“Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back,” Linda scolded. She walked away from them in search of Justif.
“So, was that a lie, or truth?” Legend asked.
“What do you think?”
Dina’s anger and jealousy built up even stronger when she heard his answer.
“Well, by the way you tried defending yourself, I would have to say a lie,” Legend replied. Dina looked down at Legend’s brown dress and noticed the end of it was lying on the floor. Hmm.
“I guess you’ll never know, I mean, since we’re friends and all,” Stephen said. Dina stepped on Legend’s dress and pressed down on it. “Are you ready to finish this modeling gig?”
“Definitely, my feet are killing me,” Legend said.
Linda ran back to Stephen, saying, “Alright, buster, Justif told me that–”
Stephen and Legend started walking past the curtains, laughing. As they walked, Dina’s foot allowed Legend’s dress to rip, causing it to rip off all the way up to her thighs. It looked like a minidress. Legend looked down at it in dread.
“My God, my dress ripped.”
They both proceed to walk in front of the curtains. The flashes from cameras began to click even more, and Stephen looked down at her thighs. “It’s alright, just make it seem like the dress is supposed to look like that. Don’t show fear, it’s your worst enemy,” Stephen said. Legend’s eyes shielded tears within them, she couldn’t help it. “Everything’s going to be alright, give them what they want. Besides, you got great legs.”
That made Legend smile. They walked down the catwalk, but Legend’s mind showed embarrassment, her mask of beauty showing pride at the same time. They walked to the front of the stage and stopped. Legend stared at Stephen’s eyes, before he could stare at hers, for the first time. He looked over at her blue pupils and said, “Welcome to super modeling, Legend!”
They walked back and waited with the other models, the presentation coming to a close. Legend cried on Stephen’s shoulder. The thought of ripping her dress, in front of hundreds of people, ran through her mind. The master of ceremonies walked out and up to the microphone on the side of the stage while Legend was still crying with sadness, embarrassment and fear. “I hope that you’ve all enjoyed Justif’s fall line of clothing. Now I would like to introduce the genius of fashion himself, Justif,” the M.C. announced. The audience began clapping. Justif came out from behind the curtains, kissed the woman on her face and the models still stood behind the curtains.
“Thank you all so much for coming. But, I couldn’t do this alone without the help of the Drakson Modeling Agency, and his beautiful male and female models. . . . But, this fall, I was introduced to a woman who was, in my case, beyond beautiful, and I feel that William Drakson did a fabulous job at discovering her,” Justif announced.
Legend lifted her head up. “He’s talking about you,” Stephen said.
Dina walked up to Legend. “Legend, I’m sorry for stepping on your dress, I didn’t realize I was doing it.”
Legend dried her tears away with Stephen’s arm. “It’s okay, Dina, I know you didn’t.”
Dina walked up to Stephen. “Remember, Stephen, we have dinner plans tonight,” Dina reminded. Stephen turned to her. Legend got up from her seat and felt that she didn’t belong in such a private conversation, between her new friend and her worst enemy.
“I know, Dina, we’ve already talked about this before.” Stephen then got up from his seat and walked up to Legend. “Hey, are you mad at me or something?”
“No, I just figured it wasn’t any of my business to hear that. I’m not mad at you, why would I be?” Legend asked.
What gives?
As they talked, Justif was in the middle of his speech. “This young girl is highly attractive, and personally I feel she’s going to be the next superstar model. Before I introduce the rest of the models, I would like to introduce her. She was only discovered a little bit ago, so most of you are not familiar with her name. I know this young girl was already introduced before, but her name is so beautiful, and she is so beautiful, that I would like to take the privilege of introducing her again. Come on, Legend, the audience wants to see you again,” Justif announced. Fear took over Legend’s eyes.
“What should I do? I can’t go out there looking like this. I mean, my dress is ripped.” Legend was frantic and Stephen grabbed her hand.
