Mad as a Hatter, Thin as a Dime

“Wake up Ves, we’re here.”

Kyra nudged her drowsy sister, helping her out of the taxi. Vesper blinked in the bright white light of the pale grey sky and tried to wake herself up by downing the cup of coffee she clutched in her hand.

Vesper had absolutely no desire to be here, of course, especially not at six in the morning, but she felt like she owed it to her sister. She’d hardly had any spare time in the last couple of weeks, spending most of it with Garrett. Kyra had been right. It was a really good idea for her to join Feign on this tour. Never in her whole life had she had a close friend other than her sister, yet in the one and a half months that they’d been on this tour she’d met two more people that she knew she’d never be able to forget, not even at the end of time. Unfortunately, the cost was that she’d been spending less and less time with her sister, and she felt guilty about that. They’d hardly spoken at all in the past week. So when Kyra called her last night asking if she wanted to join her at an interview with a radio station this morning, she’d grabbed the olive branch and leapt at the opportunity to spend time with her sister.

“Big building for a radio station,” Vesper commented as the two made their way through spinning glass doors.

“Yeah, I don’t know, apparently the radio has some sort of collaboration with some sort of publication…” Kyra said vaguely, greeting a tall woman dressed in grey at the front desk.

Vesper did her best not to fall asleep as she followed her sister and another tall woman with flawless dark skin through a maze of ‘staff only’ and ‘access prohibited’ marked doors and hallways with dizzying carpet patterns.

“Sorry for all this,” Kyra apologized to her sister once their guide had left. “I know this isn’t exactly the best family bonding exercise, I’ve just barely seen you lately and I wanted to catch up…”

“It’s fine Ky,” Vesper waved her off with a smile that the bubbly redhead returned. “I’m happy to be here. But what exactly is going to happen?”

Before Kyra could reply, their conversation was cut short by the low yet obvious arguing amongst an approaching group of people, who stopped and plastered on fake smiles as soon as they got close enough to the girls.

“Miss Ashelford,” a large, round man stepped forward and kissed Kyra’s hand, but was promptly nudged out of the way by a short middle-aged woman with a dark red bob-cut.

“Miss Ashelford!” she grinned, opening up her arms for a hug as if they were old friends instead of strangers. “It is such a pleasure to meet you! My, you’re even more beautiful in person!”

Kyra blushed and managed a thank you as the woman let her free from the hug, and Vesper noticed the sad look of disapproval on the round man’s face; almost a look of defeat.

“I’m Marjorie Appleby, director of Blush magazine. I have an important favour and career opportunity to discuss with you…”

“I’ve already told you Marge, she can’t do it!” the man spluttered, turning towards Kyra. “I’m so sorry, Miss Ashelford, I begged her not to bother you with this… I’m Peter Brannan; I’m in charge of the station 88.6 that has the interview planned for you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kyra smiled politely. “I hope you don’t mind, I brought my sister along…”

“Sure, that’s fine, now if you’ll come with me I’ll introduce you to David, who will be interviewing you this morning…”

“Not so fast Peter,” Marjorie stopped him from walking off. “It doesn’t hurt just to offer this to Miss Ashelford, after all. It might be a good move for her public career.”

Peter scowled at the woman, but Kyra turned politely to hear her out.

“I’m aware this is all very last minute,” Marjorie smiled nervously. “But our main model for our cover shoot and centerfold spread pulled out last minute, and her scheduled replacement broke her leg falling off a table at some socialite party last night… I only got the call in the early hours of this morning, it’s been a nightmare and incredibly hectic. The shoot starts in an hour and we still haven’t got a replacement model, but when I heard that you would be in the building I was hoping you might be able to fill in… It would give you and your band some more publicity, that’s always important, and it might even launch a modeling career for you…”

“I’m so sorry Marjorie,” Kyra apologized with a sympathetic tilt of her head. “I appreciate the offer, I really do, but I’ve already promised to do this interview and I don’t turn my back on my word.”

Peter’s face shone triumphant, whilst Marjorie’s fell in hopelessness and she ran a stressful hand through her hair, messing up the style.

“If it’s a matter of money, I’m sure we can discuss that later… We can find a satisfactory payment for you…”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Kyra said in her final tone of voice. “But if you really need someone to model on such short notice, I’m sure my sister wouldn’t mind…”

Vesper’s head snapped up in shock. Surely she had to be joking? But apparently not. Kyra gave her sister a small push forwards into the judging eyes of the magazine director, who looked her up and down with a small frown, manicured finger tapping her chin thoughtfully. Vesper had never felt more self-conscious under such a critical gaze that lingered on her dirty converse with a poorly hidden look of distaste before returning up to her face.

“Hmm… I suppose she’ll do…” Marjorie mused. “With an hour left, beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Brilliant!” Kyra beamed. “Ok, I have to go to this interview now. Give me a text when you’re done Ves!”

