Emberlynn could feel her stomach churning with an unpleasant mix of anxiety and fear as she lingered by the front steps of the school, waiting. Dominick was supposed to be there any minute, as soon as his Latin class was finished. The two of them had gotten into the habit of walking home together each day after school.

But something told her that this time would not be nearly as pleasant as any of the others. After dragging her feet for the past few weeks, Emberlynn finally decided it was time to take her Tante Lila’s advice and talk to Dominick.

Emberlynn’s phone call with her aunt had made her feel a lot better, at first. Lila had been so kind and understanding of Emberlynn’s situation, which was a huge relief for her. She shared a few stories of times when she’d had to have some difficult conversations with the guys she’d dated, and was so sympathetic to her niece’s plight.

But she’d dealt out some difficult truths too. Like the fact that Emberlynn had to be honest with Dominick sooner rather than later. And the fact that he might not take it very well too.

That was the part that made it so hard. It was the reason Emberlynn had been dragging her feet for so long. Because she didn’t want to hurt him. She didn’t want him to be mad at her. She didn’t want anything to change at all between them. She just wanted to take some of the pressure off, that was all. Was that really so much to ask?

Guess I’m about to find out…

“Hey!” Dominick greeted her with a soft smile and a kiss on the cheek.

Emberlynn felt her heart sink. Why does he have to be so darn sweet?! “Hey.” She replied with a forced smile.

“Sorry I’m late. Mr. O’Beirne just had to finish his lecture, even though the bell already rang…” Dominick laughed softly as he spoke..

“It’s alright.” Emberlynn muttered, trying her best to sound casual. But apparently, she failed.

“Hey, are you okay?” Dominick’s brow furrowed in concern.

She nodded in reply. “I’m fine. I just wanted to talk to you about something.” Emberlynn admitted nervously.

“Oh, sure. What’s up?”

Emberlynn could practically feel several pairs of eyes glued to her back. And sure enough, when she turned around, there were Serenity, Trent, Jace, and Natasha, all looking in her direction with interest.

She groaned inwardly at the sight. That stupid popular clique had seemed weirdly interested in her lately, and she had no idea why. Under any other circumstance, Emberlynn would have been thrilled to have Trent Ziegler looking her way… But not when he was by his sister’s side.

I definitely don’t need an audience for this… especially THEM.

Emberlynn turned back toward Dominick, forcing another smile. “I’ll tell you on the way home. Let’s go.”

——————————————————

The rhythmic clunking of the sewing machine filled Emberlynn’s ears, drowning out the sound of the video Zelda was watching on the other side of the room.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to drown out the incessant buzzing of the troubled thoughts flurrying around in her head.

With a heavy sigh, Emberlynn lifted her foot from the pedal and the machine slowed to a halt. The Halloween party wasn’t until next friday, so there was still plenty of time. She could finish working on her costume later. Right now, she was just too distracted.

As though on cue, mere moments after the sewing machine stopped running, Emberlynn heard the guitar music that had been coming from the other side of the room abruptly come to a stop.

“Ember… Are you still being all ‘Mopey McMoperpants’ over there?” Zelda rose to her feet with a sigh, crossing the room and sitting on the bench by her friend.

“No.” She lied, rising from her chair as well and joining Zelda at the foot of her bed. “And you seriously need to work on your naming skills, by the way.” Emberlynn added with a smile. “I would’ve thought Onkel Tam and Onkel Jasper taught you better than THAT.”

Her cousin rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored the comment. “I know you’re still feeling all bummed and guilty and stuff, but come on — it’s been like, three days. Shouldn’t you just… move on or something?”

Emberlynn shook her head. How could Zelda talk about it like it was so simple? Because she doesn’t get it. A small voice in the back of her mind reminded her. She’s too young to understand.

Emberlynn loved Zelda to death, and she was still her best friend… But there were moments when their small gap in age felt so much bigger than it was, and Zelda seemed so naive and immature.

“What the heck do you expect?” At last, she spoke. “Dominick is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met — right up there with Mason. And now he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you! He’ll get over it.”

Emberlynn hoped Zelda was right. Just as she’d feared, Dominick did not take the news of her intentions very well. He was apparently expecting something very different than she was, and accused her of ‘leading him on’ for the past several weeks.

