Arianna Smith's Arc

Chapter 13 of 23

The comments kept coming. Kylie stared at her phone, thumb frozen over the old name that strangers kept tagging. Arianna watched her face close up, the way it had the first day at the gate. The song they'd built together was pulling Kylie back toward the person who'd hurt her most. Arianna wanted to reach for her hand. But she didn't know how to show what she felt without breaking the fragile trust between them. Kylie set the phone down. "She wants me to say the collaboration was a mistake," she said. "That's what all this is. She wants proof I still care what she thinks." Her voice stayed flat, but her hands shook. Arianna knew a hug would feel like too much. A confession would sound like a fan again. She had spent years pouring love into letters that got no answer. Now the real Kylie sat two feet away, and Arianna still didn't have the right words. So she stopped looking for words. She walked to the counter and picked up the plaque a fan had carved. The wooden note read: A new song for Kylie, from Arianna. She carried it back and set it on the piano, beside the trust ornament Kylie had placed there weeks ago. "I can't fix the comments," Arianna said. "I can't make her stop. But I can write you something that's only yours. Not for the contest. Not for the label. No one shares it. No one votes on it." She sat at the keys. "Just you." Kylie looked at the plaque, then at Arianna. "Play it." "I don't have it yet." Arianna's face went hot. "I'll write it right now. If you stay." Kylie put her phone face-down. She sat beside Arianna on the bench. "Okay." Arianna played the first chord. She didn't hide behind distance this time. She sang plain and slow about a girl who read every letter and never answered, and a girl who kept writing anyway. She sang that she wasn't asking Kylie to trust her fast. She sang that she'd wait as long as it took. When she stopped, the room was quiet. Kylie's eyes were wet. "That's the love letter," she said. "The one you sent me years ago. I never wrote back because I didn't believe anyone meant it." "I meant it," Arianna said. "I still do." Kylie reached over and touched the plaque. Then she touched Arianna's hand on the keys. She didn't pull away. "I believe you now," she said. Arianna's heart raced. She had finally shown her love without a stage, a contest, or a screen. Kylie knew, and Kylie had stayed. Then Kylie's phone buzzed again on the piano. She turned it over. It wasn't the old friend this time. It was the label. The message read: We need to talk about you and Arianna. Publicly. Tomorrow.