Tuesday, June 21
Attend a professional sports game.
Kale surprises me on Tuesday with tickets to see the Los Angeles Dodgers play.
I don’t really know much about baseball. Kale and Jason played when they were in high school and I went to a few games, but I mostly went so I could film stuff. I wanted to make my life look cooler than it was. Mostly, I sat on the bench by my parents with my MacBook, editing videos. I was such a loser back then. To be honest, I’m not much “cooler” now. I still have my vlogging camera out. Kale and I are recording a lot of footage, eating a lot of food and talking. We’re hardly even watching the game.
“Who is winning?” I ask.
Kale laughs. “The scoreboard is there.”
“So, we’re winning then. Cool,” I say.
“Which side are you on?”
“I guess the LA team. Since we live here, we have to represent.”
“Wow, Juliet. Maybe you should’ve watched me play baseball in high school instead of sitting on your laptop,” he says.
“Hey, I did pay attention whenever Jason or you stepped up to bat,” I say. “You looked good in those tight baseball pants. I thought you were hot back then. You know, in a he’s my brother’s best friend, so he’s completely off limits kind of way.”
He just shakes his head at me. “So, now that you’re here, what do you think?”
“Well, I think baseball is a bit boring, to be honest. But I am having fun hanging out with you,” I answer. “They have pretty good vegan food. I’m surprised they even have vegan food at a baseball stadium.”
“This is Los Angeles. What did you expect?”
“True,” I say. There is vegan food everywhere around here. I’ve even been to a few raw vegan places. They’re good, but I like rice and potatoes way too much to become a raw vegan.
“So, there is a music festival going on in Miami this weekend. I got us tickets and was able to delay our hotel reservations until this weekend,” he says.
“Delay our reservation?”
“Well, I had already paid for the room when your doctor asked us to come back,” he explains. “I was wondering if you felt up to going. I figured you could cross two things off your list.”
“Two things?” I ask. “I mean, what else besides attend a music festival.”
“Crowd surf,” he answers, with a huge grin on his face.
“Do you really think I’ll be able to crowd surf?”
“Definitely.”
“I got a few companies to sponsor our trip,” he says. “We have to eat at this one restaurant in Miami while we’re there. And they do have vegan options. We have to do a few other things, but it’s easy.”
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Yeah. Now that you have over three million subscribers, you’ve been getting a lot of attention,” Kale says. “Your email is blowing up.”
I hate checking my email. I always have, but I have to keep it checked for my business. Since my diagnosis, Kale has had his mom help me. She was an office manager for twenty years. She handles Kale’s business side of things. She’s always getting him sponsors.
“Do you think your mom would let me pay her?” I ask.
“No way. My parents love helping us,” he says. “In fact, my parents have been texting me about wanting to get us an apartment. They say your studio apartment is too small.”
“I don’t want your parents to pay for a place for us to live. We do fine. I live in a small apartment, I save money, which really isn’t doing any good now, and we’ve spent the last few weeks traveling,” I say. “The money that I have saved, when I die, it’s yours. Use it for my funeral or whatever else you need. My car is paid off.”
“You paid off your car?” he asks. “Didn’t you just get that car two months ago?”
I nod. “I didn’t want to be in debt. So I saved money and paid in cash for it.”
“Juliet, that’s awesome. You’re only nineteen,” he says. “I’ve been doing well with my mom’s help, but there is no way I could’ve done it on my own. You’re really good with the whole business side of things.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I think you could do it, too. You’re smart. And I learned everything from your mom. I wanted to move to LA right after graduation, but she encouraged me to wait. I went to college that one semester to make my parents happy. Plus, I had that scholarship. It was good that I tried it out. But school just wasn’t for me. I’m glad I dropped out.”
“College isn’t for everybody. Your brother did well. And Miranda,” he says.
Miranda and Jason met at college. Miranda is a teacher. Jason has a degree in social work. He’s going to start his job in September. Somebody is retiring and he’s taking over their old position. He’s working there part time while he’s being trained. The two of them are perfect for each. They both want to stay in Idaho and live the American dream—nice house, 2.5 kids, a mini-van and maybe even a puppy.
Kale and I are perfect for each other because neither of us are happy with ordinary. Not that what they are is ordinary. The two of them are some of the best people I’ve ever known.
“You are the reason why I dropped out of college, you know,” Kale says. “I was miserable. I knew that college wasn’t what I wanted. You inspired me to start a YouTube channel when you started yours. If it wasn’t for you, I would probably be working a miserable 9-5 job.”
“Good,” I say, smiling. “I’m glad my weirdness could inspire you.”
“You’re not weird, Juliet.”
“Everybody made fun of me during school. I didn’t have any friends,” I admit. “After you and Jason graduated, it got real bad. Nobody messed with me while you two were there, because they knew you guys would put a stop to it. But once you weren’t there to protect me... well, they made up for lost time.”
“I didn’t know,” he says. “If I had known, I would’ve done something.”
“I didn’t want to tell anybody,” I say. “It was embarrassing. But at the same time, I just didn’t care. It didn’t matter what they thought, because I was happy with what I was doing.”
People stand up to cheer. I see a guy running the bases, but I still am not sure what’s going on.
“I wish you had told me.”
I shrug. “It’s okay. I like who I am. It’s not my fault they don’t like me.”
“That’s why I look up to you so much. In high school, I would’ve been too afraid to start a YouTube channel,” Kale says.
“I didn’t tell anybody. One of the girls at school found out and told everybody. They all made fun of me. When senior year started, I had over one hundred thousand subscribers and was starting to get brand deals and make money off the ads. So, while they were all working at fast food restaurants, I was making money doing what I loved. They started leaving me alone after that,” I say.
“I don’t understand,” he says. “You’re gorgeous. I was jealous of all the guys I figured would be taking you on dates while I was away at college.”
I shrug. “I don’t think any of the guys thought I was cute.”
“Yeah right. They were probably afraid of you,” Kale says.
“Afraid of me?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Because you’re too pretty,” he explains. “When I look at you, I see your beauty. But it’s more than that. You have this confidence about you that is super sexy. The guys probably thought you’d turn them down.”
“Me? Confident?” I shake my head. “Not even. I’m one of the most insecure people I know. I just fake it for the camera.”
“I’m just saying what I see,” he says.
YouTube has given me a lot of confidence that I didn’t have before. When people recognize me on the streets, it always boosts my ego. Not that it happens that often. But I think every girl needs confidence in herself. That was why I started making videos to begin with. I was fifteen, with hardly any friends, a low self–esteem, and way too much time on my hands. The first few videos that I uploaded, which are now marked private, were awful. I gained maybe one hundred followers in the first six months. But then I jumped from one hundred to one thousand in just a few weeks. And it just kept building from there. Most of my demographic is young girls, and I hope that I can make a difference in their lives.
Then again, being married to Kale is probably my biggest confidence booster. He and Jason were always really popular in school. All the girls always wanted to date them. And I always thought Kale was cute. I never thought in a million years that I would be married to him.
I’m lucky.