Winter Air (Sequel to Night Air)

Chapter 11

*Alyssa's POV*

"And as you can see, we need to do a few things for you." I sleepily yanked my eyes back open as the clothing designer walked around me and pinned around the collar of the shirt adorning my body.

"Huh? Oh yeah." I nodded and quickly agreed with the older lady with a blonde bob, even though I was hardly paying attention.

It was only eight o'clock that Friday night, yet I felt so exhausted- as if I just finished running a marathon. Eleanor and I had decided to go to the gym at two o'clock in the morning because it was the least busy and it made for a great adventure. Sure, that would have been all fine and dandy if I didn't need to be back at headquarters by eleven. After only getting about six hours of sleep and being someone's test model for seven hours, I felt everything catching up to me.

I was silently crying out for my bed and starting to contemplate whether or not it was worth going to Zayn's party that night, but I knew deep down I had to. El was picking me up when I was done and the party was for Justin Bieber's birthday. How could I turn something like that down? I mean there were going to be celebrities of all kinds there.

"You okay?" The lady asked me. I snapped my head in her direction just to see the top of her blonde head as she went about fixing the clothes on me. A soft and familiar hum sounded through her lips.

Pillow talk.

"Yeah," I told her, while silently singing the song in my own head, too, "just feeling a bit drowsy."

I looked into the giant mirror in front of me and stared at my reflection. I looked super drained even under all of the makeup and lighting I was under. I had a strong feeling I wasn't going to get to bed at a reasonable hour that night just like I hadn't any other night in the past month. Thank God it was the weekend, though.

"Do try to act like you actually belong here," I heard a snarky accented comment come from beside me. I turned my head and saw bright orange skin that glowed even brighter under all of the lighting that was suppose to be set up for me. She seemed to soak up all of the lighting and attention like a sponge- and enjoyed it like a Kardashian.

"Excuse me?" I asked her shyly.

Sabrina fluffed her chocolatey brown locks in the mirror and applied more lipstick to her plump, yet, unfortunately, plastic lips. "You heard me."

"Excuse me," the clothes designer said as she struggled to get around Sabrina to fix my outfit. Sabrina also soaked up a lot of room- much like a cow. An orange cow.

Sabrina said nothing and just stepped to the side two inches. "You heard me," she was still looking at her own reflection, "you don't belong here, but the least you could do is at least look like you do."

I gave her reflection a disgusted look. "I beg your pardon, but if I didn't belong here I wouldn't be here." She turned to look at my reflection staring at hers. "And I've been here longer than you have."

"Allison- it is Allison, isn't it?" She actually turned to look at my actual face this time.

"Alyssa," I bitterly corrected her. This was my second total encounter with her, and it wasn't going so swell and I was going to do what I could to politely let her know.

"Whatever," she rolled her dark brown eyes that I envied, "the point is, I'm actually experienced in modeling and have had my fair share of shows."

I narrowed my green eyes at her brown ones and wanted to cross my arms, but didn't because the lady was still picking and poking at me. "I have had experience in modeling just so you know, and I've also walked down plenty of catwalks."