One in a Million

“What?”

“Dylan, breathe.”

“You met them. You actually met them.”

Aalia and Caroline sat next to each other on Aalia’s hotel bed, peering into the webcam of Aalia’s laptop. Skype made it somewhat easy for them to get in touch with Dylan in Florida, if she could get the hang of her new Mac, that is.

“Careful, Dylan. Your girl side is showing,” Caroline laughed as Dylan stared back at them still in disbelief. They’d just filled her in on everything that had happened in LA, except the whole pregnancy thing. Caroline wasn’t ready for that yet.

“I can’t believe this! You didn’t even bother to tell me you met them the first time!” she yelled.

“Dylan, relax.” Aalia was still giggling. She was finally beginning to get over her shock phase, but Dylan was only starting it.

“We’ll introduce you,” Caroline assured her.

“Yeah, you better!”

Aalia and Caroline laughed harder. They had never seen Dylan behave like that before. Her mature, reserved shell had been smashed by a band of singing brothers.

“How’s Florida?” Aalia asked.

Dylan smiled. “Awesome. The time change was a little hard to get used to, but training is fun, I guess.”

“What kind of job did you land?” Caroline asked, “It has to be amazing if it made you skip out on soccer camp this year.”

“It’s not really a job.” Dylan was avoiding eye contact.

“Then what is it?”

“I got signed with a manager,” she said grinning, “For boxing.”

Caroline and Aalia erupted in ear-to-ear smiles.

“What!? And you didn’t tell us?”

“Hey, you didn’t tell me about meeting the Jonas Brothers, so I think we’re even now!”

“Okay, fair enough,” said Caroline.

“So, yeah,” Dylan went on, “If everything goes well, I think I’ll end up staying down here until I get a little more exposure, you know?”

“Dyl, that’s amazing,” said Aalia, “Congratulations, I’m so proud of you.”

“Any boys?” Caroline suddenly asked, raising her eyebrows.

Dylan rolled her eyes dramatically.

“No?” Caroline looked at Aalia, “Hmm, maybe we can hook her up with Kevin and triple date.”

Aalia pushed her lightly.

“Kevin’s married,” Dylan said loudly.

“You would know!”

“And what do you mean, triple date?”

Caroline giggled. “Nick has a crush on Aalia.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Aalia was quick to respond, “He didn’t even speak to me the whole time. I didn’t hear him speak at all, actually, to anyone.”

“He was staring at you for ages!” Caroline sang.

“Whatever,” Aalia said, rolling her eyes, “He’s too young for me. How old is he anyway? Like fifteen?”

“Seventeen,” Dylan corrected her.

“Dylan, do you know everything about them?” Caroline laughed.

“Shut up,” Dylan said, embarrassed, “Listen, I gotta go. It’s late.”

Caroline looked confusedly at her phone. “It’s like, eight.”

“It’s eleven here, smarty.”

“Oh, right. Duh.”

“Sleep tight, Dyl,” said Aalia, “We’ll talk soon. Make us proud in the ring.”

“Bye, guys. Love you both.”

Dylan waved while Caroline and Aalia blew kisses until the screen went black.

“Nick and Aalia sitting in a tree,” Aalia could hear Caroline sing softly under her breath, “K-I-S-S-I—"

Aalia pushed her over before she could finish.

“You’re a bitch,” Caroline exclaimed as she laughed.

Aalia laughed with her as she stood and walked over to a desk perched across from the bed.

“Do you get room service here?” Caroline asked as she leaned back against the pillows. “We should totally order some.”

The rest of her words trailed off in Aalia’s mind as she saw what was waiting for her on her cell phone: five missed calls.

All from him.

She began to panic.

“Um, I’d love to, Caroline,” she said, still rereading the notifications, “But I’m really tired. Rain check?”

She turned around to face her.

“Yeah, no problem,” said Caroline, “I should probably get back home anyway. My mom has been going nuts lately.”

“Is everything okay?”

She shrugged. “She saw the test in my bathroom.”

Aalia’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. What happened?”

“Nothing,” she answered nonchalantly, “She yelled a little, screamed a little. But it was bound to happen, I guess.”

Caroline stood and approached Aalia.

“The worst part’s over now,” she said, trying to smile, “I’ll be alright. I hope.”

“You will,” said Aalia, pulling her into a hug, “You’ll be better than alright.”

Caroline said her goodbyes and departed from the hotel room.

Aalia took a deep breath as she stared at her phone.

She gripped it, hovering her finger over his number. Familiar nerves took over once again. Only he could give her such crazy butterflies in her stomach.

Her heart thudded with every ring.

“Aalia,” he breathed, relieved.

“What do you want?” The acidity of her voice wasn’t her intention. Her words came out with anger.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh, did you?”

He paused. “What’s wrong?”

“You just randomly decide you want to talk to me again,” she began, “How do you think that makes me feel? You go from ignoring me for weeks to leaving so many missed calls. What’s your deal?”

“I’m sorry. I know you’re mad.”

“I’m not mad,” she said quietly, “I don’t know what I am.”

