Robbie was sixteen and didn’t think he’d ever find a girlfriend. He’d been alone for so long that he didn’t even know how to talk to girls. Realistically, he knew he was young and shouldn’t worry about things like that—or so his mom told him—but that didn’t make his heart hurt any less. He saw couples everywhere he looked; shows, movies, the mall, just everywhere.
He wanted a romance like the ones he read about in his favorite sci-fi books. A romance that was intense, cosmic, and full of adventure.
He wondered, “Is real life ever like that?”
He felt like maybe he wasn’t a real man. He didn’t have any talent when it came to sports, or the bulging muscles and crew cut to fake it. He had long, neat brown hair and blue eyes that hid beneath. He was tall and lanky, and his hobbies included writing fantasy stories and reading comic books. He wondered whether a girl would even want to date someone who spent much of his time playing video games or working at the local vintage arcade.
He thought that maybe he was supposed to care about only sex at this age. Why did he want so much more? Perhaps he was too sensitive. He was the geeky neighbor boy. The one who spent all his summers holed up in his room fantasizing about space travel and life on other planets. Did other kids his age care about things like that?
He had a few friends, but they were all guys. Robbie loved his friends, but they were in the same position as him. They were the kids who got ditched in the lunch line and had no choice about it. They were the kids who the teachers called on when no one else knew the answer in class. Most importantly, they were the kids who were still virgins, and everyone knew and mocked them for it.
This was the state Robbie was in when his oldest friend, Tyler, called him up one night.
“Hey, Robbie! Got any plans this weekend?”
“Nah, Ty, I have the weekend off. I figured I’d finish reading ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.”
“Forget about that,” Tyler said.
“You have something else in mind?”
“You want to come to TARDISCon with me and Don? Kegan was called into work. We have an extra ticket now. He said he’d sell it to you for half price. You don’t have to worry about splitting a hotel room either—Don’s brother is working the event and has a room we can crash in. Just bring some blankets.”
Robbie had never been to a sci-fi convention. He’d heard about them, but since he was so shy around strangers, he hesitated to buy tickets every time one came up.
TARDISCon was a convention that centered on the show Doctor Who but also spotlighted other books, movies, and shows. He loved Doctor Who to an insane degree. He’d watched all of the new series as well as the old, more than two-hundred episodes all together.
He ignored his nerves and decided to help out his friend. He said, “Sure, when are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow at four. It’ll take us about an hour to get there.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get a hold of Kegan to pay for the ticket.”
“Don’t worry about that now,“ Tyler said. “You can pay him when we get back. He’s working for the next three days anyway.”
“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow then, Ty.”
He hung up.
What the hell had he just committed to? TARDISCon would be full of people. The convention was hosted at a university. Last year, they almost reached maximum capacity levels because of how many fans showed up.
Robbie was nervous, but his excitement overwhelmed his anxiety.
It was settled. He’d go, and he’d do everything he could to have a damn good time.
Robbie’s dreams that night were filled with visions of flying around in the TARDIS, which is the Doctor’s time and space traveling machine that looks like a blue police telephone box. He saw himself as a companion to the Doctor in these dreams. The two of them traveled galaxy upon galaxy together, defeating all evil that they came upon.
Suffice it to say, Robbie woke up in a wonderful mood the next day. The good mood even held up through all the insults at school. Nothing could destroy it. He was going to be around like-minded people that weekend: he would talk to as many of them as he could, even though it made him sick to his stomach when he thought about it.
Ty and Don arrived at four o’clock to pick him up. As he stood at the edge of his driveway, his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, Robbie could tell just by looking at his friends that they were pumped about the weekend. Ty was dressed in a yellow Star Trek uniform. Don was dressed in a Battlestar Galactica flight suit, the helmet tucked in the backseat with their bags.
Robbie felt horribly underdressed but shrugged it off. He hadn’t had time to make or buy his own costume for the event so he grabbed only his best and most clever t-shirts to pack for the two and a half days he’d be gone. Minecraft Periodic Table? Check. ‘Talk Nerdy to Me’? Double check. And he couldn’t leave for TARDIScon without the cream of the crop: his favorite blue shirt, picturing one of the Doctor’s baddies lazing about, shouting, “Procrastinate!”
After a little more than an hour drive, the boys had made it. They parked, received the key to the nearby hotel room they’d be shacking up in for the weekend, and stood in front of the university.
They saw crowds of people dressed in all types of sci-fi, fantasy, and internet culture costumes. There were people dressed in the outfits that the Doctor wore in his different incarnations. Other people dressed like the humans he took to be his travelling companions. Robbie some even more fans wearing costumes taken from some of his other favorite shows. He laughed, excited, when he saw a couple dressed like Chewbacca and Yoda. It seemed like every show or movie he had ever liked was represented at that gathering.
