Chapter 16 – Vesuvius
“Take the robe off now, Angel.” Kim eyes me as though she is ready to take my head off me anytime I slip away from the mirror. Donnie has to literally hold me to my sit so that I could not get away.
“I can’t do this,” I say while trying to stop myself from breaking into tears or else I will smudge my eye-make up all over my painted face. Another foreign looking creature in the mirror stuns me that I could hardly look closely to her because she makes my stomach twirl. The last time I looked so different and, well, so not me, was when I personified a fictional character which I badly want to be swept off the face of the planet. And here now, I am seeing that very face; she looks exactly similar with the pretentious Angel Grant.
“You do this, Angel, or we’ll lose this huge project.” Donnie is gritting his teeth while he keeps his grasp around my wrist.
Unbelievable!
I feel like I a new kid in school being bullied by the big boys. Albeit, it is true that I am new here, it is just not fair for them to force me do something I am not even prepared to do—or worse my skills fall short to even dare perform.
“I have never done something like this before. Mr. Paige will surely not like the photos when they come out.”
“This is gamble, sweetie,” responds Donnie while he strokes his fingers through the strand of my hair. Kate ironed my hair for fifteen minutes and parted it in the middle so that it falls down my shoulders like a waterfall. Jessica, then, put so much dark metallic colors on my eyelids that I feel that it was charcoal she used.
“Why does it have to be me?” I feel like crying now. Donnie helps me get up from the chair and walks me out of the dressing room.
“We really have no choice, haven’t we, Angel? You’re the best option now.” I am instantly reminded that Kim is following me behind, raring to get me off the robe.
And Ms. Ross even agreed.
Well, if I fail on this, I know I cannot blame myself. I have already expressed my utmost ignorance about posing in front of cameras, especially when I feel heavy on my face and completely uncomfortable with the clothes I wear.
While they were fixing me, Donnie lent me four fashion magazines to quickly browse and study. I don’t really know if I have the confidence to pull off just even one of the poses I have seen. They look awkward and unconventional.
“Now, let me take the necklace,” speaks Donnie as he wiggles his fingers like he is summoning the necklace to come to him.
“Can’t I keep it?”
For a little while, Donnie falls to silence.
“Can’t I?” I don’t want the necklace to leave my body.
He winces, but beams shortly after I made some cute expression on my face.
“Okay. It might posses some power that attract positive energy,” utters Donnie.
“And it might even alter Paige’s mood,” adds Kim. “Now, off the robe, missy.”
We reach the area where Pablo’s professional cameras and lightings are ready. Mr. Paige and Ms. Ross surround Pablo as the latter take photos of Colin who is standing on top of a blue box, showing off his perfectly sculpted abs. I can see on Paige’s face he is quite satisfied with Colin’s performance, he doesn’t miss a second gawking at him.
I am afraid I’ll be the biggest disappointment of this photo shoot.
“Oh here’s Angel!” cries out Ms. Ross as soon as she sees me coming.
Pablo stops and Colin as well.
“Are you sure about this, Ross?” Paige’s voice sounds cynical but stern.
“You asked us to produce a female model in thirty minutes and she’s the only alternative we have found,” answers Ross. “There’s no harm in trying, Mr. Paige.”
He croaks but he did not argue anymore. His glare goes back to Colin whom I notice has been staring at me like he has seen Queen Elizabeth in her prime years coming off the plane.
Pablo calls for me and instructs me to take center stage.
“I said off the robe, Angel!” Kim raises her voice. I have just realized she has been repeating it many times now.
She unties the robe and helps me slide the sleeves off my arms.
“Now the jacket,” she adds.
“The jacket?”
“Aha! Weren’t you briefed about this shoot’s theme—steaming sexy but classy?”
But I have nothing else underneath the denim jacket but the lacy ivory bra she had provided me earlier. Now I realize why she insisted of me changing into these super tight brassieres.
“You want me to pose almost naked?”
Donnie notices my distress that he quickly approaches me and explains. “Angel, this is part of the modeling job.” His voice kept calm and low.
“I am not a model, so I am not obliged to do something like this.”
