it time to throw in the towel, was I edging into weirdo territory? Was this going to be my first disproved hypothesis? I shuddered at the thought.

  “What are you looking at?”

  My spine turned into jelly at hearing that voice.

  Luca was standing in the hallway, his beanie pushed back a bit so that his thick hair was perfectly tousled and carefree. Like a little French child. Aw, Luca as a child. Aw.

  “Are you high?” His voice exuded genuine curiosity.

  I snapped out of it. “No! God, not everyone’s hitting the janga during parties.”

  He looked at me for a second, mouth slightly agape. “Whaaa … What did you just say?”

  I stood up and walked over to the mirror, adjusting my hair so I didn’t have to be in the direct path of his disconcerting stare. In the reflection of the mirror, I was still able to see Luca’s expression.

  “Let me guess, Luca, you love the janga. So artistic and freeee,” I said.

  “Did you just—Did you just—” He was laughing between words.

  A couple of girls trickled in and they stared at Luca, then at me. I threw my head back and laughed along with him, smiling and waving at them. After they slipped into the bathroom, I whispered, “Did I what?” I knew that somehow he was making fun of me.

  Before he could answer, I felt two hands nip at my waist.

  “What’s up, Des?” a voice said close to my ear. Argh! Wes!

  Luca pointed at me. “She … she just called weed janga.” He let out another bark of laughter.

  I turned around toward Wes in confusion, but one look at his face filled me with dread. A familiar dread.

  Wes grinned. “Oh, yeah. That.”

  I punched his arm. “What do you mean, that?”

  He bit his bottom lip. I punched his arm again, making him wince.

  “Ouch! All right. Des, how do I say this? Fiona and I have let you say janga for years. The word you are actually trying to say, in all your drug-free virginity, is … ganja.”

  It took a moment for my mind to be blown into space and back. “What! And you just kept letting me say it?!”

  He laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Freaking janga?!” I let out a snort of laughter despite myself.

  Wes clasped his hands and said in a girlish voice, “Are you guys smoking the janga again? Ugh, boring, see you after you’re done getting high on janga!”

  We were both laughing so hard at this point that we were clutching each other. That’s when I realized Luca was staring at us with an odd expression.

  Wes seized the moment before I could. He tugged a strand of my hair and looked at me with intensity, a hint of meaningfulness. “You’re so freaking cute, I can’t stand it.”

  My cheeks flushed despite the grossness of Wes saying those words to me. I felt a momentary flash of pity for all the poor girls who had ever crushed on Wes. He was good. I mean, I knew this was all fake and yet I still felt a twinge of Aw, I’m special! Pathetic.

  When I looked toward Luca, he was already turned around, walking back out into the party. “I’ll leave you guys to it then. Later,” he called out.

  Oh my God. It worked. He was jealous!

  “What are you waiting for?” Wes asked me, looking pointedly at Luca’s retreating figure. “I didn’t do all this nonsense”—he gestured at himself—“and fall down a freaking flight of stairs in front of our entire school, for nothing. What’s the next step on your list?”

  “Huh?”

  “The K drama steps? You need to seize this opportunity!”

  I snapped open my clutch and pulled out the list. “Um, it’s number 9: Get into a Predicament That Forces Both the Guy and You into an Intimate Bonding Moment.”

  “Perfect! Go!” Wes gestured to where Luca had walked away.

  I shoved the list back into my bag and shrieked, “Wait, now? I need at least a few days to set this up.”

  “You’ll figure something out. It’s the perfect opportunity, go do it now!” Wes pushed me toward the party. It had dispersed a bit; no doubt a lot more people were upstairs now. So I was able to spot that red beanie as it slipped out the back door. I followed Luca outside as he walked rapidly, disappearing into a small grove of trees on the edge of the property. I got nervous as I sped up. Where was he going? And what the heck was I going to say when I caught up with him?

  I entered the trees and squinted in the dark, trying to find him. I shivered, rubbing my arms and thinking about hightailing it back to the party when I detected a movement out by the marina.

  And then I heard a familiar hissing. Like the snake I thought I had heard at the zoo.

  I walked straight ahead until I was out of the trees and facing an old shed attached to a closed bait shop. And standing there, tagging its wall with a can of spray paint, was Luca.
r />   STEP 9:

  Get into a Predicament That Forces Both the Guy and You into an Intimate Bonding Moment

  I’d like to think my reaction was one of cool level-headedness.

  “What are you doing?!” I screeched.

  Luca started, his spray can making a giant splotch on the wall. “Shit!” he cursed, swiveling around to look at me.

  I opened my mouth to continue my shrieking, but he strode over to me in two swift steps and placed a hand wearing a surgical glove over my mouth.

  He brought his mask-covered mouth to my ear and said, “Will you please shut up for a second?”

  I responded by biting his gloved hand. I tasted rubber.

  He yelped and let go of me, yanking the mask off his face. “What’s wrong with you?!” His lower lip pouted as he took off his glove and inspected his hand.

  My chest heaved as I stepped back, injured by his reaction. “What’s wrong with me? Am I the one freaking defacing public property right now? At a mom-and-pop bait shop?” The questions came out in sharp jabs and my hands balled up into fists as I continued to yell at him. “What’s wrong with you? Is this how you get your kicks?”

  He shook his head at me. “If you can just stay quiet for, I don’t know, a minute, you’ll find out.”

  I opened my mouth, but he sent me a warning glance, thick eyebrows shooting up into his hair, jaw setting. I shut my mouth and tried to calm my racing heart. So Luca was just some bored suburban kid rebelling by tagging stuff. The arrest was no longer so mysterious, and I was heavy with disappointment.

  He walked over to the wall again, which already had some old tagging on it. Actually, on closer inspection it was some very elaborate graffiti—a lot of twisted cursive letters in a rainbow of colors that blended in seamless gradients, but it was impossible to read what they spelled out because delicate vines and thorns were drawn all over it with what looked like a black Sharpie.

  “Did you bring all these to the party?” I asked as I lightly kicked one of his spray paint cans over. Luca put his glove back on and crouched down to pick one up. He lifted a finger to his lips to shush me and whispered, “I hid them here beforehand, okay, Nancy Drew?”