Awks. ✓

Chapter 27: You Plus Tom?

Can you blame me for chickening out and shoving Iyanu in front of me?

Without so much of a look of amusement, she stepped forward and stood where Claudia was only seconds ago. Even Elliott flashed a grin at me, silently mocking my lack of confidence. The fact that I was talking a big game on our way over to the set didn't really help with my situation much either.

"You're next and there's no one else you can shove in your place." Claudia told me, leaning on the wall beside me. A smile slipped from her lips and she tried to cover it by taking a sip from the water bottle in her hand. She slowly slid down the wall until she landed on the ground, pulling her legs closer to her so that she could lean on her knees. Both Elliott and I copied her and fell to the ground.

I tried not to pay any attention to the smirks and giggles of both Elliott and Claudia and decided to just watch Iyanu as she posed in from of the camera. It was my first time seeing my friend at work and I wasn't disappointed; she owned every second of it.

She was dressed in a flowy yet edgy black dress that ended just below her knees. She also had a black and red flannel top wrapped around her waist, defining her curves. She wore boots that had higher heels on them than those of Claudia and her hoop earrings were pretty much the eye catchers of her entire outfit.

Before I knew it, she was done and it was my turn to stand in front of Marcus and his camera. Fun fact: turned out Marcus was the same guy who took that killer picture of me that everyone's been obsessing over. Too bad that was taken by pure luck and he wouldn't be getting a similar result this time.

I stood to my feet and walked cautiously in my heels to where Iyanu was. She gave me a smile of encouragement, patted me on the back and left the set to join the others.

Shit, not only do I have to pose and crap but I'll have to do it in front of those three and they're like pros at this. No pressure.

A loud noise made me jump in my place, startling the crap out of me.

"Marianne, shit sorry. I'm just changing the backdrop." Marcus apologised, pulling on the rope above him, changing the white backdrop to a bright blue one.

"Yay! Blue like mine!" Elliott exclaimed, giving me a thumbs up. Iyanu smacked him on the head, muttering something about him making me nervous. She wasn't entirely wrong.

"I know you're still new to this, so how about I instruct you through it and you can pick up from that?" Marcus suggested, sitting back behind his camera lens. I nodded nervously, not knowing how else to respond.

I just HAD to open my big mouth and agree to this, didn't I? I could be at home, in my squirtle onesie, munching on junk food and watching anime instead of standing here right now.

"How about you cross your arms and just stare at the camera? But try and display yourself in a more serious manner." Marcus coached.

I took his advice and suddenly, the blinding flashes of his camera were rolling in nonstop. I tried to move subtly so that there could be small differences between each picture, I didn't know if what I was doing was working but Marcus was very encouraging, so I took that as a sign to keep doing it.

As I grew more comfortable in front of the camera, a newborn confidence arose from within me, becoming the force needed by my muscles to move. I began moving my arms, grabbing the collar of my studded leather jacket, pulling my head back slightly and looking straight at the camera.

*FLASH*

I placed one hand on the side of my forehead and narrowed my eyes at the camera.

*FLASH*