“But you are today. Listen, you are doing this for the company, and this we take with paramount gratitude. This will not be forgotten.”
Why do I hear greater work benefits singing into my ears when Donnie said that?
A light touch at my elbow suddenly pushes me to turn to my right.
“What seems to be the problem?” Colin is so near me that I almost feel the heat his body is emanating and smell the pungent fragrance of oil which Kim and the team spill over his skin.
“Everything is fine, Colin,” replies Donnie, smiling. “Is it, Angel?”
I nod.
“Are we good now?” Pablo starts as he sets the camera stand a few inches away from where it used to be.
Donnie makes a thumbs-up sign and proceeds to where Paige and Ms. Ross have been watching us. They all look at me like their lives depend on me.
“Angel?” Colin’s fingers reach for my face and brush the heat off my cheeks. But it only made the burning worse.
I pull back, shunning his hand.
“I am sorry you have to get involved in this mess,” he whispers. “I know it’s new to you and it feels absolutely unnerving. I’m going to help you. Just trust me, okay?”
How will I do that?
How will I easily make this whole thing work like a walk in the park?
“Do you trust me?”
The genuineness is overflowing that I am forced to withdraw my skepticism.
“Good,” he states after I nod. “Just follow my lead. You don’t have to put much effort. Leave the rest on me, okay?”
The music in Calum’s Disco Bar strikes through my head like large pins. The alcohol has taken its toll on me that I am beginning to only see hazes of light. My head feels like to break at the point of pain. Donnie and the team declare the next three hours after the photo shoot ended a moment to savor victor. When Paige saw the photos, he was ecstatic, and he even promised Ms. Ross he’d bring the company more clients after the first batch of the magazines is distributed to the market.
Pablo tries to force another glass of gin on me but I duck my face against the table to prevent myself from throwing up. Aside from Pablo who obviously can still drink another barrel of wine, the others are on the dance floor, shaking their hips and waving their hands on the air. With the left side of my face pressed on the table, I see Liza and Kim dancing like crazy people, jumping and singing altogether. Colin is with some unknown girl, and I bet he is enjoying every second with her. As for Donnie—my weary eyes cannot locate his whereabouts. It seems that he got himself vanish in the ocean of highly rapturous people in the middle of the dance floor.
“Want another one, Angel?” sluggishly asks Pablo, his head figuratively falling apart from his neck.
I push the glass far from me and strides away from our table. I think I need air to vanquish the heat that is cutting off the remaining sensibility in my mind. And my stomach is grumbling with great protest. The toxins inside my tummy need to be freed right now before I lost control of myself and I throw up anywhere inside Calum’s. Now that will be historic!
Relief washes over me fresh air finally reaches the deepest corners of my lungs, and I have freed my stomach from the gastric juices and toxins the alcohol caused me. People going into Calum’s do not mind how a chaos I am when I began throwing up at the kerb where a lamp post is built. I plant my forehead against the copper colored post, waiting for my heart to slow down a bit.
This rather peculiar but distressing sensation, I think, is brought about by the strong type of alcohol Colin made me drink before the photo shoot. He said he drinks it all the time before he does pictorials like the one he had with Beetz. He added that this particular drink makes him lose all his inhibition and is very useful to his work. And yes it is! I agree that he does exceptionally well in his job, and that the alcohol helped me become the model they are requiring me to be. Nevertheless, the aftermath is horrible. I think I am going to fall sick.
And I should not have gone with them in here. I was already feeling not well after the shoot, and yet I chose to have fun. Well, Donnie was really convincing. He kept on telling me I did very good and that Ms. Ross was pleased. And yet the latter directly went home after three shots of tequila.
I shake my head while trying to figure out a way to erase the thought of Colin having to drink that alcohol every time he poses in front of the camera. It makes me wonder what other things he has to do for work that he needs to lose his inhibitions and be entirely shameless.
“Hey, Angel!” My eyes open and turn to the running Colin. “I have been looking for you. Are you okay?” His hand reaches for my back and he begins to tap it gently.
“I am okay now, Colin,” I say.
