Beautiful People - Chapter 13: Chapter 13
You are reading Beautiful People, Chapter 13: Chapter 13. Read more chapters of Beautiful People.
As soon as Carmen hung up, the PR girl whipped out her phone to call the charity. She spoke quickly but calmly and repeated herself several times, as though they didn't understand what she was saying, or maybe didn't believe her.
Horns complained and brakes squealed around them. Jay found a stream of the Teen Taste broadcast and turned his screen so Vera could see. Inside a glitzy theatre bedazzled with cheesy gold emoji-shaped decor, the hosts were chattering away to each other, making stupid jokes about year-old memes as though they could fool anybody into thinking they were cool.
Then one of them lifted a hand to their headset, saying, "Sounds like we've got one more arrival. Someone wanted to be fashionably late." The other host giggled aggressively.
The camera cut outside, to the red carpet, a dark limo pulling up to the curb.
Vera's stomach pulsed unpleasantly, like she was thirteen again, bleeding through her pants in class and terrified to stand up. "I can't watch."
"This whole thing was your idea," Jay said, pushing the phone closer into her face.
On the screen, a bland man in a suit opened the car door. Out flowed Carmen, shining like an angel fallen from heaven. Chin held high as she rose to her full height, sheer ivory robe swirling around her. Perfect face calm and unsmiling. Crotch bloody.
Vera watched with sick fascination. The carpet was empty except for reporters and photographers, all the other stars since disappeared inside the theatre doors. Behind the black railing, onlookers stared, slack-jawed. With no change in her expression, Carmen paced down the carpet, every step precise and measured.
Camera flashes highlighted the sleek lines of her long limbs, shattered in her sharp crown, turned the stain between her legs inky dark. She came to a slow stop before the photo wall and planted her feet apart, throwing her head back and spreading her arms by her hips, palms turned forward. Beautiful and terrible.
"Work it, bitch," Jay said, awed.
"Oh my God," said the giggly host. "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"
The other host said, "I'm not sure. Is she really--?"
"It looks like Carmen brought her own red carpet."
Jay let out a burst of laughter. Vera put a hand over her mouth because she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"I can't," she said.
Lowering her hands to her hips, Carmen finally smiled, a relaxed grin with a hint of playful curl in the corners, inviting everyone in on her secret. Reporters waited with microphones, dumbstruck looks on their faces.
Sharise said, "Turn the sound off, Jay."
"You're no fun." But Jay thumbed down the volume until the PR girl's smooth patter drowned it out.
Vera twisted around in her seat to press her back into the cushions, shoulders relaxing and knots in her stomach beginning to unravel. She smiled at Sharise. "She's totally pulling it off."
"I'm glad. I still don't want to hear what they're saying."
"Yeah, it's a little yikes." Vera laughed and prodded Sharise in the knee. "At least it's for a good cause."
"Watching other people doing humiliating things does not make me feel good."
Her tone was sharp, but Vera smiled. It was endearing that Sharise held so tightly to her morals in the face of Hollywood insanity.
Before too much longer, the traffic gave way. Sharise parked as close to the theatre as she could, squeezing into a maybe-illegal spot that was definitely too small for her car. They gathered up clothes and cup and wet naps and Jay's makeup case and hurried down the street, around the corner into the grimy alley. The PR girl ran with them, still on the phone, her voice somehow not bouncing with her steps.
Security at the rusty metal door was a hulking man in a dark suit and opaque sunglasses. He was expecting them; he nodded at Sharise's hurried introduction and wrenched the protesting door open. Inside, people hurried to and fro, chattering into headsets. No one glanced at them twice.
"Third door on y'all's left," Security said.
Down the fluorescent-lit hallway and through the indicated door was a dim dressing room like something out of a movie, velvet chairs and bare round bulbs above the mirror. It was empty except for a fan rattling noisily overhead and dusty cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling along one wall. Jay let out a dainty sneeze, then another.
Praying the dress hadn't wrinkled, Vera shook it out and hung it on the empty rack. Then she arranged the jewelry on the dressing table while Jay dug through his makeup case for the items necessary to alter Carmen's look enough to make the change seem intentional. The PR girl chattered away on her phone the whole time. Sharise wrung her hands.
