Studio 22 | Mary-Kate Olsen

Chapter Fifty-Four

July 4th 2023 - London - Somerset House

Blue was running around all day, she hadn't slept since the plane journey over here. She felt like she had been slacking and was now overcompensating for it. She was always constantly checking her phone, I knew she was looking for updates on Sage but by the look on her face when she pocketed her phone there was none. Each time she checked she somehow managed to be in a worse mood than before. I felt for her, I wanted to fix it. I wanted my happy girl back, who was excited about fashion week and thrived in the stressful environment, actually enjoyed the adrenaline of it. But she was nowhere to be found right now.

We had just completed our final run through ready for tomorrow, the backstage area was a complete mess and no one was cleaning it. They all stood around talking, goofing off. I get it, it has been a long day. I wanted to be mad. They are still at work after all. But I couldn't find it in myself to care, there were bigger things going on in my life. Blue was of course trying to reorganise the clothes back onto the rail with the shoes and accessories in the right places so we didn't have to search for them tomorrow.

Cam started to jump on her and I could see her anger growing she continued to shrug him off and continue with packing the dress away. He had been on a mission to bug her all day and she was slowly losing her patience with him. In the early afternoon she started completely ignoring him and acting as if he wasn't even here. As amusing as it was to watch I knew Blue could have done without the silly antics. "Loosen up." He said to her and she shot him a look. "Gosh you've already slept your way to the top you don't have to pretend to work anymore." Cam was joking, he had a teasing smirk on his face and I've heard him joke with her about it before. But Blue didn't find it funny today. She narrowed her eyes at him before walking away from him deciding not to let anger control her words.

I tried to focus on the conversation I was having as we went over the changes we wanted to make for tomorrow. But knowing Blue was in a bad mood distracted me. She wasn't projecting negative energy. She was doing her job, something no one else was doing right now. She was in her own world as she walked around the room cleaning up and making sure things were in their places for tomorrow. Nothing out of character for her, but I knew her too well to know that her touching her necklaces and zoning out was signs that she wasn't doing okay. Now the busy day is cooling off, her thoughts and worries are taking over and I wanted nothing more than to distract her with my endless rambling or comfort her the best I could, let her talk it all out until she has processed some of it enough to sleep tonight.

One thing I hated about Blue working was her not stopping and one thing I hated about being her boss is I couldn't be mad at her for that. Her work ethic pushed the team, these shows wouldn't have been possible without her help. As her boss I admired her work ethic, as her girlfriend I wished she'd slow down and breathe. "Do you have Blue's notes?" Ash asked me. "Yeah, I'll get them." I say as I slipped away. I made sure to walk past Blue who was busy at the clothing rail.

"Love you," I told her as I slipped past her, my hand sliding across her exposed back. I looked over my shoulder to catch her reaction, she was smiling to herself but didn't pause her movements, she was a professional at work, even if I wasn't. I go to Blue's bag and get her notebook out and make sure to push her sketchbook back in her bag securely, resisting the urge to steal a look at her new ideas. I came back to the group and shared Blue's notes about some of the things that went wrong and what we had mentioned throughout the day. After our conversation I went to help with the cleanup of the room but Blue had finished it already, with very little help because the rest of the team were gossiping and goofing off.

"Where's Blue?" I asked Alice. "She headed out about 20 minutes ago." I nodded and went to gather my stuff. Her bag was still sitting next to mine along with her jacket. It wasn't like her to leave her sketchbook. Her bag? Yes but not her sketchbook, it's glued to her which makes me think she may have gotten a text or phone call from home. I picked both our things up and headed out wanting to locate her as quickly as I could in case something had gone wrong. It had taken a lot to convince her to come to the fashion week events, if something had happened she wouldn't forgive herself for leaving or the rest of us for convincing her to leave the hospital.