The Kiss Off (16 page)

“Hi Poppy,” a girl in a white dress with leggings to her shins said as she matched my stride. ‘Hi Poppy’, like we were friends, like we knew each other. We totally didn’t.

“Hi…” I said.

She just dove right in. “So is it true you’re going out with Ty from Academy of Lies?” She held up the magazine, specifically pointing the picture of us smooching. She didn’t even wait for an answer. “You are
so
lucky. When’s he coming back to town, are they doing any shows here? Do you think you could get us in?”

“Do I even know you?” I said.

She floundered for a moment, opened her mouth a couple of times, blinked and her composure came rushing back. “Duh, it’s me, silly. Ava,” she said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “We’ve only been going to the same school for two years, but it’s okay, I forgive you.”

I grimaced. She looked like a senior, or a junior. How did I know her? Or maybe…was she a really mature sophomore I’d never noticed existed?

“So what’s Ty like, anyway?” she said. “He’s so hot. Is he as hot in person as he is on TV? I bet he is, huh. How did you meet him?”

I didn’t know how to deal with this. Yes, I may have been dating him, yes he was just as hot in person though with less attitude than in the music video, and how did we meet? Did she really think I was going to tell the story of how a dog tried to rape my leg to a complete random? How was any of it her business?

“Because you’re in a magazine and your life isn’t yours anymore,” Vanya said as we stood on the sideline at her hockey practice after school that afternoon. “It’s public now and people feel like they have a right to know the details and bitch about your mistakes.” We watched her teammates run drills and whack the ball up the field. “Not that you’ve made any mistakes, I’m just saying.”

“This sucks,” I said, kicking at the grass. “Is this what being famous feels like? Like everyone’s talking about you and you don’t know if they’re saying you rock or like, you’re a giant slut? And you constantly feel like you must have a giant booger hanging out of your nose or food in your teeth?” I ran my tongue in front of my teeth for the hundredth time that day, just to be sure.

“I don’t know,” Vanya shrugged. “I guess so.” She leaned down and hitched up her tube socks. I took her hockey stick from her and gave her shin guards a light thump.

“Well it sucks,” I said, handing the stick back.

“Hang in there, Poppy. You’re not the famous one, he is. They’ll forget about you soon enough, don’t you think?”

“I hope so. You know I used to want to be a rock star.”

“I know.”

“Stupid. Think I’ll just stick to song writing.”

The soccer coach blew her whistle. “Vanya!” she yelled, waving her hands over her head. Someone was in trouble.

“Good idea. I better get back to practice,” Vanya said. I looked past her and sure enough, there was a huddle of girls on the pitch watching us.

“Yeah, sorry, go. It looks like they’re waiting for you.” Vanya turned around and saw them, then turned back to me with a sympathetic smile.

“Well, they are, but they’re not looking at me right now,” she said. “They’re looking at you.”

I closed my eyes and grimaced. Of course they were. “You free to come over later and film a couple of songs?” I asked.

“I can, but are you sure you want to? What with this whole fifteen minutes of fame thing.”

“PoppyLongStocking is about me. It’s not about anything else - definitely not about fame. I have two new songs that I want to put up. I haven’t uploaded a video in a while.”

“Okay, I’ll come by later.”

***

Later after a dinner in which Bex had had a screaming tantrum and nearly deafened us all, her blood curdling wails reaching front-row-music-festival levels, and after Van had come over and we’d set up the camcorder and recorded and uploaded “This Little Doggie” and “Let’s Talk About Sext”, and after I had spent an hour studying for my Geography test that was the next day, after I gave up in frustration, accepting that I wouldn’t be impressing anyone with my marks when the test came back, around the time I decided to give up and just go to bed already, Ty called.

“Hey you,” he said. I could hear him smiling.

“Hey yourself,” I said back.

“I see you’ve been writing.”

I smiled. “Indeed I have.”

“Interesting video.”

“You like the one about the house wrecking stray dog that I now call my own, do you?”

“Actually yes, I do. I’m glad you still have him, he’s kind of special, you know?”

“Oh, he’s ‘special’ alright,” I laughed.

“You know what I mean, he’s special to us, he kind of introduced us, don’t you think?” I broke out in a huge grin, but couldn’t say anything. I knew he’d be able to hear it if I did. That was so sweet, so sentimental, so unboy-like.

I forced the smile off my face. “Yeah, I guess he did.”

“Though you have to give him a better name than Poo Bum, for real.”

“We’re working on it.”

“Anyway, I wasn’t calling about
that
interesting video,” he said, the flirty smile back in his voice.

“Oh no?” I asked, like I had no idea what he could possibly be talking about.

“This sexting thing of which you sing,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of it. I need some more information.”

“Uh huh, how so?”

“I think I need to see one, to see what they look like,” he said. “You know, so that I can make up my mind about whether I am for or against sexts. Whatever they are.”

“You wish you were so lucky,” I said.

He laughed. “Well, it was worth a shot. Hey, have you seen Star?”

“Yes – and so has my entire school.”

“You’re famous, kid.”

“Yeah, how are you coping with it? The whole fame thing? I’m just getting stared at a lot and strangers come up to me wanting me to get them into your show sometime.”

“It’s completely surreal here,” he said. “I went to a mall around here with Archie and there was this mob of about ten girls. When they saw us, you’d think we had machetes or something, they started screaming so loud. And then they
chased
us. It was crazy, I didn’t know what they’d do if they caught us. And the paparazzi, they just stand in front of you clicking, asking questions, it’s kind of hard to get around them.”

“Weird,” I said.

“Tell me about it. And you saw those shots of us in Star, right? We were still recording the album at that point, so there was some pap stalking either you or me, hoping one of us was going to get famous,” he said. “I bet Sasha leaked it, back then.”