She threw herself on her bed out of frustration.

“I have a life, you know,” she told him, “I have friends to be with and places to be. I can’t just wait around all day for you.”

She knew she was lying to herself.

“I know,” he sighed, “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say anything back to that.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk to me anymore.”

Her eyes shut. “That’s the problem,” she admitted, “I do want to talk to you.”

“But you left so suddenly last time I called.”

She shook her head. “Not because I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Then, why?”

“I had a flight to catch,” she explained, “I’m in LA.”

“To visit your friend.”

“Yeah. Caroline. The one whose number is way too much like yours.” She laughed without humor.

He was quiet for a long time.

“We’re not so far from each other, then,” he finally said.

The nerves were strengthening as he spoke.

“Do you want to keep talking to me, Aalia?”

She took a deep breath.

“Yes.”

“Look,” he began, “I know this is crazy. This is insane. I’ve never met anyone like you before. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

She agreed with him silently.

“I want to meet you in person.”

The nerves felt like they were setting her on fire.

“In person?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She gulped, struggling to find her voice. Take a chance, Aalia, she thought to herself. Wasn't that her goal with him all along?

“Okay,” she sighed, “I’ll meet you.”

----------------------------------

Venice Beach.

She was the one who suggested the meeting place. In fact, she insisted. She knew it would have enough visitors to make her feel safer.

Just in case.

She asked Caroline to go with her as well, mostly because she expected to be stood up and would need a ride home from someone who knew the area. She knew her precautions were probably unnecessary. She felt stupid just needing them to fall back on. But she was far too used to being disappointed lately. She wasn’t getting her hopes up this time.

On the ride there the morning after she’d spoken to him last, she imagined what he would look like. She’d been doing it since she’d hung up the phone. She thought of all the different Mystery Boys she’d conjured up in her head as she would talk to him, of the changing physical traits she saw in her mind. Would he have blonde hair? Brown eyes? Would he be tall? Would he have freckles? Glasses?

She paid almost no attention to the journey. As Caroline marveled over the beauty of the city around her as they passed tall palm trees and attractive surfers, Aalia saw none of it. She just stared down at her yellow sundress, the one who made her think of him the most.

She thought about all the things she knew about him, and then she suddenly felt vulnerable. Why was it so easy for him to start talking to her? To open up to her? To let her inside his deepest thoughts? Was she just being naïve? She felt as though she’d set herself up for disappointment already.

Nothing was ever that good to be true, was it?

“Caroline, maybe this is a mistake.” She nervously bit down on her lip.

“I know you’re nervous, but remember what I said?”

Aalia was too nervous to remember what she even had for breakfast.

“Its unraveling itself now,” Caroline answered for her, “It’s finally happening.”

“But what if he’s not who I expect him to be?”

Caroline shrugged as she turned a corner. “Don’t have expectations,” she said, “He could very well be a stalker or a serial killer or something.”

Her laugh was loud and contagious.

“But you’ll never know until you find out, Aalia.”

Aalia nodded, trying to take her advice. But it was just too impossible for her not to have expectations. Not when she’d imagined him so many times. Not when she’d come clean to him about every little thought that had ever crossed her mind.

“We’re here,” Caroline finally said.

Aalia’s eyes scanned the area. Her hands felt too weak to grip the door handle.

“I’ll be watching the whole time,” Caroline assured her.

Aalia nodded and thanked her before exiting the car, feeling much too wobbly on her sandal-clad feet.

He’d promised her he would meet her on a bench right across from the intersection between Market Street and Venice Boulevard, if she was remembering correctly. She struggled to find her way and felt too nervous to ask anyone, so as she neared her destination she was overwhelmed.

He’d also promised her he’d be wearing jeans. She’d argued that she wouldn’t be able to point him out in a crowd, but he’d assured her it would work out, and she finally saw why. Under the hot summer Los Angeles sun, especially by the beach, no one was in jeans.

Except him.

Just a few feet from where she stood, there he was.

Dressed in jeans, like he had promised, and a grey v-neck shirt, he looked uncomfortable. He wore black Ray Bans and a backwards black baseball cap under which she could see hints of thick brown curls of hair peeking out from. He was tapping his foot impatiently, looking around as if he didn’t belong there as much as she didn’t.

She approached him uneasily. The crowd seemed to disappear as she stared at him, eager to finally put a face to the Mystery Boy.

He felt her presence before she reached him. He stood nervously and looked at her face with a nervous smile.

His facial structure looked painfully familiar even at a distance, but she couldn’t put a finger on it. She stopped walking just inches from where he stood. He was taller than her.

“Aalia.” His voice was quiet, but he breathed with relief.

Her eyebrows creased together as she tried to make sense of him.

“I can’t be seen here,” he said, looking around anxiously, “But you deserve to know.”

He looked down at her once again before reaching a hand up to his face, wrapping his fingers around the sunglasses. Her heart was racing as the seconds felt like hours. He revealed himself, looking down at his sneakers as he kept the glasses ready in his hand. She peered at his long eyelashes carefully until he looked her in the eye.

And when he finally did, everything changed.