Roses & Ruin

Chapter 1 (Lexi)

She's on the rich side of town. I am not.

"Are you sure? He won't mind" she continued. She's nice. "Nope, I insist you go straight home and sleep" I patted her arm on the arm rest between us. "Eat then sleep" she reminded me. "True, I'm not sure which will overtake me first."

The same dinging noise sounded overhead. 

        "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. On behalf of myself and our crew we'd like to thank you for flying Jetblue. New York City is a lovely 77 degrees and the sun is out. We should be landing in about 20 minutes, so sit back and relax and once again, thank you for flying with us."

-

        My apartment is narrow. Why are so many NYC apartments so damn narrow? You walk in the front door and you're in the living room, the kitchen is just after, then bathroom and bedroom one across the narrow hall from the other. 

After that, at the very end of the hall is the second bedroom. Each room is very small. No room for a kitchen table, and I forfeited a dresser when I lived with my third roomie.

Only now that I have my own closet sized bedroom do I have racks of clothes along the side wall, and an actual closet for the rest. It's messy and I can't hide much. I have a stack of books beside my bed that seconds as a table whenever I have a glass of something to drink. 

It may be blasphemy to put a liquid item above a book like a dang coaster, but times are hard.

        The racks of clothes automatically look messy. My bed is never made. It's not a very large bed either. We had one mattress and one futon when the third roomie was here. Now it's just the mattress, which gives me a little floor space I didn't once have.

I remember her and I rolled dice for it. Whoever got the higher number got the mattress not the futon. I won. But of course I did. My brother's taught me how to rig dice.

        My current and only roommate now is Chloe. She's a British girl who's 20 also, very thin with her model typical build, strawberry hair with brownish eyes. She once had crowded teeth. She got an invisalign though, and is almost complete from fixing them.

Chloe isn't particularly interesting. I guess her accent is nice. I don't hold a Russian accent since I spent my majority of years here in America, but I do speak the language. My mother wasn't always fluent in English, so we spoke our native tongue in the house.

        When I rolled my carry-on size suitcase into the apartment I got Chloe's attention right away. She popped out of her bedroom in sleep clothes since it's morning. "Hey, welcome back" she waved. "You're up early" I glanced at the phone in my hand. 8:14am.

"I have a casting" she was already looking at herself in the large mirror we have on the wall between bedrooms. "I have to get dressed, but you'll have to tell me how it went later when I'm back" she offered. 

I was practically grunting at this point. I was so tired.

        "I need something quick to fill my belly and I need my bed" I rubbed my eyes. "Grab one of my yogurts if you need to," she offered politely again. Chloe's disciplined with her eating habits to stay her current size. The plague of modeling is that one. 

I used to have a small eating disorder just from the constant pressures that the Russian agency had against me, but I've worked on it and I'm doing better. I eat. I prioritize it actually, because I don't wanna go back there.

Just another thing in my past I don't talk about.

        When I stuck my head in the fridge I heard Chloe call for me. "Lexi" but she never finished her sentence. I grabbed the yogurt and leaned into her bedroom's doorway. "What do you think?" She asked me, holding up two pairs of shoes.

For castings you don't want to overdress, but you don't want to look like a slob either. You want to be a bare canvas for them and if they like your look then you'll end up with the clothes and the makeup and all.

        New York Fashion week is in a few months. Girls my age are working to get themselves out there and noticed, so a brand will pick them up for the runway shows. I did mainly photographs in Russia, but I've been pushed towards both runway and photographs here in New York, so we'll see. 

I wouldn't think I'd have an 'in', but I think Mia might actually be mine. If she calls.

"Those" I pointed at her right hand. I left Chloe to change after that. We walk around the house half naked most of the time. You get used to it, working with other models who all undress in the same space. I'm not a modest girl. I've taken tasteful nude photos for professional photography before. Doesn't bother me.

        My name is Aleksandra, mom used to call me Aleks in the house, but she changed my name to Lexi Vero when we moved here. Again...checkered past and all that. My real last name carries its sins with it. 

Lexi Petrov.