The Star's Secret Camera

I just found out the hottest actor in the world has been obsessed with me since homeroom. Im holding a stolen memory card that could ruin his career. The world knows Axel as the untouchable, icy movie star who never smiles. But the grainy photos in my hand tell a different story.

Every shot is me. Eating lunch. Studying. Laughing at a joke I don't remember telling. He pretends were strangers. He acts like I don't exist. But the evidence in my hands screams the truth: While I was busy forgetting high school, he was busy memorizing me.

Chapter 1

I stared at the small, pixelated screen in my hand, shocked and confused. Id bought the digicam two days ago on a resale app. It was an old model, a relic from the early 2000s. They were trending again because of the aesthetic, grainy photos they took. Id just wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

I never expected to find my high school self trapped inside the memory card.

I leaned closer. The background was the old high school stadium. Judging by the banners, it was sophomore year, during the track meet. Seventeen-year-old Clara. Wearing that gym uniform, ponytail high, face bare and shiny with sweat, sitting in the bleachers.

The photographer must have been sitting a few rows back. The quality was low, the edges soft and blurry. Seeing those familiar faces in the background hit me with a wave of nostalgia. But then I kept scrolling.

It wasn't a coincidence.

Ten photos. Twenty. I was in every single one.

Piper, my coworker and lunch buddy, swiped her badge and leaned over my shoulder. "Whoa, isn't that you? Who took these? Why are they so blurry?"

"I don't know." I shook my head. "Probably just some random student selling their old junk."

Piper laughed, a sharp, teasing sound. "Girl, look at the angles. Back of the head? Side profile? That is classic 'Secret Crush POV'." She nudged me. "Someone was definitely obsessed with you."

I rolled my eyes, forcing a laugh. "It's just a coincidence."

There were plenty of other people in the shots. The person was probably just sitting nearby and I happened to be in the frame. The memory card came with the digicam. The seller probably forgot to wipe it before shipping. Still, if these were personal memories, the seller might want them back.

I opened the app and sent a message: Hey, I think you left an SD card in the digicam. Do you want the files?

By lunch break, I still hadn't gotten a reply. We were waiting for the elevator. Piper was glued to her phone, scrolling through X like her life depended on it. She gasped and shoved the screen in my face. "Look at the number one trend."

I looked down. The bold red BREAKING tag was hard to miss.

ActorAxelStolenGoodsScandal

AssistantArrested

We stepped into the elevator. Piper was already in full gossip mode. "Assistants these days have zero loyalty. Selling his personal stuff? That is wild."

"Axel is so unlucky. I wonder if they sold anything valuable. Good luck getting that back once it's in the wild."

I pulled up the app on my own phone and tapped the hashtag. Axel's management had just released a statement a minute ago. Theyd filed a police report and were pressing charges. Axel had just won a major award last month. He was Hollywood's golden boy right now. He wasn't a nepo baby. He was pure, raw talent. Zero scandals in his entire career. His haters had nothing on him except his humble background.

This news was feeding the trolls perfectly. Usually, celebrities try to keep this stuff quiet to save face. Going straight to the police was aggressive. He must have lost something irreplaceable.

"Oh, right," Piper said, breaking my train of thought. "That reality show our platform is producing? I saw the leaked cast list. Axel is on it."

"He's supposed to come in to sign the contract in the next couple of days."

The elevator chimed. First floor.

Piper snapped her fingers. "Wait. Didn't you and Axel go to the same high school?" She looked at me, eyes wide. "Did you know him?"

A memory flashed in my mind. A rainy afternoon. A noisy, humid noodle shop near the school gates. A boy sitting across the table, head down, quietly eating his food.

I shook my head, pushing the image away. "We weren't close."

The soft chime of the elevator announced our arrival. And the man I just claimed not to know was standing right in front of me.

Chapter 2

Our eyes locked.

Before I could even process the shock, he broke the connection. He looked away. Casual. Dismissive. Like I was just part of the elevator wall. Even with the black mask covering half his face, I recognized him instantly.

Axel.

