Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Before
Rachel has just returned loaded with bags of groceries and boxes of different types of alcohol, her janitor is helping her carry everything up while I finish putting away the expensive things that can break.
She's not even remotely ready for her party yet, but she's confident enough to leave it to the last minute.
"You owe me your whole life," she says.
I look at her from my position on the sofa suppressing a smile, I know that she got what I asked for, it is Rachel after all and if she is in her hands to make someone happy, she will.
"Did you get it then? I seriously thought you were kidding about getting me hippie beer," I tease, and she rolls her eyes and pounces on the couch theatrically.
"My friend did, but now I owe him a huge favor."
Rachel's blonde hair falls in disarray over the white pillow and it's then that she notices that I'm all dressed up and frowns.
"You shouldn't have done it, I told you it wasn't necessary."
She shakes her head, still looking at each item of clothing I'm wearing, debating whether or not to tell me how badly dressed I am, I see it in her eyes.
"You're my friend and that's what friends do. Also, I want you to feel a part of everything, some of the girls from the company are coming today not to mention other rising stars, you have to mingle, make friends."
I wrinkle my nose in denial, I'm not completely socially useless, but I hate socializing at parties. In the end, people never behave like themselves.
"I know you're ready, but don't you want to change?" I'm not saying you look bad, you're beautiful, it's just that shorts and t-shirts are not popular in the middle. We're not seventeen anymore, Nina."
She gets up and urges me to follow her, I do so reluctantly. She knew she couldn't buy her opinion, she never does, she always has something to say about my ways of not being up to date or being too obnoxious.
I follow her down the hall to the end, her room is tidy and I would say too much work, I understand that half of her work is in the United States and she must do it online but the type of order that Rachel has leads her to new extremes.
"If you want to stay teen casual, I've got something for you." She comes out of her closet and is wearing a white shirt with vertical stripes in shades of green and hands me a bunch of gold necklaces, some of which I think are gold.
Of course, it is not enough to look good, you must also look expensive.
"I'm not against the style that you like Irina, don't look at me like that, but you must understand that sooner rather than later this will be your life. In Cape Town it was different, I know, being a catalog model is a different world. But this, honey, is the big leagues."
I have nothing to tell her, she knows more about this than I do, after all she is my representative and it is her job that I am the product.
Rachel goes into the bathroom to get herself ready and I go back to my room to wake up Irina the model, not the girl who fled South Africa to escape her own existence, no one here is interested in giving that girl a job.
I combine the shirt that Rachel gave me with some ripped jeans and chunky heels, I try to make the makeup a little more marked. Instead of the half updo I had on her hair before, I let it fall over my shoulders in elaborate waves.
I'm putting the finishing touches on the lipstick when Rachel walks in with a huge smile, she's stunning in a silver dress, her bare back and shoes that show off her mile-long legs, her dark makeup brings out the greenish tint in her eyes.
"You take longer than me," she laughs, I look at her through the mirror leaning against the door frame and I wink at her.
I guess I finally took it seriously.
"You look fabulous," she says to encourage me.
We both left my room and I can see that the muffled whispers I was hearing from my room are not just a few people, but there are about ten people in the living room and more talking on the terrace. The party has finally started.
"Hey Rach, I need a little help here!" The boy with gray-white dyed hair beckons my friend over to help him with the neon letters that read "Happy Birthday Rachel" and she leaves me on my own.
I give the people around me an appreciative look and she's glad I listened to Rachel because they all look expensive, like when you walk into a Lamborghini dealership. I look like a Porsche now, but hopefully I'm a beat-up Volkswagen Caddy.
Realizing my thoughts are wandering too far to my father's knowledge of cars, I shake my head and make my way to the kitchen.
I don't want to think about him right now, I'm surrounded by too many soon to be drunk people and if I think about my alcoholic father and what these people are doing to their bodies I'm going to end up in a pretty dark place in my mind.
Before I get to the kitchen, I bump into Suyin, one of the models who also works for the company, and she smiles kindly.
She is very pretty and extremely sweet, but unfortunately, and unfortunately, she speaks very little English and I don't speak Mandarin, which is her mother tongue. Also, my Thai is quite poor despite living in Thailand for three years, therefore, I just smile and go my way
Rachel's kitchen is practical and has appliances for absolutely everything anyone can imagine, everything is boxy and too white for my taste; the breakfast bar is wide and made of black marble, today we removed the chairs so that the space is more open and people can prepare their own drinks.
Rachel took it upon herself to sort the bottles of liquor on the bar and I can see that the best seller is the wine, I guess they're starting out light and formal before ending up in a puddle of their own vomit.
I rummage through the bottles, but I don't see the Hippie beers Rachel promised me anywhere, I give up and go to the fridge to find some fruit, maybe I can make myself a cocktail with minimal vodka content, I open the fridge, defeated and Sad is there when I see my six pack of beer in cute blown glass bottles, I thank Rachel's keen mind and pull out a green glass bottle, the bubblegum pink label is really cute.
I go for the plunger and pass a guy who is pouring himself a glass of bourbon; he lets out a laugh that doesn't go unnoticed, I look at him again, stopping at his scathing smile and his brown eyes.
"Don't get too crazy, that's like ten percent alcohol, you can have an ethylic coma or something" he mocks my poor consumption of alcoholic beverages.
"Actually, he's got five percent." I make a face and he pretends to be surprised.
"Wow, that…you're seriously wild." I play along because he seems nice and also because he spoke first.
"I live life on the edge, stepping on the accelerator."