“Listen, this is your moment. As a matter of fact, this is your first moment out of many that you’ll have in the near future. Seize it,” Stephen said. Legend looked up at the curtain, slowly walked out of it, and stepped her feet on the stage, the audience clapping hysterically. She walked up to Justif and he gave her a gentle kiss on the hand.
“You are stunning,” Justif whispered. He walked back to the microphone. “And now, I would like to introduce the rest of the models, beginning with the lead male model, Stephen Drakson,” Justif added. Stephen walked out and stood next to Legend. After he introduced all the models, taking about ten minutes, he said, “Thank you, and goodnight!”
They all packed up, went back to the hotel and the tiredness set in Legend’s mind. The next day was the same; she got to walk out first, and she was introduced by Justif first. A total of four days passed, and the London trip was over with. Legend packed up her only dress she had, the dress that Stephen gave her, and walked to the limo where Dina, Stephen and William were.
Coldness, fear, and happiness set in Legend’s mind as the plane set a course for New York City. Dina and William fell fast asleep, and Legend and Stephen stayed up once again and talked. They laughed and talked on a serious level for a while, until Stephen said, “By the way, Justif told my father that the ripped dress you wore sold the most!”
“Wow, it did?” Legend sipped her glass of champagne.
“Yep, it did. Also, StarStruck, and Rel Woman magazine called my father and told them they want you on their covers for the December issues.”
Legend spit out her champagne all over Stephen’s pants, due to the shocking news. “What? I can’t do that, I’m still doing this job,” she said.
“Well, this job is only for three weeks. This job ends on December fourteenth, and the cover shooting for the first magazine, which I think is StarStruck, is on December twenty-first. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to do it.”
Legend looked at her reflection in the window of the plane, saying, “I still can’t do it.” She turned away from her ugly reflection and looked at Stephen again.
“Why not, Legend, they’re going to pay you a lot of dough for these jobs?”
“Because a lot of young girls are going to look at those magazine covers and see my face. They’re going to look up to my mask – I mean, my beauty. I mean, I don’t know what I mean. It’s just I don’t want girls to want to look like me.” She put her hands up to her forehead.
“Listen, Legend, you don’t realize how many girls would love to have your looks. You don’t realize how many young girls would love to be on the cover of these magazines, you don’t realize how lucky you are,” Stephen explained in a desperate attempt to change Legend’s mind.
“Hold it right there. First off, I do realize how lucky I am, and I do realize how many girls would love a chance to be on these magazine covers. . . . When I entered the model search, I wanted to see if I could do it. Then I got discovered, and had a contract thrown in my face. At that point, I made an oath to only do this job and quit after it’s done. I don’t want this. I just want beauty, I mean, I just want–” Legend’s frustration took hold of her. She knew she couldn’t tell him the real reason why she didn’t want this anymore, because all she wanted was beauty that she couldn’t even see. “I don’t know what I want. I can’t tell you what I’m thinking, so it’s hard to explain it to you. I want the whole world to see me, but I don’t see myself, which I want to see!”
“You lost me a long time ago, Legend.”
Legend turned to her reflection again and realized she couldn’t pull this stunt off.
She knew that this business held a lot of mirrors. Mirrors for the make-up women to use, and mirrors for the hairstylists to see. She fathomed that her ugliness would be discovered sooner or later, and this whole wish of beauty would be just a dream. Her puzzlement caused her vocal cords to seize, staring and thinking about her face in the window of the plane. She didn’t want to leave this business that she has just begun, but she didn’t want to stay and wait for the humility, of people discovering her ugly image, to come up. She turned back to Stephen and then lingered her face back to the window. She then looked at Dina, and realized she had to pull this off. Legend knew she had a gift, a gift of her wish being heard. For that, she didn’t want to give up this easily. So, she turned back to Stephen and said, “Alright, if you take away the mirrors from this business, then I’ll stay. . . .”
“What?”
