Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 17 of 78

The porch light was still on when Kylie carried two mugs of tea upstairs. The drone was gone, but her mother's plane was three hours out. Arianna sat on the edge of the bed, the puppy asleep against her hip. Kylie set the mugs on the dresser and said the thing she had been chewing on since midnight. "We haven't decided what we're actually going to tell her." Arianna looked up. "I thought we were telling her the truth." "The truth has ten versions." Kylie sat cross-legged on the rug. "How we met. When I gave you the key. Whether you slept here. If she hears one thing from us and a different thing from the label, we're done before breakfast." "Then we write it down," Arianna said. "Same words. Both of us." Kylie pulled a notepad from the drawer. On the shelf above the desk sat a small wooden ornament shaped like an arched bridge, a blank scroll carved into its middle. Her grandmother had given it to her the year she started writing songs. Find the words, then cross. Kylie had not thought about it in years. She lifted it down and set it between them on the rug. "Rules," Kylie said. "Nothing we can't defend if she asks a follow-up. Nothing that makes you look like a stranger. Nothing that makes me look like I was hiding you." Arianna nodded. Kylie started writing. One. A songwriter wrote her a letter. She wrote back after reading it. Two. They met at the estate her mother already knew about. Three. She invited Arianna to the house on Friday, with her mother's knowledge. Four. They are dating. Five. Arianna has a key because Kylie asked her to have one. She read it out. Arianna took the pen and added a sixth line. "Six. I am not going anywhere." Kylie stopped. "You want me to say that to my mother." "I want you to be able to." Kylie wrote it down. Her hand did not shake this time. She tore the page in half and gave one side to Arianna. "Memorize it. If she splits us up to ask questions, we say the same five things." "Six," Arianna said. "Six." Headlights swept the driveway an hour early. Kylie went to the window. A black car. Not a taxi, not the label. Her mother's driver. Her mother had come straight from the airport. Kylie's stomach dropped. She turned back. Arianna was already folding her half of the paper into her pocket, one hand on the puppy, the other reaching for Kylie's. "She's here," Kylie said. "We go down together." Arianna stood. "Together." Kylie left the small wooden bridge on the rug and started down the stairs.