𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐲

one.

mabel forbes sat in front of her vanity mirror, applying her makeup for another day of filming with the beta squad. today , they were filming guess the black person. she was tempted to fake sick, and find the comfort in her bed again.

as she carefully blended her eyeshadow, her mind wandered to the thoughts that seemed to be glued in her brain.

"mabel, baby." sharky called out , knocking before he entered the room. "we are starting now, are you ready?"

"you know you don't have to knock." mabel smiled, with a playful roll of her eyes. she applied some perfume for standing and following her boyfriend out the room, their hands interlocked.

it took another few minutes for everyone to sit down and start filming. mabel was at the end of the table, with sharky next to her.

mabel explained the rules of false identity, with a her usual charming smile. a fake smile that no one noticed.

"okay, let's bring out the black people." aj continued, cheering as they came out.

all five of them were wearing green suits, covering their whole body, and was wearing some questionable clothing onto to throw them of.

after they judged the clothes the first round begun. despite the bright lights and the laughter that filled the set, mabel felt a heavy weight pressing down on her chest.

sharky called out, "first round. five minutes in the timer."

his finger begun tracing circles on mabel's leg, which she only just noticed, was bouncing up and down.

number three stepped forward and was asked questions by all of them. marcus ( number three ) refused to say what song jay z and kanye made in paris. and mabel thought he had an unusually high voice , but that could just be to mess with them.

next was number one to be questioned. number one had a deeper voice and a big build than some of them. his name was paulo, which made sharky laugh a little bit.

mabel laughed as well, "whats so funny? don't laugh at his name."

sharky pointed an accusing finger at her, still laughing. "you're literally laughing by as well."

she glanced at her phone , laid was in her pocket. notifications seemed to pop up every few seconds. she scrolled through the comments of her last post on tiktok. it was just a video of her and chunkz dancing.

she looked happy , every thought she was happy. but behind the act of her online persona, mabel was struggling. the constant pressure to be perfect, to entertain, to maintain her image overwhelming.

mabel sighed, pushing aside the nagging voice in her head that told her she had to keep up appearances. she knew she couldn't continue like this, pretending everything was fine when it wasn't. but the fear of disappointing her fans, her friends, and her boyfriend kept her from speaking up.

"oi" kenny called out as it came to voting. "get of your phone."

"very i'm unprofessional." niko shook his head in fake disappointment.

mabel laughed and put her phone back in her pocket. it was her time to vote and she hadn't been listening, so she just guessed.  niko , aj and chunkz cheered while kenny and sharky smacked the table in annoyance.

the real black person was revealed and the cameras finally stopped rolling, after mabel smiled towards the camera saying , "play the trailer".  mabel retreated to the other room, the facade crumbling around her.

alone with her thoughts, she finally allowed herself to realise the ache in her chest.