With nothing left to do but wait, Vera stepped over and slipped an arm around Sharise, palm notching comfortably into the warm curve of her waist, her heat drawing Vera closer into her side; as close as a friend would go and no closer. This wasn't the moment to push further, even if the delicate scent of Sharise's hair reminded Vera of the tropics, vibrant flowers and sunlight on clean sand. Her rose-gold earrings were reflecting beams of warm light down along the deep curve of her throat and Vera had a very inappropriate urge to touch her lips there, to find Sharise's pulse beneath her smooth dark skin and taste the swell of her heart.
She cleared her throat hoarsely. Although Sharise had softened into Vera's touch, she was still watching the door, lips pulled thin. Waiting.
"She's gonna be okay, Sharise."
"You heard that joke. Think what the articles are gonna say tomorrow. Think about the memes."
"The memes will be amazing. Who's gonna think about Troy after this?"
Sharise shook her head, once, twice. Pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "I don't care about Troy, Vera."
Before Vera could reply, the door slammed open and smacked into the wall behind it. Carmen stormed in. Immediately, Sharise moved away. Vera tried to pretend she wasn't disappointed.
Tearing off her robe, Carmen threw it to the floor. Shoes clattered into a corner. "That is the single most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my fucking life."
Sharise crossed her arms over her stomach as though to stop herself from wringing them again. "It didn't go well?"
Carmen laughed like a cornered hyena, clawing at her bodysuit. Vera hurried over to help her before she could tear the delicate fabric. With steady hands, she unzipped it down the length of Carmen's deeply-grooved spine.
"They had no idea what the fuck I was doing." Carmen shook one arm free. "Trying not to laugh at me the whole time." She wrenched her other arm out of the clinging cloth. "It was fucking mortifying." Yanked the suit down over her torso. "If I'm not the top fucking story in every tabloid and comment section and backwater fucking blog tomorrow, I will strangle you all with my bare hands."
"It's over," Sharise said.
"I know it's fucking over!" Carmen kicked her legs free of the bodysuit. The insides of her thighs were smeared with blood, and she gestured at it with both hands. "I know it's over. So get this shit off me."
Sharise offered her the bag with the cup. In a series of short, fierce motions, Carmen tore off her bloody thong, folded the cup in half, bent one knee out, and shoved the silicone device unceremoniously inside her.
The change was a whirlwind. Blood cleaned off, undergarments cinched, dress buttoned furiously. Jay touched up Carmen's makeup, added silver accents. Vera fastened jewelry and laced her shoes. Sharise took photos for Vera and adjusted the crown with tender hands.
Carmen rearranged her curls on her bare golden shoulders. "Am I going viral?"
Staring at her phone, the PR girl said, "This shit is crazy. I wouldn't say viral yet, but-- yeah. You're a meme. So. Probably?"
Jay subtly pushed Carmen's hair back where he wanted it and she rose from her chair, a sultry goddess of the night. Crystals glittered at throat and ear, echoing the stars tumbling down the hip of the deep blue dress to spray out across the lush skirt.
"A meme. Fuck. At least I know Troy will never be a meme. Nobody can make plain vanilla yogurt interesting." She turned to look at herself sideways in the mirror. "Fuck, I look good."
"You look incredible." Vera ducked down to tighten the lace on her left shoe.
"Good luck," Sharise said, this squeeze in her voice like a mother sending her child off to school for the first time.
Carmen swept out without another word, the handler who had lurked outside the door leaping to attention when she appeared.
Vera slumped against the dressing table and let out a heavy breath. Sharise pulled her locs forward over one shoulder. Jay said, "She should be grateful. I'd love to be a fucking meme."
Lily appeared in the still-open doorway. Clutching the bag rattling with hair torture devices over her shoulder, she looked around at their tired but triumphant faces. In a resigned voice, she said, "I'm too late, aren't I."
"We're done all the hard work, honey." Jay flicked his fingers at her dismissively. "But you can drive me and Cora back to the party." He threw a slow wink at Vera, whose face went a little warm. She hadn't realized she was being so obvious.
The last of the tension finally ebbing away, they gathered their things. They had done all they could. The full swath of the damage they had wrought wouldn't be clear until later.
"I'll call you tomorrow to talk about how we adjust your posts to fit the new narrative," the PR girl - Cora - said to Vera, who nodded, too tired to argue.
Jay and Lily and Cora went ahead. Vera fell into step beside Sharise, their pace lagging slightly as the theatre door slammed shut behind them. Security gave them a brisk nod.
Dusk still brushed the horizon with soft orange clouds. Streetlights glowed against the darkening air and neon lights buzzed on storefronts. Vera walked close to Sharise, wondering if it would be weird to reach over and press their fingers together. She gathered hanger and jewelry box together into her left hand, just in case.
