You've Got Me, Right Where You Need

Coral didn’t stay for long. She had a cup of tea and then went back to her hotel. I offered to let her stay but she turned the offer down. Can’t say I didn’t try. Sonnie left shortly after so I was left alone for the evening, replaying the last few hours over in my head.

Of course I was awake early the next morning, but I had the house to myself so liana couldn’t moan at me, and by the time my mind had fully woken up, it was time to get ready for work. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, and I didn’t have anything to keep me warm. I snuck into liana’s room in the hope of finding something, but everything was too long on me. After finding nothing in there I went to the coat rack near the front door and found sonnies’ hoddie draped on top of the others. I took it off the hook and slipped it on, his scent suddenly filling my nose and making me smile. Thankfully I had just jeans and a tee on so I didn’t look stupid.

I walked to work and arrived early, so I made my second cup of tea of the day. By the time Zahra came in I had finished it and the cup was washed up and back in the cupboard. “I really need to start getting up on time” she huffed as she sat down. “So who’s in today?”

I grabbed the book and set it down in front of me. Today there was a casting for select modelling. Castings were the worst, just loads of pre Madonna’s walking around thinking they owned the place. We groaned in unison until Zahra’s eyes suddenly lit up and she pointed to the book again. “Thank god for that” I sighed as I saw toms name written down. The door opened and we looked up to find josh at the door.

“Hey ladies” he smiled and winked.

“Hey” we both responded and the phone suddenly started ringing. Zahra huffed and answered in her ‘happy’ voice.

“You alright?” josh asked loud enough for just me to hear. I nodded but to be honest I was still in a bad mood because of coral. Josh clearly caught on and nodded his head towards the sofas on the other side on the room. I followed him, and sunk down next to him. “What’s up?” he bumped my shoulder with his and tried looking at my face which was looking at my lap.

“Coral came to see me yesterday” I huffed and put my head in my hands. Josh didn’t say anything for a few seconds and then he let out a low whistle. Coral was sort of notorious at our school. Even though she was 4 years older than us, everyone knew who she was. And everyone knew that we didn’t get along at all.

“What did she want?” he asked a little quieter than before.

I shrugged and looked up. “Just to talk I guess she didn’t stay for long” he nodded lightly and was just about to say something when the door opened and in come tom with dan. Tom waved to me before going to sign in, but dan came over and sat on the other side of me,

“And why aren’t you working?” he questioned with his eye brows raised.

“Cause im bad to the bone” I winked and then stood up making my way back over to the desk. The rest of the boys came in and I then led them up to the studio and waited until they were all relatively settled before leaving them to it. Once back downstairs I saw the mass of people coming inside for the casting

I took my seat next to Zahra who was chatting animatedly to someone on the phone. She quickly ended the call and began writing something down. I pulled her arm away to find she had just written Mrs. Oakley Dibbs with hearts all around it. She turned a furious shade of red and I was just about to say something when the door opened and coral stepped through the door. Her hair was teased into oblivion and it looked like she hadn’t washed her make up off and just layered more on top. She was wearing a long beige trench coat with leopard print shoes.

“Coral what are you doing here?” I questioned her.

“I could ask you the same thing; I didn’t know you worked here.” I didn’t say anything to her; I just kept my eyes on my desk. “Anyway, which way is the casting?” she asked and raised her stupidly thin eyebrows at me. I didn’t say anything; I just looked at her.

“It’s in there” Zahra told her and pointed towards the door.

“Thanks” she smiled and went to walk in but stopped herself “Is there anywhere I can put my coat?”

“Ill take it” I offered and stood up. She shimmed off her coat to reveal a leopard print crop top and a pair of tiny white shorts. I contained a sigh and looked her right in the eyes. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”

“Why wouldn’t I” she questioned before holding her head up high and marching off into the room that held the casting. I was about to stop her to stop herself from embarrassing herself but I just shook my head and plonked back down on my chair shaking my head lightly.

“You know her?” Zahra queried.

“She’s my sister” I huffed. Zahra just stared at me wide eyed. “She moved to Australia with my parents and now she’s back for some odd reason” Zahra clearly caught onto the fact that I didn’t want to talk about it, so she nodded once and left me to it.

About an hour and a half later coral burst through the door, clutching a piece of paper in her hand and a smug smile plastered over her face. “What are you so happy about?” I questioned as I handed back her coat.

“They loved me, ive been signed up, and ive got my first shoot here tomorrow” she replied nonchalantly whilst putting her coat back on. I starred at her in disbelief. “Can I ask a favour? In privet?” I looked at Zahra and she got the hint.

