LILLY'S POV
Kiara had told me to call her when I was free because she had a lot to tell me. I had finally gotten home after a long day of running errands and decided the first thing I would do was call her.
I flopped down onto the ratty old couch Kiara and I had bought a while back and turned some music on. Kiara and I had known each other since the womb, our fathers were best friends in the army and both of them passed when we were 9. The incident brought both of closer and soon after we both became best friends. When we both turned 18 we saved up all our money and bought an apartment in Baltimore, Maryland.
We were incredibly close and the longest I'd ever been without her was 4 days. Though a week away from their best friend might not seem like a lot to some people, it was a long time for Kiara and I.
I was the one who had encouraged her to pursue modelling and after months I had finally convinced her to visit LA for a week and see what she could find. Kiara had gone to LA with absolutely no friends, no bookings and no events. The fact that she was able to land a job like this was amazing.
"Heyyy!!", I say as FaceTime connects.
"Hi", Kiara replies as she tucks several strands of hair behind her ear to reveal the intense highlight she had.
"Girl, who did your makeup?!?"
"What do you mean?"
"It looks good"
"Well thank you", she says in a British accent
"So I know for sure that you didn't do it yourself", I say with a laugh.
"I met up with a makeup artist today...."
"Mmm...", I say concentrating on trying to open a container of pasta Kiara had left for me.
"I didn't really need her to do my makeup"
"Why'd you go then?"
"Alissa suggested I go to her because she had connections"
"Connections as in what....drug dealers?", I say with a chuckle still trying to take the lid off the container.
"You know what I mean!", she says in her signature high pitched tone.
Of course I knew what she meant. Kiara had been searching for months for someone to do her test shoots and headshots. No one knew any photographers in the Baltimore area that would be willing to do a shoot for her so this was a big deal for Kiara.
"No way!", I exclaim giving up on opening the container.
"Yes way!", she says in an excited tone.
"Who was the photographer?", I ask out of curiosity.
"His name was like Bryan .T or something like that".
"Bryan .T?!?"
"Yeah...is he big or something??", she asks confused.
"Yes! He has like 2 million followers, Kiara!"
"What?!", she says picking up her laptop, presumably googling him. "Oh my God, he shoots those super hot twins too. What're their names? The dillons? The dallases? The dol- No it's the Martinez twins is it not?", she says as she shuts her laptop back down.
"The Dolans, you fucking idiot!"
"Oh shit you're right", she says giggling
"Kiara this is like...massive!"
"He said he wasn't gonna publish the photos on his pages so I could just have them, he did them for free."
"For free?! Girl, I have no idea who Alissa knows to get you a deal like this but.... Damn!
"Oh shit I've got a phone call, I'll call you back later", Kiara says reaching over to end the call
"Ooh look at you all businessy and shit. A'ight bye then".
"Bye!! Also that pasta I cooked for you?"
"Yeah...?" I reply slightly concerned that she could've poisoned it or something similar.
"You have to pull the lid, not twist", Kiara says laughing.
"I'm stupid as hell, talk to you later babe", I say ending the call.
Up until now Kiara didn't have a proper job, she was a good cook so she worked at multiple restaurants but it just never worked out for her. When she started getting fired regularly I also lost my long time job as an intern at a law firm. That's when I decided to take up stripping. It was my last resort, but it was what I had to do to support the both of us. We couldn't go back home or ask our mothers for money because of how things were when we did do that. Back when Kiara and I were 13 we would always get in fights with our mothers, run away and occasionally even be homeless at times. Our mothers were always on some sort of drug or out with some guy and our home was never safe. Moving out and living on our own was the only option we had.
Though we had so many friends it felt like we were isolated from the world. We did everything for ourselves and wouldn't do it any other way.
I stripped in a sketchy part of town where the chances of me getting assaulted or even killed were incredibly high. I always relied on Kiara to pick me up from my shifts, taking a car to work or walking back home couldn't possibly end well.
I'd been doing fine the past few days but I was still scared. "I'd be fine though", I told myself.
