Virtually in Love

by A. Destiny

  I practically melted with relief. “Oh man,” I muttered, flashing the phone at Vanessa so she could see. Then I texted back.

  Good!!!! U had me worried there for a sec, lol!

  He texted back almost immediately: Sorry, sorry! U know I would never miss the big dance! Can’t wait to dance in the moonlight with u!!!

  I sighed. “He’s so sweet,” I murmured, feeling a flush of happiness wash over me. Who could have predicted, back at that kids’ music camp all those years ago, we’d end up here? Talk about a romantic story worthy of a song! Maybe Trevor would write one about us someday. I made a mental note to drop some hints while he was here. Who knew? Maybe our romance would even lead to Of Note’s first big hit!

  Then I spotted Kaz heading toward us, tray in hand. With one more glance at Trevor’s last text, I shoved my phone away out of sight.

  Chapter Ten

  By Friday afternoon I was so excited, I couldn’t stand it. I spent all of last period staring at the clock on the wall, willing the hands to move faster. Luckily, Ms. Farley didn’t notice. Vanessa, however, did. When the bell finally rang, she fell into step beside me as I bolted from the room.

  “Don’t worry,” she said with a smile. “You can borrow my notes from today. Because you looked like you were a million miles away all period. And not thinking about biology at all.” She giggled. “Unless it was Trevor’s biology. Or maybe chemistry?” She waggled her eyebrows at me.

  “Clever.” I grinned. “Anyway, can you blame me? I mean, I’ll actually be face-to-face with Trevor in”—I checked my watch—“two hours and twenty-seven minutes. Not that I’m counting.”

  She laughed. “Okay, so let’s go get you all cute.”

  “Hey,” Kaz said breathlessly, catching up to us. “You guys took off so fast, you practically left skid marks on the floor! Let me guess—you’re craving random menu items from Aesop’s?” He grinned at us hopefully.

  “Oh.” I shot a look at Vanessa. “Um, sorry, no time for Aesop’s today. Trevor’s coming, remember?”

  “Oh right. Mr. True Romance.” His expression went sort of blank.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant. Was he still upset about the dance thing?

  Doubtful, I told myself. He was probably just trying to think up a funny insult to make about Trevor, as usual.

  “I’ve got to hit my locker,” Vanessa told me. “Meet you out front in five?”

  “Yeah.” As she hurried off, I looked at Kaz again, a twinge of guilt and concern making me want to take action. “Hey,” I said. “Speaking of romance, have you given any thought to asking Van to the dance? You two would make an awfully cute couple.”

  “Hmm.” Kaz shrugged. “We are both fine-looking specimens. I’ll give you that.”

  “Modest too,” I said with a laugh. “Just think about it, okay?”

  • • •

  Vanessa and I had a great time getting ready. I was a pretty fine-looking specimen myself by the time I hugged her good-bye at my front door.

  “Wish me luck,” I said.

  She squeezed me. “You won’t need it. Trevor is going to die when he sees you!”

  “Let’s hope not.” I laughed and then blew her a kiss as I hurried down the front walk.

  It usually takes about ten minutes to walk from my house into town, but I made it in about half that. Hurrying past Aesop’s, I crossed the next street and stopped in front of Angelo’s. Taking a deep breath, I realized I was nervous.

  That wasn’t like me. I almost never get nervous except maybe when I think I’ve blown a test or something. After all, I’ve been performing music for just about as long as I can remember, and I barely remember what stage fright even feels like.

  This was different, though. This was true romance. Which meant it was perfectly normal to be nervous, right? There was even a line in the song about getting all breathless and butterflies-in-the-stomach when you first looked into your true love’s eyes . . . .

  Smiling as I thought about that, I pushed through Angelo’s heavy glass doors. The place was crowded, but a couple of glances were enough to tell me Trevor wasn’t there yet.

  Checking my watch, I saw I was a little early. Good. He’d be able to walk in and see me there. Maybe our eyes would meet across the crowded room or something super True Romancey like that . . . .

  “Hi, Chloe!” a cheerful voice greeted me. “What’s up? You meeting Kaz and Vanessa here? I haven’t seen them come in yet.”