Greg, his agent, was trailing right behind him. The air around them was heavy. You could practically feel the tension coming off them in wavesprobably the fallout from the trending scandal. Greg opened his mouth to say something, but the second he saw us inside, he snapped his jaw shut.

They stepped aside, pressing against the wall to let us out. We walked past them. The elevator doors slid shut.

Piper let out a breath shed been holding. "Holy shit. That was Axel, wasn't it?"

So today was contract signing day. I didn't answer. I just pressed my lips together, tasting the sudden, bitter awkwardness. That split second of eye contact I couldn't tell if he recognized me. And I had no idea if he heard us gossiping about him.

We pushed through the lobby doors, only to be hit by a wall of gray.

It was pouring.

The sky had opened up while we were inside, and neither of us had an umbrella. Lunch break for a corporate slave is a ticking clock. Every second counts.

Piper groaned, staring at the rain like it had personally offended her. "Forget it. I'm not drowning for a sandwich. I'll just go back up and make cup noodles." She looked at me. "Clara? You coming?"

I was about to nod and follow her back to the elevators.

"Excuse me, ladies."

A deep voice stopped us. We turned around. It was Rob, the building's receptionist. He was smiling, holding two large, sleek black umbrellas. "A gentleman asked me to bring these to you."

I stared at them. They weren't the cheap bodega umbrellas. These were the high-end, windproof ones with the company logo embossed on the handlethe kind usually reserved for VIP clients.

Piper took hers, looking completely bewildered but delighted. "A gentleman? Well, damn. Chivalry isn't dead after all."

I took the other one. The handle was cold against my palm. My heart did a strange, stuttering flip.

By the time I finished my sad desk lunch, my boss was calling for me. The office was quiet. Most people were still out or napping in their chairs.

"Perfect timing, Clara. Come here." I followed her into the hallway, confused. "You signed up to work on the new reality show, right? The talent team is here to sign the contracts. I need you to go in and handle them."

She pushed the conference room door open. Voices drifted out.

"I did exactly what you asked. You promised to drop the charges if I did this, you can't go back on your word now"

Gregs voice cut off abruptly the moment he saw me. Axel was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to the room. He was staring out at the rain-slicked city. He didn't turn around. Just a low, indifferent grunt. "Yeah."

I stepped forward, smoothing my hands against my skirt. Professional mode: On.

"Hello, Axel." I kept my voice steady. "I'm the production liaison responsible for your team. My name is Clara."

The figure by the window went rigid. Shoulders tensing. A microscopic pause in his posture.

Then, he turned.

He had taken the mask off. The face that launched a thousand fan edits was right there. He looked exactly the same as he did in high school. Maybe sharper. Colder.

He stared at me. One second. Two seconds. Then he looked away, his gaze sliding past me to the wall.

"Yeah. I know."

Not I know now. Not Nice to meet you.

Just I know.

As in: I know who you are, Clara. I remember you.

Chapter 3

Thinking back, saying we weren't close wasn't entirely true.

Freshman year. I was the hall monitor. He was the delinquent I kept catching hopping the back fence during evening study hall. Later, I found out he wasn't cutting class to party. He was sneaking out to work shifts at a local warehouse. Axel was the scholarship kid. Everyone knew he was broke.

After the third time, I stopped writing him up. I just looked the other way.

Axel didn't talk much. But once he realized I wasn't going to rat him out, he started bringing me little tributes from the outside world. I was a boarding student, trapped on campus 24/7. Sometimes it was a candy bar. Sometimes greasy takeout from the diner down the street.

One memory stood out. Freshman winter. My period hit me like a freight train. I was out of supplies and craving comfort. I asked him if he could grab me some hot chocolate mix on his run. When he came back that night, he shoved a plastic bag into my arms without a word. Inside was the hot chocolate.

And a box of adhesive heat wraps.

To the rest of the school, we were worlds apart. I was Clara, the straight-A student, top three in the class. He was Axel, the invisible guy in the back row. No one knew about the ten seconds of overlap we had every night by the back gate.

"Need anything?"

"Take an umbrella. Careful not to lose your grip on the fence."

