I’d forgotten about the frat formal until Sam had brought it up on camera. I must have mentioned it at some point in passing.
“Oh. So what?” I’d looked into the camera, actually taking it from Sam and recording like I was in some sort of selfie confessional. “I haven’t had much luck with the ladies, okay? I had the best one already and it didn’t work out, and I’m not interested in anyone else. I’m not going.”
“Oh you’re going, and I’m setting you up.” Sam turned to face the camera. “Who wants to go to the NJU seniors’ formal with Hunkeriffic?”
I heard my laugh in the background. “Stop fucking around.”
“I’m serious. Comment below and I’ll hook you up. I’m going to be the matchmaker here. Josh needs a date.” He moved close to the screen. “IT COULD BE YOU. All expenses paid, weekend trip to New York City, and a date with this man. I’ll even get you a limo. Stay tuned for details.”
I’d tried to push in front of him. “No, no, no. I don’t consent to this.”
“Why not?” Sam had challenged me with a stare. “Come on, roomie. Let’s get that Hunkerrific smile back on your face.”
“I …” My face had gone blank.
I groaned, remembering what I had been thinking at that very moment as I watched myself on the screen. I had been thinking that I was in love with Violet and didn’t want to go anywhere with anyone else. Still, we were over, so why not? I was thinking that maybe I could move on and forget her, dull the pain with Sam’s stupid plan.
“Why the hell not,” I’d said. “And it’s Hunkarama.”
* * *
I banged the phone on my forehead. “Shit,” I murmured to myself. “Idiot, idiot, idiot.” The damn video already had four million views. Sad face emojis and girls commenting on my pathetic performance scrolled on in the comments for miles. Apparently, they all felt sorry for me. There’s more fish in the sea. She’s a bitch. How could she dump you? You’re so adorable.
Oh man. I’d fallen into Samsational Sampson’s world, and I wasn’t sure it was the place for me. Especially since Violet was a subscriber.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Violet
Vienna, Austria may have been the most perfect place in the world. The architecture, palaces, art. The coffee houses, the Danube. Mostly, the music. As soon as I set foot on the ground after my flight, I ached to open my violin case. Dr. Goodson had made the arrangements with the academy—housing, the audition, the possible seat in the symphony orchestra, and a course of study to go along with it. My fingers twitched as Tobias drove me back to the dormitory, going on and on about how happy he was that I was back and would possibly be joining the summer program.
For two weeks, I’d been surrounded by music. I’d walked through Vienna to the academy’s studios where I played my heart out. I’d sat at cafes and listened to classical artists playing Mozart right on the street for passerbys. Now focused and motivated, I hated that I’d been away from my violin for so long, until that night with Josh in the woods of Virginia.
Instead of spending time consoling the ache inside of me that missed him, I spent the next fourteen days focusing on my music. I was rusty. A casual listener wouldn’t be able to tell, but the trained ears of my Vienna audience cringed at my lack of flow and my finger placement. Everything I was doing was off-kilter.
But I was determined, and by the time the audition happened, I thought I was ready to go.
Wow, was I mistaken. I shouldn’t have been surprised that I didn’t get the spot. I hadn’t been perfect, and in my heart, I’d known that an expert ear would notice. I had no one to blame but myself. Even though I didn’t get the chair, I was offered admission to the academy, which would let me stay in Vienna, as an understudy of sorts, and audition again in a year.
Dr. Goodson called and said that if I stayed, she’d waive my senior composition requirement. She was proud of me and suggested I take up the offer. I called my parents, who approved and said to do whatever I thought was best. The academy had given me a week to accept the offer, so I’d decided to put it off and enjoy some time in Vienna.
A few nights after my rejection, I took Tobias to dinner, courtesy of my father’s credit card. Tobias thought I’d be upset about the audition, but really, I wasn’t. I didn’t deserve it. Not yet. Maybe in a year, after I proved myself and dedicated myself to the music again, I would.