  I blinked, yanking myself out of my daydreams to focus on the perky cheerleader grinning at me and holding an armful of menus. It was Toni. I’d totally forgotten she worked at Angelo’s.

  “Hi, Toni,” I said. “Um, no, I’m actually meeting a guy here. His name’s Trevor?”

  She nodded, not seeming fazed by that. “Cool. Want me to seat you while you wait?”

  “Sure.”

  She led me to one of the only free tables in the place, a two-person booth in the back. Perfect.

  Well, okay, it would’ve been even more perfect if it were up by the windows instead of at the back kind of near the bathrooms. At least we’d have plenty of privacy.

  I slid into the seat facing the door so I could keep a lookout. Toni set a couple of menus on the table.

  “What’s this guy look like?” she asked. “I’ll send him right back when he gets here.”

  “Dark hair, green eyes,” I said. “My age. Really cute.”

  “Really!” Toni looked intrigued. “But wait, aren’t you and Kaz, you know . . .” She waggled her eyebrows.

  I frowned. Why did the entire cheerleading squad seem to have us paired off? I figured it was probably Maya’s fault, but before I could explain things to Toni, someone called out for more iced tea, so she shrugged at me apologetically and hurried off. I was kind of glad to see her go. I always get a kick out of Toni’s peppiness, but she tended to ask a lot of questions, and I wasn’t in the mood to be grilled about my nonromance with Kaz at the moment. Especially with Trevor due to arrive any second. Quickly, I checked my hair in the back of a spoon and tried to get into a True Romance mood.

  And when I looked up again, there he was in the doorway. I would have recognized him from a mile away, let alone a few yards. He looked just like he did in his pictures, only even hotter. He was standing with a slightly older guy with long greasy hair and a pointy chin. The older guy had his arm around a girl I vaguely recognized as a senior from my school.

  Toni spotted them too. She rushed over and greeted them, pointing toward my table. The older guy and the girl just glanced my way and then turned and left the pizza place. But Trevor came toward me, a tentative smile on his face. His beautiful, beautiful face. I couldn’t quite believe how cute he was in person—like an honest-to-goodness rock star, for real!

  When he got closer, I saw he had a guitar slung over his shoulder by a long strap. It was tucked behind his back so I hadn’t noticed it at first.

  “Hey,” he said when he reached me. “Chloe?”

  “The one and only,” I replied lightly. “Steve, right?”

  Trevor looked confused. “Um . . .”

  “Kidding,” I said quickly. Okay, maybe Trevor was going to have to readjust to my sense of humor. “Sit down?”

  He did so, setting his guitar carefully in the corner of the booth first. I glanced at it.

  “I didn’t realize you were bringing that,” I said. “You should have told me. I could’ve brought my clarinet, and it’d be like a double date.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Kidding again, right?”

  “Sort of.” I grinned weakly. “I’m kind of hoping you planned to serenade me or something?”

  He glanced at the guitar, frowning slightly. “Actually, I had to bring it if I wanted it to stay in one piece,” he said. “My cousin’s kid is a total brat, and I was afraid he’d mess with it.”

  “Your cousin has a kid?” I shot a look toward the doorway where his cousin had just been standing.

  Trevor followed my gaz
e. “My other cousin,” he said. “Jon’s older sister. She’s twenty-four, and the kid is, like, two. Maybe three?” He shrugged, still looking a little cranky. “I’m not good with kids’ ages.”

  “Yeah, me either,” I said uncertainly. So far this wasn’t quite the romantic dream reunion I’d imagined. “But listen, let’s start over, okay? Hi, Trevor. It’s me, Chloe. You look great!”

  He looked confused for a second. Then he grinned, which made his whole face light up. And all of a sudden the weird awkwardness disappeared—poof!—and my old pal Trevor from camp was standing there in front of me.

  “Sorry,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “It’s been a long day, you know?” He leaned forward. “You look great too. Fantastic, actually. No, make that beautiful.”

  “Thanks.” Was I turning into Vanessa? Because I was pretty sure I actually blushed at that. “You look great too. Oh wait, I said that already, didn’t I?’

