She knows that Brett Caspian is watching her. He’s cute, she decides. She never realized this before because he’s a druggie and therefore not her type, not even her species.
When she collects her books, he says, “Well, I’m not hanging out here any longer.”
Vivi says, “You’re going to leave detention? Aren’t you afraid they’ll double-down if you do that?”
“Nah,” Brett says. “Dave will let me slide.”
“Dave?”
“He’s friends with my parents,” Brett says. “They bowl together at Maple Lanes.”
Vivi is astonished to hear this. She doesn’t think of someone like Brett Caspian as even having parents, never mind parents who bowl with a teacher.
“Anyway, if you don’t want to wait for the sports bus, I can drive you home,” Brett says.
Vivi practically has to pick herself up off the floor. “Okay?” she says.
They’re like Judd Nelson and Molly Ringwald from The Breakfast Club. Or close enough. They become a couple. By October, Vivi has traded in her A-line skirts for Jordache jeans and her boat shoes for Chuck Taylors. Brett picks her up on Friday nights and they go together to Byers Field to watch the football games, though neither of them is the rah-rah type, and then they head to Antonio’s for pizza. On Saturdays, they do a few laps around the Parmatown Mall, one of Brett’s hands possessively in the back pocket of Vivi’s new jeans and his other hand holding a cigarette. Sometimes they go to a movie at the mall; sometimes Vivi goes to the high-school parties where Brett’s band is playing. Afterward, they drive around Parma and Seven Hills in Brett’s Buick Skylark playing 100.7 WMMS （the greatest rock station in America, right there in Cleveland） so loud that the soles of Vivi’s shoes vibrate against the dashboard as the crisp Ohio air rushes in through the open windows. They park on State Road Hill or the Canal Road over in Independence and make out. They go to second base; they go to third base. They say, I love you, I love you too, I love you more, I am so in love with you. The feeling is so fresh out of the box, so wondrous, that they believe they are the first people ever to experience this kind of love. They believe they invented it.
Vivi goes with Brett to band practice, which is held in his buddy Wayne Curtis’s garage. Wayne Curtis plays bass, and Roy, who has already graduated, plays the drums. Vivi knows Roy; he has a smart sister in the grade below Vivi.
Wayne and Roy don’t act one way or another when Vivi comes to practice. They mostly ignore her, though once, Roy asks where she’s applying to college, and when she tells him—Duke, UNC, UVA—he whistles.
“Anywhere is fine as long as it’s not here,” Vivi says.
“I hear ya,” Roy says. The band’s name, after all, is Escape from Ohio.
The secret truth is that after Vivi falls in love with Brett, she falls in love with Ohio. With only her guidance counselor’s knowledge, she applies to Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin. She and Brett talk about getting married when they’re in their twenties and moving downtown into a condo with a view of the lake; then, when they have children, they’ll buy a house in Shaker Heights. Their kids will have the same sensible Midwestern upbringing that they’ve had.
At the beginning of November, they go all the way. They’re in the back seat of the Skylark, parked in the woods by the Canal trail entrance, and the key is turned in the ignition just enough to keep the heater blowing its dry hot air. There’s some positioning required, and for a second, it’s like a game of Twister; Vivi feels the ridged vinyl against her bare back, her clothes now mixed with Brett’s in the shallow wells of the car floor. Vivi pulses like a white-hot star. The pleasure and ache of Brett inside of her brings her to tears, and she ends up crying. They are both crying a little, because it’s Brett’s first time as well. And wow. Just…wow.
After Vivi’s father dies in February, Brett writes her a song. It’s called “Golden Girl,” and at first, Vivi is confused by the title because she has very long, very dark hair. But once she hears the lyrics, she realizes the golden is metaphorical. Vivi is Brett’s golden girl; she’s his sunshine, his light, his treasure, his prize. She’s the fire in his eyes.
Vivi would have loved the song even if it stunk—but she can tell it’s good. Very good. Maybe even good enough to be played on WMMS.
With Vivi’s father gone, Brett Caspian becomes everything to her. He’s her sword and shield, her security blanket, her therapist, her best friend. His love is her oxygen. She will do whatever she must in order to keep him.