model ; luke hemmings

before it all.

Fashion week in New York was the most stressful week for Luke, and most models. Everything was meant to be perfect, his walk, his hair, his makeup, his stare. This being his first one, it was a lot of pressure put on him.

"Are you done yet?" He heard a voice coming from the other side of the bathroom door, as well as relentless knocking. It was his manager, Samuel. "We have to get you to another fitting!"

Luke sighed and finished rinsing off his face, patting it dry then taking another look in the mirror. His dark circles had gotten worse. Going back and forth everyday, fitting to shoots, going to another location for more shoots. He hadn't been getting enough sleep. It showed. "One second, Sam." He called out, reaching for his eye cream and dabbing it under his eyes, then coming out.

"Jesus Christ, how could you take so long, you don't even do your makeup or anything." Sam asked him, rolling his eyes, then whipping out his phone from his shirt pocket. "We have that Gucci fitting today, I hope you got enough sleep last night. We're going to the shoot right after, we'll find a way to get lunch in between that."

Luke groaned after hearing this. "I'm hungry now, I had no time for breakfast." He took his keys off the holder by the door and opened it up, holding it open for Sam to walk through. "Can you have somebody pick something up beforehand?"

"Fine." Sam muttered in response, walking through the door. "Hurry, the cars been waiting for fifteen minutes already."

They jogged down the flight of stairs to the main lobby of Luke's apartment building, exiting the front door, then stepping into a black Cadillac which back door had been open awaiting for them to get inside. They climbed into the large vehicle and Luke apologized to the driver for taking so long to come down, as he got inside. He then sat for a minute looking through his texts and social media, occasionally liking tweets from random fans and retweeting fashion inspiration posts.

Suddenly Sam's phone went off, he looked at its screen and sighed seeing the contact name. "Hello?" He answered, pulling the phone away from his ear immediately after, due to a loud response from the other end. "We'll have to do it another day, honey. I'm busy with work."

Luke furrowed his eyebrows, Samuel wasn't ever really known for answering personal calls. Even if it were his wife or kids, he would send them straight to voicemail to deal with it later. He was curious as to who he had the patience for to talk to so calmly with receiving such a seemingly annoying greeting.

As soon as Sam got off the phone, Luke was eager to ask him who the mystery person was. But before he could get the chance to, Sam groaned loudly, the driver locked eyes with Luke from the rearview mirror and rolled his eyes.

"My goddaughter is here to visit from Florida. Just for the week. This week of all fucking weeks." Sam began to scratch his patchy beard, taking off his glasses and massaging the indents the pads of his specs had left on the top bridge of his nose.

"That's okay, I'm sure you can find time to spend time with her." Luke replied quietly, losing interest in the conversation. He wanted Sam to admit he had a mistress (not that he condoned cheating but it would've made for a much more appealing conversation) or a long lost daughter he had never mentioned. "I want a bagel for breakfast by the way."

"Are you sure you want to eat carbs..? It might alter your measurements." Sam asked Luke, who in response sent daggers with his eyes. His elder nodded and gave the driver orders to go to the closest deli.