The Darlings in Love

by Melissa Kantor

  Sometimes lately, Victoria felt almost like she was competing with Lily and Rajiv and even Sam and RJ for Jack’s attention. It wasn’t anything specific Jack said or did that made her feel that way, but ever since she’d been at the recording session and witnessed firsthand their working together, she couldn’t help comparing his relationship with his friends to his relationship with her. He and his friends made exquisite music together. When he talked about how talented Lily and Rajiv were, it was clear that there was no one he respected more. Compared to them, what was Victoria? Just his tin-eared girlfriend.

  But today she didn’t have to worry about any of that. Today was different from all other days. It was as if Hallmark had understood how important it was for couples to have time alone together and had carved one day out of the calendar that was just for people in love.

  And now, thanks to her parents, they were going to be able to really celebrate it.

  She practically skipped the seven blocks to school, stopping only once to read a text Jane sent her.

  richard can’t go 2 hamlet w/me and mom 2nite. want 2 come or should i ask my adorable boyfriend?

  Victoria giggled. ask simon, she texted back.

  When she found Jack waiting for her at her locker, she threw her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss.

  “Wow!” he said, when she finally pulled away. “What did I do to deserve this?”

  “Nothing,” she said, smiling up at him flirtatiously. “You were just your usual wonderful self.”

  She took a step back from him, reached into her bag, and pulled out the red box of cookies wrapped with a white bow. “Voilà. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “Oh!” he said. “Thank you.” Jack suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Thanks,” he repeated, adding, “I mean, happy Valentine’s Day to you, too.” He fumbled with the tape on the box before opening it. “These are really pretty.”

  As Jack admired the cookies, Victoria started to get a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. He took a cookie out and held it toward her. “Want one?” he asked.

  But the sinking feeling made the thought of eating a cookie distinctly unpleasant, even if it was a cookie she’d spent the previous night baking and icing with romantic messages like Be mine and I ♥ Jack. And when Jack bit into the cookie without reaching into his bag to retrieve anything for her, the bad feeling only intensified.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything,” he said, wiping a few stray crumbs from his top lip. “I guess Valentine’s Day wasn’t really on my radar.”

  It wasn’t on his radar? How could Valentine’s Day not be on someone’s radar? Even though she was especially excited for it this year because of Jack, Victoria had always loved Valentine’s Day. She’d spent two days baking cookies not just for her boyfriend, but for Natalya and Jane, too. She’d even sent a box to Emily, forgiving her for having been so annoying about the recording session.

  She swallowed deeply, then managed to force a smile to her lips. “That’s okay.”

  Jack looked at her and immediately registered the sadness on her face. He tucked the box of cookies under his arm and took her face in his hands. “Oh, Vicks, I’m really sorry. I should have realized it was important to you.” He kissed her lightly on the nose. “I’ll make it up to you next year, okay?”

  “Sure.” Then Victoria took a deep breath. “My mom said…” But everything was so different from how she’d imagined it, she suddenly couldn’t remember how she’d planned to tell him what her mother had said. In her fantasy, she’d whispered the invitation to him in between long kisses, but now she just blurted out, “We can go out for dinner tonight.”

  “Oh!” Jack looked surprised. “That’s so cool.” He hesitated, then added, “The thing is, I’m supposed to see Lost Leaders with Rajiv and Lily. Would you want to come to that? Or…well, it’s kind of a late show.” His voice grew enthusiastic. “But it’s going to be really amazing. I’d love to hear them with you.”

  Jack hadn’t gotten her anything for Valentine’s Day. Jack didn’t want to go out for a romantic dinner with her. Victoria could feel tears threatening at the corners of her eyes, but then she shook her head, completely annoyed with herself.

  After all, what was the big deal? Valentine’s Day was just a stupid commercial holiday. Jack was not the kind of guy to get worked up about something just because Hallmark told him he should.

  Wasn’t that one of the things she loved about him?

  “Um, maybe I could ask my parents about the show. What time is it?” Victoria’s mom had given her permission to go out for dinner. Maybe that permission would be transferable to a concert.