In the moment, she’d been so angry at his accusation and, well… She handled it just about as well as her parents handle THEIR arguments with one another. And no matter how much regret she felt later, there was no way to take back the way she’d hurt him — or the way she’d made things worse by lashing back.

It still stung so much to think back to their conversation… So Emberlynn decided to try her best to avoid doing so.

“Hey, so which one of your YouTuber boyfriends were you watching over there anyway?” She rose to her feet and headed toward her desk, hoping Zelda would allow for the subject change without trying to push the matter. “And are you still logged into my account? What the heck are you doing to my watch history?” Emberlynn forced a laugh.

Thankfully, Zelda took the bait rather eagerly. “Not one of my usuals.” She admitted. “It’s some American guy. He’s brand new to YouTube, from this looks of it… Found him by accident. Still pretty good stuff though!” She gestured toward Emberlynn’s laptop as she spoke. “He does his own covers of songs from movies and video games and stuff, then he talks about them.”

Though skeptical, Emberlynn was eager for a distraction. Plus, Zelda had recommended a few decent YouTubers to her before. Maybe this would be another one that was worthwhile?

To Emberlynn’s surprise, when she pressed the ‘play’ button, she was met with a video of a boy who seemed to be around her age, playing a cover of the Galaxy Quest theme song on a guitar.

Her first thought was how genuinely good this guy was. Her second was that he really needed to invest in some better sound equipment to do his talent justice.

And her third was that he was absolutely gorgeous.

Emberlynn watched the rest of the video with rapt attention, marveling the entire time at both how handsome he was, and how strangely familiar he seemed as well. But she couldn’t figure out why.

As the video came to an end, Emberlynn found herself clicking ‘subscribe’ without even thinking. She definitely wanted to hear more from this guy… and see more of him too.

She noticed with a smile that she was only his 187th follower. Wow, Zelda wasn’t kidding about him being new. Most of the handful of channels Emberlynn followed had thousands of subscribers. She decided to be nice and leave him a comment too — he only had seven others so far (most of which were very generic and begging for a follow-back. Typical.)

“Loved this cover! You’re so talented.” Emberlynn typed carefully, grateful that her written English was much more fluent than when she spoke. “Galaxy Quest is one of my favorite games. You’re right though — the new DLC is pretty lame. Can’t wait for the next video!”

Beside her, Zelda watched in apparent amusement as Emberlynn hit the ‘submit’ button. “So… I guess you liked it.” She said with a smile.

Emberlynn shrugged. “He was pretty good… and pretty cute.” She confessed, smiling.

“He is!” Zelda agreed.

Emberlynn paused for a moment before replying. “Y’know, I think you might be onto something, Z.”

“What do you mean?”

“This whole ‘stalking cute guys on YouTube’ thing… It’s WAY easier than trying to date. Trust me.” She sighed.

“Ugh, this again?!” Zelda cried in exasperation. “Dominick will get over it. And he’s just one guy, Ember. What’s that thing they always say? About other fish in the sea?”

“Yeah… But what do you do when all the fish want to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and you don’t?” Emberlynn grumbled.

Her friend was thoughtful for a moment or two before finally lifting her shoulders in a shrug. “I dunno… try fishing somewhere else? There’s gotta be another Mason out there somewhere…”

Emberlynn couldn’t help but laugh. If only things were really that easy. “Maybe… Guess I’ll just keep looking. In the meantime though… Got any other cute YouTube guys you could show me?”

Zelda’s eyes flashed with excitement as she leaned over the keyboard and began typing furiously.

None of the other videos Zelda showed her ever quite lived up to that first one, but they did the trick. Emberlynn and her cousin giggled and gawked together at cute guys all afternoon, and, for the first time in days, all her previous worries seemed to have fled her mind.

But Emberlynn knew they would all come rushing back to her the next day at school, of course. She’d have to face Dominick again. She’d have to deal with Serenity and her stupid clique. And she’d eventually have to worry about finding another guy who wanted to hang out with her. Because it was true — There WERE other fish in the sea. Plenty of them.

But the fish weren’t supposed to be upset when you threw them back in the water, were they? Shouldn’t they be grateful you didn’t leave them flopping and gasping on deck until they die? Shouldn’t they be happy to be set free?

Fish are stupid. Emberlynn decided. And so are boys.

But at least they were cute to look at.