Etoile (The Mannequin Series) (5 page)

F
ive

The crappy model flat that Elodie shared with three other girls was located downtown, and had the advantage of there being no chaperone. Her roommates were all around the same age as her, and all four of them were lanky with long, heat-damaged hair.

Heddi was a scrawny brunette from Denmark, with a stick straight body that was void of any womanly curves. Her milky skin always smelled lightly of the SPF 60 sunblock that she slathered on every morning, rain or shine. Her face was quite plain and mousy, but she photographed beautifully and produced haunting images. She was extremely tall, almost clearing 6 feet, which made her a favorite amongst some fashion house while being shunned by others.

Reckless Tatiana was from a small town in Belarus and spent more time partying than working. It was a shame, really, since she was striking. She had one of the smallest faces that Elodie had ever seen, adorned with giant, icy blue eyes, a perfect little nose and tiny lips. Her hair was so light that it bordered on the color of snow, and it hung in sheets that grazed the tops of her tiny hips. Her English wasn't very good, but she spoke to everyone as if
they
were the ones who were illiterate for not understanding her.

Jelena was from Saint Petersburg and had been scouted three times before finally giving modelling a shot. She never ate anything but sashimi and seemingly subsisted on cigarettes and champagne the rest of the time. She had stunning blue eyes and translucent skin, which contrasted well with her rich brown hair. She was the newest addition to the house, having arrived only five months prior.

Before Jelena, there had been two girls who had both been unable to handle the demands of the industry. Sandra was a sweet girl from Missouri or Mississippi or Montana who had gone running home in tears when she couldn't endure the continuous insults and rejections.

A stunning girl named Nannie, who had come from Namibia, had her contract terminated after she had gained four pounds, unfortunately all in her thighs, from partying so much. Rumor had it that she had found some sugar daddy sponsor and was now living off of Columbus Circle in a sprawling penthouse condo, but they hadn't heard from her since she had walked out the front door.

Tatiana and Jelena were very close, as they often tittered rapidly in Russian together with exaggerated hand gestures. Who knew what they were plotting half of the time. They seemingly knew every nightlife promoter in the area, and always went out for comped meals and parties. Some of their friends even lived in promoters' houses and went out every single day. Heddi, on the other hand, often chose to stay in and make unnecessarily dragged out phone calls to her boyfriend back in Copenhagen.

The apartment consisted of two bare bedrooms furnished with bunk beds, as well as a shitty futon full of cigarette burns situated in front of a broken television. The agency charged them each $1,000 a bed for rent, which was outrageous, but none of them had the bravado or initiative to move out on their own. The kitchen was empty, save for a dusty juicer and a refrigerator filled with air and take-out condiment packets.

"Honeys, I am home," Elodie announced as she walked through the front door. Her arrival was met with pathetic moaning. Tatiana was laying on the sofa with an ice pack across her forehead, while Jelena was recumbent on the floor, perusing fashion blogs on her iPad. Heddi was nowhere to be seen.

Tatiana groaned again for dramatic effect and, without moving a muscle, managed to whine out, "Oh, Lo, I die. Can you go to deli and get coconut water? Only raw coconut water, other one too much sugar. Thank you. Love you. Mwah."

Jelena chirped in, "Lodie, me too! Me too coconut water."

"And Marlboro Lights. Love you."

Elodie rolled her eyes lovingly in the way that a mother would to her mentally challenged children. She walked down the 11 flights of stairs to the deli around the corner and gathered their requests, turning back around abruptly to make the trip home. As she did, she bumped into Tyler. She hadn't spoken to him since their little romp fest, nor had she seen him around town. Her ears turned red and her eyes widened as she turned to face him.

"Whoa. Long time no see," he said as he smiled brightly at her.

Elodie gave him a small smile back and replied in an exaggerated French accent, "Tyler, how nice to see you. Where have you been?"

"Around. I got shipped off to Japan for a bit, but I'm back now," he said as he touched her elbow gently. "We should hang out sometime."

