The End Of You And Me | BOOK 1 (Completed) & 2 (Currently Writing)

TEOYAM | 12. Lost In Your Eyes

His eyes widened at the revelation and his smile stretched from cheek to cheek. "You're fifteen minutes early? What did you do to the Ronnie I know?"

"Oh, shut up, Styles." I rolled my eyes, hitting him playfully on the arm. "People change. If you're lucky, you witness at least one person changing for the best in your lifetime." I shrugged, looking away from him.

"Never took you for a philosopher. That's pretty deep." He grinned, bumping me softly as he faced the wall I was now facing. "It's my aunt. She's having problems in paying off our rent in the apartment. I decided to find another job to help her out with the bills. I heard they pay big in catering services for events like this so yeah." He pursed his lips, turning to look at me just as I looked up at him.

I furrowed my eyebrows and crossed my arms in front of me, wondering why in the hell didn't he tell me about this sooner. I mean, I could've helped him somehow. Maybe throw in a little compliment or two about him to the organizers of Fashion Week. My dad plays tennis with one of the organizers occasionally. I'm pretty sure I could've done something to help.

Then it hit me.

He wouldn't like that, because I didn't like it when my mother did it to me. It wasn't pride or anything. It was a matter of knowing if you're able to bring something to the table. I'm pretty sure Harry would've approached me if he felt like he really needed me to help him, even if I really did want to help him out.

"Well, I'm sure you'll nail that job interview or whatever it is that they're making you do to pass the job." I spoke, nodding my head as I reached for his hand and gave it a little squeeze. "Anyway, I wouldn't want to delay you any further. You might get late for your interview. You'll do great, I'm sure! Just be your charming self. I'm sure you'll sweep them off their feet." I chuckled. "Wish me luck for my audition, okay?" I tiptoed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later!"

"Sure. Do your best, yeah? We can celebrate with pizza later." He grinned, pulling me into his arms and giving the top of my head another kiss before he let me go.

"Pizza sounds great!" I beamed, giving him a flying kiss. I turned on my heel, feeling a bit more confident as I walked towards the doors leading to the audition room for Academy of the Arts.

Upon entering the room, I barely saw where I was going and almost tripped on my own two feet because of how dark it was. The only well lit area was the runway, where a few models were walking. There were crew members assisting the models by the entrance to the backstage from the runway. In the first row sat four people holding clipboards. I'm making the assumption they're the people I had to impress.

It didn't take long for one of the crew members holding clipboards to see me walking on my own. The girl named Julie asked me for my portfolio. While she was looking at it, my heart was beating fast in my chest. I was praying she won't check my information and would settle with the name I told her while she scanned through my pictures. I released a breath I had no idea I was holding when she escorted to the backstage and briefed me about what was going to happen. I was asked to change into five-inch heels and walk the runway, do a pose at the end that wasn't like any of the poses done at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (I was specifically told not to do any flying kisses or winks), then walk all the way to the back.

While I was being briefed backstage, I thought it shouldn't be that hard. This wasn't my first time anyway. I've been walking runways since I was sixteen. I know it hasn't been that long and that compared to other people, the experiences I've had were nothing, but I wasn't a newbie.

This should be like a walk in the park.

Wrong.

I learned that it was a lot harder when there was so much at stake. In this case, if I failed at impressing the people from Academy of Arts, I was nothing more than another glitterati heiress with a pretty face. I was nothing without my last name.