Walking into the university was mind-blowing. There was such a barrage of lights that Robbie felt blinded.
Once he was in there, he saw a multitude of booths with famous sci-fi stars in them: George Takei, known as Sulu from the original Star Trek; Katee Sackhoff, the woman who played the bad ass Kara Thrace from Battlestar Galactica; and Billie Piper, the Doctor’s first companion in the new Doctor Who series! There were other actors that Robbie couldn’t want to learn which characters they had played.
Robbie scrambled to get autographs. He was so glad he had saved his Christmas money!
The group split up as Ty ran to meet and speak with Neal Stephenson, an author of sci-fi novels, and William Gibson, who Ty gibbered about being “the father of cyberpunk.” Don was primarily concerned with signing up for the next game of Starcraft II or Dungeons & Dragons that was open.
Robbie was by himself, but he was so happy that he didn’t feel anxious about it. The university was too full of interesting things for that.
He sat down in front of a stage where people were re-enacting scenes from Doctor Who episodes using only cardboard props. The whole play was hilarious, and he found himself laughing harder than he ever had in public.
He was laughing so loud that the blonde girl sitting in front of him turned around and looked at him. She was dressed like a high elf from Lord of the Rings.
Robbie immediately felt embarrassed and apologized profusely.
The girl just laughed. She smiled. “I wasn’t annoyed at you,” she said. “I was just happy to see someone else as amused as I am by this.”
Robbie blushed even harder. He said, “I just can’t contain myself. It’s crazy to see people re-enacting this stuff with, like, just the most basic of props.”
“Oh! You should have been here earlier! They had a group from the audience up there playing a game where half the players couldn’t talk.”
Robbie and the girl continued to talk. He learned that her name was Rachel and that she loved fantasy novels and even a few sci-fi ones. She was a big fan of Doctor Who because the show combined sci-fi, romance, and comedy all into one.
Robbie noticed that he didn’t fumble over his words with her. Everything he said came out so smoothly, and there were no awkward pauses in the conversation. It was as if he and Rachel had been friends all of his life. He didn’t feel like he had to put on an act to seem more normal. He and Rachel reveled together in their favorite fandoms and no one was going to tell them they were geeks, or nerds, or dorks for it.
The two spent most of the weekend hanging out, watching different games and promo clips together and hitting up a few of the discussions panels. They even took part in a game of D&D with Don. It was a blast. Robbie didn’t want the weekend to ever end.
When Sunday came, he felt so damn depressed. “Con crash,” Tyler explained when Robbie described it as they packed up their belongings from the hotel room. “It’s hitting you early, my friend.”
He knew he’d have to go back to his normal life, where he was misunderstood and looked down on for his passions. He didn’t want to go back home, and he certainly didn’t want to never see Rachel again.
He thought about telling her this, but he couldn’t find the words. He already felt that after only a few days together, he and Rachel had become close friends. More than that, he was developing feelings for her.
Robbie was dejected, but continued packing his clothes. When Ty and Don were ready to go, he told them he needed to say goodbye to someone first. He caught them exchange a glance: they knew who he meant.
He walked to the hotel room that Rachel shared with one of her friends. He knocked on the door and hung his head.
When Rachel answered the door, she made a noise of excitement. She went to hug him but then stopped. “What’s wrong, Robbie?”
He sighed. “I have to head out, Rachel. I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun with you this weekend.”
Rachel smiled. “Me, too! It was so great to hang out.”
She clasped her hands in front of her and swayed her hips. She grinned wider.
“I mean, I love conventions for this kind of thing. You know, making a new friend who has super similar interests.”
“I feel the same way. “ His heart pounded. Did it ache at Rachel’s admission that she considered him a friend? Maybe a little. He said, “I guess I just wanted to… say goodbye. So… bye, Rachel. Nice meeting you.”
Robbie turned to leave. He had taken two steps down the hallway when he heard Rachel ask, “Just like that, huh?”
He turned back. Before Robbie could think to react, Rachel pulled him close and kissed him.
Robbie felt the blood drain from his face and then quickly heat flashed across his cheeks. His chest welled.
Rachel giggled. She said, “You know I only live a half an hour north from here, right, Robbie?”
“I did not know that.” He smiled and felt a little dumb.
“Well, do you want my number or what, you silly boy?”
They exchanged phone numbers. Robbie left with a huge grin on his face. This had been the best damn weekend of his life, and things were only going to get better!