His fingers touch my chin and raise it up a bit to level with his. His eyes scan for my face and I bet he sees how flushed I look.
“I think I should be going home now.”
“Let me take you home.”
“Thank you, Colin. I think I’d like that.” I am about to take his hand when I suddenly hear a smashing sound almost deafening both my ears. In just few blinks, my eyes almost drop off their cavities when I see Colin lying on the ground.
In a snap, daze leaves me. When I turn around, I can’t help but be furious to know whose fist landed on Colin’s handsome face.
“What are you doing here?” I yell at Hunter Stone, who as well is raging of anger. To keep him off poor Colin, I push him away from the curb to the cobble stone wall of Calum’s. Colin tries to get up on his knees but it appears that he is too drunk to even help himself up. I bet he’s going to pass out first before I do. His nose is broken, blood running down from the right hole to the side of his cheek.
Then, two men in black suit appear. Hunter immediately grasps my arm and pulls me close to him, while the two men pick Colin from the ground.
“Where are you taking him?” If only I could punch Hunter Stone on the face, I would. But I am afraid the two men will take me away.
I can only watch Colin being carried by the bigger man on his shoulder and thrust inside a black car. They are not kidnappers, are they? Colin has gone unconscious after that strong blow on his face, and I am sure he won’t be able to protect himself when those guys plan of harming him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” queries Stone as his hawk’s eyes rest on me.
“I’m calling the cops.” My fingers seem to have a mind of its own, typing numbers I don’t even know. My head remains swerving and floating in the air.
Right away, the conceited man seizes the phone from my grasp and mindlessly pitches it to the road where a speeding car smashes it in seconds.
“You heartless man!” My soul leaves my body as I witness such horrid death. My legs crave to rescue my phone but Hunter has already grabbed me by the waist that I could only watch my phone getting smashed further by other transportation vehicles.
“Get away from me!” With my arms extended onto his chest, I pound my fist against it as a sign of my utter disgust towards this monster. But Hunter is the type of man who doesn’t yield to lose. Although the sleeves of his suit mask the strength of his arms, I can feel them pressing my body and owning them like his possession. Then, he clutches both my wrists before I could even slam his face.
“Let go of me!” I say once again, still bearing that little hope that he might change his mind and leave me.
“I am not happy, Angel,” he darkly utters.
“Well I am glad you are in serious shaken mental state!” I try to produce a laugh.
Suddenly, a grin erupts on his face.
“What’s so funny?”
“You know what, I thought I’d let you pass with MediaOne,” he starts. “But it looks like you’re enjoying freedom rather surprisingly.”
If he’s referring to this inebriated state of mine right now, then this is the freedom I’d rather want than be caged by him and by his arrogance.
“Ha! So I should be indebted to you for letting me keep this job. Is that what you mean?”
Pathetic brat! What else can he do but threaten those who are beneath him?
“Not anymore now.” He releases his grasp on me and reaches for something inside his jacket. I don’t really care if it’s another contract to convince me because I am going to tear it into pieces in front of him. I look at my wrists and they swell badly. Hunter has been squeezing them to make sure I could not escape.
In his hands now are pocket-size photos, and he shows them to me with eye brows raised.
“How on earth did you get these?”
Forcing my eyes to open a little, I stick my gaze to the photos which were taken from the shoot.
“Colin looks hot in here!” I hear myself giggling.
Nonetheless, Colin does look hot only with the jeans, and he was holding me relatively close to him. I remember how awkward I felt while doing the entire shoot. Colin was cool while I was shaking the whole time despite how confident and brazen I looked from the outside.
“You are so mean to hit the guy…” my voice trailing off as I sway.
Hunter clasps my shoulders before I lose my balance and fall over.
“Anyway, how on earth did you get hold of these?” raising the photos in front of him, I question, giggling. “Don’t tell me you sneak into Pablo’s studio or have someone get into his computer?”
“You are impossible…” I hear him say, more so I thought.
My vision starts to get blur, but I hear him sigh deeply and respond the way I expect him to do, “You don’t doubt what I can do, Angel Mohr.” Before everything shuts down.