""

Sophomore year shifted everything. We were placed in different classes. The hall monitor duty rotated to the freshmen. I didn't know if he was still jumping the fence. I didn't know if he ever got caught again. I got busy. New classes, new clique. I stopped looking at the back gate.

That year, I got into a "situation-ship" with Chase. Chase was the class heartthrob. The kind of guy everyone wanted.

It was a long weekend. The campus was empty. Ms. Davis had kept me late helping her grade midterms. By the time I walked out of the academic building, the sky had turned black.

Rain. Torrential.

I sprinted to the noodle shop across the street, my hair already plastered to my face. June heat mixed with the rain. The humidity was suffocating. My socks were soaked inside my sneakers. That gross, cold, squelching feeling against my arches.

I ordered an iced lemon tea and sat down to wait it out. I texted Chase: Stuck at the shop. Soaked.

I looked up. Someone was sitting diagonally across from me at the four-top table.

Axel.

Our eyes met. I nodded, trying to be casual. "Hey."

He nodded back. Then nothing.

Dead silence.

I sipped my tea, staring out the window, willing the rain to stop. The air between us felt thick. Axel had ordered a bowl of noodle soup. He wasn't eating like he was hungry. He was eating like he was trying to make it last forever. Slow. Deliberate. Silent.

The shop was loudclattering dishes, other students laughingbut our table was a vacuum of sound. The rain hammered against the glass. Time stretched.

The bell above the door jingled.

Chase.

Hed seen my text. He stood in the doorway, shaking off a massive umbrella, smiling that million-dollar smile. "Clara." Soft. Heroic. "Let me take you home."

I got up. At the door, I glanced back. The shop was noisy. Axel was looking down at his bowl. Like he hadn't heard a thing.

The door opened again. A gust of wind and rain swept in, cutting through the humidity. Axel finished the rest of his soup in two bites. Slapped cash on the table. He turned.

And walked straight out into the downpour.

Alone.

Chapter 4

I offered to walk them out. Halfway to the elevators, Gregs phone buzzed. He muttered something about a crisis and told Axel to meet him in the car. The elevator doors slid shut again.

Just the two of us. Trapped in a six-by-six steel box.

I caught Axels reflection in the polished metal doors. Maybe it was the nostalgia hitting me, but the awkwardness from earlier evaporated. I decided to break the ice.

"Small world. Its been years, hasn't it?"

Axel finally turned to look at me properly. "I thought we weren't close."

My smile fractured. I choked on my polite small talk. Petty. This man was petty.

"Right. We're not close," I said, keeping my face deadpan. "So I really wonder who sent that umbrella upstairs."

Axel stiffened. Silence stretched for three seconds. He jerked his head away, refusing to look at me. But he couldn't hide his ears. They were turning a deep, violent shade of red.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Seriously, Axel? You're the one who ghosted me out of nowhere first."

Senior year. The year everything changed. Axel had suddenly pulled away. No explanation. He quit all his part-time jobs. He stopped hopping the fence. He buried himself in books, prepping for SATs.

We were in different classes. He was naturally quiet. I was drowning in AP classes and scholarship applications. I didn't have the bandwidth to chase him down. So we drifted.

I heard later that he got into a decent university. Started doing extra work on film sets for cash. Got scouted by an agent. Two years out of college, he bagged his first Best Actor award. Since then? A meteoric rise.

Axel stayed silent for a moment. The red on his ears faded slightly. "Yeah," he murmured, his voice rough. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't know back then I just" The rest was mumbled too low to catch.

I waved a hand, dismissing it. "Forget it. Senior year was a nightmare for everyone. I get it."

Axels lips quirked up. A ghost of a smile. "Hm."

Ding. Ground floor.

"Anyway, it was good seeing you again." I flashed him my best professional smile. "I'll be your point of contact for the show. Let's make it a good shoot."

"Sure." Axel nodded. The doors started to slide shut.

Suddenly, he turned. "Clara."

His eyes locked onto mine. Intense. Unwavering.

"Bring an umbrella next time."

The doors slammed shut, cutting him off. I stood there for a beat, blinking at the brushed steel. Then I shook my head, a helpless smile tugging at my lips.