“I better go check on tom” I mouthed a thank you, and she smiled before rushing off.

“Did you mean what you said last night?”

“What did I say?”

“Can I stay with you for a bit, just till I get on my feet with this modelling thing? Please, ill pay my way I promise, its just the hotel I was in is draining me of all the money ive got” I was slightly taken aback by this. Coral never paid for anything, she just expected everything to be handed to her. Her eyes were pleading, and I could tell she really meant it. Something I had never really seen before. I shook my head lightly. “Ill have to speak to my house mate, but im sure she wont mind”

“Thank you” she breathed.

“Tell you what, go pack your things and bring them here, then when im done here we can go back together”

“You’re a life saver” she smiled, “ill be back soon” she smiled excitedly and hurried out the door. I sat there contemplating weather I had made the right decision for a while, but she was my sister at the end of the day, and even though she probably would never do the same for me, I had to be the bigger person.

There was a sudden commotion at the top of the stairs and tom and all the boys bound down the stairs. They all rushed out apart from josh, who stayed to talk for a while. I told him what happed with coral and he looked at me in disbelief. “Really?” he questioned, his voice a few octaves higher than usual.

“Yup”

“Well, um, there we go then” he ended with a giggle that made my insides turn to jelly. “For what it’s worth, I always thought you were the prettier one”

I thought I hadn’t heard him properly at first, but then I realised what his said and I could feel the heat rise up to my face. He dived into his pocket and checked his phone, before saying he needed to go, and then he left, leaving me on the verge of hyperventilating. Did he really just say that? I know it wasn’t anything massive, but to me it was huge.

Work finished a little time later but coral still wasn’t back so I hung around until she got there. By the time she was I understood what to her so long. She had so many bags she could hardly carry them all. “Why so much stuff?” I questioned.

“I like to be prepared” she winked and then set a few of the bags down. “Now you gonna help me or what?”

I shook my head slowly and took a few of the bags off her. We had walked for about 10 minutes when she suddenly dropped all her bags to the floor. “How much longer?” she wined in her thick accent.

“Not to much, come on” I huffed and proceeded further. I was back at the house in about 5 minutes, with coral trailing behind. She dumped her stuff at the door and collapsed in a heap.

“That was awful. Next time we’ll call a cab”

“Or maybe you could just wear better shoes”

“Hey what’s going on?” liana called from the lounge. I heard foot steps and then she appeared in the door way, a confused look on her face. “urr something you wanna tell me?” she asked raising her eyebrows. I pointed back into the lounge and followed her in shutting the door behind me.

“She’s my sister, she’s come over fro Australia and she needs a place to stay for a while, I was gonna ring you but-“

“Hey don’t worry about it, you don’t need my permission, it’s your house too” she ended with a giggle. We opened the door and coral was now sat on the stairs. “Hey, im liana, it’s nice to meet you” she held out her hand coral shook it lightly.

“Hi, im coral” she said quietly “im sorry its been a long day, don’t suppose I could have a shower?”

“Ill take you to the guest room and then you can grab a shower” I answered grabbing some of her bags and running up the stairs. She trudged along behind and dumped her bags inside. “I’ll leave you to it” I said before making my way back downstairs. As soon as I got to the bottom the door bell went. “Ive got it” I shouted and answered the door.

Sonnie was on the other side. He smiled as soon as he saw me and then look me up and down. “Ive lost my hoody, and I came to see if it was here. I think ive found it though.”

I looked down and realised I was still wearing it. “Oh sorry” I said, and began to take it off, but he stopped me.

“Keep it, it looks better on you anyway” he winked and I couldn’t feel myself blush so I bent my head, but he put his finger underneath and guided my chin up so I was looking into his eyes. “Don’t hide your face” he whispered, a small smile playing on his lips. The butterflies in my stomach came to life and I could feel my heart beat pounding in my chest.

His face came closer to mine, his eyes on my lips, getting closer and closer until his-

“Hey Sonnie” liana said in an annoyingly chirpy voice. Me and Sonnie let out a breath simultaneously. Sonnie looked up at liana and smiled lightly.

“Hey li”

“You wanna stay for a cuppa?”

“Nah I better be getting back home” he bent his head and looked at me in the eyes. “I’ll speak to you later yeah?” I nodded and he kissed the end of my nose and left.

I turned back to liana and she just looked at me with a knowing smile on her face. I huffed and shook my head before storming off into the kitchen.