Page 26
With a sigh, I walked across the room.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She sized me up with a pretty glare, like she thought I might pinch her. “I’m fine. Why?”
“You looked . . . upset. Is there anything I can do to help?”
She scoffed. “Unless you have a spare room for rent starting tonight, then no.”
“You need a place to crash?”
“Men are scum, you know that?”
I thought it over. “Yeah, I know that. Are you okay?”
“Do you really care?”
I thought that over too, studying her. God, she was young and as innocent looking as a little lost lamb. “I do.”
“I’ve been better, to be honest,” she eventually answered. “I just got dumped by my boyfriend, and now I need to find an apartment in Manhattan, which is like impossible, ya know?”
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.” She saw my expression. “Practically fifteen. In less than two months,” she added defensively.
“And you were living with your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, so? My parents were taking all of my modeling money, so I paid my lawyers a small fortune and emancipated myself. I don’t like being alone all the time, so I moved in with my boyfriend. It was working out just fine . . . until today.”
“What’s your name?” I probably should have known it, I’d seen her around, but I’d been preoccupied with my own issues for a while now.
She didn’t seem offended. “I’m Jovie.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“Thanks. I made it up myself.”
“What’s your real name?”
“Jovie is now. I had it legally changed. I went with just the one name. Like Halsey. Or Beyonce. Or Madonna. Doesn’t it sound like the name of someone who’s going to be famous?”
I nodded encouragingly. “It for sure does.” She looked like someone who was going to be famous too. She was drop dead gorgeous, obviously biracial with stunning coloring: light brown skin, golden blonde hair, and sky blue eyes. “Nice to meet you, Jovie. I’m Noura.”
“Oh, I know who you are. You’re the snobby, famous, rich one who doesn’t talk to anyone.”
The rich part of that I was still getting used to, though it was accurate and didn’t bother me a bit. I’d done a lot for that money, and it was still fresh enough that the idea didn’t taste bitter. Yet. The snobby part now, that stung a little. I kept to myself, but I wasn’t a snob. I didn’t think I was better than anyone, I was just doing the best I could, though it wasn’t the first or even the tenth time I’d heard that said about me. “I’m talking to you, aren’t I?” I pointed out.
“But look what a fool I had to make of myself first,” she said with a disarming smile.
That startled a laugh out of me. The tears weren’t even dry on her face and already she was joking around. What a strange, interesting girl.
“What did she say to you?” I asked her. Jovie had seemed fine until the other girl had spoken to her.
“Ambrosia Hurst? She’s the one he left me for. You know how it is with these model chasers. They want a piece of us all. And she called me a baby prostitute.”
That made me so mad I felt my face turning red. “What a stone cold bitch.”
“I know, right? I absolutely hate being called a baby.”
