Arianna Smith's Arc

Chapter 4 of 23

A week passed, and Arianna's song stopped climbing. She sat at her kitchen table in the cottage, string lights glowing outside the window. Her fancy phone showed the same number all morning. Two hundred shares, then two hundred still. She refreshed the contest leaderboard. The top demo had gained a thousand more. Purr-cy jumped up and knocked her phone flat. "I posted it," she said. "That was supposed to be enough." It wasn't. A song sitting on a page nobody visited helped no one. She needed strangers to keep finding her. She thought about why people shared the leader. That fan had a face. A real person, laughing, singing along. Arianna had only posted a swirl of colors and a link. She had hidden again, even while trying to be seen. Her stomach twisted. She looked at her closet. The red shirt hung there, the one with the bold girl who never hid. Arianna made a decision. She would show her own face. She would film herself singing the song she wrote about loving Kylie. She changed into a red outfit, sharp and simple. She fixed her hair up and slid in one red earring. She put on her red glasses and looked in the mirror. Her hands shook, but she stood up straight. "I don't want to hide anymore," she told the cat. She propped the phone against a stack of books. She pressed record. She sang the first line about a letter mailed and never answered. Her voice cracked. She stopped, deleted it, and started again. Purr-cy watched from the counter. On the fourth try, she stopped worrying about being perfect. She just sang the truth. When she finished, tears sat on her cheeks. She wiped them and hit post before she could think twice. Then she waited. The first hour brought ten likes. Arianna set the phone down and cleaned the kitchen so she wouldn't stare. When she picked it up again, the number had jumped. People were commenting. "Your face when you sing this, I felt it." "Shared with everyone I know." The video moved faster than the link ever had. By night, strangers were reposting her singing across their own pages. Her share count doubled, then tripled. She finally had an audience that was hers. Arianna refreshed the leaderboard one last time. Her demo had climbed into second place. The gap to the leader had shrunk by half. She covered her mouth and laughed. Then a notification slid across the screen. It was a message request, and the little icon showed a black-and-red haired singer she knew by heart. The verified account belonged to Kylie Cantrall. Arianna's thumb hovered over it. Kylie had watched the video. Kylie had reached out. And Arianna had no idea what those words would say.