Stephen became even more confused, engulfed in perplexity that it gave him a headache. Legend stared at him heavily and said, “I don’t like it when other people see me in mirrors. I know that the photographers, for these magazines, use mirrors all the time. I just don’t like it. So, if you tell them to not use mirrors with me, then I’ll do it!”
“So, let me get this straight, if I tell every job that you go on, to not fix your hair, or put make-up on you while looking at your reflection in the mirror, then you’ll stay?”
“Exactly, you’ve got it!”
“Man, I have never met a beautiful woman who didn’t want people to look at their reflection before. You are something special. . . . Alright, I agree.” Abruptly, the plane shook. “Shit, shit,” he said. Legend grabbed his hand.
“It’s alright, it’s just turbulence. Listen, when I used to be afraid of flying, my father would always tell me to close my eyes and picture a beautiful angel. Every time he told me that, I would see this angel in my mind, and suddenly I wasn’t afraid anymore. Try it, Stephen.”
Stephen closed his eyes and pictured Legend in his mind, a smile coming to his face. “It works.” He opened his eyes again. “Hey, I didn’t know you had a father. I mean, Dina told me he was dead or something!”
“Well, Dina was wrong.” Legend gave an evil glare toward Dina’s sleeping face.
“Well, I’m sure she didn’t realize she was wrong. All Dina told me was–”
“Listen, I don’t really want to hear what Dina said to you. There is a long past that me and her shared together. It was a past that I really want to forget.” Legend looked at Stephen’s sad face, and realized she acted mean toward him. She felt the hurt she caused toward Stephen, so she added, “Listen, Stephen, I’m sorry for scolding you. It’s just sometimes people touch my soft spot, or spots, and that causes me to get a little defensive. . . . If you want to know about my father, the answer to that is I don’t have one anymore. My father divorced my mother and practically disowned me. Amongst other things he has done to me, I hate him. He’s an asshole and I wish he would get fired so he’ll lose all of his money!”
“He’s rich?”
“Yeah, he’s living it up in Chicago right now.”
“What’s his name?”
“Michael Conaway.”
“Why do you hate him?”
“He’s a pig. It was like he was waiting for my mother to cheat on him, so he could get with the much younger and prettier girls. By him doing that, his plan worked, and my mother hardly received any of his money, all because she was stupid enough to fall in his trap,” she said, anger in her voice building.
“Well, my mother did the same thing. She was rich, and she wanted a much younger man than my father. So, she divorced him, and lied by saying that my father had an affair with another woman. For that, he didn’t get any of her money, but instead, he made it on his own. Nevertheless, I still love my mother, just as you should love your father.” It was like Stephen wanted Legend to forgive her father, even though he didn’t know him.
“Listen, you may have that forgiveness in you, but I don’t. Furthermore, you have no right to tell me I should forgive him!”
“I didn’t mean to make you upset, I was just trying to help,” he explained in a child’s voice. “Does he love you?”
“I don’t know, maybe he does. Well, I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want to talk about him. So, anyway, how was your dinner with Dina?”
Stephen showed a bit of sadness in his eyes, he didn’t want to make Legend angry, only because she was so beautiful. Or was it something else?
“It was fine, I think I’m really beginning to like her,” Stephen replied. Legend smiled toward him while he looked at Dina’s sleeping body. “She’s kind and generous, and overall, she’s not a bitch. It’s amazing, you and her are beautiful and nice at the same time. I mean, I think that I’m really starting to like her.” He stared at Legend’s beautiful eyes. “But I like you more, Legend,” he said under his breath.
“That’s good, you guys make a good couple.” Legend looked at Dina also. “But you don’t know her like I do,” she added under her breath.
“Well, I would be happier with you.”
Legend laughed, “Well, we can’t get everything we want now, can we?”
“No, but I could always wish for it!”
Legend listened to that word ‘wish’ and turned to her reflection in the window. The sadness of the mask she wears before her, allowed her mind to be overwhelmed with anxiety. “Um, boy, it’s getting late, we better get to sleep,” she said, trying to change the subject.
