"Look at her, it's so obvious she's gonna mess up again"
"She's such a mess"
"How'd she even get the audition?"
"Probably sucked a dick or two"
"-dating Harry Styles my ass, she's probably his personal slut"
Shut up shut up shut up had been her mantra for the first few days of the whispering. Then it became walk straight, chin up, don't let them get to you, when it became obvious that their hatred was fueled by her irritation. She walked through the studio, trying to block out everything the people around her were saying. Amy had told quite a few of them about seeing Harry and her at the frozen yogurt shop and they had read the articles that had popped up over the week.
She tried to ignore the whispers and the glares she got while dancing, but at the end of the day it all got to her and the nights after the shoot (and a few others) were spent crying herself to sleep.
This partricular shoot was extra brutal when one of Amy's "posse" who was standing next to her tried to trip her. And when she dodged the foot, she flew into another dancer and they both fell. The dancers had started laughing, except one of them who had told her it was okay and helped her up, but the taunting laughs of the others echoed in her mind long afterwards.
"And cut!"
"Good job guys, next shoot is in 2 days"
An audible groan rose up from the crowd and Jack just laughed and said
"See you later guys"
The band left and the dancers went back to their dressing rooms and one by one, left.
When Harry called, it was the first time they had talked in 2 days.
"Yeah I'm done"
"I'll take a cab"
"Harry, you're not my dad you don't need to pick me up everytime"
"It's fine"
"Yeah I'm fine, I just had a tiring day"
"See you"
Mara hung up and pressed her fingers to her forehead, closing her eyes and rubbing them. She had the most horrible headache and it had only increased when she heard the shrill ring of her phone. She was just tired, she told herself. Too tired to talk to anyone, even Harry. She had pushed herself to her limit, and it seemed to her, far beyond it today during shooting and she was tired to the core. She was tired of everything and she was going to go home, take a bath and take a long nap.
She sat at one of the dressing tables in the empty dressing room that she shared with all the other female dancers (about 13 of them).
She put her head in her arms and took deep breaths, and she was almost asleep when someone asked her if she was okay.
Her head flew up and she looked around the room and calmed down when she saw it was just one of the dancers. She had seen her a few times, but couldn't remember her name.
"Er yeah, just tired" she said, giving her a feeble smile.
"Yeah, I know how you feel! They're really pushing us aren't they?"
"Yeah"
"So uh, I just left my bag here, have you seen it?"
"Nope, sorry"
"Alright, well I'll look around for it if you don't mind"
"Go ahead"
Mara got up and went into the bathroom that was joined to the dressing room. She changed her clothes, wiped her makeup off, and stood in front of the mirror looking at herself, taking deep breaths and trying not to cry. Tears slid down her face silently and she opened her mouth to scream but all that came out was a strangled sob. She was just so tired so tired so tired. She wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep and never have to deal with anything ever again. Amy had been a bitch to her before the shoot had started, taunting her about tripping again and a bunch of other dancers had laughed with her. And Harry had been getting distant from her. And to add to that, she had boosted to fame again after the media had found out who she was, how old she was, what she did for a living and strangely enough, her 5th grade boyfriend's name. They had barely spoken in 2 weeks, since she had met the boys. But the few times they had spoken to each other (2 minute phone calls or a text or two), they had either complained about their workload or been in the middle of talking about their relationship and how to handle the media when someone had called either of them for more work. Both of them were exhausted and longing to see each others faces and hear each others voices in person.