"Is Cora new?" Vera asked. "I haven't actually met her before."
"Yeah. Part of this new push. Should have mentioned it earlier. You'll run your content through her from now on."
"Oh. Okay." Vera was oddly disappointed that she would no longer have that excuse to spend time with Sharise. Not that work talk was in any way romantic, but still.
"You should go with Jay," Sharise said.
"What?" With this swooping sensation in her stomach, Vera looked up at her, at the tired set of her eyes, her teeth pressing into her lip. "Is something wrong?"
Sharise looked away, her eyes dark in the deepening night. "I'm not up to the party anymore. Jay will take you back."
Ahead, Jay had draped his arm over Cora's shoulder, the two of them laughing loudly while Lily trailed behind, bowed under the weight of Jay's makeup case over her other shoulder. Vera thought about going back to Carmen's house to get drunk with a bunch of people she didn't really know. It didn't have the same appeal without Sharise there.
Smiling, Vera pushed through the flutters of nerves to slip her fingers between Sharise's. "I'll go if you want me to. But I'd rather keep you company. You seem like you need someone to talk to."
For a moment Sharise seemed to hold her breath. Then she tightened her grip on Vera's hand, warm palms curving together against the cool evening air. "You're so bold," she said, a stitch of wonder in her voice.
Deeply pleased, Vera swung their hands together as they walked. Her step seemed to have acquired a bounce. "I don't fuck around when I know what I want."
Sharise's smile was soft in the fading glow of daylight. She glanced down at Vera, lids low over her eyes. "My building doesn't have a pool. There's a rooftop patio, though. It's a nice place to have a glass of wine."
Something leaped in Vera's chest. "Are you inviting me over?"
"I could use a distraction from watching Carmen go viral for all the most embarrassing reasons." Sharise laughed, low and rich and Vera felt it deep in her ribs. "What did you say? The best kind of distraction?"
Vera tucked herself closer into the taller woman's side, smiling up at her like a fucking idiot because she didn't give a shit about Carmen when she had Sharise's hand in hers and an invitation on her lips. "I'll be your distraction any day."
They rounded the corner to see Sharise's little car, still at a strange angle in the too-small spot. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, Sharise flipped them over and pressed the unlock button. "Then, yes. I'm inviting you over."
Horns complained and brakes squealed around them. Jay found a stream of the Teen Taste broadcast and turned his screen so Vera could see. Inside a glitzy theatre bedazzled with cheesy gold emoji-shaped decor, the hosts were chattering away to each other, making stupid jokes about year-old memes as though they could fool anybody into thinking they were cool.
Then one of them lifted a hand to their headset, saying, "Sounds like we've got one more arrival. Someone wanted to be fashionably late." The other host giggled aggressively.
The camera cut outside, to the red carpet, a dark limo pulling up to the curb.
Vera's stomach pulsed unpleasantly, like she was thirteen again, bleeding through her pants in class and terrified to stand up. "I can't watch."
"This whole thing was your idea," Jay said, pushing the phone closer into her face.
On the screen, a bland man in a suit opened the car door. Out flowed Carmen, shining like an angel fallen from heaven. Chin held high as she rose to her full height, sheer ivory robe swirling around her. Perfect face calm and unsmiling. Crotch bloody.
Vera watched with sick fascination. The carpet was empty except for reporters and photographers, all the other stars since disappeared inside the theatre doors. Behind the black railing, onlookers stared, slack-jawed. With no change in her expression, Carmen paced down the carpet, every step precise and measured.
Camera flashes highlighted the sleek lines of her long limbs, shattered in her sharp crown, turned the stain between her legs inky dark. She came to a slow stop before the photo wall and planted her feet apart, throwing her head back and spreading her arms by her hips, palms turned forward. Beautiful and terrible.
"Work it, bitch," Jay said, awed.
"Oh my God," said the giggly host. "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"
The other host said, "I'm not sure. Is she really--?"
"It looks like Carmen brought her own red carpet."
Jay let out a burst of laughter. Vera put a hand over her mouth because she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"I can't," she said.
Lowering her hands to her hips, Carmen finally smiled, a relaxed grin with a hint of playful curl in the corners, inviting everyone in on her secret. Reporters waited with microphones, dumbstruck looks on their faces.
Sharise said, "Turn the sound off, Jay."
"You're no fun." But Jay thumbed down the volume until the PR girl's smooth patter drowned it out.
