Kiss After the Spotlight
She’s the scandal—and the one who makes my heart race.On awards night, the auditorium lights blew out and the livestream spun out of control. Emmy Carter was called to the stage by mistake—instantly becoming the laughingstock of the whole school and the internet.Rumors, clipped footage, and anonymous posts shoved her into the eye of the storm: some wanted her canceled, some milked her for clicks, and others packaged the “truth” into yet another show.01 I was born in the heat of summer, yet I never had summer’s warmth.
Quiet, the kind of girl people called “good.” I figured I would drift through high school without a ripple.The heat pressed on the rooftops.
Maybe summer should be taken seriously. The bus stop was empty except for me.I raised a hand against the harsh sun and told myself, I have always walked alone, I should be used to it, it’s not a big deal.A city bus pulled in. I stepped on.
A group of students hopped off the back with canvases in their arms, laughing as they went.I looked over at them and thought, So she paints too, that bus stop must be lively now.
The farther the bus rolled, the more my thoughts wandered.One of the girls wasn’t striking, but she was quietly pretty.
I noticed her for the first time on the podium at our school’s awards night.She wore a white dress and the lightest makeup, her natural waves framing her face.
I stood beside her, close enough to catch a faint, fresh-green scent like cut grass.Maybe it was the lights, but she seemed luminous.
Maybe it was her bright smile, warming the air around us. I remembered only her.I didn’t know why. I only knew I envied how easily she moved through a crowd, how friends gathered around her, how she seemed to glow wherever she went.I thought we were parallel lines, never crossing.
It never occurred to me the lines might tilt one day and give us a point in common.The school needed a pair of backing vocalists for a competition, and they chose the two of us.The day we heard, she came over and said, “Are you free tonight? Let’s grab dinner with a few of my friends from the music program. Bring your friends too, I’m paying.”I teased, “Buying me dinner already?”
She smiled. I didn’t say no. Maybe I couldn’t.That night I went alone, and from her friends I learned she had studied art for six years, winning contests again and again, prize money included.We talked about her, then about me. She spoke as if she had known me forever.
She introduced me, “This is Emmy, pretty, right? Her technique is first-rate, and her grades are great too.”
“Everyone here is from our school, make yourself at home.”“Yeah, Emmy’s really pretty.”“I remember now, the girl who played piano at the last awards night was Emmy, right?”“Right, I heard she’s won a bunch of prizes. That true, Em?”“She’s on the school honor roll too!”“...”With all the chatter around me, I stole a glance at her side.
Ava was smiling at me, and something in my chest went warm.Ever since that awards night, I’d wanted to sing backup with her.
I just never thought I’d really get the chance.During rehearsal we clicked without trying, and the teacher said we had great chemistry.
I smiled her way, then turned and realized she’d been smiling at me for a while. It felt like getting caught every time I looked up and found her eyes on me.On the day of the performance, backstage, I asked, “Are you nervous?”She asked back, “Are you?”Of course I was. It wasn’t just a competition, it was our first time singing together.I didn’t answer. She took my hand and looked at me, focused and steady.
She said, “It’s okay. I’m with you. We’ll sing together more after this, on stage and off, in front of people and behind the scenes. How about it, do you want that?”I nodded. My thoughts were a mess.Then she smiled again. Every time she did, a string inside me thrummed, and it took a while to settle.Her voice was clear and weightless, and she wore another white dress.
She looked almost unreal, like she’d stepped out of a dream.I had secretly pictured a wedding with no groom and two brides standing in an auditorium.
Maybe it would look exactly like this.I knew we weren’t like everyone else, so I didn’t want to play the good girl anymore.
We were lucky. Our parents understood and just reminded us to keep up with school.Later, when we talked about it, I found out she had noticed me even earlier than I’d noticed her.From the freshman welcome speech to the awards night, to that almost-meeting at the bus, to our first duet, all the way to now.I found out our first photo together was something she asked a friend to take that night.
I found out that after the bus near-miss, I wasn’t the only one who turned back.
I found out she didn’t invite people to dinner the first day she met them—except me.She lit the fuse.
I was born in summer, so maybe I was always meant to burn. My high school years would boil, not lie still.
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