  He chuckled. “It’s okay. It’s really great to see you, Chloe. Weird, but great.”

  “Weird in a good way, right?” I said. “Because I know exactly what you mean.”

  He smiled. Our eyes met. I could have looked at him forever, but after a moment it felt a little awkward, so I grabbed a menu and handed it to him. “You hungry?”

  “Starved. So what’s good here?” Taking the menu, he started flipping through it.

  “Everything.” I still couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was hard to believe the skinny, slightly geeky ten-year-old kid I’d known at camp had turned into . . . this.

  “Cool. Meat lovers with mushrooms okay?” he said, tossing down the menu. “We could split it.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him I didn’t like mushrooms. With all the butterflies stampeding around in my stomach at the moment, I wasn’t going to be able to eat much anyway.

  “Sure,” I said. “So, I can’t believe you’re here! It’s like camp ended ten minutes ago, right?”

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “Speaking of camp, guess who just tracked me down on Facebook? Remember that kid with the runny nose and the Birkenstocks?”

  I gasped. “You mean Granola Greg? Oh my gosh! How is he?”

  With that, we were off and running, reminiscing about old camp friends and memories. Somewhere in the middle of it Toni showed up to take our order, though I barely noticed. It felt so good to talk to Trevor in person—no parents coming in to tell me to turn off my phone, no distractions from band rehearsals or studying or whatever.

  After a while Toni arrived again bearing our pizza. “Here you go, guys,” she announced, sliding it onto the little metal stand. “I even asked the chef to give you extra mushrooms—no charge.”

  Great. Still, Trevor looked pleased. “Thanks, gorgeous,” he said, flashing her a grin. “It looks great.”

  “You’re welcome, beautiful,” Toni responded without missing a beat.

  Gorgeous, huh? Well, okay, Toni was gorgeous, so what? Trevor had already called me beautiful and fantastic and weird, and those were much more interesting compliments, right?

  He reached for a slice as Toni hurried off. I did the same, trying not to wrinkle my nose as the stench of mushrooms wafted up at me. “Cheers,” I said, hoisting my slice.

  Trevor was about to take a bite, but then he paused, smiled, and lifted his own slice toward me. “Cheers.”

  We bumped slices and then each took a bite. I even managed to find a spot that didn’t have any mushrooms on it—score!

  “So,” Trevor said. “You’re still playing the clarinet, huh?” He grinned. “When are you going to take up the bass or something and join a real band?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Why bother?” I joked in return. “Any band I joined could never compete with the fabulous Of Note, right?”

  “For sure.” His eyes lit up. “Not to brag, but we’re sounding tighter than ever since Zoe joined. She’s exactly what we needed, I guess, you know?”

  “Uh-huh.” I nibbled carefully at the edge of my pizza. “She sounds great.”

  “She is. We’re all already writing tons of new songs together . . . .” He continued for a while, telling me all about their latest rehearsals and big plans for the future. I listened eagerly, wanting to know everything about him. Not to mention loving his passion for his music—after all, that was what had first bonded us way back in our camp days.

  Ten seconds later Trevor’s phone buzzed. Actually, it only felt like ten seconds. It was actually probably more like an hour, given that the pizza in front of us had mostly disappeared, and there was a whole different set of customers sitting at the tables nearby.

  Trevor checked his phone. “That’s Jon,” he said. “He’s picking me up in five minutes.”

  “Already?” I frowned. “But you just got here! Can’t you ask him for a little more time?”

  “Probably not a good idea.” Trevor grimaced. “He’s the only one who’s willing to drive me around this week so I’m not stuck at my aunt and uncle’s house the entire time. I don’t want to piss him off, you know?” He reached over and touched my arm, shooting me a sweet little half smile. “But this has been fun, right? It’s so great to see you, Chloe.”

  “You too,” I mumbled, still not quite believing he had to leave already. We’d barely had a chance to talk about anything except camp and his band—I had so much more to tell him, so much I wanted to ask him! And I definitely didn’t want to wait until the dance next weekend to continue the magic.

