‘Excuse me,’ someone says in our direction. I glance to my left to see a woman approaching with a warm smile. She’s well dressed and carrying the most beautiful Hermès Birkin bag. I’m practically salivating over it as she comes to a stop. ‘Hi. I wonder if I could have a quick word?’
Ben and Ollie watch me curiously as Liv talks at them in an excited voice once we’re back home. It’s Liv doing all the talking. She’s more excited than I am, I think. I’m just a bit confused, overwhelmed.
‘And then,’ Liv continues, ‘she hands Aurora her business card and tells her to give her a ring if she likes the sound of it.’
There’s a pause and then, ‘This sounds sketchy as fuck,’ Ben says.
‘Are you sure this is legitimate?’ Ollie agrees.
‘Yes,’ I reply, my voice quiet. I’m still in shock. ‘I’ve heard of them. They’re huge.’ I stare at the business card in my hand.
‘What are you going to do? Liv asks encouragingly. ‘You have to ring it. You have to.’
‘I don’t know,’ Ben says. ‘I don’t think this is a good idea.’
I look at Ollie, wondering what he thinks. Ollie’s always the voice of reason.
‘Don’t pay them any money, Aury,’ is all he has to say, in essence. ‘I have no idea how any of this works, but don’t you hand them a single penny until you know what’s happening.’
‘Aurora’s been scouted by a modelling agency!’ Liv shouts joyously. ‘That’s what’s happening. How it works is that tomorrow she’s going to ring that number and become astar.’
‘I’m not,’ I protest. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to ring the number and I’m going to see what the modelling agent has to say, and then I’ll take it from there. This must happen every day to a hundred different girls, and I reckon it starts and ends exactly like this for practically all of them. I reckon this goes nowhere,’ I point out truthfully.
‘A random encounter somewhere public. This is how Kate Moss got scouted,’ Liv says, excitement still filling the void made apparent by Ollie and Ben’s uncertainty. And mine. ‘And look how famoussheis!’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘Your walk is still too fast,’ Liv tells me six months later while I stride along the hallway between the front door and our kitchen. ‘You’ll never get picked for any fashion shows if you practically run it. Now go back to the front door, slow down and try again.’
My eyes widen. ‘All right, Bossy,’ I say and give her a pointed look. My agent has told me I’m in with a shot at a few shows in different cities, if I’m prepared to dedicate the time to flying around, going for castings. Which I am. But apparently my walk needs work.
‘Come on,’ Liv says, paying no heed to me. ‘We’re in this together. Your success is our success, and your glamorous new life might rub off on us.’
‘I don’t wang on that much, do I?’
‘Enough to make me jealous of being stuck in a dingy terraced house with two boys who hog the TV all day, watching football. I need the pay-off of that good celebrity backstage gossip from the shows, and I won’t get that if you don’t get any jobs. So go back to the front door, turn around and walk like you want it.’
‘Idowant it. I need the money.’
‘You always need the money. What do you do with it?’
‘Clothes, plus I give some to my mum and buy English set texts.’
‘That you don’t read,’ Liv says.
‘I do read them. But I don’t always manage to understand what’s going on or to convey any meaningful thoughts to paper, when it comes to my essays.’
I attempt the walk again. Liv shakes her head, gives a grim expression and swirls her finger round in the air silently, telling me to go again.
I huff and sigh in frustration. ‘Maybe we should watch those YouTube videos again.’
‘It’s just walking. How are you finding it so difficult? You do it every day.’
‘Because this isn’t standing still, like the fashion shoots I’ve been doing for those brands that no one’s ever heard of. This is model-walking. It’s nonsense. No one walks like this.’
‘You will. For money, and fame. And glamour.’ Liv picks up her phone from the kitchen table and we watch a series of models on runways until I think I’ve got it. ‘How do your tutors feel about you being away from lectures so much?’ she asks as she puts her phone down.
I go back to the front door, brace myself for another failed attempt at something that looks so simple, but is in fact ridiculously hard.
