Page 38 of City of Love

I nod, a smile pulling at my lips. Something about the way she speaks makes me smile. Her turns of phrase, the words she chooses—she’s funny without meaning to be. She’s the same way in her emails, but it’s even better hearing her speak.

“I can be silent and menacing,” I say.

Just then a warbled ringing sounds in the room. Lydia’s eyes dart to her phone, and then they widen. “Oh, shoot,” she says, looking quickly up at me. “They’re calling early.”

“Who?” I say with a frown.

“I’m video chatting with Jade and Ian.”

“Oh.” I shrug. “It’s fine.”

“No,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It’s not fine, because I haven’t figured out how to tell them that you’re not a girl. Ian is going to flip out. There might be death threats. I’m just telling it like it is,” she adds defensively, holding her hands up.

“You’re going to have to tell them sometime,” I say, feeling a weight settle on my chest. I think she’s probably right; this isn’t going to be particularly pleasant. “You can blame it all on me if you want.”

“Of course I will,” she says with a snort, scooting away from me on the bed. “It’s entirely your fault. Who else would I blame?”

The corners of my lips twitch, but I just watch as she accepts the video call.

I’m sitting far enough away from Lydia now that her camera doesn’t see me, but I’m close enough that I can see the video chat just fine. The first few seconds are a noisy, pixelated blast, but then the picture calms down and two voices become clear. A man and a woman; Jade and Ian, if I had to guess. That’s who Lydia said would be calling, anyway. Their faces blur in and out of focus, but my suspicions are confirmed when I can finally see that the girl has long red hair while the guy looks a bit like Lydia. Her features are more delicate, more feminine, but the resemblance is there.

Lydia clears her throat. “Hi!” she says.

“Lydia, I miss you!” the redhead—Jade—says.

“I know,” Lydia says with a rueful smile. “I miss you too. It’s weird not to be spending the summer together.”

“You’re only there for a month,” Ian points out. At least, I think it’s Ian. I suppose it could be Cohen, but this man looks closer to my age.

“Yeah,” says Jade. Her pixelated face turns to look at Ian, and she sounds exasperated. “But we all butlivetogether during the summers. One month feels like forever. Now,” she says, turning back to Lydia. “Tell me about Noel! Can we meet her?”

She pronounces my name like “noel” in the Christmas songs, which makes me want to speak up and correct her, but I don’t, for obvious reasons.

“Well,” Lydia says, the fingers of her left hand drumming a nervous rhythm on her thigh. “So. There actually was”—she glances at me, seemingly considering her words, before looking back at the phone—“there was a bit of a misunderstanding.”

“What misunderstanding?” Ian says, his voice sharp. “Are you okay?”

I like this man. He won’t like me, but I appreciate his concern for his sister. It’s nice to know she has more people than just me looking out for her.

“I’m fine,” Lydia says, waving her hand airily before returning it to rest on her thigh. It’s only a second before the nervous drumming is back. “It’s just that—well, did you know ‘Noel’ is a girl’s name and a boy’s name?”

Ian’s eyes narrow dangerously, but Jade just looks confused. “No,” she says. “Who cares?” There’s silence for a second, and then she goes on, “Wait a second. No way. Are you—is she aguy?”

“He’sa guy,” Lydia corrects. “And…yes. For the last three years I’ve thought I was writing a girl, but it’s actually been him.”

“That seems like less of a misunderstanding and more like a gross omission,” Jade says, sounding a little shocked. “Why didn’t he say something?”

“That,” Ian says, his voice flat, “is an excellent question.”

“He’s not a pervert or anything,” Lydia says quickly. “It wasn’t like that. He just didn’t realize I thought he was a girl. By the time he realized, we’d already started talking. He thought I needed a friend. So he just…”

“Lied to you for years?” Ian says, sounding angrier now as he leans closer to the screen.

“Chill, Ian,” Lydia says with a sigh. “I get why he did it.”

“There’s no possible reason he—ow," he says with a grunt of pain.

“Move, Ian,” Jade says, cutting him off and elbowing him out of the way. “Look, Lyd, is he a weirdo? Are you safe?”

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