Rewound {PTX}

Dinner

~I'm finally back in 2015, and my first order of business is to find Brittany Smiles McSunshineface. Once he got started, Avi would not stop talking about her. I swear his insides have turned to mush. All I wanted was her contact details, not a full description of their upcoming dinner date.

Hmm. Her Twitter hasn't really been active since 2013. I might as well stalk it a little. She seems nice, I guess. She's only following 24 people, and she has nine followers. One of them looks like a Pentaholic. I click on @AviKapStan's avatar, which is a close-up of Avi's beard. If someone like this follows Brittany, she probably knows who we are. That might complicate things.

KapStan's latest pictures are of me, me, Brittany, Avi, Scott, and Brittany. I click on the picture of Brittany. It looks like a selfie. It is a selfie. "THROWBACK TO THE BEST CONCERT EVER," the tweet reads. The people in the background are all wearing Pentatonix merch. AviKapStan is Brittany. Brittany is a die-hard Pentaholic. Wow. This really complicates things.

I present the problem to Scott. "Easy," he laughs.

"Not easy! How am I supposed to get them to date if she's obsessed with him? There is literally no non-awkward way to go about this."

"Can I borrow your phone?"

"I don't trust you."

"Thanks." He snatches my phone away anyway and follows Brittany's fan account. "That should get her attention... cue freak out in five, four, three- oh, look! She's already freaking out! Looks like she's online. Now for phase two."

"Absolutely not. Whatever you're up to, I want no part of it." I grab my phone back and mute Brittany as Scott opens Twitter in his own phone.

"'Fav for a chance...'" he mutters, "'to go on a date with @avi_kaplan. He doesn't know about this yet. Hehe.'"

"You're kidding me."

"You can fav if you want, but you already know who we're gonna pick." Brittany not only favorites the tweet, but replies and retweets for good measure.

"He's going to kill you."

"You would have worried about this for months. Better to just get it over with. I'm DMing what's-her-face. This one, right? Great. What's a good restaurant? How about that Italian place by the thing with the thing? Call Avi and tell him to stay free tonight. Do you think it's too late to book a limo? Do you think Brittany is free? Wait, what if she already has a boyfriend? Let's just hope she likes Avi better."

"Scott!"

"Call Avi. Now."

"I want to go to 2011 and never come back."

"Don't be so embarrassed. If Avi complains, we can just tell him it was his idea."

"Kind of. Are you seriously doing this?"

Scott shrugs and answers his phone on speaker when it starts ringing. "Hey, Jake!"

"Scott Richard Hoying, what on Earth do you think you're doing? You can't just promise a date with Avi and not deliver! I should have taken over your social media accounts ages ago. Listen carefully. Do exactly as I say or there is gonna to be more drama than you can handle. Delete the tweet. Post, 'Avi made me take it down,' with a sadface. Then-"

"Who said I wasn't going to deliver?"

"Wait, really? In that case, hold on while I favorite that tweet."

"Sorry, Jake. We've already picked someone out."

"I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS MADNESS," I interrupt. "DO YOU HEAR, JAKE?"

"Incoming call," Scott announces. "Catch ya later. Avi?"

"Scott. Care to explain why I have two billion Twitter notifications?"

"It was Mitch's idea."

"IT WAS NOT MY IDEA."

"There's this girl he wants you to meet."

"SCOTT I AM GOING TO STICK A DIRTY SOCK IN YOUR MOUTH."

"Yeah? What's her name?" Avi asks.

"Brittany."

"Ooh, @AviKapStan? She's at meet and greet every time we perform in L.A. She's sweet."

Scott smirks and sticks his tongue out at me triumphantly.

"Ugh. Whatever. Let me know when you're getting married, I guess. I can't with you all. And Avi?"

"Yes, Mitch?"

"Please don't leave. I don't want you to go. I want you to stay."

"Mitch, I-"

"You belong with us. Don't leave Pentatonix. I'll miss you too much."

"That's sweet of you."

"I mean it. Please think about it. I would be so so so happy if you stayed. You have no idea. I understand you might not want to, and it's your choice and everything, but I want you to know that you're really, really important to all of us, and to me."

"Thanks. That means a lot."

---

"How much of a disaster was it?" I've been tucked away in my room, trying to avoid feeling awkward for Avi by transcribing the beginnings of a new song from 2011 Pentatonix. I think they're a little self-conscious around me now, knowing how much more experienced I am, but Kevin was brave enough to share something he'd written. It's not polished yet, but we can work on it both in 2011 and 2015. It sounds different from our other music, but I think we can tie it in.

"It was terrible," Scott says, flopping on my bed dramatically. "He literally would not stop talking about her for a solid hour."

"Wait, really? It worked?"

"Oh, it worked. He's obsessed."

"As much as she is? I mean, you saw her Twitter. Who even knows what her Wattpad is like?"

Turns out she does have a Wattpad. Not just a Wattpad, but a Wattpad with 200 followers and eight Kavi fics. We start by skimming through and giggling at the most popular one, but soon we end up reading Scömìche stories and laughing uncontrollably.

"Having fun?" Alex peers in.

"Get in here." I scoot over and type "scomilex" in the search bar.