“So I met a girl...” Eli began during lunch break.

“Hold up!” Christo put down his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and hopped off the log. “Let me get some popcorn.” He pretended to go back to the cafeteria. His afro brushed against a diagonal log.

The school called this outdoor setup modern art. A bunch of wooden logs crisscrossing each other to provide shade and seating. The three of them creatively called it the Logs.

Christo’s round rimless glasses slid down the bridge of his nose, and he pushed them back up. Eli had once accused him of having a Harry Potter complex. Christo’s response: “Just because I share a closet-sized room with my two older sisters doesn’t make me Harry Potter. Or Cinderella. And I would rather talk to squirrels than snakes.”

Two miniature creatures dashed out from the surrounding bushes. Christo squealed like a schoolgirl seeing Brad Pitt. “Oooh! It’s my chipmunks!”

“Pretty sure those are squirrels, not chipmunks,” Gaby said as she chomped on her chicken-and-cheese quesadilla like it was a sandwich.

Her mom had packed her an ethnic lunch for a change. Gaby took every chance she got to educate Eli and Christo on the differences between real Mexican food and the abominations they served at Rubio’s and Taco Bell.

She had threatened to stop being friends with them if she ever caught them at either fast food chain. Eli said something similar about Panda Express. Christo said something similar about listening to Eminem and thinking it was real rap—even though rap meant nothing to him.

“Like you two can tell the difference between squirrels and chipmunks,” Christo said.

“And you can?” Gaby asked. She couldn’t tell a golden retriever from a cocker spaniel even if the prize was a full-time job at Google after college graduation.

“Of course I can,” Christo answered. “You’re a heartless programmer; I’m a hopeless romantic.”

“Or just hopeless.”

Eli had no idea why the three of them had started hanging out a year ago. It was like being with family when you didn’t have to be.

Christo smoothed his afro with his right hand. With its previous size, he had been noticeably taller than Eli. With its now reduced size, he was noticeably taller than Eli. “Who’s the only one of us that’s not single, Gabriela?”

Gaby recoiled in mock disgust. “Boy, I know you did not just call me by the name only my mom calls me when she’s pissed off.” She paused for effect. “Christopher.”

Christo recoiled in mock disgust. “Girl, I know you did not just call me by the name only my mom calls me when she’s pissed off.” He paused for effect. “Gabber.”

She fumed. It looked pretty realistic. “Crystal.”

Right on schedule. They did this every few months. Eli wasn’t getting into it. He didn’t want them to start calling him by his full name.

A third squirrel/chipmunk scurried from one bush to another. Eli pointed. “Hey, look. Squirrel-slash-chipmunk!”

That got their attention. Eli asked about their summer jobs.

Gaby’s supervisor had taught her and her teammates how to hack into the Pentagon using squirrels carrying acorns.

At his law office internship, Christo heard rumors of one of the prosecutors having an affair with the legal clerk.

“Is that common?” Gaby wanted some statistics.

Christo didn’t really know.

Eli said they could simply look it up online.

Gaby cocked an eyebrow. “You mean Google it?”

Eli shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.”

Christo finally got to the important stuff. “Eli, you mentioned a girl.”

Eli sighed heavily. He had seen people do it in the movies. He had always wondered why the lovesick girl or smitten guy does that when they’re thinking of their special someone who happens to be far, far away. Now he understood. There really was nothing else to do.

Of course, he hadn’t told Mom and Dad. If he didn’t tell somebody soon, he was going to burst like a balloon. And there were no other two people he would rather tell than Gaby and Christo. He hadn’t wanted to bother them during their summer internships. But now was the time.

He stood up and sat on a different spot on the same log. The sun was getting in his face. He had problems finding his voice at the moment, so he nodded in answer to Christo’s question.

Christo rubbed his hands in glee.

Eli took a deep breath and told the tale of his final night in Budapest. In detail. He even described the bathroom.

Christo gasped and held a hand to his heart. “Wait, you popped your bar bathroom cherry without me?”

“Sorry, man.”

“Let the man tell the story!” Gaby chided.

“Sorry, go on.”

Eli described meeting Melina. Then he proceeded to describing Melina herself.

“We don’t need a novel on this girl’s hair color,” Gaby suggested. It was a strong suggestion.

“Let the man tell the story!” Christo chided.

“Sorry, go on.”

Eli continued. Gaby wasn’t interested in a novel on Melina’s eye color either, but she kept her mouth shut.

Then he got to the part about the eight ball, and she demanded pictures.

“Um, I was a little busy.” Eli scratched his head. “But more importantly—” He dragged out the last syllable of that last word “—she likes Final Fantasy! And Seven is her favorite!”

He told them about holding Melina’s hand, experiencing a night made of dreams, and being asked to go to Istanbul.

And he waited. He’d finished his summer’s tale. Three weeks in Europe, and all he wanted to talk about was that final night in Budapest. Gaby and Christo were going to need a moment to digest all this information, especially since they were already digesting their lunches. Their lunch bags were empty. Eli didn’t need Christo to look at his watch to tell them sixth period was starting soon.

Finally, Christo opened his mouth. It looked like he was about to say something profound.

“Where’s Istanbul?” he asked.

Most teenage boys would be annoyed. Eli wasn’t most teenage boys. He launched into a history and geography lesson with the kind of delight most teenage boys reserve for videogames. Istanbul was in Turkey, but Ankara had been the capital ever since Atatürk took over in 1923. Istanbul used to be called Constantinople. Capital of two empires. Byzantine and Ottoman.

Gaby’s and Christo’s eyes glazed over. This was normal. Just like when Gaby talked tech or Christo talked law.

“So...” Christo said after he did his best not to snooze. “You’ve been to Hungary. Now you’re going to Turkey?”

Eli forked his fingers through his hair and exhaled loudly through his nose. He had seen that in the movies too. He really wanted to see Melina again, but flying to Istanbul seemed more than a little crazy.

Perhaps Iceland for ice cream next? Christo suggested.

“Guys, this is serious,” he said softly. He didn’t look at them.

“Maybe she’s a hooker,” Gaby said.

“What!?” Eli’s eyes widened. He caught himself balling up his fists. “Why would you think that?”

“Hot girl. Standing alone. At a bar. In a little black dress.” Gaby counted off four fingers. “That’s a lot of red lights.”

“It wasn’t that kind of little black dress.”

“Sure. And my quesadilla had no cheese in it.”

“I said this is serious!”

Gaby and Christo froze like a video on pause.

Eli hadn’t meant to raise his voice. Or ball up his fists. Or glare at his two best friends with a fury he didn’t know was possible.

All for a girl he had spent only a few hours with.

But the girl was Melina.

After he slowed down his breathing, he cleared his throat and ignored the need to blow his nose. His face was still hot, and his heart rate was higher than usual. “Sorry... I...”

“No, it was my bad,” said Gaby, who seemed to have developed a new interest in her fingernails.

“Yeah,” said Christo, “our bad, man.” He had worn the same shoes since the three of them met, but he seemed to have forgotten what his footwear looked like.

They crushed their paper bags to fill the silence and took turns tossing them into the trashcan.

When they no longer had the task of crushing paper bags to occupy them, Gaby asked, “So what’s the angel’s name?”

“Melina.” Eli realized this was his first time saying her name aloud. He had whispered it to himself many times since coming back from Budapest. But this was his first time saying it to someone else. He wanted to say it over and over.

“That’s a pretty name.” Gaby wasn’t being sarcastic.

“Downright gorgeous,” Christo added.

Eli knew they meant it.

Just as he had meant it when he said it was serious.