Hard to Handle (A 1D Story)

Ch. 12 - Just A Day At UCLA

Chapter 12 - Just A Day At UCLA

I was at the P&W office on Friday when Sophie dropped a manila envelope on my small temp desk. It was filled with instructions and tickets for the boys and me to attend a pre-LA Fashion Week (usually in October) show on Saturday in West Hollywood. There wasn’t much to it; the designer was a P&W client whose rep would skyrocket with the help of One Direction’s presence at his runway.

“Do you think you could get the guys to go?” Sophie asked, flipping through papers before giving me a cursory glance. “Tell them it’s an open bar and a museum installation and model runway all in one – they should agree.”

“Yeah, of course,” I replied absentmindedly, already digging excitedly through the contents of the envelope. It consisted of an almost all-white flyer card that was so “LA minimalistic” that it was stylish, with the name of the designer (Georg Collins without the ‘E’ – again, so LA), a booklet of Georg’s resume and experience, and finally, six tickets for the guys and me. I grinned, trying not to squeal. “Cool. I’ve never been to a real fashion show before.”

Sophie smiled genuinely but brusquely before taking out her cell phone. She’d already been kind to spare me five minutes of her busy schedule. “Well, good luck. You’re picking the guys up from the radio station in 15, right?”

“Oh!” I glanced down at my thin gold watch. 3:45. Crap. “Right!” I quickly stuffed the papers back into the envelope and scooped my things into my big black Urban Outfitters tote.

Sophie was already walking away by this point. “Alright, I’ll email you some things to prepare for Georg tomorrow too, is that okay? Probably by tonight.”

“Sounds good!” I was struggling to sound poised, put on my cardigan, and shoulder my bulky bag at the same time. I’m such a mess sometimes. Ugh. I forced a smile and waved goodbye before darting quickly to the elevators to get down to the car.

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Luckily, the guys didn’t need much persuading before agreeing to go to Georg’s show. Louis, forever the fashionista, seemed especially excited.

We were all sitting around the table after dinner (Zayn had made another grocery run and Harry had made some form of casserole for everyone), working on our respective laptops. Well, I was working. The rest of them were watching YouTube videos of animals playing soccer.

“So there’s an open bar, you said?” Zayn asked.

I smirked. “Yes.”

“And models?” (Harry. Of course.).

“Yep.” I pulled out the manila envelope from my bag and tossed it at him. “If you guys want to take a look, everything’s in there.” They descended upon it like ducks at food.

I returned to my email. There was a new one from P&W; Sophie’s assignment for Georg. I skimmed through it quickly: “Hey Jen – need graphic for program. 400x600 in black #000000, include Georg’s logo and P&W insig. 2 pm tomorrow.”

Crap. I bit my lip. I could definitely make her that graphic, but the laptop I’d brought to the Bel Air house didn’t have Photoshop on it. The majority of my Photoshop usage had actually been in college, in the UCLA libraries. The gears in my brain turned. Maybe if I hop onto campus tomorrow morning, I can make the graphic and then come back before we all have to get ready to leave for the show… Yeah, that works. I gave myself a mental pat on the back.

“Hey, guys?” I asked, interrupting their rummaging through Georg’s pamphlets. They looked up. “I have to run to campus tomorrow morning to finish an assignment; will you all be okay at home for a bit? You can sleep in.”