“Alright, goodnight, Legend.” Stephen then turned to Dina and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“Goodnight, Stephen,” Legend returned. She reclined her seat back and still stared at her reflection. She looked deep into the ugliness that the reflection gave, then slowly closed her beautiful eyes that were the only thing the beauty mask didn’t cover….
Chapter Sixteen
Legend stood behind a pure white curtain and watched as girls lined up behind her. She watched these young girls, dressed in fancy apparel and standing up to 6 feet in height, while her mind concentrated on her own apparel. She was dressed in a brown, glittering dress that showed part of her breasts. She looked over at the curtain again, and felt the voices of the audience ricochet off of it. She then saw the curtain moving, from the draft of the voices, and became fear-stricken. Anxiety struck her again. “Well, Legend, welcome to New York,” Legend said to herself, hearing the audience members cease their voices.
“Are you nervous?” asked Dina, standing behind Legend.
“Yeah!”
“Don’t be, we’re the ones whom they came to see, we’re the special ones. All those people out there came to see us in action.”
“No, those people out there came to see the clothes, not us. We’re just the mannequins to show it off, that’s what they’re paying us to be,” Legend explained. Stephen came up to them and gave Dina and Legend a hug at the same time.
“Good luck, beauties,” said Stephen. But he only stared at Legend... again. “Legend, after this show, Neortica wants to talk to you.”
“Who’s that?”
“Neortica is a make-up company, they want to discuss something about a commercial with you,” Stephen replied. “They are the big distributors of lipstick!”
The lights began to dim in the room. “What time do they want to meet with me?”
“Alright, girls, the show’s about to begin, good luck,” Stephen said in a rushing manner. Legend pulled him by his long, black sleeve that was connected to his tuxedo.
“Stephen, what time do they want to talk me at?”
Dina looked at her with envy.
“Did Neortica say anything about wanting to talk to me?” Dina asked. An older woman walked onstage and came to the podium.
“Um, they want to talk to you after the show, Legend. And no, no they didn’t say anything about wanting to talk to you, Dina.” Dina looked at Legend and rolled her eyes, almost crying from jealousy. “Listen, I got to go now, the show’s going to begin, but I’ll b
e in the audience,” he said, staring at Legend only. “Make sure to stay beautiful.”
Dina’s jealousy mutated to her eyes and showed itself. She knew he cared for Legend’s beauty only, and that he ignored her own beauty, only because Dina wasn’t as beautiful as Legend, through his eyes. But suddenly a plan developed in Dina’s mind, a plan to make Stephen’s eyes look more at her beauty, and less at Legend’s. “Stephen, what time are you going to pick me up tonight?” Dina asked. She made sure to stare at Legend. Game on.
“Oh, um, probably at 7:00 p.m.,” he replied. Dina then came up to his lips and kissed them. “What was that for?”
She released her lips from his, while still staring at Legend. “Just because.” Dina’s plan was about to come out, full throttle. “Um, Stephen, isn’t your friend, Mark, coming to visit you tonight?”
“Who’s Mark?” Legend asked.
“Oh, he’s my best friend, he’s coming from California to visit me,” he answered.
“Stephen, maybe we could do a double date tonight. You know, have Mark go with Legend, and me go with you, but we all go together,” Dina suggested as Stephen stared at Legend. He didn’t want Mark to go with Legend as a couple, but he knew he couldn’t say ‘no’. He realized Dina would know about him liking Legend, if he turned down that idea. But the thing was, she already knows about his caring for Legend. “How about it, Legend, do you want to go with Mark?”
“I don’t know, I mean, I don’t even know him.”
The woman, who came to the podium, started speaking into the microphone.
“Come on, it’ll be great,” Dina said. Legend looked at Stephen, and then toward her.
“I don’t know!”
“Come on!”
“Well, I mean, I should really concentrate on my career, instead of dating,” Legend stated. Dina hit Stephen lightly on the shoulder, he knew what it meant. Check.
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