Repressed (Wattys 2014 Winner)

Chapter 1

“Shush Milania, they will love you. Shut the hell up!” My sister, Hellenia scolded. Hellenia, applied some black eyeliner, pouted her lips and applied some lip gloss and then finished off with a perfume from Victoria’s Secret before turning to look at me. I frowned, “I am the one going to a casting call and here you are decking yourself up as if it is Halloween.” I stared at my reflection. I was wearing a plain black t-shirt with white jeans and black sneakers. I applied some foundation and concealer. My brown eyes looked tired as I had barely gotten any sleep and my thick lips were even more swollen due to my biting. I tied up my wavy black hair in a high ponytail and headed out, “Come on, Helen!”

“Oh stop snapping!” Hellenia said. She grabbed the car keys and closed the door behind her. We were in Paris as the Paris Fashion Week was about to begin and there was a chance I might be asked to model for some of these shows.

My sister drove to 19 Avenue George V where the Elite Model Management agency was located. I had an appointment with a lady called Tasha and Steven. They were looking for fresh faces to shoot a campaign for some high profile brand, and the campaign would also feature some hot-shot footballer. I nicked my chance when I got it and now here I was, trembling in my seats and biting my already in-pain lip.

“Don’t be nervous, do your best okay?” Helen said, “You are the best, you hear me?”

I nodded, “Yeah, but what if they don’t like me?”

“Like you? They’ll love you! Your stint as a runway model for VS got enough attention to last you a life time girl. And if that doesn’t cut it with them, I don’t know what will.”

Just few weeks ago I was a runway model for Victoria’s Secret. I got to work with Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr and so many other models who I admired a lot. It was amazing; I was in the PINK segment wearing multi-coloured boy shorts with a golden bra which had smiley faces on the cups. It was funny but cute.

“Yeah,” I hoped I would impress them. If this worked out for me then my face would be splashed on every billboard out there. It was my dream and I hoped that it would work out for me. 

*

I read my dialogues and stared at Tasha and Steven, they were gaping. I knew that I had either aced the casting call or I had miserably failed.

“C’est magnifique!” Tasha clapped her hands with glee, “I think you are perfect! Isn’t she Steven?” She looked for approval in the face of Steven, a skinny man with ice-blue eyes, white hair and a very bad sense of dressing. He tapped his cheek with his pencil and smiled, “I think that you are parfait!” He clapped for me, “This is it! You are it! You will now be the face for Kara Klothing. Tasha, go tell the waiting girls to go home and enjoy drinking their grief away, I think we have found the one.”

I smiled, I quickly texted Hellenia, I got it!

I got a beep after exactly five seconds, You go girly!

I laughed and put the BlackBerry back in my black satchel.

When I looked up I gaped, there was a man about six feet tall and gorgeous as Adonis. He had messy brownish-blond hair which sat messily, it poked up in different places, and he had molten eyes, like milk chocolate. His white t-shirt was translucent and I got a pretty good look at his abs.

“See something you like?” He asked, he had a slight British accent.

Oh God, that voice. It was a sexy hoarse voice that raised the hair behind my neck. I looked down and blushed, my brown skin heating up under his watchful eyes.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“Don’t be, that is the standard reaction of girls. The reaction I get when I walk into a room.” He chuckled.

“What?” I asked and crossed my hands over my chest; he arched his eyebrows at me and smiled.

“Who are you?” I asked, who did he think, he was. I mean, that was no way to start a conversation.

“That is Alex Sorja, the guy who will be shooting the campaign with you.” Tasha answered for me. She kissed Alex on the cheeks and sat down on her chair. I looked at her questioningly, “Umm…who?”

“Alex Sorja is an upcoming British footballer who just got transferred to Real Madrid from AC Milan for 80 million pounds. He is 27 years old. He had been voted by Cosmo as the ‘Hottest Football Player’ for three years in a row. It is a surprise that you don’t know him.” Steven chided.

I shrugged, “Football isn’t exactly my forte. Ask me anything else I probably will know. I am Milania Harper Devonian.” I extended my hand; he shook it and grinned, “Milania? What? Has it been inspired by Milan or something? Funny name, you got. Are you British?”

I shook my head and snapped, “Funny? Well I don’t see any one with a surname of ‘Sorja’ I mean what is that a sweet dish or something? And no, I am not British, I am Italian.”

“Milania.” Steven warned.

I turned to him, “Come on Steve, he started it.”

“And I am finishing it, now shush!” Steven replied.

I bit my lip and flipped the bird at Alex.

He laughed.

So now you actually meet ALEX!! WOOO HOOO how do like dem apples now? 

Vote and comment! 

xx

Aurora