Karen Kingsbury - Fifteen Minutes

When the plane moved out of sight, Zack grabbed his backpack and walked slowly down the empty concourse toward baggage. He had lost her. Because of his careless actions and self-centered motives, he’d lost the only girl he ever loved. Reese wasn’t only moving to London. She was moving on. Her eyes had told him that much.

As he collected his bags and waited out on the curb for a cab, Chandra’s words came back to him. There’s a cost to fame. You may not see it now, but it’s there. Everyone pays something. Yesterday Zack hadn’t wanted to hear that. He had insisted his life and Chandra’s were different. Certainly he hadn’t lost anything he couldn’t get back. Even Reese was bound to forgive him. That’s what he thought. But now, with the humid summer night air surrounding him and home a half hour away, he understood her words better.

The cost was not only real. It was almost more than he could bear.

They had reached the finale, and Chandra wasn’t surprised when Samuel Meier gathered them an hour before the show and told them the results. The winner they would announce that night was Zoey Davis. The girl who had captured America’s hearts with her face and voice, the other half of the Romeo and Juliet team.

The second finalist was Kent Jordan, the married guy whose goal had remained the same throughout the show. He had told America that if he won, he’d sing for a Christian label. He knew who he was, his style, his genre. The show hadn’t changed him.

Chandra took her place on the panel with the other two judges. Cameras would roll soon and excitement buzzed through Carnegie Hall. From her place, Chandra waved at the audience and then spotted Kent near Zoey, the two of them talking to Kip. Since Zack’s departure, Chandra had taken to praying for Kent. His second-place finish was an answer, she had no doubt.

Suddenly she remembered Zack. He had to be in the audience. The top ten contestants had been brought back for tonight. They would perform as a group early in the show, and then after Kip Barker crowned Zoey as the season’s winner, the group would join her onstage for the final song while confetti rained down. Chandra scanned the audience, but she couldn’t see Zack or the others in the front section. They were probably backstage preparing.

Chandra looked at the stage and studied Zoey Davis, the girl who was about to win it all. Zoey would have a much harder time with the fame than Kent would have. Chandra didn’t like to think about the pressure and changes and celebrity that awaited Zoey in the pop world where she planned to make her mark. Her win hadn’t even been announced, and already every talk show and variety magazine wanted a piece of her. The teenager had no idea how her life was about to change.

The frenzy onstage and in the wings continued to build, but Chandra remained quiet, reflecting. Remembering. In Zoey’s interview last week, she had said the same thing Chandra had said the week before her own win. “This means everything to me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Chandra narrowed her eyes. Would the girl look back and regret those words? How badly would she wish to climb into some special moment from her past, before her first audition?

Chandra clicked open the photo album on her phone. She pulled up the picture. Her parents and her fiancé standing beside her. The moment she still tried to live in. Tears stung her eyes and she shut her phone. Often she had wondered how it had happened, how she’d become so famous overnight. Here at the end of her ride as a judge, she had the answers. The show needed to create a celebrity each season. Someone to stir interest and drive ratings and draw another hundred thousand kids out to auditions when summer came around again.

She was part of a machine. All of it made sense now.

She took a deep breath. They had a little time before the show went live. The energy onstage grew more intense and every seat in Carnegie Hall was filled. As Cullen told them about a few added commercial breaks, Chandra felt someone come up beside her. She turned and there he was. “Zack! You’re here!”

“I got in a few hours ago.”

“You’ll sing in the group number?”

“I will.” He looked deeply at her. “You were right. About the cost.”

“Yes.” She searched his eyes. “Did you make it home before she left?”

“I did.” He leaned closer, keeping it private. “I told her I was sorry.”

“And . . .” She wanted to believe the girl had changed her mind, that she’d forgiven Zack and stayed in Kentucky. But she could see that wasn’t the case.

“We had a few minutes in the airport, but she left. She . . . doesn’t want me.”

Chandra’s heart felt heavy. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled. “My family and I, we’re doing well. I’m so grateful . . .” He looked up to the stage where Zoey and Kent were getting final makeup touches. He didn’t have to finish his sentence. He looked at Chandra again. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “I heard you got a publishing deal.”

“I did.” His smile reached his eyes, and for the first time since his Atlanta audition she could see all the way to his soul. “I’ll be songwriting from Kentucky, driving into Nashville once a month to meet with the label.”

“Perfect.” She wanted to raise her hands in a victory dance. Zack had lost his girl, but he had escaped with his life. There would be no prison cell for Zack Dylan. She’d seen him in a number of interviews since his exit. He would be fine. She smiled at him. “Your family?”

“The publishing deal came with an advance. We saved the farm.”

Chandra couldn’t speak. Happy tears welled up and she nodded.

“Oh, and AJ’s doing better. She has a new doctor.”

Chandra took Zack’s hands in her own. “All of that . . . it’s exactly what I prayed for.”

“God is good.”

She felt the words to her core. The phrase was something she remembered from her parents, back when she was growing up. She finished the saying. “All the time.” No words could’ve touched her heart more.

Zack had to take his seat in the front row with the other finalists. As he did, Chandra was overcome with a feeling as fulfilling as it was unfamiliar. Despite everything she’d lost, and regardless of the fame she would never escape, something was true that hadn’t been true before.

Her life had meaning.

ZACK FELT THE cameras on him and the others as the final show began. Something was different now. The cameras didn’t linger. He was no longer the one everyone talked about. That honor belonged to Zoey and Kent.

A few minutes into the program a production assistant led the group backstage. For the first time, Zack saw Zoey. She had makeup and hair people on either side of her, and a bodyguard giving her instructions for the moment the show was finished. Somehow amid the chaos she must’ve sensed him watching her, because she turned and their eyes met. She mouthed, “Hi.”

He raised his hand and did the same. The two of them hadn’t talked since his departure, and Zack doubted they would. Their run on the show was the only thing they’d ever had in common. He wondered if anyone had told her about Jesus. It was still something he wanted to do—though now he didn’t know when he’d get the chance. He did pray for her now and then.

But they had both moved on.

“Okay, people, you’re on in five.” The production assistant was the same. All of it was familiar—the setting and people and frenzied minutes backstage. But something else was different. Zack smiled when he realized what it was.

He no longer belonged.

The group number was one of their strongest yet, and Zack returned to his seat with the others to watch the show. Seated beside him were the newly married Nolan Cook and his wife, Ellie. Nolan was a star NBA player with the Atlanta Hawks, a guy known as much for his faith and good works as his jump shot. Not long ago Nolan and Ellie’s story had run in People magazine, and Zack had read it. Nolan was the real deal, a guy who had never compromised his faith or his love . . . despite the crazy temptations of the world he lived in. When he and Ellie were seated, Nolan introduced himself. Then he talked to Zack about joining his online Bible study. “Us guys need it.” Nolan had his arm around his pretty wife. “The world will eat you alive otherwise.”