Arianna Smith's Arc

Chapter 5 of 23

The message sat unopened all night. Arianna woke on the couch, her fancy phone still in her hand. The little icon glowed at the top, the black-and-red hair she knew by heart. Kylie Cantrall had written to her. Purr-cy stepped across her chest and stared with crossed blue eyes. "I know," Arianna whispered. "I have to open it." She tapped it. The words were short. "Your song wrecked me. Nobody has ever put it like that. Who are you?" Arianna's chest tightened. She started typing fast. "I can't believe you messaged me!!! I've loved you forever, I've sent you so many letters, I have your whole EP memorized—" She stopped. Her thumb hovered over send. She read it back and felt sick. That was every letter she had ever mailed. The love letter Kylie never answered. The Valentine card. Years of gushing that got buried and ignored. If she sent this, Kylie would see one more screaming fan. Just another face in the crowd. Arianna deleted the whole thing. The screen went blank. Purr-cy knocked a pen off the table and chased it. Arianna watched him and thought about the song. She had climbed the leaderboard by telling the truth, not by copying anyone. Kylie hadn't asked for a fan. Kylie had asked who she was. She read Kylie's message again. "Your song wrecked me." A woman who wrote a whole EP about being betrayed. A woman who put her own heartbreak on a record for strangers. Kylie didn't need worship. She needed someone who understood. Arianna sat up straight. She started over. "I'm the girl who mailed you letters for years and never heard back," she typed. "I stopped writing to you and wrote about that instead. Return to Sender is what it felt like to love someone who never wrote back. I'm glad it reached you. I'm Arianna." She read it three times. No exclamation points. No begging. Just the truth, the way she sang it. Her hand shook the same way it did before she hit record. She sent it. The three dots appeared right away. They stopped. They started again. Arianna held her breath and pressed the cat against her chest. Kylie's reply came. "Wait. Those were YOUR letters? I read every one. I never knew what to say back. I'm sorry." Then another line slid up under it. "Can we talk? Not typing. My team is setting up a call for the top contest artists this week. I want you on it. I want to hear your voice again." Arianna stared. The starstruck fan had vanished from the message thread. In her place stood a songwriter Kylie wanted to meet. Arianna set the phone down and looked at the red shirt hanging in the open closet. "She wants to hear me," Arianna said. Purr-cy purred against her. The letters had finally reached her. Now Arianna had to face her.