She batted her eyelashes and breathily responded, "Oh yes, of course. Do you have my number?"

After they exchanged information and made a bit more small talk, they parted ways as her phone began to shake violently with her roommates' inquiries. Japan had treated him well, she thought, but she had no real intention to hang out with him again. He had nothing good to offer for her time.

"Lo, Lo, Lo, I love you," Tatiana croaked out when Elodie returned with their drinks. She theatrically pulled herself upright and chugged down the entire bottle before proceeding to light up a cigarette. Elodie took one from the box and stared at the two sickly Russians as she took a long drag.

"What the hell did you two do last night?" she asked curiously.

Jelena let out a deep sigh before replying, "We went to SP because promoter said he would give free bottles, but he lie. He try make us do walk in. Can you believe? So of course we say no. So we drink with banker boys and do blow until 7 in the morning. I am so tired, I die."

"So tired. Me too. Lo, we go again today, so you come with us. Is good way to meet husband, like Dariya and Yuliya did," Tatiana stated matter-of-factly.

Elodie knew that this was the truth. Many of the other girls had resorted to scouring the city for billionaire boyfriends and potential husbands so they could have the cushy lifestyles that they had entered modelling for. Selling your body for modelling, jobs or marriage... wasn't it all the same anyway?

Although she didn't particularly like going out to the rowdy nightclubs filled with boisterous Wall Street types and careless models, the prospect of going out with her roommates for a fun night did sound tempting.

Oh, what the hell. She was terribly bored anyway. Maybe she could find a guy who would buy her a new Chanel bag.

“Sure,” Elodie said as she stamped out her cigarette in Jelena's Baccarat ashtray. The two Eastern European party animals smiled at her enthusiastically.

“Do you know who I saw at the deli?” she continued in a nonchalant manner as she pretended to check her nails, though she felt a flutter inside of her stomach as the words came out.

“Who?” Tatiana asked with a curious expression on her face, ever the sucker for any type of gossip.

“Do you remember Tyler?”

“Tyler from Tom Ford ad, Tyler?” Jelena asked with a glint in her eye.

Elodie nodded, to which Tatiana immediately frowned. “Maybe I should gone to deli,” she grumbled bitterly.

“He is very pretty,” Jelena said as she scrunched up her face. “Maybe too pretty.”

“No such thing too pretty,” Tatiana told her while rolling her eyes. “He like you, no?” she asked Elodie, who turned pink at the question.

“Not really,” she answered. “But he really is cute.”

“Male model bad news,” Jelena told her as she patted her hand. “Just go banker boys instead. We find you some today.”

Elodie gave a little snort at the prospect, as Tatiana's idea of a “banker boy” was a 43-year old man with a penchant for Bottega Veneta and pinky nails full of cocaine.

The three lolled around for the rest of the afternoon, snacking on kale chips, painting their nails and smoking up a storm. Heddi quietly came home around dusk, carrying her iPad and print portfolio.

"Oh, everyone's home. Hello," Heddi said pleasantly as she went to go set her things down in our room.

Tatiana eyed her enviously. "You had go-see today?"

All of their perceptive antennae were finely tuned to catch if someone else had gotten work and they hadn't. Egos were constantly built up and knocked down in that apartment, and none of them could help it. While all of them had different enough looks so that they were rarely up for the same jobs, jealousy and competitive attitudes were inevitable.

"More like a cattle call," Heddi said dejectedly as she slid onto the other end of the sofa. She curiously observed the different bottles of nail polish that were strewn across the table before lighting a cigarette.

Tatiana replied back petulantly, "I did not even get call for cattle call."

They all knew what frantic thoughts must have been flying around in Tatiana's head at that moment. It was the all too familiar feeling of unworthiness and frustration. Why hadn't she been considered? What was her booker's problem? How many girls were there that were better than her? Was she not part of the first line anymore?

That's the thing with modelling. Even if a girl is beautiful and knows it, she might not always get the job, or even be considered for it. The industry was ruthless in that the players had no qualms about pointing out any miniscule details about the girls that were less than ideal. The standards for perfection were insane, and they all undoubtedly took a psychological hit because of them.

