“Are you Kayla Keller?”
“Yes, thank you.” I signed for the flowers and then hastily took them back inside. A note was attached from my friend, Robert, and I smiled. It said: Good luck tonight. Break a leg. Not really. But you know what I mean.
That was sweet of him. He didn’t have to do it, but then again, he didn’t have to do half the things he did. He was one of the kindest people I knew. He and Daniel worked together before…well…before my world fell apart. When Daniel died, Robert stepped up and was the one person besides my family who was there for me. He was a pillar of support. The kind of guy you didn’t deserve to have as a friend.
I put the roses in a vase and filled it with water and then headed out to my car. Twenty minutes later, I was at the stadium, pulling a small suitcase of items I needed. The outfit I was wearing was already in the dressing room, but I preferred to have my own toiletries so I didn’t have to worry about allergic reactions and such. I walked through the back door with Edmund, the stage manager, and he escorted me down a quiet hallway.
“You look a little flushed,” he said, eyeing me with concern. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” I ran a hand through my long hair and let out a breath. “I’m just nervous.”
“You have nothing to worry about, sweetheart. You’ve got a voice like an angel. If you perform the way you did at the audition, you’ll have the crowd eating out of your hand.”
I smiled uneasily and without thinking, placed my fingers over my upset stomach. “I hope so.”
“You okay, pumpkin? Cause if you’re not, I need to know this minute.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. When the time comes, I’ll pull it together.”
He smiled, seeming relieved at my response. He probably didn’t have a backup plan. “Great.”
We continued walking down the hallway and passed a couple of women, most likely stagehands. They stared at me, curiosity showing on their faces and something else. Annoyance.
“There she is,” one of them whispered. “Don’t know why they picked her when they had so many other good choices. She’s cute, but not as cute as…”
I couldn’t make out the rest, but I’d heard enough. The comment went straight through my gut, wounding me in a matter of seconds. You had to have a strong backbone in this business, and that wasn’t easy. People always had a criticism to dish out, but you couldn’t let it get to you.
They were right, anyway. There had been some amazing singers at that audition, all extremely attractive, but Johnny had chosen me. I squared my shoulders and determined to put their comments out of my head.
“Here we are,” Edmund said, pointing to a small space on the left. “This is your dressing room. I’ll come by in a couple of hours to check on you.” He bit on his bottom lip and looked at me with concern again. “Anything I can get you? Tums? Pepto-Bismol?”
“Thanks, but I won’t need it. Really.”
He looked at me a little harder as if trying to gauge the truthfulness of that statement, and whatever he saw on my face must have convinced him that I wasn’t going to fall apart. “Good girl. I’ll check back later.”
He left, and I closed the door and began unpacking my small suitcase. I had a few hours to get ready, so there was no rush. I looked through the cabinets in the room to see what items were available to me. There was a hairdryer and dozens of bottles full of hair product in one cabinet, and a few vases in another. I assumed the vases were for flowers if I was lucky enough to receive them.
My phone dinged with a text, but I ignored it, wanting to get situated first. A few minutes later, my cell hadn’t stopped pinging. I finally picked it up and saw several texts from my mom and my friend, Verity.
There was a text from Leo as well. Verity had been hounding me for months to go out with him, and I’d finally agreed to get her off my back. She didn’t know him personally but said he was a friend’s brother. I wasn’t ready to move on, but a part of me wanted to test out that theory, so I’d given him a chance. I went on the date with low expectations, but they weren’t low enough, apparently, because it was way worse than I’d thought it would be.
Something about him had made me feel very uncomfortable. I told Verity afterward that he’d seemed off to me, but she had accused me of making excuses because I was having a difficult time moving on. Perhaps she was right. But still… I had no interest in seeing him again. She had meant well. I just didn’t like him.
I hesitantly clicked on Leo’s text. Hey beautiful, I’d like to see you again. How about tomorrow? I’d explained to him at the end of the date that I didn’t feel we were a good match, so either he wasn’t taking no for an answer, or he wasn’t all there upstairs. I had a feeling it was both.
I checked out the other texts while I was at it. Verity’s said: You’ve got this. Mom’s said: Praying for you. So proud of you! I smiled, comforted by their encouragement. My dad had called early this morning while Mom was in the shower, and he’d given me one of his pep-talks. Thinking about it made me smile.
Verity and my parents had wanted to come to the concert to support me, but I needed to do this on my own. I could stand in front of a crowd of strangers and not feel