He walks up to face me, leaning on the bar, takes a drink from his glass. I see the movement of his throat, he's quite handsome, he has brown hair that's a bit reddish, but dark enough that you'll only notice it if you really pay attention, his features are marked and masculine, and apparently he was only allowed one White T-shirt.
"By the way, I'm Devon Divaio," he says with that devastatingly handsome smile. "So, wild girl, don't you want to.
take something adult category? I don't even know why Rachel bought that crap." He points to my bottle.
"Actually, she bought them for me."
Devon looks embarrassed for calling my drink garbage and I want to laugh at him, but Rachel walks in on her and we both stop our exchange of banter to look at her when she lets out a little squeak that's not like her.
"Hey, Rach. Congratulations, beautiful." She lunges at him and gives him a suffocating hug just before planting a lipstick-marked kiss on his cheek.
"I thought you wouldn't be back until Saturday."
They are barely aware of my presence and that makes me uncomfortable, so I decide it's my time to escape the handsome stranger. She sees my not-so-subtle escape and her cheeks flush as she notes that she completely left me out of the conversation.
"Oh… I'm sorry I interrupted earlier. Dev, I assume you already know…"
"The wild girl, that's me." And yes, we already know each other, Rach; Maybe you didn't interrupt anything interesting, I'll see you later, Devon.
if possible Rachel blushes more and looks at me with pity, I shrug to play it down, it's her party and he's her friend, it's completely normal for her to be the center of attention.
The music fills the place and I can see several people dancing on the terrace. I don't want to go out into that crowd of people, but it's the only place I can get some fresh air without leaving the party. I walk past the console of the guy with dyed hair who put up the neon sign, now I know it's Ocean Blake, the new DJ of the moment, he winks flirtatiously at me and I can only smile and remind myself not to act crazy around him. these famous characters.
Ocean changes to a slower pace and many of the dancers head into the apartment for more drinks.
I can barely get out without stepping on or bumping into anyone, but I eventually make it without incident. I lean on the railing and take a drink of the beer, It has a slight lemon and mint flavor, almost like lemonade, maybe a little more sour than usual.
I notice the presence of someone next to me, but I keep looking at the city without paying too much attention until he decides to speak.
"You're Irina, right?" I turn to his voice, it seems slightly familiar to me. The lights are low and I can barely see some of her features, her nose is quite pretty.
"May I ask how you know my name?"
He bites his lip looking embarrassed by my slightly edgy response.
"I'm Thomas, Rachel's lawyer, I was with her when you signed the contract." I remember him vaguely because he was only there for a moment, but I did notice his eyes that had a strange combination of green and blue, a bit like mine, but the blue more intense than the green.
"I remember you, you said good morning and goodbye," he laughs and drinks red wine from his glass.
"That's me." I imitate his action drinking my own beer. You have to excuse Rachel for earlier." He realizes I don't know what she's talking about and scratches his neck uncomfortably again. I saw about the kitchen with Devon, they have a few "business" to take care of.
I turn to face him, we are quite close due to the accumulation of people around us, his chest almost touches mine. He doesn't seem bothered by it, but I'm sure he notices.
"It doesn't matter. It's his life, the guest here is me " I moisten my lips before biting my cheek.
"Perhaps soon you will be as much a part of this as we are."
I mean, I could never be comfortable with any of this because it's too much like the parties my mom attended and dragged me to to show her beauty queen friends that even though she had ruined her life with me, at least she was beautiful and mature enough to go to adult parties.
A girl separates from the group in the living room to reach us and she wraps her arms around Thomas's torso, she is much shorter than him and rests her head on the boy's chest.
"You have to play, the boys have already prepared the tequila," she comments, looking only at me."
"Will you join me?"
Before she can answer, Thomas does it for me.
"No, he has work tomorrow. You know how Rachel is, she'd kill her if she showed up to a shoot hungover."
The girl laughs heartily before nodding.
"That woman is so hypocritical, she will be an angry raccoon tomorrow and she forces you not to drink, anyway." Come on Tom.
I don't understand why she lied for me, it doesn't matter if I like alcohol or not.
"Enjoy the beer, I paid a lot of money to bring them to you," he says before the girl drags him back into the crowd."
I can't say thank you, but the heat on my cheeks is enough to know that I blushed. I appreciate that the lights are dim.
I know Rachel said that she asked a friend of hers to get these types of beers, I know they are quite expensive. I never thought it was about him, Rachel never really agreed with my refusal of alcohol, she saw it as something stupid, but later she told me that she had talked to a friend of hers who promised to find these craft beers just for me.
I smile to myself and go back to the party.
It's been about three hours and Rachel has gone into super drunk mode. She is on the small table in the living room singing Youngblood as if he were in concert and I must admit that he has a beautiful voice, I sing the song from my place on the sofa with two other girls.
Devon sits on the arm of the couch next to me and I can't help but step to the side when Rachel sings a verse of the song just looking our way.
"So, wild girl, will you tell me your name?" He gets close enough to say it in my ear and I can hear it over Rachel's voice, her breath tickling my cheek, and I turn to look him square in the eye.
"If you're not drunk enough by the end of the night, I will."
Only then am I aware of what I'm doing, our lips are too close and he looks at me as if he wanted to eliminate those millimeters that separate us, but I don't care, whatever game he's playing I play a thousand times better. I hold his gaze long enough for him to be intimidated and look at my lips instead.
"Guys, I want a photo!" Rachel yells from the table as the song ends. Someone hands her her phone so she can take the picture of her, I turn from Devon and smile at the camera for Rachel.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone