Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story


- Text Size +
Story Notes:

Something i'm trying out in response to the cougar challenge :)





Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


 

 

Terri

“Agh!” I shrieked into the mirror of my medicine cabinet in pure agony. Noticeable wrinkles had started to appear on my usually flawless face.

My best friend Laila ran into the bathroom probably thinking something serious happened. “What happened?” she breathed out, seeming genuinely worried.

“Do you see this shit?!” I exclaimed pointing to the crow’s feet that were forming on the corner of my eye. “I can’t believe these things decided to show up on today of all days. Why God?! Why!”

Laila peered closer to my face and squinted her eyes. “Oh please. You’re just being dramatic. They’re so small they could virtually be nonexistent. Stop being such a drama queen” she chuckled and waved off. “You’re pushing forty, Terri. You should be glad you still look like you’re barely thirty.”

“Black isn’t supposed to crack, honey. And at this rate, I’m on my way to looking like Jasmine Guy in two years!” I pouted as I threw my hands up. “You’re young. You don’t have to worry about these stupid things until…I give you maybe three years?”

She looked at me with a lifted brow. “Why three years? I’m only twenty-nine.”

“Because you’re white. We’ve already had this conversation before…” I trailed off before searching through the cabinets for my emergency skin cream. “Now where is that cream at?”

Laila Wesley and I met through my job at one of the most prolific modeling agencies in Los Angeles. Starting at the young age of twenty one as just another insignificant intern, I worked my way up to being damn near the CEO of the company. Laila is the very spoiled granddaughter of Richard Wesley, the owner. The only explanation I could come up with to why we remain friends is because I’m the only person she can trust and she’s the only person who isn’t jealous of my success.

Ever since I landed the job as an agent, I began getting all kinds of dirty looks. Nasty rumors quickly started to spread around the office like a roaring wildfire. It was if they couldn’t understand how a woman of color could make it to the top. Although I learned to pay no attention to them, it still hurt. When I came in as a beginner, I was such a softie. I had no backbone whatsoever. But that quickly changed over the years. As my experience grew, I gladly took the crown as the head bitch in charge. Some of my colleagues had the nerve to compare me to Wilhelmina’s crazy ass from that TV show Ugly Betty.

Laila came in while I was having an extremely tough day and comforted me. We started hanging out every day after that. I was so surprised to know that she wanted to be around me and it surprised me even more that she could withstand my sometimes cruel behavior.

After applying the expensive facial cream, I put on my emerald green wrap dress and black sharp toed stilettos.

“What do you think they’re calling you in for?” Laila asked, watching me slip my black trench coat over my long arms.

“You know just as much as I know. Today was supposed to be my day off. I had plans, ya know? This better be important or someone’s definitely getting cussed out.”

Laila shrugged and combed her hands through her long, thick, bright red hair. “I’m sure it is. They wouldn’t call you in for no reason. I think my dad mentioned something about finding a new type of model.”

“Seriously? We go through this every month. I hope he’s not doing this shit because of the new year.”

“Probably…”

“Come with me. We can grab lunch after it’s over. It shouldn’t last that long.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

 

Two hours later and I was stuck in one of the most boring meetings I’ve ever had to sit through. The CEO got to his “point” approximately five minutes ago when he explained exactly what Laila had mentioned. He wanted us agents to go out and find models instead of waiting for the models to come to us. I didn’t see how this could do any good to the company at all. What do I look like going on the street and finding some random man or woman and begging them to submit their portfolio?

Terri Lawson doesn’t do that. And there’s no way in hell that I will start doing that. What kind of drugs was George The CEO on?

 

Daniel

“Please? Anything helps, ma’m” I continued to shamefully beg for money to buy myself a meal. I felt so pitiful having to ask strangers for means to keep me alive.

The older brown skinned lady frowned down at me with her eyebrows crinkled together. For a split second, she looked as if she were going to give me something, but then she shrugged and kept on strolling down the busy street.

At this point, I was ready to give up on life altogether. Dropping out of college to pursue a career in acting proved to be the worst mistake of my life. I thought I had the perfect plan: drop out of college, move to Hollywood from a small town in Louisiana, and land a gig (didn’t matter where, just somewhere). I would have been perfectly fine with any type of job until I could make it big.

I’ve been here for about a year and I’ve had no sort of luck. Some days I couldn’t just “be a man about it and suck it up”. I would cry for what seemed an endless amount of time because I was alone and hungry. At one point, I had a few secure housing options available for me at well-known shelters, but they weren’t willing to help me out after my few weeks were up. They didn’t want to help a man who couldn’t sustain a job.

There were plenty of times when I would get angry and stick my middle finger up to the sky, throwing immense amounts of profane words to God. I grew up in an passionate Christian home, but I never could understand how a man claiming to love all of his “children” could sit back and watch one of them suffer like this.

My parents, Nathaniel and Anna Jones, along with my younger sister Julianne wanted nothing to do with me. Judging from the times I called them and having to listen to their horrible reaction to my homelessness, I came to that conclusion. I remember my dad distinctively saying “We gave you two choices, son: college or college. We don’t accept dropouts here.” And after that, he hung up. That was the last time I spoke to him, a year and a half ago. My mother and sister weren’t even allowed to get on the phone to speak.

None of my cousins, extended family, or so-called friends wanted to lend a helping hand. If I knew that was going to be the case, I wouldn’t have made such a shitty decision to actually start believing in myself.

That’s exactly what happens while you’re in college. You start realizing who the real you is and once you do, you either change your major from something that’ll “make you money” to something that you could only hope will make you money…or you dropout and pursue something college could never prepare you for. No one ever tells you that when you apply.

Each day, I ended up with just enough money to buy a meal; just enough to keep me living. When am I going to get a breakthrough? When will my angel save me?

