Catch Me If You Can

Ch. 2 Downtown Girl

As her eyes fluttered open, Zella stared at her beeping phone wondering how long it had been going off. Picking it up she narrowed her eyes, squinting at the screen to read the time. Seven thirty… seven thirty, she ran it through her mind several times before it clicked. At the realization that she had woken up thirty minutes late, she hurried from the bed getting, momentarily stuck in the sheet. She yelped out as she lost her balance and fell to the floor, arms flailing

“Stupid, piece of crap. Damn it,” she hissed, fighting with the sheet that had wrapped around her legs.

Cringing as the loudness of her voice reached her ears she groaned- stupid hangover. Melodic laughing brought her attention to the door. How long had he been there?

“Having issues,” he questioned with a smirk.

She glared at him before realizing it really was a bit funny; knowing she must look ridiculous cursing and fighting with a blanket. Softening her gaze, she stuck her tongue out at him. Finally, she won the battle and freed herself with a victory shout, darting quickly to her bags grabbing some clothes, heading for the bathroom. After a quick shower and throwing on her outfit, she rushed to the kitchen picking up an apple from the counter. She was pleasantly surprised to see Chord standing with the door open waiting for her.

Even though Chord broke several laws to get her there on time she ended up being forty- minutes late; and, with a splitting headache, that was not how Zella wanted to start her first day of a series of photo shoots. No one there seemed to mind; it was her first full day in L.A. so they were cutting her some slack, which she was thankful. With her make-up done in bright bold colors and candy surrounding her she posed with two other girls. Picture after picture and clothing change after clothing change, she was rather relived when the three hour shoot came to an end.

Once back into her normal clothes and with a little less make-up on she exchanged phone numbers with Cole and Sammy, the girls she did the photo-shot with, before leaving the building. Chord was nowhere in sight. She groaned loudly he was supposed to pick her up. Kicking the ground she mental cussed him, realizing how unreliable he was turning out to be. Her phone vibrated and she quickly checked the texted hoping it was Chord. It was, but it wasn’t what she was hoping for.

“Look for a red car.”

What? She asked herself completely confused but the loud yelling of three guys in a red car quickly cleared that up for her. Nash, Ian, Ryan and a quiet kid she’d never seen pulled up next to the sidewalk motioning for her to get in the car. She climbed into the front seat, happy to have a ride.

“I was going to kill Chord,” she told them once in the car; still a little irritated.

“Maybe we should have left her,” the boy she didn’t know joked.

She smiled; she liked the way the kid thought. Everyone else in the car rolled their eyes at the comment but seemed at least slightly amused. 

“By the way, that’s Jamie,” Nash told her, motioning to the younger guy in the back seat.

She smiled and waved, the four boys started bantering back and forth but she didn’t pay much attention. Watching the buildings and people pass by she quickly got bored and began looking around the car for something interesting. It didn’t take her long to find something to catch her eye; she garbed a CD case with the four boy’s pictures on it. Consider curiosity peeked, she knew Nash was in a band but she had never heard much of his stuff. She checked the song titles on the back for one that sounded interesting and settled on Downtown girl. Her four companions in the car weren’t paying a lick of attention to her so she slipped the CD into the player, skipping to the track she wanted to hear.