The Internship -Justin Bieber-

Chapter 17: More than a pretty face

Ivory Bell:

It's been a long day.

I've been busy running around with work. One after the other, Maia was piling stuff for me to do with a simple wave of her hand.

When I'm not at the studio, I'm at home buzzing off iced coffee as I stay up to sew and work on my designs for the show. I'm running on little to three hours of sleep a night right now and all I want to do is take a very long nap.

"Ivy...." A voice says and I groggily sit up and try my best to look awake. "Yeah?" My hand knocks over a box of pins to the floor and I groan to myself.

Standing ahead of me is Jonah who's looking at me in worry as he reaches over to pick up some of the pins that have dropped. "You look dead." He comments when he resurfaces.

"I feel dead." I reply.

Marco had said something smilier a few days ago. He's telling me to not stress myself so much, but I can't help it. This internship can be a pain, but I didn't move all the way to New York for nothing. Plus, the fashion show is a big deal and I'm not going to give up just because I'm not getting enough sleep at night.

Jonah holds out his cup of coffee to me, a sympathetic look in his eyes. "Here, you need this way more than I do." He sincerely says and I'm grateful as he hands over the warm cup of coffee. I take a long sip, not caring if I burn my tongue with the hot liquid.

"Before I forget, I wanted to tell you that I'm throwing Josie a surprise birthday party this week. Everything was planned ahead of time, I'm just letting people know this week to avoid any slip ups if I told people weeks ago." He whispers lowly.

I didn't even know Josephine's birthday was coming up. "Are you sure she would be okay if I came?" I ask him. Honestly, I don't know where Josephine and I stand.

She can be cold and a little uptight, but she isn't terrible. Considering that Jonah, one of the nicest people I have ever met, is dating her she obviously has some amazing qualities that only people like him get to see.

Jonah waves me off, "Of course! Plus, I'm pretty sure more than half of everyone I invited are either coming because Josephine scares the hell out of them." He chuckles, a look of amusement shown on his face.

He's not wrong though. The amount of times I've seen people cower in fear from Josephine never ceases to amaze me. She's almost as frightening as Ms Mallette when she's mad.

"I'll be there." I assure him. Now I just need to figure out what to get her.

When Jonah leaves, I work at my station and sip on the coffee. Maia returns with more work for me to do and she gives me some important documents to pass on to Ms Mallette.

"I'm trusting you with these, Ivy." She warned me as she handed me the papers. Her eyes were stern behind her big glasses and I could tell how serious she was being. "I would take them myself, but I need to go for a meeting."

Taking the files, I go up to where Maia said I would find Ms Mallette in her office. I only just left the elevator when I hear the sound of two voices arguing. "Why can't you just accept the fact that I don't want to do this anymore?"

I freeze in my spot. It's Justin.

Ever since the night of the fashion show and our kiss, I haven't been able to properly talk to Justin or see him. I've been too busy, but when I would pass him in the halls or at a shoot, the tension that we once had ceased to exist. There was a shift in the air and we both felt it. Unfortunately, I don't have time to deal with whatever feelings I think I may have.

I hear Ms Mallette tell Justin to lower his voice, but he scoffs. "Justin, I am not having this conversation with you right now."

Their voices are so close. I know I should leave, but I can't get myself to move.

"No, we're going to talk about it because I am done doing all this campaigning bullshit. Why can't you understand that I don't want to take part in this? Do you even care about what I want to do?"

The sound of Ms Mallette's harsh laughter echoes in the hallway. "And what is it exactly that you want to do?"

There's a pause and then Justin speaks up in a firm tone. "My music."

"Your music?" She spits out as if the words left a bad taste in her mouth. "You can't be serious. You're still chasing after your silly dreams of being a musician?" Her voice isn't as calm as before. She's staring to lose her patience.

"What is your problem, huh? You can't expect me to model for your shitty brand all the fucking time. I have a life too, you know. I'm more than some pretty face on the front of a cover."

I gasp at his words.

"You expect me to let you go out there and make a fool of yourself? Out of me? I run a business, Justin, and if you went out there and did your 'music'," Her words are dripping in venom, "What do you think the media would say about you? About me? I just can't accept it."

The next thing Justin says makes my heartache. "Yeah, well you never cared about me or my interests," His voice is low, "Your work always came first. It always has and it always will."

Right at that moment the door swings open and I stand there in horror as the two find me standing outside the door. I'm in complete shock. The look on Justin's face tells me that he is too, not expecting to see me there.

Ms Mallette, however, looks furious. "How long have you been standing there?" She snaps. "I didn't mean to-"

Shaking her head, she goes off on me. "It's disrespectful to eavesdrop... you shouldn't be up here!" Then she notices the files in my hands and takes them from me. "If I see you ever listening to another conversation that doesn't concern you I will not even think twice about-"

"Can you stop it? She did nothing wrong so stop yelling at her like she set the building on fire!" Justin shouts, his eyes practically blazing with anger. This takes both myself and his mom by surprise.

Ms Mallette's icy blue eyes turn into slits as she stares at him. Justin holds his stand as he stares back at her. I feel absolutely terrible. At this point, being fired from my internship didn't even concern me.

"I think its time for you to go." Ms Mallette says calmly, her eyes still fixed on Justin.

"Gladly," Justin growls lowly before storming off.

I'm still standing there which makes Ms Mallette glare at me. "Why are you still standing here? Don't you have work to do?" She sneers.

The sudden urge to yell at her hits me. I want to prove to her about how good Justin's music is, but I can't seem to form the right words. She scoffs before turning on her heel and entering her office. The door shuts in my face.

"It's pointless," A voice says from behind me. I turn to find Justin standing a few meters away. "arguing with her." He clarifies.

I shake my head at him. "It's not fair to you."

Justin's head bows and his eyes trail onto the floor as he shrugs with his hands buried deep into his pockets. "I'm used to it."

We both stand there, unsure what to say. I hate myself for not knowing how to form the right words because when he walks away, I feel defeated and useless.

I should have said something.

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A/N:

This chapter sucks I'm sorry.

-Diana