 

Terri

“I can't believe George the CEO’s making us do this” I whined as Laila and I sauntered down Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.

She looped her arm into mines and walked closer to me. “Eh, I don’t think it’s that bad. It’ll be something new for you. You’re used to seeing the same ole dry models. Also, if you don’t do this, George the CEO will have a bitch fit and he’ll probably fire you.”

“I don’t like change. You know that, Lay.”

“Change is good.”

“Yeah…so how do you suggest tracking down this potential model?”

She looked at me incredulously. “Easiest thing ever. We’re in West Hollywood for Christ’s sake! We’ll probably find someone before the end of the day-OOMF!”

Before I knew it, the girl had tripped and fell flat faced on the ground. I’m guessing the homeless guy she was sprawled all over had something to do with it.

I immediately bent down to help her up, but something caught my attention. A pair of ice blue eyes and raven black hair. No the hell I wasn’t checking out one of the less fortunate!

Laila snapped me out of my thoughts by scrambling up and adjusting her clothes. For a rich chick, she never acted like it. If she were like any of the stuck up heiresses around here-or hell, even me!-the guy would have been cussed out as soon as I regained my stature. “I’m so sorry sir. It’s totally my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going” she rambled on, adjusting her handbag.

“Um. No” I butted in. “He needs to apologize. Why the hell were your feet sticking out like that in the first place? Have some fucking manners. For a homeless man, you sure don’t do anything to deserve a single dime-“

“Terri, stop!” Laila yelled. “It’s okay. Like I said, it was my fault. Jesus, you don’t know when to stop sometimes…”

I pressed my lips together and began to silently hum. It calmed me down in times like this. The young man seemed to be really hurt by my words and if I had a special place in my heart for these kinds of people, I would have felt bad. It didn’t help that I could tell he was very handsome under that beard and those atrocious clothes.

Laila’s eyes suddenly widened and she quickly escorted me a few feet away from the guy who tripped her. “I think I just found your guy” she grinned.

“Excuse me?”

“You know. For the assignment you got today. He’s perfect.”

“Hell to the no!” I nearly shouted. “Never in a million years. First of all, he’s not a legit model. Second of all, I don’t think this is what George the CEO was talking about when he went over the details!”

“Oh come on, Ter. He’s adorable. And he’d be perfect model material. All we have to do is clean him up a little bit and-“

“Hold the fuck up. You actually think I’m going to consider this? There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of better choices right here in Los Angeles. Why would I pick up some John Doe from the street and bring him into the agency?”

“What did I tell you about trying something different? This is your big chance. You’d be helping a homeless guy out and saving your ass all in one day. Sounds like a deal to me.”

“No” I firmly stated as I shook my head in an exaggerating fashion.

Laila poked her bottom lip out like a little girl and gave me a defeated look. “Fine. But can we at least take him out to lunch with us? He looks like he’s starving. I feel bad for the poor guy.”

“Lay-“

“I’m gonna do it whether you say yes or no…” she playfully scowled.

I chuckled and lightly pushed her away from me. “Okay, stubborn bitch.”

“Yay! Love you.”

Before I could say it back, the rambunctious red-head jolted back over to the mysterious looking homeless man and started up a conversation.

************

“So what’s your name? How old are you? What kinds of things are you into?” Laila asked, a little too excitedly.

“Lay…” I warned, sipping on my iced cranberry juice.

She continued to stare into his eyes while her elbows were pressed on the table. Her hands were cupping the both of her cheeks. “What? All he keeps saying is “thank you”. I wanna see if I can get something else out of him.”

Seconds passed before the guy answered her questions. “I-I’m twenty-two.” I figured he was somewhere around that age.

“Uh huh” she pressed on. “And…?”

“My name’s Daniel.”

“My name’s Laila and this is my best friend Terri. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Right after she said that, I tuned out of the rest of the conversation. Aside from all of the longing stares we kept receiving, I felt a little uncomfortable. It didn’t come from him being homeless, I had long let that go.

It was from the potential I kept seeing in him. I could feel myself changing my mind and wanting to go with Laila’s idea from earlier. Under that beard, all I could see was good looks. He had a perfectly structured jaw bone, making me a bit envious. He would look amazing in just about any picture snapped of him. Those blue eyes of his could make any woman cream their pants from just one look.

His body type looked to be naturally thin. Granted, he was probably starving, but nonetheless…he had high potential. With his boyish features, he would last a long time in the field.

Damn.

I just wanted to slap myself for thinking this far into it. What would I do with a homeless man??

“Terri? You okay?”

“What?” I blinked. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

Laila smiled at me and then went back to yapping. I almost laughed at the poor boy’s facial expression. Talking to her could be a bit overwhelming at times. It was definitely something one had to get used to.

 

Daniel

I tried paying attention to the ginger, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the black woman. Although she basically cussed me out not even thirty minutes ago, I felt drawn to her. She wasn’t like the other African-American women I’ve came across in my lifetime. She was elegant. Classy. Womanly.

With her flawlessly smooth mocha colored skin, high cheekbones, thin almond shaped brown eyes, and perfectly arched eyebrows, I found it hard to not lick my lips. Don’t get me wrong, her friend was absolutely beautiful as well…but this woman. All I can say about her is wow.

Staring at her made me speechless so I had to focus all of my attention on Laila.

I knew these women were of high importance…but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where I had seen them from. At this point, I didn’t really care. I was just happy that I had something to eat. Right before Laila had tripped over me, my stomach started to have severe pains from the lack of food.

All the way over to the restaurant, I silently thanked the man above for the appearance of these two beautiful women. I could see them changing my lives.

 

 






Chapter End Notes:

please rate and review. i was scared about starting something new lol







Enter the security code shown below:
Note: You may submit either a rating or a review or both.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.