A few minutes later, Wyatt and I were seated at the baby grand piano on stage. I rested my head on his shoulder as he began to play our song. A hush fell over the stadium and lighters and cellphones flicked to life in the crowd. As the chords to Bent filled the air, I didn’t think my heart could ever be fuller.
But then Wyatt looked at me, his eyes so full of love and even more passion sparked through me. I harnessed it and began to sing. The words had so much more meaning now that I was singing them to the man that would soon be my husband.
I closed my eyes and let the music flow through me, wondering if my seventeen-year-old-self had even truly known what these lyrics meant. I’d grown so much in the past few years. But one thing had remained the same—I was irrevocably in love with Wyatt Nash.
And this moment was proof that one song really could change your life.
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Kissing the Player by Maggie Dallen
Kissing the Hero by Christina Benjamin
Kissing the Debutant by Michelle MacQueen & Ann Maree Craven
Kissing the Shy Guy by Stephanie Street
Kissing The Debutant
Michelle MacQueen & Ann Maree Craven
1
Lillian
Ballet was a language completely foreign to the average observer, but Lillian Preston understood little else.
Arabesque, battement, echappé… these words made sense to her, they had meaning.
Friendships, motherly affection, love… not so much.
“Keep going,” Lillian’s dance teacher, Katrina, called from the front of the room. “I don’t want to see those heels touch the ground. Turn, use the strength of those calves.”
Around Lillian, kids her age whined about the pain. They groaned and grunted, not recognizing how this would make them better. She understood. It was why she couldn’t stop.
Lillian Preston had to be the best.
If she wasn’t the best, then who was she?
She dipped down toward the floor, brushing her fingertips against the pale wood while her left leg stretched out behind her, turned out, as she balanced on the ball of her right foot, also perfectly turned out.
None of this was hard if you put in the work. She didn’t understand why her classmates couldn’t see that, why they didn’t just quit if they weren’t good enough. Lillian had never met a task she couldn’t accomplish, a skill she couldn’t master with enough practice.
Whether it was bounding across the private dance studio at her home in Lexington, Kentucky or even the schoolwork at her exclusive boarding school in Southern Ohio, she never quit, never let good be good enough.
Katrina clapped her hands. “Okay, we’re done for today. I’ll see you all on Wednesday.”
Lillian lowered her leg and straightened as the rest of the class filed out. Most of them were friends. They’d been in the same dance classes since they were kids. When Lillian started at Defiance Academy three years ago, she didn’t know it would mark her in this town, that they’d make assumptions based on the school she attended. Private school kids didn’t belong outside their high walls, a fact the public school kids at the dance studio never let her forget.
Riverpass, Ohio was connected to the town of Twin Rivers, but the only similarity was their proximity to Defiance Falls and the rivers that converged there.
Twin Rivers was what Lillian expected most towns in the US to resemble. There were middle-class families, and white collar and blue-collar families. Their kids attended the local public schools.
But Riverpass… highlighted by the stone walls of Defiance Academy, it had become a beacon of elitism and privilege. Even those benefiting from the designation could see that.
Famous people, diplomats, and the extraordinarily wealthy sent their kids to the academy to keep them safe.
Which was why Lillian needed to return to campus before her gate pass expired. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to go back. Students weren’t allowed to leave campus except in special circumstances—like if their mother threatened the school to allow her daughter to attend dance classes Defiance Academy didn’t offer. No one crossed Daria Preston and got away with it.
“Lillian.” Katrina crossed the room, a kind smile on her face. The young dance teacher was the only person in this class who bothered to speak to Lillian like she was one of them and not some alien sent from the land of disgusting wealth.
“Hello.” Lillian busied herself rummaging through her bag for her water bottle. “Did you need something?”
Katrina’s smile widened like it always did when she thought Lillian was amusing, like something in a zoo. “I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
Lillian sighed. It was exhausting having someone care about her. She wasn’t used to it. But maybe she owed Katrina something, some bit of knowledge that Lillian appreciated her. “I went to the orientation.”
Yep, that would do it.
Katrina’s eyes lit up. “For the Northeast Regional Scholarship for the Dramatic Arts? Lillian, that’s wonderful.”
Her mother wouldn’t find it wonderful, not during debutant season. Lillian shrugged. “I still don’t know if I’ll have time.”
“You can make time. It’s for a college scholarship. This competition is a big deal.”
“I don’t need a scholarship.” It was partially true. She could go to any college she wished. Her mother had connections through her social life in Lexington to most major Ivies. And money was never an issue. But if Lillian wanted to go to college, she’d have to talk her mother into it. Daria Preston had a one-track mind when it came to her daughter’s future, and that future was with the American Ballet Company in New York City. Anything less equaled failure in her mother’s eyes.
And if she didn’t convince her mom? A scholarship would be pretty darn essential. But she knew how people would view a girl like her saying she wanted a scholarship.
Katrina gave her a look full of pity. “Competitions are about more than money, Lillian.”
She remembered everything Katrina had told her before. Competitions were about inner strength just as much as outside validation. Confidence and self-worth. All of which Katrina obviously thought Lillian lacked. “I know I’m good.” She dropped her water bottle back into her bag. “I don’t need other people telling me it’s so.”
Katrina put a hand on her shoulder, and Lillian fought the urge to shrug her off. She wasn’t a touchy-feely person, probably because she couldn’t remember the last time her mom even hugged her. “You are a brilliant dancer, Lillian. The best student I have ever had. I won’t pretend to think I have anything to teach you about ballet, but maybe it isn’t confidence you need, but something else.”
“What?”
“I don’t think you’ll learn the answer to that question until you step outside your comfort zone, and this competition could provide you with that opportunity.”