  “Nine.” He made a face. “I figured your parents would say no, that’s why I didn’t ask you to come with us.” Eagerly, he continued, “I’ve been begging for this for weeks, and I finally broke my folks.” He snapped his fingers. “Do you want my mom to call your mom? As you know, my mom can be very persuasive.” They both laughed, thinking of what Jack’s mom was like.

  Despite her laughter, Victoria wasn’t exactly happy. Nine o’clock was late. Her parents would never in a million years let her go out at nine on a school night, no matter how persuasive Jack’s mother tried to be.

  With Victoria’s luck, one phone call with her mom, and Jack’s parents would be the ones changing their minds. Her phone vibrated, and she automatically checked the screen. SIMON COMING 2 HAMLET. HE SO CLEARLY LUVS ME!

  Jane.

  Hamlet.

  Victoria’s heart began to pound unnaturally fast. She didn’t know anything about Hamlet, but Jane’s school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream had been almost three hours long.

  What were the odds Hamlet would be over before eleven o’clock?

  But did she dare? The last time she’d lied to her parents, she’d not only gotten caught, she’d gotten her photo splashed on the front page of one of the New York daily newspapers. She was crazy to risk that happening again. There would be other concerts.

  Yeah, other concerts that she wouldn’t be allowed to go to, either.

  Why did her parents have to be so strict? Jack’s parents were letting him go. Rajiv’s parents were letting him go. Lily’s parents were letting her go. Only Victoria’s parents were so unreasonable that they never let her do anything. No wonder they’d named her Victoria. It was like they thought they were still living in the Victorian era.

  The Victorian era reminded her of England. Which reminded her of Shakespeare.

  Hadn’t Shakespeare been alive at the same time as Queen Victoria?

  Or was it Elizabeth?

  Regardless, this was clearly a sign.

  Victoria looked up at Jack, a defiant light in her eyes. “I’ll go.”

  Jack lifted her up in an enormous bear hug. “Seriously? You seriously want to go?”

  “Of course I want to go!” Victoria kissed Jack on the lips, hard, a little disconcerted by his question. Had he sensed that she didn’t have fun at the recording session? Was that why he didn’t believe that she wanted to go to a concert with him?

  When they came up for air, he asked, “And you really think your parents will let you? Do you want my mom to call yours?”

  This time, Victoria hesitated. Should she tell Jack the truth, that they would never in a million years let her go hear some band late on a school night?

  But what if Jack told her to just forget the whole thing, said he’d go to the concert without her, that he’d see her tomorrow? If he spent all his time having fun with his friends, maybe he’d start to wonder if he needed a girlfriend at all.

  She answered confidently. “Yeah, they’ll let me.”

  Putting her down, Jack pumped his fist in the air. “Awesome!” He kissed her again. “Pick you up at eight?”

  Oh, she was so not going to be at her house at eight o’clock tonight. “No, I should just meet you there,” she said. “I might be coming from Jane’s house.”

  “Done. I’ll text you the address.”


  As Victoria watched Jack make his way through the crowded hallway, she thought about the Valentine’s Day she’d fantasized. Jack ringing her bell at six, maybe with a small bouquet of flowers. A romantic dinner for two at a local restaurant. Home by eight thirty with her mother’s blessing.

  Instead she was planning to lie to her parents and risk getting grounded for life, all so she could spend the night with Jack and his two best friends at a concert she didn’t particularly want to go to.

  She looked back at her phone and reread Jane’s text. he so clearly luvs me! Well, it wasn’t like Jack didn’t love her. He just had different ways of showing it.

  Rather than linger on how, exactly, Jack showed his love for her, Victoria composed a response to Jane’s text.

  i m in serious need of help. r u free after school?

  “ARE YOU GOING to tell me what this is about or am I going to have to beat it out of you with this?” Jane demanded, holding a small embroidered pillow toward Victoria in a threatening manner.

  It was late afternoon, and they were sitting on Jane’s bed. Earlier, all Victoria would tell Jane on the phone was that she wanted to come over after school, and she’d explain everything in person. Then, when Victoria had gotten there, she’d refused to be distracted from admiring Simon’s roses.