“Wait, Ky…”

But it was too late, as Peter had already rushed the singer out of the room.

“Alright, Vesper, is it?” Marjorie questioned, fixing rectangular spectacles on the bridge of her nose.

“Uh, y-yes,” Vesper replied nervously.

“Okay. Follow me. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

***

Vesper closed her eyes and exhaled the cool air from her exhausted lungs as she slipped her phone out of her pocket to check the time. 3:30 pm. She’d been beautified and posing in front of cameras for nine and a half hours. She had no idea how models did it. In the short space of an hour, she’d had several make-up artists and beauticians waxing, plucking, measuring, painting and dressing her to damn near perfection, then hours and hours of following orders and trying her best not to look completely uncomfortable with herself. It got easier as the hours passed, but she was extraordinarily relieved to be back in her jeans, converse and oversized hoodie.

She flipped here phone open to see three new messages; one from Kyra, two from Garrett. She opened Kyra’s first.

‘Hey V, sorry about before :/ I didn’t even stop to ask you if you wanted to do it… I feel really bad :( I’m so sorry. Please text me when you’re done, we’ll finally have that girl time. Love you, xxx’

She smiled. She wasn’t mad at her sister. She’d been a bit freaked out at first, but all in all it was quite exciting, and an experience she doubted she’d ever repeat again. Kyra always seemed to know what was best for her, even if neither of them knew it themselves.

She quickly navigated through her phone and found the messages from Garrett, her smile growing as she read.

‘Hey Ves, just checking up on you… You said you’d be back a while ago… I miss you already XD Anyway, just give me a text when you can. See you when you get back. xx’

‘Okay, I’m sorry if I’m starting to get annoying, but I’m worried about you… And I’m bored… If I don’t hear from you by 6 then I’m gonna call the cops… Maybe… Anyway, talk to you later xx’

Garrett was such a great friend. He’d been her rock to cling onto whenever she began to fall into another downwards spiral. She felt bad about avoiding Ryan, but she couldn’t be around him right now, no matter how much it hurt. She just needed to get over these unreturned feelings so they could be friends again. And although deep inside she knew that it wouldn’t be that simple, she didn’t acknowledge it. But anyway, Ryan had been hanging out with Kyra a lot more lately. He must have been happy with that. And if Ryan was happy, then Vesper would be happy.

She quickly sent a reply to Garrett telling him that there was no need to send out a search party and she’d explain what happened later, and then called Kyra, who was relieved that her sister wasn’t upset with her at all. The sisters agreed to meet up at a coffee shop nearby, within easy walking distance for Vesper, and twenty minutes later they’d both ordered their drinks and were sitting in cozy armchairs.

“So how was the photoshoot?” Kyra asked, licking caramel and whipped cream off her spoon.

“It was good, I guess,” Vesper replied, stirring her drink. “Probably would have been better if I’d had any idea what the theme or idea was behind it all. How was the interview?”

“Well I’m sure you did great. The interview was fine, just another interview I guess… Although I’ll admit, David, the interviewer, was pretty cute…” Kyra giggled and sipped her hot chocolate.

“Oh yeah?” Vesper smiled.

“Yeah. He gave me his number. I’m thinking I might call him next time we’re back in Florida.”

Vesper bit her lip. Kyra hadn’t been the kind to get into any sort of relationship commitments since junior high. She flirted, she dated, but she liked the freedom of being single. Even the idea that she might remember this guy next time they were in Florida – which they had no plans to be – made Vesper raise her eyebrows. Ryan’s face flickered in her mind, and the dull ache in her heart aside, she knew she had to fight for this for him.

“Haven’t heard you say anything like that in a long time. Isn’t there anyone else you’ve got your eye on? We travel with three buses full of people who would give anything to be with you.”

“You exaggerate,” Kyra blushed. “And I love the guys we travel with, they’re all great, but… I don’t even know. David just got me, you know?”

“Wish I could’ve caught the interview.”

Kyra giggled.

“But what about…” Vesper hesitated. “What about Ryan? You’ve been hanging out with him a fair bit lately. Anything going on there?”

Kyra sighed.

“Maybe a little… I love Ryan, I think he’s a great guy and I love hanging out with him, but… I don’t know, there’s just not… There’s just no sparks, you know? I think I’d rather just stay friends with him. If we made it anything more, I wouldn’t have my whole heart in it.”

Vesper gulped and nodded. This was what she wanted to hear, wasn’t it? That nothing was going to happen between her sister and the guy she’d accidentally fallen for? Then why did it hurt so damn much?

“Anyway, enough boy talk,” Kyra shook her fringe out of her eyes. “Are you excited to be home in Philly next week?”

Vesper smiled and welcomed the subject change with enthusiasm, grateful for the fleeting escape from her romantic feelings. She didn’t like that word. Romantic. It just complicated things. She decided right there and then, that she would try to erase the word from her vocabulary.

She also decided that she was a fool for trying.