Vera twisted around in her seat to press her back into the cushions, shoulders relaxing and knots in her stomach beginning to unravel. She smiled at Sharise. "She's totally pulling it off."
"I'm glad. I still don't want to hear what they're saying."
"Yeah, it's a little yikes." Vera laughed and prodded Sharise in the knee. "At least it's for a good cause."
"Watching other people doing humiliating things does not make me feel good."
Her tone was sharp, but Vera smiled. It was endearing that Sharise held so tightly to her morals in the face of Hollywood insanity.
Before too much longer, the traffic gave way. Sharise parked as close to the theatre as she could, squeezing into a maybe-illegal spot that was definitely too small for her car. They gathered up clothes and cup and wet naps and Jay's makeup case and hurried down the street, around the corner into the grimy alley. The PR girl ran with them, still on the phone, her voice somehow not bouncing with her steps.
Security at the rusty metal door was a hulking man in a dark suit and opaque sunglasses. He was expecting them; he nodded at Sharise's hurried introduction and wrenched the protesting door open. Inside, people hurried to and fro, chattering into headsets. No one glanced at them twice.
"Third door on y'all's left," Security said.
Down the fluorescent-lit hallway and through the indicated door was a dim dressing room like something out of a movie, velvet chairs and bare round bulbs above the mirror. It was empty except for a fan rattling noisily overhead and dusty cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling along one wall. Jay let out a dainty sneeze, then another.
Praying the dress hadn't wrinkled, Vera shook it out and hung it on the empty rack. Then she arranged the jewelry on the dressing table while Jay dug through his makeup case for the items necessary to alter Carmen's look enough to make the change seem intentional. The PR girl chattered away on her phone the whole time. Sharise wrung her hands.
With nothing left to do but wait, Vera stepped over and slipped an arm around Sharise, palm notching comfortably into the warm curve of her waist, her heat drawing Vera closer into her side; as close as a friend would go and no closer. This wasn't the moment to push further, even if the delicate scent of Sharise's hair reminded Vera of the tropics, vibrant flowers and sunlight on clean sand. Her rose-gold earrings were reflecting beams of warm light down along the deep curve of her throat and Vera had a very inappropriate urge to touch her lips there, to find Sharise's pulse beneath her smooth dark skin and taste the swell of her heart.
She cleared her throat hoarsely. Although Sharise had softened into Vera's touch, she was still watching the door, lips pulled thin. Waiting.
"She's gonna be okay, Sharise."
"You heard that joke. Think what the articles are gonna say tomorrow. Think about the memes."
"The memes will be amazing. Who's gonna think about Troy after this?"
Sharise shook her head, once, twice. Pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "I don't care about Troy, Vera."
Before Vera could reply, the door slammed open and smacked into the wall behind it. Carmen stormed in. Immediately, Sharise moved away. Vera tried to pretend she wasn't disappointed.
Tearing off her robe, Carmen threw it to the floor. Shoes clattered into a corner. "That is the single most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my fucking life."
Sharise crossed her arms over her stomach as though to stop herself from wringing them again. "It didn't go well?"
Carmen laughed like a cornered hyena, clawing at her bodysuit. Vera hurried over to help her before she could tear the delicate fabric. With steady hands, she unzipped it down the length of Carmen's deeply-grooved spine.
"They had no idea what the fuck I was doing." Carmen shook one arm free. "Trying not to laugh at me the whole time." She wrenched her other arm out of the clinging cloth. "It was fucking mortifying." Yanked the suit down over her torso. "If I'm not the top fucking story in every tabloid and comment section and backwater fucking blog tomorrow, I will strangle you all with my bare hands."
"It's over," Sharise said.
"I know it's fucking over!" Carmen kicked her legs free of the bodysuit. The insides of her thighs were smeared with blood, and she gestured at it with both hands. "I know it's over. So get this shit off me."
Sharise offered her the bag with the cup. In a series of short, fierce motions, Carmen tore off her bloody thong, folded the cup in half, bent one knee out, and shoved the silicone device unceremoniously inside her.
The change was a whirlwind. Blood cleaned off, undergarments cinched, dress buttoned furiously. Jay touched up Carmen's makeup, added silver accents. Vera fastened jewelry and laced her shoes. Sharise took photos for Vera and adjusted the crown with tender hands.
Carmen rearranged her curls on her bare golden shoulders. "Am I going viral?"
