Jessica's POV
I threw my phone on the couch as soon as I got back home.
It was a hell of a day that began with me nearly dying. I had drunk so much water in the pool that I was still a bit dizzy, a condition my sister googled to be 'water dizziness'.
I spent all the rest of the day recuperating, and then left for Chase's house in the evening.
Gray said we were gonna talk, the three of us like it had always been. No Emma, no Lily.
I bought the idea because I was a little tired of the whole thing myself.
More shocking and disappointing than seeing Lily and Emma was, hearing what she did. I didn't believe she had it in her to two time me.
I was grateful for not taking my car along, not like I was in any condition to drive.
The ride was everything I didn't think it would be. I felt freed, happy. The nasty weight of resentment and guilt was no more weighing on me.
I didn't even have it in me to hate her. It all seemed like a game of survival.
"What do you want now?" I asked, picking up his call.
"Good evening to you too, Miss Miles." He replied on the other side.
"Let's skip to the part where you say what you called for." I replied rudely.
"Oh, yes!" He quipped. "We shall, shall we?" I heard him flip through few papers
"You remember the last thing we spoke about, I suppose?" he asked.
"Yeah, where you said to give that deal to Lily?" I asked him, my tone was biting and sharp.
"You might remember it as that, but I remember it as saving your career and making you enough money to keep me." Martin's was quite blunt,a skill very necessary when bargaining with brands, but I didn't quite appreciate it when he used it with me.
"Whatever.", I replied cause I was pissed off. "You called to remind me of that? I almost died today, Martin's, none of all that shit matters. Or are you calling to bail on me? Is this the part where I lose all of you because of this rough patch? Off to hell, then. Safe travels!" I screamed so hard into the phone, the uber man looked back a number of times almost causing us to have a car crash.
"Well, you, we, " he corrected, I was shocked, "just got an invitation to the Royals Fashion Week!" Martin said, I swear I could hear him pissing his pants in excitement.
"Are you sure you know what you're talking about? I haven't been in the runaway, or in any ad in months. You must surely be joking." I said, it was too good to be true. There possibly could be no way. "How?" I asked Martin's.
I had never doubted my dreams of getting there, but it was too soon, and I hadn't even done anything spectacular of late to share the runway with big time models, who charged my net worth for an appearance.
"A certain 'Lily'wrote to them, you know, "that bitch"." Martin was punctuating his statement with all sorts of mannerisms.
"What did she say?" I asked, paranoid. I didn't believe there was any good left in her.
"That you were a victim of circumstance, staged by your fellow woman, and that you were assaulted on school grounds. Feminists couldn't have it, and so you became a sensation, wait, are you telling me you haven't been checking your socials of late?" He asked, sounding very shocked. One would think I was forgetting to eat, or breath, the way he put it.
"Yeah, duh. Fallen angels have no place in the sky." I said, reliving my sad, most recent reality.
"Firstly, you're not an angel." Martins said it with so much zeal. I laughed cause it was funny as hell, he kinda knew too much about me. "Secondly, the freaking media is no sky. It's somewhere down below, fucking horrible place."
"You know too much about me for my own good."I replied when I got over myself.
"Lastly, and most importantly," He said, interrupting me,
"What's that?" I asked.
"You're not fallen." He screamed so loud, I dropped my phone.
"I think so too." I squealed in delight. Who'd have known something good could come out of her. I felt strange guilt and indebtedness to her, and also a little bit of anger.
I couldn't believe she did that for me.
She was gonna be starting her own career in modeling, I knew Lily could sway with words, she could've used that to her own advantage, but she did it for me.
I felt so happy, so proud, so vain, so broken, so hurt, so fixed, all at once.
I knew the best thing was to call her immediately, before I got over how I was feeling. I wasn't good at expressing my emotions, and it seemed like a good state.
I called thrice, and it rang, full length, but she didn't pick up the phone.
I felt like shit for treating her that way when she apologized to me outside Chase's house.
It made me think of how I could've lost all that shit to my recklessness, just less than twelve hours ago.
I thought so hard, I began to cry.
I finally got home, the weight of the bad news I had gotten, the good news and my inner reflections blocked all the noise I had to wade through to get into my room.
My mom and dad were at it again, full throttle.
It was almost midnight, cause I made the uber drive me around a bit, I was spent and all I wanted to do was crash.
I gathered all the strength left in me and opened my SM apps.
I had thousands of notifications, and a few hundred DMs.
I literally trended for almost the whole day. I felt happy, but I also felt naked, exposed.
There were bits of my life that I didn't like out in the public, which was weird cause I literally lived in the public my whole life.
One could make a documentary about me from all the shots I'd done over the years.
"Oh my gosh!" I screamed when I checked my email, and saw multiple contracts waiting for me to sign them.
I never would have thought there'd be a day like that, never.
As of that morning, my career was something I was trying to forget, "retiring young", as I consoled myself.
"Thank you, Martin's." I texted him. He might be dickhead, and a son of a bitch at times, but he really did stand by me.
"Anytime." He replied. "I'll pick you up at six tomorrow." He texted, and sent a goodnight emoji. I knew he never slept, he was an insomniac, one reason I could always count on him to be abreast of every single thing.
"Why didn't you tell me during the day though?" I asked him. I found it sus that he didn't let me know in the heat of it. "Didn't want me to get my hopes high?" I asked again.
"Yeah, I wasn't gonna try and make you cough up all that water fast too. We need hydrated models, it's good for your skin." I couldn't believe what he reduced it to, but I found no problem with that, I was in very good spirits.