Teenage Dream

“That’s it Nikki! The camera loves you darling!” The stout, middle aged photographer exclaimed, excitedly pressing the button on his camera while she changed her poses, standing on the backdrop she was told to stand on.

“Come on baby! Give me one more shot!”

She laughed in response to him and threw her head back. Obviously he had loved what she had done because he was doing his glorified ‘happy dance’.

“And that’s a wrap!” He shouted. Nicole’s face beamed with a smile as she knew that he had gotten some great shots of her. She loved working with Mark. He was such an easy person to get along with and made shoots so much fun.

She held out her other hand for him to take. “Thank you so much Mark. I really love working with you.”

“You are one of my favorite girls to shoot Nikki,” He said shaking her hand and a true genuine smile on his face. “Your look is so diverse. I really hate that you’re going out to California.”

“I know Marky, but you know I need a bit of a break,” She explained, taking a water bottle that was offered to her by one of the staff.

“I know sweetie, but you have such raw talent and beauty. That’s hard to come by in this industry now a days.”

Nicole nodded her head and twisted off the bottle cap, taking a sip. “I’ve seen the world a dozen times. It’s time for me to settle down a little bit.”

“Your father always told me that you were a California girl,” Mark said and Nicole chuckled.

“I can’t help it.”

“Just promise me you’ll do a couple shoots out there?”

Nicole nodded. “I have two booked for next month. My phone line is always open too, so if you have any clients that need an extra model or a little bit of help on the set, don’t hesitate to give me a call,” She said, taking her phone out of her purse and checking to see if she had any new messages on her BlackBerry.

“Oh you bet I’ll be sending my men your way!” Mark grinned, giving Nicole a hug. “Take care of yourself sweetie.”

“You too,” She whispered, hugging him back.

The moment was broken by her phone ringing. Sheepishly, she smiled and went to go answer it. A few mumbled words were exchanged between her and the other person on the line before she hung up and slipped her bag over her shoulder.

“You should come out to Cali Mark,” Nicole smiled. “The sun could do some wonders for you skin.”

“I’ll leave the tanning to you beautiful ladies,” He joked back.

She chuckled and said goodbye to everyone again. Her best friend Jessica was waiting in the car out on the street in front of the studio for her. This was the last photo shoot Nicole was doing in New York before her and Jessica moved out to California.

“Hey,” Jessica smiled as Nicole opened the back door and threw her bag in next to the other ones that the girls had packed the night before.

“Hey,” She answered back, falling in to the passenger seat beside Jessica.

“You ready for this?”

Nicole looked out the window at all the high rise buildings and how grey the looked. Though the sun was shining today, the shadows that the buildings casted made the city feel so much darker.

She sighed. “Yeah.”

Jessica looked over her shoulder before pulling out in to traffic and heading off towards the highway which would hopefully take them all the way to the West coast.

Armed with forty cans of RedBull and enough money to afford a couple strippers, the two began their journey to the sunny state of California, where Nicole’s new purchase resided in Huntington Beach.