Who They Really Are

thirty-one

Kat spent the next few days not even touching her phone, spending most of her time at the gym and avoiding all technology. She focused everything she had into preparing for the show, and tried to ignore her phone's constant buzzing from where she'd left it on the bedside table.

But with only a week left until the show, she finally decided she couldn't go on forever without any communication with the outside world. So she picked up her phone and unlocked it, scrolling through the seemingly endless unread texts and missed calls.

As she scrolled through her messages she instantly felt bad, realizing she'd been ignoring Alex and Elissa's concerned messages everyday, and she quickly sent them both to apologize and tell them that she was fine.

She was just about to text Martha back when a new call popped up on her screen, and she forced herself to answer it before she could think about it.

"Hello?" she asked tentatively.

"Kat," Noel said, making it sound more like a sigh of relief than him just saying her name. "I've been worried sick! Where have you been?"

"I know, and I'm sorry. I've been at my apartment avoiding everyone and everything..." Kat replied, her voice small.

"Are you okay?" Noel asked, his voice full of concern.

Kat thought for a minute before deciding to just be honest. "Not really. My parents practically disowned me, Martha's pissed, and now everyone probably thinks I'm some desperate attention seeker who doesn't really care about her career."

"I figured you'd automatically think that. It's why I've been trying to get ahold of you so much," Noel said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Kat asks, sitting down on her bed.

"I know how much you overthink things so I knew you'd go straight to thinking the whole world saw you as something you're not."

"But they do, don't they?"

"Kat, no ones even been talking about the videos since maybe three days after they came out. I bet they didn't do as much damage as you think," Noel said, trying his best to get through to her.

"But my parents won't even talk to me now and I'm sure everyone won't be rushing to hire me if they saw those videos," Kat said, her voice cracking as she felt the tears start to form again.

"Hey, don't cry. Please, Kat. Your parents will come around because you're their child and they love you. And I know after you go and kick butt at the fashion show everyone will be dying to hire you again. I know it," Noel said.

"Thank you, Noel. I really don't deserve your help after how I've treated you," Kat said, smiling as she grabbed a tissue and wiped a tear off her face.

"What do you mean?"

"I basically have ignored you ever since I left Chicago a few weeks back. And that was really wrong of me so I wouldn't blame you if you just wanted to be done with me."

"Nah, I'm not done with you yet. That's for sure," Noel says, and Kat laughs, happy that at least one good thing was coming from this- she had Noel back.

•••••••
It was time to fly back to L.A. before she knew it, and Martha picked Kat up at the airport the morning before the show and took her straight to her hotel where she was told to stay until Martha picked her up again the following morning.

Kat did as she was told, knowing she'd really been putting Martha through the wringer this year, and she genuinely felt bad about it. And anyways, she was so nervous about tomorrow that there wasn't anything she could think about wanting to do besides staying in her room and trying to drown out her anxious thoughts.

She spent the day talking to Alex, Elissa, and Noel, and they all tried their best to take her mind off of her worrying. And it somewhat worked, because it was time to go to sleep before Kat knew it, and she fell asleep thinking about how the next day would change her career forever. For better or for worse.

A/N: another short chapter but the big day is finally here! I'll hopefully have the next chapter up later today:) don't forget to comment your thoughts and vote :)❤️