  I opened my mouth to ask if he was coming to the marathon on Sunday. But he spoke up again before I could.

  “Maybe we can get together tomorrow night?” he said. “Jon’s coming up here to go to a party with his girl, and he already said I could tag along. Maybe we could do dinner and a movie or something?”

  My heart fluttered. This was more like it! I cleared my throat and started to sing: “I knew my dreams of true romance would all come true someday. Like dinner and a movie out with my most special bae.”

  He grinned. “Nice voice. If we didn’t already have a lead singer”—he pointed to himself—“I’d ask you to join the band!”

  I laughed. “Anyway, that’s my way of saying dinner and a movie sounds perfect.” I knew Vanessa was going to be excited when she heard about this. Pizza was one thing, but dinner and a movie? That definitely counted as a date!

  “Great. Jon wants to be at the party by seven, so I could meet you somewhere around quarter of.”

  “Perfect. Can he drop you at the mall movie theater? There’s a good Italian place we could walk to from there after the movie.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He stood up and reached for his guitar.

  I leaned forward, still not quite ready for this to end. Although at least now I had another date to look forward to. Maybe even more than one. Which reminded me . . . “By the way, don’t forget the dance marathon’s on Sunday,” I said. “Did you figure out yet if you can make it?”

  “Not sure.” He carefully slung his guitar over his shoulder, then turned and held out his hand.

  For a second I wasn’t sure why. Then I blushed as I realized he was helping me out of the booth.

  Not that I needed help. I mean, I’ve been successfully getting myself in and out of booths for, oh, at least twelve or thirteen years now. Still, it was a pretty romantic thing to do.

  I took his hand, bracing myself for the magical tingle of his touch. “Thanks,” I said. “Um, so when do you think you’ll know? I mean, about the marathon.”

  He squeezed my hand and let go once I was on my feet. “I promise I’ll try to pin down my family sometime tonight if I can,” he said. “I can probably let you know by the time we meet up tomorrow night.”

  “Oh. Right.” I followed him as he headed for the door. “Okay.” Tomorrow night? That didn’t leave me much time to get excited if he was coming to the marathon on Sunday.

  Then again I was already excited about the fund-raiser. Trevor coming would just be icing on the cake.

  “I hope
you can come,” I said. “It should be lots of fun. The kids are a riot, and the band is going to be supercrazy. Kaz might even . . .” I gulped, suddenly realizing it was the first time I’d really mentioned Kaz. The first time I’d thought about Kaz, actually. Why did that make me feel guilty? Today was supposed to be about me and Trevor, not me and Kaz. “Um, I mean, someone’s bringing a harp, and a few of us might give it a try, and . . .” I burbled, trying to cover my confused feelings. “Anyway, it’ll be interesting.”

  Luckily, Trevor didn’t seem to notice my weirdness. Once we were outside, he turned to face me. “This has been really fun, Chloe,” he said with a smile. “Getting to see you again, I mean.” He swung his guitar around to his front and started to strum.

  I watched his long, graceful fingers dance expertly over the strings, feeling that butterfly flutter again. He hummed along for a moment, then started to sing: “Chloe, Chloe, Chloe, you’re the girl for me. Chloe, Chloe, Chloe, you’re the only one I see.”

  Wow. Just wow. For a second I was afraid I’d fallen and hit my head or something and was dreaming this. Because it was seriously too perfect, wasn’t it? Was I really being serenaded by the guy of my dreams right here on the main street of my town?

  Speaking of which, a few passersby paused and gave Trevor and me strange looks. I guess it’s not every day you see a future rock star singing to a girl on a street corner. But I ignored them. All I cared about was soaking up this moment.

  He stopped playing after a moment and smiled. “What do you think?”

  “I think—I think . . .” For once, I had nothing to say. No words could express how amazing this was.

  “I hope you like it,” he said. “It’s just a little something I’ve been messing with lately.”

  “I love it.” I stepped forward, touching his arm. “Thank you. It’s amazing. You’re amazing.”

  He smiled back, strumming a few chords from my song, and it was like we were all alone out there on the busy street. All alone in the world.