Back at my desk, I pulled out my phone. I was about to search for his contact info. But a notification from the resale app blocked the screen.

The sellerSporthad sent a barrage of messages one minute ago.

The camera is mine.

I didn't sell it voluntarily.

Can I have it back?

Chapter 5

Piper picked that exact moment to slide over for a coffee run. Seeing my face, she paused. "Whats wrong? You look like you swallowed a lemon."

"Nothing. Just some kid on the resale app trying to scam me."

"Yikes." Piper grimaced. "What did the brat say?"

"He said to name my price. He just wants the digicam back."

""

"Yeah. Definitely a scam."

Thirty minutes later. I nursed my iced latte, staring at the screen. I decided to call his bluff. I typed slowly.

Two thousand dollars. Non-negotiable.

The reply was instant. Deal. When can you ship it?

Excuse me? Do kids these days just have two grand lying around for allowance? I narrowed my eyes. My fingers flew across the keyboard.

I see you're local. Let's meet in person. Save on shipping.

Another instant reply. Okay.

I smirked. Alright, Sport. Let's see who you really are. I set the meeting place for a busy mall downtown. Public. Safe. No escape routes.

The meet-up was scheduled for Sunday, which happened to be the same day as Ms. Daviss wedding. Ms. Davis had been our AP Lit teacher. She was fresh out of college when she taught us, more like a cool older sister than a faculty member. Our class had always been tight-knit, so the reception hall was packed with familiar faces.

I walked in and immediately hit a wall of gossip. The topic? Yesterdays trending topic.

"Is Axel coming? Ms. Davis taught him freshman year, right?"

"Dream on. Do you know what his booking fee is now? He doesn't have time for us peasants."

"It's wild. Remember how broke he was? Working those warehouse shifts after school every single day?"

"Skylar!"

My high school roommate spotted me from across the room. She rushed over and linked her arm through mine. "There she is! The valedictorian returns."

I laughed and took my seat at the high school table. Under the table, I shot Axel a text. Hey. Are you coming to Ms. Daviss wedding?

The conversation around the table circled back to careers, money, and inevitably, Axel. He was the ghost at the feast. Everyone had a story.

"His family really struggled back then," a guy named Mike said, swirling his wine. "I remember he used to skip study hall to work."

"I heard his parents split early. He was raised by his grandma, right? Well, at least he made it big. She must be living the good life now."

"What? Dude, you don't know?" Another classmate lowered his voice, shaking his head. "Axels grandma passed away. Senior year."

My fork clattered against the china plate. The sound was sharp. Jarring.

I looked up, my heart hammering a sudden, erratic rhythm against my ribs. "What did you say?"

Buzz. My phone vibrated in my lap. Axel.

Something came up. Can't make it.

The classmate looked at me, confused by my sudden intensity. He had been in Axels homeroom sophomore year. He knew the details. "Yeah, I'm sure. It was right at the start of senior year. He took a week of bereavement leave. Came back looking like a ghost."

"Clara?" Skylar touched my arm, her voice concerned. "You okay? You look pale."

I opened my mouth. No sound came out. My throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I just shook my head.

Senior year. He started ghosting me senior year.

Ms. Davis appeared at our table for the toast, interrupting my spiraling thoughts. "Clara! Its been too long."

She beamed at me. I had been her favorite. Even when I got dragged into that stupid dating drama sophomore year, she was the only faculty member who stood by me. We clinked glasses.

Ms. Davis sighed, a theatrical pout on her face. "That brat Axel. He promised hed be here. I told my bridesmaids Id get them autographs and selfies."

I gripped the stem of my champagne flute. "It's okay, Ms. Davis."

My voice sounded strange to my own ears. Hollow. "I'll get them for you."

Chapter 6

I was about to explain that with the reality show starting, Axel and I would be seeing plenty of each other professionally. But Ms. Davis cut me off with a conspiratorial wink. She leaned in, voice dropping to a stage whisper.

"I knew you two were still in touch."

She looked like she had just won a bet. "I saw the sparks back then. I kept my mouth shut because it was exam season and I didn't want to tank your GPAs, but trust me I knew."