When Tobias was satisfied that I was emotionally okay about not getting the chair, he asked me about Oliver. I told him it hadn’t worked out and mentioned that I’d moved on with someone else, and that the someone else wasn’t working out either. But when I mentioned Sam, his face lit up.
“You know Samsational?” he asked. “What’s he like? Is he as beautiful in real life? Can you introduce me?”
Turned out that Tobias had a huge crush on my crush’s new roommate.
“He’s doing a whole dating game thing now, did you see?” Tobias smiled, pulling out his phone. “It’s his most popular series ever. Some guy named Josh needed a date to a formal, and Sam’s been asking viewers to send in videos to audition for it. They’ve been sending them in droves.”
At the sound of Josh’s name, my heart raced. “What?” I reached across the table. “Give me that!”
Tobias had already brought up Sam’s page, and I scrolled to the post titled Find Josh a Date. I looked up at Tobias.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Remember the ‘someone else’ I’d mentioned?”
Tobias nodded. “It’s not this guy, is it?”
“Yep.”
He grabbed the phone back. “He’s gorgeous. Why is he looking for a date that’s not you? Are you going to watch?”
Holding out my hand, I wiggled my fingers, indicating that I wanted the phone back. “I think I have to.”
He scooted his chair to my side of the table to sit next to me as Josh’s face filled the frame. I paused it. God, he was beautiful. Those eyes, even if they were a little bloodshot. Those lips. His hair was a mess, but still so sexy. Clearly, he was wasted. “What the heck did you do?” I whispered to the screen as I hit play.
Sam was pretty slurry himself. He gushed about his “Hunkeriffic” roommate Josh, flashing the January calendar picture. At first, I was amused as Josh tried to grab the calendar from him and they drunken bantered at each other. But then, the conversation turned to dating and women, resulting in Josh sputtering a heartbroken rant, presumably about me. To make matters worse, Sam had bent the entire thing around into some kind of find-a-date-for-Hunkarama segment for Josh’s fraternity’s year-end formal.
I’d forgotten about the formal. Maybe he hadn’t asked me because he wasn’t interested in going. Short-term, week-long relationships didn’t merit a date to a formal. Then, I’d left.
Taking a series of fast breaths, I scrolled through the comments, which were brutal. My favorite probably being—What kind of moron would let you go? I almost replied to the comment, The type of moron who’s trying to make a life for herself.
Since the first “find Josh a date” video taken on the night I’d left, Sam had posted edited clips from all the women auditioning to be Josh’s date to the formal. Of course there were a million of them. The exposure they received from being on Sam’s channel, and the chance at an all-expense paid weekend trip to New York City, was enough to get some good content.
I had to admit, as frustrating as it was to watch these people gawk over Josh, it was entertaining. Sam had created his own little reality show, and the posts got more likes than he’d probably imagined. He’d put a combination of funny date auditions, serious ones, and horrid ones. The comments revealed that anticipation was building as Josh was due to make his decision any minute now. The cutoff for submitting had passed, and now Sam and Josh were busy deciding who would win the date and who Josh would take to the formal.
Ugh. The thought of Josh going out with someone else made me stew with anger, even though I figured it was all for show. It had to be. Th
is was way out of Josh’s comfort zone.
After each edited clip, Sam had posted Josh’s reaction. Always the gentleman, Josh’s reactions ranged from subtle shaking of his head no to charming comments about how beautiful some of the women were to polite declining of the advances of the men. I wondered what Sam had to do to bribe him to play along. Every time Josh’s face appeared, I smiled at Tobias’s phone, always equally surprised and happy to see him reject all the dating prospects.
The best was when I came across a post that had a clip of Tobias though. I shoved him as he sat next to me, watching over my shoulder. “Oh my God! You recorded a post too?”
He laughed. “I thought why not? And it would have given me a chance to visit with you.”
“Aw, thanks.” I snuggled into his side.