Sasha. Just the mention of her name reminded me that I was here, and he was there, wherever he was right now, with anyone. Anyone at all.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Probably drumming up publicity early, saying we had a hot track coming and we were worth paying attention to,” he said. “I don’t know, I’m just speculating.” He sighed. “Talking crap probably. Whatever. I miss you, you know?”

“I miss you too,” I said.

“I’m gonna fly back in the next few weeks, come and see you, my parents, some other buddies.”

“That sounds really good,” I said. “I can’t wait.”

“Me either. Right now though, I gotta jet. I’m starving and we’ve got sound check later.”

We hung up not long after that. I smiled at my phone. He was so great. My heart swelled and I sighed like a romantic heroine in love. Was I in love? Nooo. Not possible. But then again, I didn’t know how to tell. The only thing I really had to compare to was my time with Cam. I had been happy then,
so
happy. And I had ached to spend every minute with him if I could. And I knew I had been stupid, but he wasn’t supposed to move on.

It was completely different with Ty. I wasn’t saying he didn’t make me so, so happy, but the whole, everything about our relationship was different than what I’d had with Cam. I couldn’t compare the two.

Nah, I can’t be in love with Ty. I sure liked him a lot, though. As did hundreds – thousands of other girls. There were thousands of girls out there who wished they were me, that they were dating my perfect little rock star. But they weren’t, I was. I opened a fresh text message, and with a sly smile on my lips I typed ‘to help you think of me until you return’. Then I pulled my top off, held the camera phone high, and clicked a photo.

Send.

***

Chapter Fourteen

I knew I should have studied more. I sat down in Geography and nervously tapped my pencil on the edge of the desk, looking around as other people dropped their books on the floor, opened their pencil cases and stared at the spit wads on the ceiling as they ran through whatever they could remember that could possibly be on the test.

Two seats in front of me and one across, the seat was empty. I wondered where Cam was. Not that it mattered. I closed my eyes and pictured the textbook sitting in front of me last night, all of that little black writing, the occasional picture and graph. So much little black writing…what had it all said again? My eyes shot open as Mr. Philopolous slapped the test on my desk. Upside down. Of course it was upside down. I let out a little whimper and Ravi, sitting beside me, laughed. Mr. Philopolous must have given him the evil eye because Ravi’s smile vanished and he stared at his own desk. He didn’t raise his gaze again.

“Okay everyone,” Mr. Phil said. There was a knock at the door and one of the school admin ladies peeked her head inside.

“Sorry to interrupt, Jeff,” she said, her high heels click-clacking on the linoleum floor as she walked over to him and handed him a yellow note. He read it and turned to me with a sigh. I sat up straight. What had I done?

“Poppy, you’re wanted in the Guidance Office.”

“Really?” I said, surprised. “Right now?”

“Come on, come on,” he said. “Quickly.”

I scooped my books up off the floor, grabbed the test and hurried to the front of the room. I handed him the test uncertainly and he glared at me, holding out the yellow slip of paper. “You’ll make it up tomorrow.”

I couldn’t believe my luck. I beamed at him and all my scowling classmates and followed the admin lady out of the room.

I tapped lightly on the doorframe of the Guidance Office, and did a pretty good imitation of the admin assistant when I poked my head around the doorway.

“Ah, Poppy!” A lady who I assumed must be the Guidance Counsellor said. She was quite robust, wearing a red top that was failing miserably at containing her cleavage. She waved me inside. I’d never been to the Guidance Office before, but it didn’t stop her, she smiled at me in such a familiar way you’d think we had a weekly standing appointment. Maybe she had assumed I was Poppy since she’d summoned me. Then I noticed Star magazine on the desk in front of her. Ah.

“Take a seat,” she said motioning to the seat in front of her desk. There were two other plastic chairs piled high with paperwork, files and brochures. “I’m glad you could come and see me, I thought it was time we had a little chat.”

“Oh yes?” I said.

“Yes, now I wanted to talk to you about this whole phenomenon you kids are getting involved in.” She paused and looked at me seriously. “Sexting.” Oh God. “You brought up a really interesting point in that video the other night.”

My ears tingled and burned, even teachers were watching my videos?

“I just wanted to talk to you about it, make sure you haven’t…been indulging in some of the behavior you discussed in your song.” She blinked rapidly and cleared her throat. She might have been just as uncomfortable as I was to be having this conversation. She seemed to be waiting for an answer. Did she think I was really going to tell a teacher – one I’d never met – whether I had been sending naked pictures to my boyfriend?

“…Right,” I said, being vague. Being very, very vague. That was a question I was not answering. No way.

“Right,” she repeated. She waited a moment longer for me to elaborate but changed tactic after my silence, and continued. “Sexting can be very damaging to an individual, especially now that we’re in the digital age,” she said. “All it takes is the click of a button to forward pictures or videos on to others that you may not have had any intention of seeing…such an intimate side of you.”

All the blood drained from my face. I pictured my dad seeing the photo. Or Mr. Philopolous. Or…oh God – Bex.

She went on. “Especially with the internet, once a picture like a racy photograph gets onto the web, it never goes away. It’s out there forever. Are you aware that racy photographs of someone your age are considered child pornography?”

I’m sorry…what?

“It’s a criminal offence, Poppy. I don’t think you kids realize that, do you? I want to discuss this with all of you students, but I thought it was particularly important to nip it in the bud with you first, since you’re, well…” She picked up the magazine. “You’re experiencing your fifteen minutes of fame and I would hate for the media to get hold of a photograph of you like that and run with it. It could have such an impact on your future, Poppy, and you have such a bright one.” She tapped a manila folder on her desk, it had my name on it. My academic records, from looking at my academic records, she thought I had a bright future? That couldn’t be right. “You’re such a talented song writer for someone so young,” she said.