I wanted to go to fashion week more than I wanted to breathe. It was everything I ever dreamed of. If the council shut us down, we would never have that opportunity again. It was a once in a lifetime invitation and I couldn’t let it slip through my fingers.
Especially not with all these awesome new designs. To top off the new sketches, I drew some dresses. They weren’t just ordinary dresses. These were all out, gorgeous, over-the-top fancy gowns. I could picture them floating down a runway, the material rippling like the ocean on a summer day.
They had to be made.
I wasn’t sure how, but we were going to go to Paris Fashion Week. I would do everything I could to make sure that happened.
My resolve lasted all night and even to the weekend. By Saturday morning, I was still channeling it. In fact, I was also using it as an excuse to not think about the big double date that night. Jane and Beau had finally agreed to come, seeing the benefits once I pointed them out.
We had been shopping all morning. Not for ourselves, but for fabrics. Even if the council shut us down, we still had orders to fill. Hence the need for material.
The wholesale fabric market was a bustling, crazy building. At times, it was so crowded and loaded with material that it threatened to suffocate me. It was usually those times when Jane threw some fabric in my face and distracted me.
“What do you think of this one?” I asked, holding up the edge of a fabric bolt. The material was like liquid silver. I could imagine it dripping down a body, hugging all the curves. It would look like magic.
“We don’t have anything for that,” Jane replied. She had her list again, the one we weren’t supposed to stray from. Budgets sucked.
I remembered my sketches of the dresses I had made. “I’ve got a design for it. We need to get some of this.”
“It’s not on-”
“The list, I know. Let’s live life dangerously and get it anyway. It will be fun seeing if the sky will fall because of it.”
Jane rolled her eyes. “Maybe another time.”
I let the fabric drop from my hand. I was used to not being able to afford things, I’d get over it eventually. Maybe one day we’d be able to buy material that beautiful.
One day.
That day better come.
Halfway around the market, we slipped out a side door for a breather. The café hiding in the courtyard was entirely functional instead of fancy but it had everything we needed. We ordered a coffee each and found a table in the quiet corner.
When I saw what Jane pulled out of her handbag, I wanted to groan. “Haven’t we seen enough of those?”
She spread the budget out on the table, smoothing the pages until they lay flat. “We need to make sure everything is going to work out.”
“You’ve already done the calculations, I’m sure you’ve checked them like a million times. It’s going to work out.”
“Not if we buy that silver material.”
That perked me up. “Seriously? We can get it?”
“That’s what I’m trying to work out.” Her gaze went from the budget to me, her smile reflecting in her eyes. “It was really pretty. I’m kind of dying to see what we could make out of it.”
In that moment, I sort of really loved Jane.
“Well, let’s balance that budget then. Stretch it where we need to,” I said. She shuffled around the table so we could both look at the pieces of paper together.
I could understand the concept of the budget and all the numbers, but I couldn’t read them like Jane could. While she talked about debiting here and crediting there, my eyes glazed over. I really just needed to hear ‘yes, we can get that silver material, Truly’. So I waited patiently for that.
“The material for our orders are our first priority,” Jane started. “Then we need to make sure we keep enough money aside to pay for the Paris trip, just in case we can actually go.”
I agreed on both points. Our business was doing great, but we’d made a few mistakes which ate away at our profits. We needed to be super careful with our money or the council wouldn’t need to shut us down, we’d do it on our own.
“We also need to keep money aside to pay Holly. We still owe her a cut,” Jane continued.
Again, I agreed. We owed Holly more than her cut for all the stress we’d caused her. She had left college because of personal issues that I always assumed were emotion related. We’d probably made her nerves a thousand times worse.
Jane did a few calculations on her phone and then tapped her pencil on the table. She was killing me with the anticipation.
“So?” I prompted.
“What do you want to make out of the silver fabric?”
“I’ve sketched two dresses. They’re like evening gowns and so, so beautiful. I know you’ll love them.” I didn’t know that, but hey, what the heck?
“Two dresses is a lot of fabric. It was expensive stuff.”
“It will be worth it.”
A smile slowly spread across her face. “If we stay at a backpackers’ hostel in Paris and take the subway instead of taxis, we can get it.”
Hostels and the subway was practically my life anyway. Hotels and taxis were a whole different world to me. They were Jane’s world though, it would be quite a concession for her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m still going to have to haggle for it.” That didn’t worry me, Jane was the world’s best negotiator.
“We have to go to Paris Fashion Week,” I declared a few minutes later. “We have to continue on with preparations as if we’ve already got permission to go.”
“I think we should, too. We need to be prepared,” Jane replied. “So we’ll prepare the clothes. What do we do about models? We can’t fly some over with us, we don’t have the money.”
“We’ll use French girls then.”
“All the French models will already be booked by the time we get there.”
“We’re not going to use models. We’ll go to a high school and hang around until we round up enough girls that are willing to model for us,” I explained. It seemed so easy to me. Providing I learned a bit of the language first. Simple, right?
