"YOU SERIOUSLY GONNA do this?" Micah scoffs.
I didn't have a shift today, but I found myself with a spare hour and a half, and going home just wasn't appealing. So, I lent a hand around here. My brief respite has vanished, and now I'm explaining to Micah why I have to go.
"Why not?" I retort.
"Because..." He glances at the sparse patrons at the bar, "you know why."
"I've got cancer. Big deal. I'm doing fine," I grin, gesturing at myself.
The truth is, I'm not. Accepting my impending death has been a tug-of-war.
On one hand, I'm not thrilled about being here anyway. It'd mean no more dealing with Dad or Stefan, no more loneliness, just peaceful sleep forever. That's pretty much the only part of my life I enjoy anyway.
But on the other hand, there's so much I haven't experienced yet. I haven't been to Greece, haven't seen Warrent in concert... Sure, realistically, I might not have done those things in my lifetime anyway, but it feels too soon to let go.
Micah's gaze softens, like he's peering into my soul. "Maya-"
"So I'm dying," I cut him off, "So what? Should I stop doing the things that make me happy?"
"You found out yesterday. Maybe take some time to process," he suggests, shrugging.
"I have," I nod. "And now that I have, I want to slip into some sexy underwear and strut down a runway. Are you in or not?"
He sighs, "Well, if you're hell-bent on it, I can't let you model alone without someone cheering you on from the audience, can I?"
"I wouldn't be alone," I protest, crossing my arms.
He tilts his head, deadpan. "You don't have other friends."
I gasp dramatically, clutching my heart, "That's not true!"
"Name one."
"Nisha," I reply, a smug smile playing on my lips. We've had lunch a few times, and she moved her locker near mine.
Granted, I keep our conversations shallow, sticking to small talk. She doesn't even know my full name, but she's nice.
"Does Nisha even know you model?" he asks, though he already knows the answer.
I slump my shoulders, "Whatever," I scoff.
"That's what I thought." He deadpans. I frown a little. "I'll go." My smile returns.
"Yay!" I grin. "Okay so it starts at nine but I have to there for eight...which is in ten minutes."
"Okay." He nods. "I'll be there for nine."
I send him my best puppy dog eyes, "but... the bus takes half and hour to get there with all the stops and my dad never brought back my car.
So..."
"So you want me to dive you and wait an hour until the stupid thing starts." He states, sending me a dry look.
"No. I want you to drive me and spend an hour talking to my super hot model friends."
"Friends?" He raises a brow.
"Whatever, you know what I mean." I scoff, laughing lightly. "Let's go."
҉
I stare at myself in the mirror of my dressing room. The white lace should fit me perfectly— it always has. Only now it doesn't.
I'm not surprised now that I think about it. I haven't exactly been eating very much... I've just been busy. I didn't think I'd lost this much weight though.
My breasts barely fill the top and the straps of my thong that are supposed to rest above my hips keep falling down.
I frown at my reflection.
I can't walk like this.
Just as I put my slip robe on, a knock sounds at my door. "Come in!"
"Hey, doll." Micah smiles, closing the door behind him. "Turns out, Nisha's gonna be here too, she just called and asked if I wanted to come with her." The blond laughs, but I only frown more.
"What's wrong?" His eyebrows scrunch up.
"Nothing." I sniffle, turning away from him to slide my jeans back on. The jeans I now realize are becoming more baggy. "Im just not walking tonight anymore."
It's Micah's turn to frown, his whole face scrunching up in confusion, "why not?"
I feel the familiar sensation of embarrassment settle in my stomach, "I just don't really want to anymore."
"That's bullshit." He states, looking me up and down, "you love this crap," he motions around my room with his hands, "why aren't you walking?"
I smile at him, hoping to ease some of the tension that's built up around us, "I just feel like going out for ice cream instead." I lie with a shrug, "Vivy won't care," I wave my hand in dismissal, "she has enough models anyway."
He eyes me sceptically "What's up with you?"
"Nothing, I want to change then leave." I huff lightheartedly with the chuckle, even though my heart feels anything but light, "then I want to go get ice cream and learn stuff about you because I think you're the only person that cares about me and I know nothing about you."
I turn my back to him and let my robe fall, reaching forward and grabbing my tank top. I don't think about what I've just said but it seems he does because when I turn around, he's looking at me with soft eyes. Ones that tell me he feels sorry for me. "What?" I question, pulling my long hair out from the back of my shirt.
"Plenty of people care about you, Maya." He says with a softness that's unfamiliar.
I snort, bending down to put on my shoes, "No they don't, you said yourself I have no friends." I shrug and stand, "don't worry about it, I don't have time for friends anyway" I don't know that that's fully the truth... I don't have time for friends, but other than Ana I've never really had to make time either, and as lonely as I am, I'd rather be alone for the rest of my life then go through what I went through with Ana again.
"Let's go." I say, not looking back at him. "Hang on!" He grabs my shoulder to turn me around, "what's that girls name... the tall blonde?"
I sigh, "Mia."
"Great. Wait up for me." He flashes me a grin and jogs off in her direction. With nothing to do but wait for him, I decide to leave my things in my room and go talk to Vivy.
I told her I wasn't feeling well and that I needed to go home. I also informed her that I would need the next size down from now on. She was understanding about it, told me to take care of myself and feel better.
When Micah nodded at me, signalling that he was done, i made my way back to my room to collect my things. "Maya!" I turned to look at who yelled my name, and was met with a wide eyed and big grinned Nisha. Immediately she engulfed me into a hug, wrapping her arms around my neck. "I didn't know you were coming! Are you here to watch too?"
"No I was just leaving, so was Micah, actually. He told me you called him earlier." I explained, pulling back, "wanna come with us? We're gonna go get ice cream."
Nisha laughed lightly, shaking her head, "you think after walking around backstage with supermodels I'm gonna go eat ice cream?" She chuckled again at her own joke, "I'm already here so I might as well stay and watch. Have fun though."
"Okay." I said, watching her walk away. Nisha did not look like someone who needed to restrict her eating at all. She fit in perfectly with everyone else back here.
"You ready to go?" Micah asked, leading me out to his truck.
I was sat at one of the tables along the wall, in the corner of the room. I'd been working on bills for about half an hour when I heard the front door open and close. I was sat in the dance area, near a lamp, so I couldn't see the door or the bar, but once I heard Micah's voice, I knew I didn't have to get up, and I could just go back to work.
"Hm. I guess Ian closed up early today." Micah was right, some guy had showed up, demanding some blow for half price. When I said no the fucker pulled a gun on me. After taking him to the back and dealing with him, I couldn't be bothered to hide the cleaners or clean it up myself so I just got everybody out and had the crew come in.
"You want a drink?" He asked the, what I assume to be, girl. Her response was muffled by the wall. "Suit yourself, but I'm just saying, if anyone deserves a drink right now, it's you." I heard some muffled movements and words. I could practically hear his smirk when he said "yeah, I thought so."
Then his voice became muffled aswell and I assumed he'd gone to sit further away, with this girl.
It wasn't even five minutes later that I get a call from Nisha. "What?"
"Okay, I found her dressing room, no one was in there so I put the tracker in her purse." She paused, I rolled my eyes at her need to build 'suspense'.
"It's works fine but the location says she's in the club right now."
☄︎⋆ ༘
I had zero motivation to edit this.
Cliffhanger...? Guesses on what'll happen next?