F.A.M.E (book 1 & 2)

2:1

"Hazel, I'm telling you that this picture is the one you need to post." Charlotte told me for the millionth time. I was at her new apartment which she had recently moved into, and we were sitting by the island which was in the kitchen area.

I looked down at the picture she was raving about and sighed mentally; this was most definitely a nice picture, but I was wearing a dress which had mesh detailing around the torso and cleavage was also making an appearance. Although the picture was nice, I couldn't post it because I knew it would cause an argument at home, and I couldn't be bothered to deal with all that.

"I'm not sure I like it that much." I lied to Charlotte. If I didn't lie, she'd keep badgering me until I posted it. Only I knew the bullshit Marcus was putting me through and I had no intentions of making things worse for myself.

It had been two years since we became official; for a good while there was a lot of love and respect between us; I even excused the bad sex because apart from that, he was actually everything that I loved in a man.

However, in the last six months our dynamic had definitely changed. Marcus was more aggressive in any requests he made, he wasn't romantic anymore and there was a slightly overbearing possessive nature to him which I didn't really appreciate. Sometimes it crossed my mind that some parts of him were actually abusive; but for the most part, things were good between us.

I didn't really understand where the shift in his attitude came from; he suddenly had issues with what I posted on Instagram, what brands I chose to work with, how often I liked to fly out... he had made it impossible for me to enjoy my job.

All things considered though, it was obvious to me that he was going through something and he was possibly projecting that onto me. I had been planning for a while to get us into some sort of therapy; even though he'd been sucking the life out of me, I still loved the guy and if he was willing to work on things, I didn't mind powering through this shitty phase of his. I had been trying to do a lot of work on myself recently, and patience was something that I knew I needed if I was going to be with this man.

"Whatever. Anyway, you're coming to the Savage brand event on Thursday, right? You wanna drive?"

I didn't have to look in the mirror to know I was frowning. "I stopped working with them. Didn't I tell you?" I asked her.

Marcus lost his shit when I posted an ad in my 'Savage x Fenty'. The argument was so bad, I ended up with a smashed phone and deleted Instagram post by the end of it. Then I didn't see or hear from him for three days even though he basically moved in with me.

Charlotte looked at me in horror; "What the fuck?" She asked in shock. "What do you mean?"

"I just don't wanna post in lingerie anymore." I shrugged as I sipped from my bottle. In my mind it was better to tell a little white lie and move on to other discussion topics, rather than tell the truth and receive a grilling from my best friend.

Charlotte kissed her teeth at me. "Liars go to hell, Hazel." She grabbed her phone from the table and began scrolling as she shoved a Dorito in her mouth. "You've been confusing me lately. It's like you don't believe in sexy anymore. Like - where the fuck has my friend gone?" She asked as she narrowed her eyes at me. "'Savage' is good money. Do you know how many people want to be sponsored by them, and you're here giving up opportunities because you don't wanna post in cute lingerie anymore?" Charlotte put her phone right back on the island as if she'd forgotten why she even picked it up to begin with. "I completely understand if you've had a change of heart or some sort of revelation about what you share on socials, but I just don't see when these changes occurred. And it's not like you're throwing on sexy underwear and not getting paid. You make real money from this shit."

There was so much truth to what Charlotte was saying, but she didn't need to go home and deal with Marcus being shitty towards her. Posting certain things just wasn't worth my peace of mind, and I just wanted to keep things calm in my home. I no longer worked with Lounge, Fenty or Boux Avenue, because it caused me unnecessary stress to have to fight Marcus over them.

"My property investments are keeping me rich girl. And you know business is flourishing. I don't actually need to do any ads I don't feel like doing." I pointed out as I began packing my bag. It was almost nine and I needed to try and get home before ten. Marcus usually came home around that time and he liked to be bad vibes by blowing my phone up and leaving messages if I wasn't already there.

"Right." She sighed as she watched me get my stuff together. "You know I love you, right." Charlotte stated after a minute.

I smiled up at her as I continued packing my bag. The way she was watching me closely told me she probably wanted to say a whole lot more but she was choosing to tread lightly. "I'm always here if you wanna talk to me."

"I know." I admitted. The thing was, there was nothing to tell just yet. It wasn't like Marcus was hitting me; he was just a pain in the neck and right now I knew how to deal with that. I could cope with his bad attitude and overbearing nature, I didn't want to make this a bigger deal than it was.

I was also in a weird place when it came to my relationship and social media. We were public to some extent, so I didn't want to make any noise surrounding our relationship because I didn't need social media's input or judgement. I was crippled by the idea that I could have two relationships fail so publicly, but I was also trying to be kind to myself because I knew these things were beyond my control.

"I'll text you when I'm home." I smiled at Charlotte before I grabbed my keys and made my way to her door. Within seconds I was making my way to the elevators, where I would head down to my car.

•••
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