“They might end up being a disaster. Do we really want to risk everything on a bunch of schoolgirls?” Jane asked.
I could see where she was coming from, but we had to remember our mission. “We have to be true to our brand. If we show up with real models, our integrity is shot. We got invited for a reason, I don’t think we should change for anyone.”
“You really believe in our mission, don’t you?”
Did she even need to ask? “It’s the most important thing to me. Just imagine, Jane. Imagine if we actually succeeded and changed the industry. If everyone saw normal sized girls everywhere, people would feel better about their own bodies. They wouldn’t need to starve or hurt themselves to be skinny. They could just be themselves and realize how beautiful diversity is.”
“That would be really nice,” Jane finally said. Her eyes were a little misty, mine were too. I discreetly wiped away the moisture.
“Everyone has the right to feel beautiful.”
“They certainly do.”
We sipped our coffees in silence for a few moments while we composed ourselves. It was Jane who spoke first. “You know, before we started all this, I used to think you were so shallow.”
I playfully pushed her. “Me? Shallow?”
“I thought you only went shopping and cared about the latest hairstyles.”
I didn’t blame her. That was the image I liked people to believe about me. If they thought I was a Barbie, then they wouldn’t feel sorry for me. I didn’t need anyone’s sympathy about my difficult home life.
I shrugged. “I hope your opinion about me has changed.”
“You have no idea. I’m so happy to call you my friend.”
The moment was getting a little too serious for me. I needed to do something to change the mood or we were both going to declare our love
for one another and braid each other’s hair.
“I used to think you were a total nerd,” I said teasingly. “And I was totally right.”
It was Jane’s turn to push me in the shoulder. “I’m not a total nerd. Right?”
I waggled my eyebrows, making Jane laugh. I think she secretly enjoyed being a nerd, the term wasn’t offensive to her at all. Which I knew because we were completely BFF’s now, apparently.
I really was so lame. If Hayley could see me now…
CHAPTER 4
Jane’s mansion was full of formal family portraits so I knew she had parents. I mean, I never thought she just appeared one day in a cabbage patch or something. But I had never actually seen her parents in living flesh so I did sometimes wonder whether they had been abducted by aliens at some stage.
So to actually see them completely freaked me out. Her father was tall and so much like Jane in his mannerisms that I wondered if she had studied him as a child. They both had the extra-straight posture, wise eyes, and mousy brown hair.
Her mother, on the other hand, was something else entirely. She was carrying a few extra pounds and her grey pants suit wasn’t doing her any favors. But the most remarkable thing about her was the way she could look at you and make you feel like you were the size of an ant. Those blue eyes could cut you in two.
“This is Truly Winx, the girl I’m in business with,” Jane said, making the introductions. Her demeanor had completely changed the moment she realized they were home. I didn’t even think her back could get any straighter.
I was wrong.
“Truly? That’s your real name?” Mrs. Davis asked.
“Yes, it really is,” I replied. My voice was serious, I was sweating just from having her look at me. She was the magnifying glass to my ant.
Mrs. Davis made a little snorting sound before dismissing me as insignificant and inconsequential. Clearly I was nobody she had to worry about or associate with.
Mr. Davis was slightly better. “Jane has mentioned you before, Truly. I understand your business is going well.”
“It is, Dad,” Jane interjected as I was left stumbling over my words and about to fall into a deep abyss of embarrassment.
Like I hadn’t been there before.
“What is your profit margin?” Mr. Davis asked, turning to his daughter. I think he’d reached the same conclusion as his wife had about me.
“Thirty percent at the moment. Once we increase our buying power, I fully intend it to reach at least fifty percent within the next year.”
“You should aim for nine months, one year is too liberal.”
“Yes, Dad. I’ll update my budgets.”
He patted Jane on the head before leaving with Mrs. Davis. They didn’t acknowledge my existence again. I let out a rush of breath once we were alone again.
“Wow. So they were your parents, huh?”
Jane shrugged nonchalantly. I got the feeling her parents quite often left her feeling anything but nonchalant. “I’m surprised they’re even home. Must have been a fire drill at the office or something.”
“It’s Saturday. Don’t they work in an office that closes over the weekend?”
“Not when they own the building.”
Nothing more was said about Jane’s parents. My heart went out to the poor poppet. My mom wasn’t around much but I knew I could count on her when I needed it. She had to work out of necessity to buy food and pay rent. Jane’s parents chose to work so much. It wasn’t like they needed the money.
We got ready for our double date after the encounter, giving us a reason to lift our spirits. Jane let me raid her closet but there wasn’t anything in a color other than beige so I stuck to my own clothes.
As soon as I was dressed in high-waist black shorts with front pleats and a purple fitted top, I was able to help out Jane with her accessories. The only jewelry she owned was real pearls and precious stones. Plus, I’m certain there was more diamond encrusted gold in her jewelry box than in the royal collection, but I tried not to ogle.
