Arianna Smith's Arc

Chapter 8 of 23

The front doors opened before Arianna reached them. Kylie stood in the frame, black hair falling to red tips, arms crossed but eyes curious. Arianna had loved this woman through songs and letters for years. Now the real Kylie watched her drip cold air onto the marble floor. Arianna's heart pounded. This was the moment she could ruin everything by acting like the obsessed fan she had always been. "You walked," Kylie said. Her voice was flatter than in interviews. "The gate camera showed you at the road. Most people would've texted an excuse." "My car ran out of gas," Arianna said. "I didn't want to lie to you." She almost added that she'd walked a mile in the cold just to breathe Kylie's air. She swallowed the words. They sounded like the letters. They sounded like too much. Kylie led her inside. A pool glittered through tall windows. Palm trees leaned against the glass. Arianna's shoes squeaked on the floor. She reached for her bag to change into the red outfit she'd packed, then stopped. The old her would have dressed up to please Kylie. She left the bag closed. "I read your letters," Kylie said suddenly. She sat on a low couch and studied Arianna. "All of them. Years of them. I never wrote back because I didn't know what to say to someone who loved a picture of me." Arianna's face burned. Here it was. The truth she'd feared. "I did love a picture," she said. "For a long time. I sent you a big valentine card once. I wrote it like you were a prize I could win." Kylie's jaw tightened. She'd been betrayed before. Arianna could see her deciding whether this was more of the same. "But the song wasn't about the picture," Arianna went on. Her hands shook the old way. She let them shake. "'Return to Sender' was about mailing my heart out and getting silence back. That's real. I don't know the real you. I only know I stopped writing to a poster and started writing the truth." The room went quiet. Kylie leaned forward. The crossed arms fell open. "Nobody says that to me," Kylie said softly. "Everyone here wants something. My best friend wanted my boyfriend." She almost laughed, then didn't. "You just told me you don't know me. That's the first honest thing anyone's said in this house all year." Arianna breathed. "Then let me know you. The real one. Not the poster." Kylie stood. She walked to a piano near the window and lifted the lid. "Studio's downstairs," she said. "But sit. Play me something first. Not for the contest. For me." Arianna sat. Her cold fingers found the keys. She was no longer a fan at the gate. She was a girl Kylie had invited to stay. The distance between them had shrunk to one bench, and Kylie had made the room on it.