  “They’re sooo beautiful,” she said for the thousandth time. She leaned forward and inhaled the scent of the enormous bouquet of roses sitting in its elaborate, cut-glass vase. The petals were a deep, rich red, and their aroma permeated Jane’s bedroom.

  “Okay, fine, they’re beautiful! You can compliment him on his good taste when you meet him Saturday night,” wailed Jane. She’d already informed her friend that Simon and the Darlings were going to see Casablanca at the Paris theater on Saturday. Now she grabbed Victoria’s shoulders and pulled her around so they were facing each other. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or what?”

  Victoria began fussing with the royal blue piping on a decorative throw pillow Jane had inherited from Nana. “Um, I kind of need you to cover for me.”

  “Ohmygod!” Jane leaped to her knees and bounced up and down on the bed. “What happened?” She let out a squeal. “This is sooo romantic.”

  “Then you’ll do it?” asked Victoria anxiously.

  “What? Of course I’ll do it.”

  Victoria could have cried with relief. She slumped back, pressing the pillow to her chest. “It’s totally not going to happen, but if my mom asks, I was at Hamlet with you tonight.”

  Victoria could pretty much count the number of times she’d been allowed to be out late on a school night, and almost every single one had involved Jane’s mom having an extra ticket to something. The first few times it had happened, Victoria’s mom or dad had called Jane’s mom to thank her, but more recently they just said, “Don’t forget to say thank you,” and left it at that.

  Jane raised an eyebrow. “And in fact you will be…”

  Victoria smiled wickedly. “At a concert with Jack.”

  Jane let out a scream and fell back against the pillows. “Oh my god, I am loving it!”

  Jane’s enthusiasm made Victoria feel better about her Valentine’s Day plans. It was pretty romantic to be sneaking off to a concert with Jack. Maybe dinner at a restaurant was kind of dull.

  “So who are you going to hear?” asked Jane, propping herself up on her elbow.

  Victoria wrinkled her forehead briefly. “Um, Lost Leaders? Something like that. They’re Jack’s favorite band.”

  Jane laughed gently. “Of course they are.”

  “What?” asked Victoria, not laughing.

  “Nothing,” said Jane quickly. “I was totally joking. So…” She sat up and crossed her legs. “What else happened? Did he sing you a love song like the sensitive rocker guy he is?”

  But Victoria wanted to know what Jane had meant. “Jane!” Her voice was mild, but Jane knew Victoria too well not to hear the threat in it.

  Jane shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I just…” She didn’t finish.

  “You just what?” Victoria prompted.

  “I just…” Jane glanced briefly at the ceiling, as if the words she wanted to speak might be printed on it, then finally met Victoria’s eyes. “Lately it just seems like you do a lot of stuff that Jack likes to do, and, you know, he doesn’t do stuff you like to do.”

  “That’s not true!” Victoria said immediately, then added, “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. Like, since when are you so interested in music?”

  “I like music!” Victoria pounded emphatically on the pillow.

  “Okay, fine.” But Jane’s voice clearly said it wasn’t fine, and a second later she blurted out, “Why isn’t Jack coming to Nana’s art opening with you?”

  Victoria chucked the pillow to the other side of the bed. “I told you when I first asked him. It’s Rajiv’s birthday party.” When Jane didn’t say anything, Victoria insisted, “It’s not his fault if he has plans for that night.”

  “Okay, okay,” said Jane, holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender.

  “What?” asked Victoria.

  Jane looked Victoria straight in the eye. “I just think if the situation were reversed and you had plans and Jack asked you to do something, then, well, maybe you’d cancel your plans and do what he wanted.”

  Victoria blazed with anger. “When have I ever canceled plans to do something with Jack?” She felt a twinge of guilt thinking about how she’d ditched her community service, but told herself they were just talking about plans with Jane.

  Trying to defuse the situation, Jane said, “Vicks, look, I’m sorry. It’s no big deal.”

  Now it was Victoria’s turn to laugh. “No big deal? Jane, you’re criticizing my entire relationship.”