Elodie could distinctly remember one of her first go-sees right after she had arrived in New York. The casting director had spoken to his assistant, verbally dissecting her thighs and how her gap was not straight enough. She had stood there, completely mortified, until he had looked at her with annoyance and said, "Uh, you can go now." Needless to say, she barely ate for the next two weeks until her gap had parallel sides.

To cut the tension, Jelena began making wild hand gestures while speaking to them animatedly. "Okay, so just forget. Just ignore, yes? We go and everyone will have fun time today. We all get hot and go out, yes? Sean send Escalade at nine and we get dinner before club. Today he say we get table for sure, or I leave him. Tuesday is always best day, you know."

Tatiana and Elodie smiled weakly at her in agreement. As expected, Heddi closed her eyes and shook her head no, to which Jelena pouted, "You are boring girl, Heddi Jakobsen. I starting to not love you."

Six

Attempting to collect her thoughts amidst the pounding electronic music, Elodie wasn't sure if she was at dinner or already at the club. They had managed to drag Heddi out against her will and the four of them were seated around a long table with three of Tatiana's other friends and the promoter, Sean.

The trendy restaurant was very popular and the food was said to be the best in the neighborhood. Not that they had tried it, of course. Despite the lovely $50 displays of mouthwatering steaks, only a few side vegetables had been nibbled on, while magnums of champagne were continuously being cleared away and replaced.

Unsurprisingly, they were all dressed in a rainbow spectrum of suffocating Herve Leger dresses and sky high Christian Louboutin or Dior heels. Everyone's hairstyle was a different shade of straightened, glossy perfection. Indeed, with the same expertly applied smoky eyes and baby pink lips, the models looked like different-hued variants of the same girl, sitting on display in a cloud of luxurious perfume.

The girls attempted to make conversation over the blaring music and resorted to dancing in their seats when that failed. Before long, Sean was taking care of the cheque and the eight of them were piling into the Escalade limo again.

SP was the hottest spot in the Meatpacking District for the moment, a true super club in the land of many imposters. The decor was dark and sexy with a close-to-impenetrable door.

As they walked up to the entrance at a little past midnight, the bouncer happily let them in with not even a request for any type of identification. The crowd of people in line roared in anger as they complained about how that must be illegal, demanding to know why they weren't being allowed in. Sean talked business with the club director before escorting the fashionable gaggle of legs inside to show them to their table upstairs.

The club was packed with either unbelievably attractive people or those with deep, deep pockets. Every single table was filled, while money and names were being thrown around haphazardly. Glitter confetti shot out of air cannons on the dance floor and girls pranced about with giant foam glow sticks and bottles of champagne grasped in their hands. Every few minutes, a group of rowdy partiers was getting extravagant bottles with flaming sparklers delivered to their table.

Of course, this was just a typical Tuesday night.

Once inside, the group had a staring contest with another group of pretty young things at the adjacent table, while the booths of suits and blazers across from them ogled blatantly. Sufficiently inebriated at that point, Tatiana and Jelena stood on the banquettes with Uli, one of their 17-year old South African accomplices, putting on a show for a table full of mid-aged businessmen that sat thirty feet away.

Heddi was engrossed in whatever was popping up on her phone screen, which probably meant that she was messaging her boyfriend. Elodie sat back as a warm fuzziness took ahold of her brain and bottles of Dom Perignon and Belvedere were brought to their corner. Heddi was soon holding her phone to her ear, pathetically attempting to have an audible conversation. Eventually, she left to go outside, leaving Elodie sitting all by her lonesome.

"Lodie, come with us. Very good, do not worry," Jelena reassured her as she came to the rescue. She aggressively grabbed ahold of Elodie's wrist and dragged her across the way to a table full of eager boys. Thankfully, they were young and still had all of their hair, which would make the coerced interactions much more bearable.

