Virtually in Love (12 page)

Pizza sounds great. I'll ask Jon if he can bring me over then. It's probably fine since he usually goes out with his gf on Friday nights. Will let u know later for sure. Can't wait to see u!

“Chloe?” The teacher's sharp voice brought my head up with a snap. “Are you taking a nap, or would you like to start us off by reading chapter twelve to the class?”

“Um, sure.” Quickly nudging my phone back out of sight, I cleared my throat and started to read, doing my best not to grin like an idiot and give myself away.

•  •  •

At lunch I tossed my brown bag onto the table and slid into my seat across from Vanessa. She was already tearing into her sandwich. The girl might be skinny, but she eats like a horse.

“Hear from Trev?” she mumbled through a mouthful of half-chewed ham and cheese.

“He's in for Friday night pizza.” I beamed at her. “Our first real date!”

She swallowed and smiled, raising her hand for a fist bump. “That's amazing,” she said. “So romantic!”

“Yeah, kind of,” I said. “Although having our first real date be the dance—or, you know, some candlelit dinner or something—would be more romantic than pizza at Angelo's, you know? Maybe I should think of Friday as just being, like, two old friends meeting up for pizza.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I guess the song doesn't say anything about pepperoni, right?”

I laughed. “No. But the dance will definitely count as a date! Even the song says so—dancing in the moonlight, right?”

She hummed a few bars and then reached for her water bottle. “You guys are going to get together between this Friday and next Saturday, though, right? Is he coming to the marathon?”

My smile faded slightly. “He's not sure yet. He's trying to find out when all his reunion stuff is supposed to be.” I opened my bag and dumped out my lunch. “I guess his family's a little scatterbrained when it comes to that stuff.”

Vanessa sipped her water. “I hope he comes, because I don't think I can wait a whole week to get a look at this guy in person.” She giggled. “Kaz and I might have to put on disguises and come spy on you two at the pizza place.”

“Yeah, funny.”

I shot a look toward the cafeteria line. Kaz would be emerging from there any second now. I still felt funny talking too much about Trevor in front of Kaz, even though I was pretty sure his crush on me would fade quickly now that he knew I wasn't into him that way.

But maybe I could hurry that along? “By the way, speaking of Kaz,” I said. “Are you two going to the dance together or what?”

“Sure, I guess.” Vanessa grabbed one of my carrot sticks. “Don't we always?”

“No, not like that.” I gave her a meaningful look. “I was thinking you two should go as, like, a date. You know? That way we could double.”

Vanessa looked surprised. “Oh. Um, I don't know. It seems weird to think of Kaz that way, you know?”

“Welcome to my world.” I picked up a carrot and stared at it. “Think about it though, okay? It would make me feel a lot better about rejecting him if I knew there was a chance he'd ended up on a dream date with someone even better.”

She blushed. “I don't know about that . . . .”

Just then my phone vibrated. I usually kept the ringer off during school, even during the times, like lunch, when we were allowed to use our phones. Otherwise, I tended to forget to switch it off again.

It was Trevor:
FYI, found out the big reunion picnic is the second Saturday of the visit.

For a second my heart completely stopped beating. I swear it did.

“No,” I said aloud. “But that's the day of the dance!”

“Huh?” Vanessa looked up from her food.

I was already furiously typing out my response:
The second Sat is the dance! Does this mean u can't go?!?!?!?

While I waited for his response, I showed Vanessa both texts. I was too worked up to speak, but luckily, she got it right away. Her eyes widened, and she wordlessly offered me one of her mom's homemade lemon squares. But I waved it away, suddenly too queasy to eat.

Fortunately, Trevor didn't keep me in suspense for long.

No, sorry, don't freak out, lol! The picnic is during the day. My cousin Jon is def planning to cut out in plenty of time to get us both to your dance. I'm sure we will both be totally fed up with our fam by then and ready to escape, lol!!!

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

B
y 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.”