Tobias wrapped his arm around me and squeezed me close. “If it makes you feel any better, he looks pretty miserable too, and he’s not into any of the women at all. I’m sorry.”
Smiling, I turned to face him. “I’m not.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope.” But as I said the word, I swallowed down the lump in my throat. I missed Josh. A lot. Like a piece of me was still with him, and I wouldn’t be whole until we were together again. And there was a chance that might not happen. “I’m here because I want to be. My life is mine, and his is his.”
Maybe if I told myself that enough, I’d finally believe it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Josh
I was so sick of my roommate that I’d threatened to move out every day. This dumb dating thing had taken on a life of its own, and now he’d been bribing me to keep it going. At first, I was mortified and begged him to take down the post. He’d refused, saying that would have been a “bad business decision.” Then, he’d offered to talk to Sierra, train her, and help her get her YouTalker station going if I did reaction videos and played along.
I couldn’t say no to that. Sam was Sierra’s idol and tween crush. She’d asked for her helmet camera thing after being his subscriber. Whenever I imagined her meeting him, what her face would look like, how excited she would be from advice from the master, I couldn’t say no.
Sam had made me look through every single video with his assistant, Shane. By number ten, I wanted to poke my eyes out. By number two thousand, I almost strangled Sam. He took a piece of masking tape, wrote a word on it, and then taped it to the top of my laptop. The word SIERRA.
Son of a bitch. Funny thing was, I was pretty sure that whether or not I bailed on his dumb dating stunt, he’d still talk to Sierra. By the time I got to video three thousand, I was in it for Sam. I wouldn’t let him down at this point.
So there I was, two weeks later, and five thousand people had auditioned to be my date for the frat formal. Some of these women were gorgeous, and obviously open to more than just a date. But there was no way I wanted to go on a date with anyone. In an effort to get on with my life, I’d secretly asked Shane to pick out a winner and tell Sam.
I missed Violet. She was the only one I wanted. It had been two weeks since she’d left, and I couldn’t seem to get out of my funk. I hadn’t heard from her. I knew her audition had been either yesterday or the day before, and she probably knew by now whether or not she’d gotten the seat. The fact that I hadn’t heard from her made me a little crazy. “Clean break,” we’d said. But did that mean she couldn’t drop me a DM somewhere and let me know how she was? My only contact with Vi was secondhand through Rachel.
The morning after I’d finished my Sam duties and closed the door on the dating competition, Sam joined me in the kitchen for breakfast. He’d learned not to touch my cereal, but I’d made room on the bottom shelf for him to have his own.
He pulled out one of his boxes and sat at the table with me. “I hate to tell you this,” he started.
That opening could only mean bad news for me. I held up a hand. “Then don’t tell me.”
“There’s one more video—”
“Nope. I finished my obligation. She or he is late. I don’t do the late ones, that was the deal.”
“I really think you’ll want to see this one.”
Shaking my head, I concentrated on eating instead of his annoying face. “I already picked someone. I’m not interested.”
Sam grabbed my arm as I was mid-bite. The cereal on the spoon sloshed back into the bowl. I threw the spoon onto the table and crossed my arms. “What?”
He looked me in the eye. “Do you trust me?”
I thought about it. In the past few weeks, we’d been spending a lot of time together with the dating competition, and I’d gotten to know him a little better. “I do.”
“Then trust me that you want to watch this.” He flashed his best Samsational grin.
Acting annoyed, I reached for his phone.
“Wait,” he said. “Let me get my laptop. This deserves to be seen on that.”
Figuring it was some type of porn, or some elaborate video designed by a pro, I waited, trying to finish my damn cereal in peace. But in a flash, Sam was back with the laptop, a video opened and paused. A woman’s body, from her knees to her chest, covered the screen, like she had just set up her own device to record herself.
“Hit play,” Sam demanded.
With a huff, I did. The woman came into focus, and I nearly choked on my Apple Jacks.
Violet.