They looked like they probably worked in finance, judging from the sheer number of bottles on their table and the bags under their eyes. Tatiana was sitting in between a brown haired boy with bright red cheeks and his chiseled ginger-haired friend, both of whom were vying for her attention. She was loving every minute of it.

A fresh faced guy with a smile worthy of a toothpaste commercial handed Jelena and Elodie each a vodka soda. "What's your name!" he screamed out, trying to make his words heard over the booming dance music.

"Elodie!" she screamed.

"What?"

"ELODIE!"

He grinned and tried again, "Melanie?"

There was no point in even trying to correct him, so Elodie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. He nodded in agreement with a goofy smile before proceeding to put his arm around Jelena's bony shoulders as they whooped and writhed around. 

Since she had nothing better to do, Elodie decided to catch up on her email. When she pulled her phone out, she noticed that she had a text message.

watcha doin? tyler btw

It had come in about two hours earlier, so she assumed that it was acceptable to respond now. In her buzzed state, she didn't see the harm in having a bit of fun.

sp with flatmates. u?

And just then, as she was smirking mischievously at her bright screen, she felt an icy coldness dribble down her arms and legs. She looked up angrily above where she was sitting and was greeted by wide brown eyes in a state of shock.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" the culprit yelled out.

Elodie abruptly stood up and felt the cold liquid seep through her dress and uncomfortably come in contact with the bare skin underneath.

"Fuck!" she yelled out in annoyance as the stream continued to trickle down her legs. The boy rushed to hand her some napkins, which she snatched from him angrily to dab helplessly at her poor dress.

"I'm so sorry," he continued to shout. "I was walking back and that girl was dancing and she knocked into me. Shit, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

With flaring nostrils, Elodie looked past him to see who the stupid bitch was. It was none other than Uli, who was now drinking directly from the bottle at the prodding of the boys at the table next to them. Typical.

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the boy who had ruined her mood, ready to give him a piece of her mind. Expecting to lock eyes with some sort of uncoordinated dweeb, she was shocked to find a handsome young man staring at her with a concerned expression.

He gave her a small smile as their eyes locked. His perfectly shaped eyebrows unfurrowed as his big brown eyes relaxed. He leaned in close to her ear and introduced himself.

"James. James Campbell. Again, I'm really sorry. Forgive me?" He gave her an adorable pleading pout. Elodie couldn't help but return his smile and nod in a surrendering fashion.

"Elodie," she yelled back.

He continued to grin at her until his obnoxious friend, who still had his arm wrapped around Jelena, came and grabbed him around the shoulders with his free hand.

"Jimmy! Models and bottles, baby!" he exclaimed as he and Jelena continued with their whooping. They had acquired those garish light-up glasses from somewhere or another, and were having the time of their lives.

James squinted one of his eyes at Elodie and crinkled his nose in embarrassment. God, his teeth were straight, Elodie couldn't help but think. Did all of these boys work on Colgate campaigns?

He shook off his friend's grasp and yelled out again, "Really sorry about the dress. Let me pay for the dry cleaning at the very least!"

She giggled and shook her head no, to which he boldly responded, "Then at least let me take you out to dinner!"

Elodie took a good look at him before replying. He was strikingly good looking in a preppy way with tall blond hair that was perfectly coiffed. And he was definitely a lot cuter than most of the sullen male models that she worked with. Through his pale blue dress shirt, which had also fallen victim to the spill, she could see that he was slim yet muscular, which was just her type.

Before she could agree to his proposition, she felt someone's arm firmly loop around her waist. "There's my girl!"

Without even looking, Elodie knew who it was by the slight twang in his voice and the unforgettable scent of his cologne. Indeed, she spun around to find Tyler hanging onto her, with his friends Jay, Theo and Soren trailing behind.

Tyler gave a cocky laugh as he nuzzled her cheek. She heard Tatiana screeching as she hugged Soren, blabbering about how they needed to have a drink together. 

Shit. Elodie turned back to James, whose smile had faltered a bit. He shrugged good-naturedly and gestured for her to go on ahead without him as Tyler pulled her away.