I lent her some fake costume jewelry – the only kind of jewelry I owned. She called it fun and whimsical, I called it my fancy stuff. I matched a pink bangle with her navy dress to give it some semblance of color.
By six o’clock, we were ready to roll. Chace and Beau picked us up right on time, not even getting the chance to knock on the door before we were out.
“You look really pretty,” Chace whispered in my ear as he held open the car door for me. I blushed, unable to catch my breath for a moment.
“You look good too,” Beau said to Jane. He seemed to be sweating way more than he should be. Jane giggled nervously in response.
It was going to be a long night.
The car ride to the cinema was largely made in silence. I rode shotgun and Chace drove. He had explained the car was his mom’s, hence the dodgy white color and sensible make.
The boys bought the movie tickets and they really did try to pick something not all about violence and gore. Unfortunately, our options were limited. We ended up seeing the latest superhero movie which was supposed to have enough ‘girly stuff’ in it for us too.
I had no idea what the movie was about. Approximately ten minutes after the lights went out, Chace’s hand found mine in the dark. His fingers were tentative at first, unsure whether they were welcome.
FYI – they were.
My fingers brushed his, trying to let him know I liked what he was doing. Growing bolder, he completely took my hand in his.
We were holding hands. Which doesn’t sound like a big deal, except it was. I was holding Chace’s hand, in the dark, and it was sending little shivers down my spine and setting off the butterflies in my stomach.
So, yeah, I had no idea what the movie was about. All I knew was that Chace’s hand had skin that was soft except for the calluses on his fingertips that were really nice to brush over.
As the credits rolled, Chace gave my hand one last squeeze and let me go before the lights came up. I really liked the fact that nobody else knew we’d been holding hands for the entire movie. It was our little secret, one that we shared together.
I’d never had that before with a guy. It felt special, just for us.
We headed for the group of restaurants crowded around the cinema area. We settled for pizza because it was probably the only type of food we could all agree on. We ordered a supreme with no olives and took it to a table.
“The special effects in that movie were awesome,” Beau said, kicking off the conversation. “Did you notice they used a mixture of stunts and digital recreation?”
To my absolute surprise, Jane actually seemed just as excited about the conversation. “I know, right? I think they got the mix right. Any more digital effects and it might have bordered on over the top.”
“I completely agree,” Beau replied.
Awww, they were so cute with all their nerdspeak.
Chace turned to me, his eyebrows raised. “So… great effects, huh? Pretty lights and all that.”
I chuckled. “Sparkly too.”
“Definitely sparkly.”
We burst into laughter while Jane and Beau shot us a sly look. They had no idea what was so funny, not realizing it was them.
After that, it felt like the ice was completely broken and melted away. To be out as a group was actually fun. There was no pressure to act all ‘coupley’ and there was always someone there to break an awkward silence.
I should have known it couldn’t last. When Hayley, Kinsey, Sarah, and the rest of my former friends approached our table, I should have known something would happen to tip the balance back from being so good.
“Hi, Truly,” Hayley said, making all eyes in hearing distance turn toward us. “I’m surprised to see you here on a Saturday night.”
“We’re just hanging out,” I replied casually. It took all my strength not to grit my teeth and growl at her. I had a really bad feeling about what was about to happen.
Her eyes flitted around th
e group, finally settling on Chace before dragging back to me. “So I see. Although, I’m surprised you’re out on a date so soon after being dumped by Aaron. I guess you really are a tough cookie, huh.”
Aaron didn’t dump me, it was a mutual thing when we decided he was an idiot and I wasn’t into idiots. My hands balled into fists. We’d only been out on two dates and I already shared more with Chace than I did with the idiot.
A tight, strained, nervous laugh escaped from my lips. “Aaron is so last year.”
Chace cleared his throat, putting his slice of pizza down to wipe his hands on a napkin. “Would you mind catching up with Truly later? We’re kind of having a conversation here.”
My heart swelled even more. Hayley was about to go postal.
“And everyone knows Aaron is still heartbroken about losing the love of his life,” Beau added. I couldn’t help it, I arched a questioning eyebrow at him.
Go Beau and Chace.
“I heard he cries about it every night,” Jane added, shrugging.
Hayley’s mouth opened to say something but then closed again. She huffed and crossed her arms. “You think you’re so funny, Truly? Well, you’re not. You and all your little friends are just losers. I hope you enjoy being at the bottom of the pit because that’s where you’re staying now.”
She flicked her hair and stormed off with everyone else trailing after her like good little minions. I wasn’t going to cry. Just because they used to be my friends and I had so much history with them, it didn’t mean I was going to be upset about how badly they could treat me now.
I wasn’t going to cry.
CHAPTER 5
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, forcing myself to feel the physical pain instead of the mental kind. There was no way I could lose it all in front of Chace. He was so sweet and nice, he could not see me like that.
The smile spread across my lips forcibly, every twitch costing me. “Sorry about that, Hayley’s a little nuts,” I said as casually as possible.
Fashion Fraud Collection Page 16