I sighed. Ms. Davis was an amazing teacher, but she had a habit of shipping her students like fictional characters.

"Ms. Davis, honestly, we haven't spoken in years. We were just classmates. We weren't even close."

Ms. Davis froze. Her smile faltered. "But he came to my office specifically to ask which colleges you were applying to."

The revelation rattled around in my skull for the rest of the lunch.

He asked about my college applications?

Years later, and suddenly the past was rewriting itself.

Skylar wanted to go shopping, but I told her I had a meeting. She left, looking disappointed. I walked out of the hotel andof courseit was raining again. Autumn rain. Relentless. Cold. The air smelled like wet asphalt and decaying leaves.

Uber prices were surging, and the wait time was twenty minutes. I stood under the awning, staring blankly at the gray curtain of water.

Buzz. My phone vibrated in my hand.

Axel: Look up.

Axel: Across the street.

I looked up. A black SUV was parked on the other side of the road, hazards flashing in the gloom. I ran through the rain and slid into the passenger seat. The interior was warm, smelling of leather and cedarwood.

Axel handed me a paper cup. "To warm your hands."

I took it. A hot latte.

"Axel. This is from the coffee shop under my office building."

"Hm." He put the car in gear. "It was on the way."

Liar. That shop was twenty minutes in the opposite direction.

"If you were here, why didn't you come in? Ms. Davis promised her bridesmaids a photo op."

A low chuckle from the driver's seat. "I was late. Didn't want to steal the bride's thunder. It's her day. Where to? I'll drop you."

I named the mall where I was meeting 'Sport'. Axels hands tightened on the steering wheel for a fraction of a second. Then he relaxed. "Got it."

We pulled into the mall garage. I unbuckled, expecting him to stay in the car. Instead, Axel pulled a black mask from the console. Pulled a cap low over his eyes. He opened his door.

"Why are you following me? Do you want to cause a stampede?"

Axel blinked, looking the picture of innocence. "I'm not following you. I have a meeting here too."

""

I was speechless. "Right. What a coincidence."

We parted ways at the entrance. I had thirty minutes to kill before my meeting with the kid. I wandered around, window shopping without seeing anything. When the time came, I headed to the restaurant Id picked.

I walked in. And immediately spotted Axel sitting in the corner booth.

Our eyes met. He looked surprised. Or he was acting surprised. He raised a hand, waving me over.

""

Did he think I was stupid?

I ignored him. I looked down at my phone and typed a message to the seller. I'm here. Where are you?

I watched Axel. He picked up his phone. Typed. My phone buzzed.

Sport: I'm here. Where are you?

The restaurant was empty. It was 3 PM on a Sunday. I looked around. No teenagers. No kids.

Just me. And Axel.

Axel was looking around the room, craning his neck, checking the entrance.

Click. The tumblers in my brain finally aligned. The lock opened.

The "kid" on the app. The "stolen" camera. The "coincidence" at the mall.

I didn't sit down. I marched straight toward the corner booth. Axel watched me approach, confusion clouding his eyes. I didn't say a word. I stopped right in front of him. My fingers hovered over the 'Send' button.

I hit it.

Ding.

Axels phone lit up on the table.

Chapter 7

The air in the booth turned solid. Heavy.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the vintage digicam. I dangled it in front of his face. "So. Is this yours?"

Axel stared at the digicam like it was a loaded gun. His expression froze. "You saw the"

He trailed off. He couldn't finish the sentence. But his ears betrayed him again. Burning red.

Click. Another lock opened in my brain. Memories and recent events started crashing together, forming a picture I had been too blind to see.

Axel's grandma died senior year. He came to Ms. Davis to ask about my college applications. A gentleman asked me to bring these umbrellas to you. Clara, bring an umbrella next time. Did you know him? We weren't close. Axel is so unlucky. I wonder if they sold anything valuable. The camera is mine. I didn't sell it. Can I have it back?

And finally, the photos. Those grainy, blurry, stolen moments. Look at the angles. Back of the head? Side profile? That is classic 'Secret Crush POV