I hadn’t seen her face in so long that the sight of it made my heart pound. I looked up at Sam, unable to form words.
“Told you,” he said.
With a pat on my back, he walked out of the kitchen.
* * *
“Hello,” she said, smiling and waving at the camera. “My name’s Violet, and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring to try and get a date with Josh.”
Frozen, I covered my mouth with my hand. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. She had me at hello, as the phrase said. But I let her continue because—Violet. I wanted to like the video three hundred times, but it was still in email form, not up on the page.
“So Sam’s post said he wanted the applicants to tell Josh about us, and why we’d be a great date for the formal.” She tilted her head and ran her fingers through her hair, thinking. “About me. Well, I’m from New York City, and I play the fiddle.” She reached to grab something off screen then sat back down, holding her violin. “Other than that, I’m not sure about myself yet. I’m kind of figuring that all out.”
I couldn’t stop the grin forming on my lips. Violet was incredible. Beautiful.
“I’m here in Vienna, Austria right now, and I just blew an audition to play in a symphony orchestra.”
Shit. She didn’t get it. I grimaced, wanting to hug her, to tell her that they were stupid for not choosing her.
“I did get offered a spot in the orchestral academy though, for a year with the possibility of another audition next spring. I’m happy for that, but I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t get the chair.”
A year. At least. My gut twisted, knowing it would be a great opportunity for her, but terrible for me.
“But I have no one to blame but myself. You know what the great Charlie Daniels once said?” She pointed the fiddle at the camera. “Fiddle ain’t gonna play itself.”
I scoffed out a laugh, remembering when I’d used that line on her.
“I didn’t practice enough. I let my passion for the fiddle fizzle when my life got weird. Then I had to rekindle it, and it was too late. You see, I tend to do that in my life. Let things I love fizzle and then die, and then by the time I get around to realizing that I’ve made a mistake, it’s too late.” She moved closer to stare into the camera. I loved the close up, her little nose, her sweet lips. “Don’t be me.”
Staring at the screen, I felt like she was looking directly into my eyes. She wasn’t only talking about the fiddle and Oliver. She was talking about me.
“I’m on this life path, you know? Finding out things as I go, precious things, and learning about myself. One thing I’ve lea
rned is that maybe I should trust my feelings. That even if I want to find my own way, and be my own person, that doesn’t mean I should turn off my heart. There’s no reason why finding myself means that I have to shut myself off from everyone else.”
The thumping of my heart seemed to double because right or wrong, her words gave me hope.
“Anyway, I guess for purposes of this video, I’d want to tell Josh that I’m a mess. That if he gives me a chance, I could be his everything. That if we were together, I know he’d let me find myself, maybe help me do that. Because he’s the type…he seems like the type…who would support and encourage me. God knows I could use the help.”
“Also, he should know that I’m kind of cute, pixie-like, even if I look terrible in this video. I love snow, treehouses, and hot showers. Gardenias. Nightlights. My favorite month is January, and I put too much milk in my cereal.”
She smirked at the camera and winked. My entire body electrified thinking about the treehouse and showers.
“Mostly, I want him to know that if he picks me to be his date, I can guarantee him a great night in the best city in the world.”
I chuckled, the grin plastered on my face as I thought about Violet being back, even for the weekend.
“Thanks, Josh, for listening.” She leaned close to the camera and kissed it. “I see you, you ridiculous man.”
Then the screen went blank. I watched it ten more times before I moved from my seat at the kitchen table.
Sam was in his bedroom-slash-studio. As I handed him back his laptop, he grinned. “Well?”
I smiled back. “Book her.”
With a curt nod, he gave me a thumbs-up. “Done.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Violet
The nine-hour plane ride from Vienna to New York felt like it took a thousand years. Sam had sprung for me to have a first-class ticket, in exchange for letting him film me once I landed, and I bounced around with energy on the overnight flight. By the time we landed at JFK, I was an absolute disaster.
Making the Move: Mill Street Series #2 Page 23