The Resistance

Chapter 25

"Girl! You look absolutely fabulous. Take a look." Melanie, the artist, turned me towards the mirror.

The makeup was fairly simple. She went for a very natural, minimal look. I find it really kind that she gave me a compliment. She is overly gorgeous, but she thinks I look nice. It's unusual for a girl to give me a compliment. They're usually trying to tear me down.

"Thank you." I lightly smiled.

She then lead me over to the stylist that she introduced simply as K. K told me I would be doing three different outfits. She then got me in the first one. I didn't even really want to look at myself in it. I knew if I did, I wouldn't want to go out there. I just hate how my body looks in everything.

Finally I was ready. Melanie lead me out to the shoot area and she told me where to stand.

Jahmir and Cleo was standing a few feet away from me. They were talking about something. I'm not too sure what though. I caught their conversation at the end.

"-but yeah, let's get on to this next model. There's one more after this."

"Okay." He deeply exhaled. "But I'm just saying that I don-" His eyes slightly widened and his lips parted when he seen me. He can't be that surprised that I showed up.

Cleo glanced at me, him, me, then him again. She laughed then smacked the back of his neck. He flinched up and rubbed his neck.

"You play too damn much." He lightly mushed her shoulder and all she could do was laugh about it. I'm not sure what was so funny though.

"Anyway. Kaelynn. I'm glad you came." The smile on his face made me happy.

He gave me a few pointers, then he raised the camera. Immediately, my nerves started kicking in. I stood there frozen in place.

"This isn't good, Jahmir." His cousin said something over his shoulder as she watched.

"I know. I see." He sighed and gave her the camera before coming over to me.

"What's on your mind at this very moment?"

"The camera. I'm scared the pictures won't turn out right."

"You have to get out of your own head sometimes, Kaelynn." He grabbed my hands. "You can't worry about the end result just yet. Just take a few deep breaths."

We did the breathing together. Just after the third exhale, we both seen a flash. We looked towards Cleo and she snapped another picture.

"Cleo I told you I was done modeling." Jahmir said with a stern look on his face.

"Man I don't care. You also said you wouldn't be wearing any Branded clothes today, but look at you." We both looked down at his all black outfit. "Do your friend this favor. Just a few shots. That should help her loosen up."

It took us a while, but we started getting into the shoot. He put aside his uneasy feelings to get some good poses out of me. We ended up doing all of the shots for the first outfit together. I had to do the other two by myself though. With Jahmir behind the camera coaching me, it wasn't all that bad.

After what felt like an hour or so, I was finished. I changed out of their clothes and back into my own. Jahmir caught me before I left. I sat down with him at his laptop.

"Now, before I show you these pictures, I just want you to know that there was a reason I wanted you here today. And you did great. You were able to let go of your insecurities and have fun. You were brave today, and I really appreciate that. So without further ado..."

Tears filled my eyes. I gasped and put my hand on my mouth as the pictures came up.

"I look beautiful!" More tears fell. "I actually look beautiful."

I didn't know I could look that good. I'm really proud of myself. I didn't realize I had it in me to take good pictures like this. Apparently I'm not as ugly as I thought I was. I wish I didn't feel that way about myself so much.

"I asked Melanie to go light on the makeup. I wanted you to see that you didn't need all that to look gorgeous. You look just as gorgeous on a sick day as you do right here."

My smile faded away as I looked to Jahmir. He had a certain passion through his words and in his eyes. These are words I've heard from him before. It's sad that he had to do all this for me to realize what he meant. He is my friend. I should have just taken his word for it.

"This is great. These can be my before pictures."

"So you're still adamant about losing weight? Think you can handle it?"

No. I don't think I'm capable of it. I can at least give it a try though.

"I hope so."

"Nah, you gotta have more confidence than that. You will though. We'll talk about it more next week."

"Okay." I signed. "Thank you Jahmir. You're an amazing friend. I love you."

I hugged him tightly.

"And I love you, Faye."