Click to Subscribe - By L. M. Augustine Page 0,61

the tinfoil underneath to reveal a giant, chocolate-gummy-worm-Oreo cake with old pictures of us forming a fence around the side.

She covers her mouth with her hand. “West, this is perfect,” she whispers and just stares at the gift. “You are an effing fantastic cook.” She touches her finger to the first photograph, then sifts through all twelve, her mouth curling into a huge grin and her eyes so bright it makes my whole body come to life.

“Oh, I could so kiss you right now,” she continues. Then, she leans closer. “You know. That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all… shall we?”

A flicker of a smile crosses my lips. “Nuh-uh-uh! Not yet.”

“Why not?” she says, clearly amused.

“Because first, ICE CREAM EATING CONTEST!”

Cat shoots me a look. “Fine. But you’re so going down, Ryder.”

“Oh, Red Velvet, we’ll see about that,” I say, giving her my best intimidation face, in which I wave my hand in front of my eyes like I’ve seen wrestlers do. It fails miserably, and she starts cracking up.

“Oh yeah?” she says.

“Oh yeah.”

“Then let’s do this.”

“Yes. Let’s.”

We grab our ice creams at almost the exact same time.

“Ready,” she says, and it’s a total déjà vu moment.

“Set,” I say.

We smile at each other, our eyes locking, leaning toward our ice creams. “GO!!!!!!!!!!”

Immediately, I pounce on the ice cream and eat it so fast my teeth seem to freeze from its coldness. Cat and I get weird looks from all around us, but it’s not like we even care. I keep eating and eating, letting the cool ice cream slide down my throat, watching Cat shove the cone literally at her face, and I find myself suppressing a laugh. Finally, when I pull away from the ice cream, it’s just the cherry left, along with a few splotches of ice cream on the table. Cat has already finished, though, and I laugh when I see the vanilla still smeared across her lips.

She shoots me a look. “I guess I win that,” she says.

“There are no victors here,” I say. “Only me and everyone else.”

There’s a pause, and we both just sit there, squeezing each other’s hands and smiling.

“You know,” Cat says after a few minutes, “it’s funny how love is so complicated and yet sometimes, it’s as simple as your vlog.”

“How so?” I ask, frowning. “Please don’t get overly-sentimental on me, Red Velvet.”

She rolls her eyes. “Well, sometimes love is right in front of you the whole time, even if you don’t realize it. And, like your vlog, all you have to do is click to subscribe.”

I raise my eyebrow. “That’s a terrible a metaphor.”

She laughs. “Dude, I know. I have nothing to say, okay!”

She sighs, and then I look at her—really look at her. She is glowing, like seriously glowing. Her smile makes me smile, her long red hair always manages to take my breath away, and her vanilla ice cream-covered lips just prove to me what a fantastically awesome dork she is.

And I love her.

I really do.

“So about that kiss…?” Cat whispers.

I smile. “Yes,” I breathe, “I’m ready.” Then, I lean in, and I kiss the ice cream off her lips.

Epilogue

Cat and I aren’t married now. We don’t have kids, a happy family, a perfect life. But one thing we do have is each other—and that’s something that will never, ever leave us. As of yesterday we’ve been dating for six months, and so Cat and I decided the milestone called for a celebration. So we came here.

I haven’t posted a vlog in months. I’ve been too busy thinking about Cat to be funny or at all interesting, really. My last vlog post, after the one where I spilled my thoughts about Cat and my dad to the camera, was with Cat—a victory vlog, you can call it—and we laughed and flirted and were entirely awkward the whole time. It was probably the worst video I’ve ever filmed, with the only point to “show off how happy I am,” but I don’t even care, because now things are different.

Now I’m in love.

I sigh. Just thinking about Cat brings a smile to my lips. Trust me, that is a hell of a lot of smiles.

I sit on the grass next to the driveway as Cat pulls in with her car. A slight breeze ruffles my hair as I look out at the ocean stretching in front of me, off into the distance. Seagulls fly everywhere above us, squawking and diving for clams or whatever, and I listen