Page 12 of The Spotlight Effect

“Grayson, are you ready to shoot the next scene?” Garner, the director, asks me, basically yelling across the set.

“Yes, sir!” I say back, which comes out a little coarse due to my Greek accent. I set my script down before putting the uniform jacket back on that goes with my costume of a boarding school uniform.

“Okay, everyone, this scene is where Chase and Hayden will find the map of the secret tunnels in the wall of Chase’s ex-girlfriend who disappeared,” Garner reminds us. I’m handed the flashlight that’s the prop for this scene as I take my place on the marker and wait for him to call action.

“Cut!That’s lunch, everyone. Be back in an hour!” Garner yells. I head for my set chair to get some water.

“Hey, have you seen the post Charlie and Scarlett were tagged in with some girl last night?” Noah asks and I shake my head while pouring more water in my mouth. Noah comes over to me, holding his phone. Noah scrolls down as I sit my water down. When he pulls up the post, I see the picture in front of my face, and I almost choke on my water.

I think I just lost my breath.

“He met her while he was out on his date with Scarlett,” Noah says. I manage to nod my head while staring at the picture. I’ve never been speechless over a girl, especially a picture but she's gorgeous. She’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.

“She's stunning.”

“You said that out loud,” Noah says, knowing I probably meant not to.

“Who is she?” I ask.

“Her name is Alexia, according to the tag, but I’ll see you atIn N’ Outfor lunch,” Noah says before putting his phone in his pocket and getting up to leave.

Once he’s around the corner, I whip out of my phone, ignoring texts and calls, and just go right to Instagram to the post and click on her profile. I scroll through her posts for what feels like seconds but then I look at the time and realize I’ve been scrolling for minutes.

“I’ve been waiting outside for ten minutes,” someone says in front of me. I look up to see Charlie.

“We have to meet Emmy and Noah for lunch,” he says.

“Right… Sorry, I was distracted,” I say and turn my screen off, hoping he didn’t see what I was looking at.

“Well, come on, start moving,” Charlie says, motioning for me to get up.

“So how was filming today?” Charlie asks.

“Fine, it went by fast, and I didn’t have to see Marina,” I answer.

“Won’t she be here later?” Charlie reminds me.

“Ugh, why did you have to remind me?” I groan, throwing my head back.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t be so bad,” Charlie says, trying to make it better.

“Yeah, you haven’t spent a day with the troll,” I say.

“Okay, let’s go out and get your mind off of her,” Charlie says.

Even riding in the car, I’m still thinking of the Alexia girl. I normally would get my obsessive thoughts out by writing it down and then making a song, but I can’t exactly do that. I don’t even know the girl. It’s literally just a picture. I don’t even know why but she’s still in my head.

That name does sound familiar. I think she entered the contest herself, but she used another girl’s song that was submitted two days prior, that's why we disqualified her.

I pull out my phone, turn the brightness all the way down and open it. I pull up the finalist of contest entries from the email we got from Emerson and go through it.

The last entry on the list is her. Alexia Kirby, entry seventy-eight, with a song named “Dramatic”.It was the best song yet. But then right above her is the contest winner, Aaliyah Wimberly, entry twenty-three with her song “Happenings”.They are two different titles but the same lyrics.

I find myself scrolling back to Alexia’s picture and looking at it.

Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with me? It’s just a dumb picture of some girl I have never met, and on top of that, she stole a song.

It’s just a girl.

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