Virtually in Love (13 page)

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 gaze. “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.

But the spell was broken when Jon's car screeched to a stop at the curb nearby. He stuck his head out the open window.

“Yo, Trev!” he called. “Let's move.”

Trevor stopped playing again. “Gotta go,” he told me, reaching out and squeezing my hand. “See you tomorrow?”

“For sure.” I sighed and smiled as I watched him set his guitar in the back and then climb into the passenger seat, not taking my eyes off Jon's car until it disappeared around the corner.

Then I turned and headed for home, already looking forward to tomorrow night.

Chapter
Eleven

M
y friends and I spent
Saturday morning setting up for the dance marathon, turning the smelly school gym into a magical dance party wonderland—or at least making it look a little less boring and gross.

Afterward we went to Aesop's. “I hope I get a chance to bring Trevor here this week,” I said as we walked in. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt a twinge of guilt. I was trying not to talk about Trevor too much in front of Kaz in case he was still feeling bummed about how things had worked out.

“Yeah, right.” He didn't sound bummed at all as he led the way to our usual booth. “We still haven't seen this guy, you know. Are you sure you're not going to show up at the dance next week with that stuffed pig of yours in a tux?”

I laughed, stepping forward to take my usual spot beside Vanessa. But Kaz beat me to it, sliding in beside her.

“Hey,” I said. “You took my seat.”

“Actually, I thought I should sit by Van today,” Kaz said.

Vanessa blushed. “I was just getting ready to tell you, Chloe,” she said. “Kaz and I decided, um . . .”

“We're taking your advice,” Kaz took over. “Giving this dating thing a try. Starting with the dance.”

“Oh!” I was so startled, I almost knocked over the water glass as I slid in across from them, though I tried to cover it up by grabbing the glass and gulping down about half of the water. “Wow, you guys. That's great!”

I couldn't help wondering exactly when they'd decided all that. It felt weird to think about them having such an important conversation without me.

“Yeah.” Vanessa played with her napkin, twisting it into a swanlike shape. Even when she's nervous, she's still artsy. “We figured why not give it a try?”