Page 73 of The Summer of Christmas

“Montalbano pool party bad.” Nick smiled. They both remembered the party in high school that got way out of control. “Everyone was pretty toasted last night. I’m sure no one remembers anything.”

Ivy knew that wasn’t true. She lingered for a moment. “Thank you for taking care of me.” Nick smiled. Nodded. Then Ivy stepped out of the truck. He pulled away. She walked like Cersei Lannister inGame of Thronestoward the door.Shame. Shame.

Inside the house, her parents said hello as if everything was normal. No one said anything else to her. She found Griffin in the living room, playing video games.

“And there she is. Our new star.”

“How bad was it?”

“Sometimes bad is good. All subjective. About ten thousand people thought it was the greatest thing ever seen. Rumor isEntertainment Tonightbought the video.”

“Video? What video? I haven’t seen anything,” Ivy replied. “I lost my phone.”

Griffin reached over to the coffee table. “You left this at the bar when you decided to go supernova.”

Ivy turned on her phone. There were over one hundred texts that started popping up:CALL ME. WHAT THE HECK. YOU ROCK IT. CRAZY.AnotherCALL MEfrom Drew. AWTFfrom Vera.WHERE ARE YOU?from Drew.WE NEED TO TALK, NOW.And many more.

“This is not good,” Ivy said. Griffin continued playing his video game. The conversation was punctuated with booms from the racing game.

“No, it’s not.”

“Can you put down the game, Griffin?”

“In a sec, going for my high score,” he added, into hisMariorace.

“What happened?”

Griffin wasen fuegoas the gamers said. Locked in. “You went one on one with Christmas Karaoke, upstaged Amari, sang a lot better than she ever will, and then she had to watch as Nick—the object of both your desires—carried you away to God knows where.”

Ivy was agape. Watching the game as Griffin crashed and burned. “You should look at the video.”

She found the video. There she was on stage, out-singing Amari, outing Amari’s singing voice as fake.

“This is really much worse than the Montalbano pool party.”

Ivy had a plan. She would ignore all texts. She would be the first person on the set the next morning, find Amari, and apologize. From there the dominoes would fall—Drew, then Vera. She should have let Amari win the Karaoke. Not Nick. He was too good for her, and she had a suspicion Amari was manipulating him. But this wasn’t about Nick. It was about making sure the “you’ll never work in this town again” Hollywood threat did not come for her.

***

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” The gaffers sang as Ivy walked into the high school gym, being rigged for the day’s filming. The crew was slowly filing in. No sign of Vera. No sign of Drew. No sign of Amari. Ivy found the three Ivys being fitted for the final scenes which would be filmed in five days. Ivy decided to play it normal, as if the Christmas Karaoke was no big deal. It was just girls having fun. She greeted the three Ivys. “Good morning, girls.”

“We’re not supposed to talk to you,” the youngest Ivy sniped.

“Who told you that?” They did not respond. Olivia and Ella showed up on the set; they also ignored Ivy.

“Olivia? Ella? Hi, how are you?” No response. “Have you seen Amari?”

“We’re not supposed to talk to you either,” Ella finally said.

Ivy went and found some coffee. Drew and Vera would be here soon. The scene was coming to life. The set looked amazing. She was supposed to be happy. On top of the world. But here she was worried and scared. She wondered if she had ruined her career. More crew passed her. Laughing. Singing more “Hallelujah”!

“Cut it out with the singing!” Vera snapped. Ivy rushed to her.

“Vera, do you have a minute?” she asked.

Vera glared. “I’ve got a movie to make, Ivy. And you are really trying to screw it up. Amari is in her trailer and won’t come out until you are gone.”

“Let me talk to her…please…”