Limelight

Chapter Five

~~Belonging~~

In the next few hours, Aaliyah had learned a lot.

She learned that Jacks and Blair had been best friends from middle school, but that Jacks was a year ahead of her, the same age as Aaliyah. She learned that Jacks was also a dancer and part of a prominent dance group in New York called Light 'em Up. She learned that as well as Blair's younger sister Jennifer, they also had an older brother called William, but he was away for college at Yale studying medicine. That had Aaliyah intrigued. She was also very interested in science, especially medicine and she always thought that on the off chance that she didn't get into music, she would spring at the chance to become a doctor. She wondered if she would ever meet William.

She learned that Blair played the cello and the piano, but she was not all that interested in pursuing either as a career but was more focused on a career in fashion. She found out that Blair loved fat free things and yogurt , whilst Jacks was a big fan of pizza and Mexican food, which didn't surprise Aaliyah that much. When she and Jacks met, he had a burrito. She learned that both Blair and Jacks were almost completely different people; where Blair was loud, bold and daring, and the type of person to scream at a waiter for getting her order wrong. Jacks had a more quiet type of confidence. He was laid back and chill, and nonchalant, usually content with letting Blair do all of the talking, whilst he just observed. She wondered how they seemed to get along so well, considering how their personalities clashed, but she supposed they complemented each other instead, rather than clashed.

She also learned that Blair was obsessed with clothes.

When they left the label, Blair dragged Aaliyah and Jacks down into the street and threw them both into her car, a silver Jag, before taking off down the road, driving into the more touristy side of Manhattan, Midtown, which was severely packed full with cars. It was a miracle that they had found parking between Blair's constant talking and bickering with an unbothered Jacks about where to park, the traffic and the fact that Aaliyah had no idea where she was supposed to sleep tonight, she thought she was going to lose her mind any second.

They finally managed to find a place to park that wouldn't land in Malcolm having to pay yet another parking ticket. According to Jacks, Blair was obsessed with not only clothes and accessories, but with parking tickets and almost got her car towed last month. Malcolm had threatened to take the car away if she got another parking ticket, so now Jacks was always making sure she was parking legally, keeping to the speed limit, and all the things a responsible driver kept. Then they spent the next few hours going from store to store buying a whole wardrobe's worth of clothes, and at least half of them wasn't even Aaliyah's.

If she was being honest, Aaliyah did enjoy the shopping. It had taken her mind off of the obvious issue. She had never gone shopping for clothes before, and it was fun picking out clothes with Blair. Blair was obsessed, but she was also very good. Though she mostly let Aaliyah choose the clothes that she liked, Blair wasn't afraid to interfere when she thought she was making a mistake. It was almost as though Blair knew Aaliyah's body better than she did. She was choosing clothes that complimented her skin tone, and clothes that suited her body shape and helped her coordinate whole outfits. Blair even made them do runways in the dressing rooms, pretending to be models for an audience of one, that one being Jacks.

Though Jacks wasn't interested in any of the clothes, he was happy to record videos of the two of them together in the clothes they bought. Blair mentioned running an Instagram page for all her fashion escapades and her favorite aesthetics, and most of the time, Jacks was her designated cameraman. They had strutted and posed in some of the most outrageous outfits to some of the most chic, and though Aaliyah was uncomfortable at first, she got along with it eventually. Being around Blair was like an esteem booster, she seemed spew confidence from her pores and Aaliyah was drawn to it.