Staring at her phone, the PR girl said, "This shit is crazy. I wouldn't say viral yet, but-- yeah. You're a meme. So. Probably?"
Jay subtly pushed Carmen's hair back where he wanted it and she rose from her chair, a sultry goddess of the night. Crystals glittered at throat and ear, echoing the stars tumbling down the hip of the deep blue dress to spray out across the lush skirt.
"A meme. Fuck. At least I know Troy will never be a meme. Nobody can make plain vanilla yogurt interesting." She turned to look at herself sideways in the mirror. "Fuck, I look good."
"You look incredible." Vera ducked down to tighten the lace on her left shoe.
"Good luck," Sharise said, this squeeze in her voice like a mother sending her child off to school for the first time.
Carmen swept out without another word, the handler who had lurked outside the door leaping to attention when she appeared.
Vera slumped against the dressing table and let out a heavy breath. Sharise pulled her locs forward over one shoulder. Jay said, "She should be grateful. I'd love to be a fucking meme."
Lily appeared in the still-open doorway. Clutching the bag rattling with hair torture devices over her shoulder, she looked around at their tired but triumphant faces. In a resigned voice, she said, "I'm too late, aren't I."
"We're done all the hard work, honey." Jay flicked his fingers at her dismissively. "But you can drive me and Cora back to the party." He threw a slow wink at Vera, whose face went a little warm. She hadn't realized she was being so obvious.
The last of the tension finally ebbing away, they gathered their things. They had done all they could. The full swath of the damage they had wrought wouldn't be clear until later.
"I'll call you tomorrow to talk about how we adjust your posts to fit the new narrative," the PR girl - Cora - said to Vera, who nodded, too tired to argue.
Jay and Lily and Cora went ahead. Vera fell into step beside Sharise, their pace lagging slightly as the theatre door slammed shut behind them. Security gave them a brisk nod.
Dusk still brushed the horizon with soft orange clouds. Streetlights glowed against the darkening air and neon lights buzzed on storefronts. Vera walked close to Sharise, wondering if it would be weird to reach over and press their fingers together. She gathered hanger and jewelry box together into her left hand, just in case.
"Is Cora new?" Vera asked. "I haven't actually met her before."
"Yeah. Part of this new push. Should have mentioned it earlier. You'll run your content through her from now on."
"Oh. Okay." Vera was oddly disappointed that she would no longer have that excuse to spend time with Sharise. Not that work talk was in any way romantic, but still.
"You should go with Jay," Sharise said.
"What?" With this swooping sensation in her stomach, Vera looked up at her, at the tired set of her eyes, her teeth pressing into her lip. "Is something wrong?"
Sharise looked away, her eyes dark in the deepening night. "I'm not up to the party anymore. Jay will take you back."
Ahead, Jay had draped his arm over Cora's shoulder, the two of them laughing loudly while Lily trailed behind, bowed under the weight of Jay's makeup case over her other shoulder. Vera thought about going back to Carmen's house to get drunk with a bunch of people she didn't really know. It didn't have the same appeal without Sharise there.
Smiling, Vera pushed through the flutters of nerves to slip her fingers between Sharise's. "I'll go if you want me to. But I'd rather keep you company. You seem like you need someone to talk to."
For a moment Sharise seemed to hold her breath. Then she tightened her grip on Vera's hand, warm palms curving together against the cool evening air. "You're so bold," she said, a stitch of wonder in her voice.
Deeply pleased, Vera swung their hands together as they walked. Her step seemed to have acquired a bounce. "I don't fuck around when I know what I want."
Sharise's smile was soft in the fading glow of daylight. She glanced down at Vera, lids low over her eyes. "My building doesn't have a pool. There's a rooftop patio, though. It's a nice place to have a glass of wine."
Something leaped in Vera's chest. "Are you inviting me over?"
"I could use a distraction from watching Carmen go viral for all the most embarrassing reasons." Sharise laughed, low and rich and Vera felt it deep in her ribs. "What did you say? The best kind of distraction?"
Vera tucked herself closer into the taller woman's side, smiling up at her like a fucking idiot because she didn't give a shit about Carmen when she had Sharise's hand in hers and an invitation on her lips. "I'll be your distraction any day."
They rounded the corner to see Sharise's little car, still at a strange angle in the too-small spot. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, Sharise flipped them over and pressed the unlock button. "Then, yes. I'm inviting you over."
End of Beautiful People Chapter 13. Continue reading Chapter 14 or return to Beautiful People book page.