  “No I’m not. I just feel like…like, why is it you always seem to go places with his friends, and he never does stuff with us?” Jane suddenly thought of something. “I bet his friends are going to be at the concert tonight, aren’t they?”

  “So what if they are?” asked Victoria. She sounded defensive, even to herself. “Is there something wrong with that?”

  “Vicks, tell me you can see the irony in what’s happening here.” Jane laughed, slightly incredulous. “You’re pretending you’re going out with me so you can go out with Jack and his friends.”

  Victoria’s voice quivered. “Why does everyone criticize me all the time?”

  Jane was surprised by the effect her words were having on Victoria, and her tone immediately changed to one of concern. “What? Vicks, I’m sorry, okay? I don’t want to fight with you.”

  Victoria lifted her enormous blue eyes to Jane’s but didn’t say anything.

  “Vicks, do not give me the puppy dog eyes,” Jane pleaded. “I’m begging you here.”

  “I’m not!”

  There was a silence, and when Jane spoke, she completely changed the subject. “Hey, do you want to check out this dress I saw in the window of Act Two?” She poked Victoria in the leg with her toes and grinned. “It has feathers.”

  “What?” asked Victoria, but before Jane could repeat the question, Victoria quickly added, “I mean, sure, of course I’ll come see it.” She would have agreed to anything Jane had asked, if only to make peace with her friend.

  They gathered their bags and headed into the hallway. As Jane wrote a note for her mom saying where they were going, Victoria wondered if maybe her friend had a point. Maybe it was bad that she kept doing things Jack wanted to do instead of Jack’s doing things that Victoria liked. Maybe it was weird that Victoria had a boyfriend who didn’t care about her favorite holiday.

  “Okay,” said Jane, placing the note in the center of the counter and weighing it down with a saltshaker shaped like a snowman. “Now, get ready to see the dress of the century.”

  “Great!” Victoria was glad they’d moved on from the subject of Jack. It was one thing when her sister criticized her relationship. Emily had been criticizing Victor
ia for as long as Victoria could remember. But Jane’s pointing to something weird going on was different.

  Especially when the thing she was pointing to was exactly the thing Victoria was trying not to see.

  NATALYA STARED AT her computer screen, where several windows were open, each one showing a different document relating to the origins of the current crisis in the Middle East. Just as she read the opening sentence of the Balfour Declaration, her dad popped his head into her room. “Hotite igrat’ v shahmaty?” He was holding an unlit pipe in one hand and a steaming cup of tea in the other.

  Natalya shook her head. “I’ve got a ton of work. Maybe when I’m done?” She felt a little guilty for lying, but what was she supposed to say—I’m trying not to think about the boy I like, and chess reminds me of him?

  Besides, it wasn’t like she didn’t have a ton of work.

  “Horosho,” he agreed, kissing her lightly on the head. “Uvidimsya pozzhe.” He gave her a little wave from the doorway.

  “Yeah, see you later.” She forced herself to smile back at him. After all, it wasn’t her dad’s fault that he’d taught her to play a game that caused her to be crushed out on a guy who also played the game but who had a girlfriend.

  Once her dad had headed down the hallway, Natalya went back to reading the Declaration, but it was hard to focus on the paper she was supposed to be writing when she was so busy trying to imagine what Colin and Alison were doing to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

  She’d barely been able to look at Alison in school yesterday and today. After Bio on Monday, when she and Alison and Jordan had walked out of class together, Alison had said casually, “Dr. Clover rocks,” and Natalya had nearly screamed, “Dr. Clover is mine! Do you hear me? She’s mine!” Instead, she’d made some excuse about having to print up a history paper, and had successfully avoided having lunch with her friends.

  Now, sitting in front of the half-written paper she’d supposedly printed up at lunch yesterday, Natalya was actually glad to have such an enormous, impossible essay to write. She was seriously busy. Way too busy to even think about having a boyfriend. After all, if she and Colin had been going out, it wasn’t like she would have been free to do something with him tonight, what with this seven-page paper due tomorrow. So even if Colin were her boyfriend, she’d still be sitting in front of her computer screen all alone on Valentine’s Day night.