Skinny Love

Natasha threw her hair up into a high ponytail and checked her natural make up one last time before getting out of the cab at the modeling agency.

Natasha had never wanted to be a model even though all her life, people had told her she would be perfect for it. She had striking features, ice blue eyes that contrasted with her dark brunette hair, sharp cheekbones, and porcelain skin. She was lithe where it mattered, but she was also blessed with an hourglass figure that gave her a body many women would kill for and men wanted to be on top of. But most of all, Natasha had her height. Without heels, Natasha stood at five foot nine. When she was wearing her tallest pair of Louboutins, she could tower over a six foot man. Natasha never really figured out the whole future thing, so when she turned 20 and still had no plans for college or steady job other than her waitressing gig at a high scale restaurant, her older brother stepped in.

Four years older than her, Joshs’ career as a talent agent was already on the rise. He worked for a management company based out of the city and was introduced to new and exciting people every day. He genuinely loved the life he lived and wanted the same for his younger sister, not happy with seeing her lost in her own life. So he had introduced her to his girlfriend, Adriana, another agent but for modeling. Adriana had been immediately impressed with Natasha’s look and two months later, here she was signed to the modeling agency.

Walking the hallway of the sleek building, Natasha made her way to Adriana’s office, not knowing why she had been called in today. She poked her head inside and Adriana was chatting away on the phone, but waved Natasha in. She sat down politely and waited for the woman to end the phone call. Adriana was beautiful, natural blonde locks that stopped short just above her shoulders and sparkling hazel eyes. If it wasn’t for her short stature, she could’ve been a model herself.

Adriana put the phone down and smiled at Natasha before getting right down to business, “I’ve received a call about your test shots and I know this isn’t exactly a modeling gig, but you’re wanted for a music video. Now I know you don’t have any acting experience, but they said it was very simple and you just need to play one of the main girls. They said your look is exactly what they wanted. Of course, I didn’t give them an answer because I wanted to talk it over, but what do you think?”

Natasha looked at her skeptically, “I don’t know, Adriana. I’m not an actress. And who is this even for? I don’t want to shake my ass for some rap video with the artist degrading me, that’s not my thing”

“No, it’s for some boy band that’s really famous over in the UK. They’ve got some buzz here too, but I don’t think they’re too big yet. They just want you to be a sweet video girl who’s interested in one of the boys” Natasha could tell Adriana really wanted her to take the job. When Natasha was signed to the agency, Adriana’s boss had praised her especially after Natasha’s test shots came back and she learned that although she had no idea what she was doing, she looked confident in front of a camera. Natasha was Adriana’s shining glory and her ticket to a promotion.

“Sure, why not. It’s not like anyone else has offered me anything,” Natasha muttered indifferently.

“Wonderful! I’ll call them and let them know. And don’t worry, I have a feeling that when news spreads of the video, you’re going to be getting jobs left and right,” Adriana convinced her, picking up her phone again and dismissing Natasha from the office.

**

A week later, Adriana found herself in a casting room, the director of the video wanted to see how she’d react to a camera when it wasn’t just taking still shots. She had been here for the past hour, walking to this point, looking at the camera at a certain cue, faking laugh after laugh. Finally, the director nodded his head and thanked her, signaling her to leave. Adriana, who had been assigned as her manager during the whole music video process, ushered Natasha out of the room where two other girls were waiting. She had been introduced to Melissa and Lucy when she got there, they were the two other love interests of the video. Melissa had gotten the job through her sister, who was the boy bands stylist. She didn’t seem very happy to be here and was grumbling all morning, her dark eyes glaring at anything and everyone. The other girl, Lucy, was the exact opposite. She had been trying to break into the acting business for ten years and had countless of small jobs for local commercials and as movie extras, but she was babbling on and on about how great it was to finally be considered for a main spot.

Natasha couldn’t stand either of them. Melissa was too forward with her unhappiness, asking like an insufferable angsty teenager, and Lucy was too happy on the verge of obnoxiousness. Currently, Lucy was in the middle of a rant on how she couldn’t believe she was going to be meeting One Direction, let alone starring in their music video. Natasha had been briefed on One Direction by Adriana in the car on their way to the test shoot. Five boys, four from England and one from Ireland. They got their start on the UK’s X Factor. Two of them were in relationships. They were extremely popular with teenage girls. Natasha had even been forced to listen to the single that the video shoot was for, some annoying pop song called ‘Everything About You’ with cliché lyrics that made Natasha cringe and roll her eyes.

Natasha sat quietly in her chair, wondering why they were sitting out in the hall and couldn’t just head home. She had gotten up at six this morning and still felt drunk from the night before due the party of two she held last night, just her and her bottle of wine. She knew she couldn’t keep spending her nights like that, but it made the depression disappear, even if just for a few hours. It took her mind off things and most importantly, it helped her fall asleep at night instead of tossing and turning, soaking her pillow with her tears.

Natasha’s head snapped to Lucy when the insipid girl let out a high pitched screech and sprang up out of her chair. She quickly found the source of Natasha’s excitement as a blonde haired boy and a gorgeous boy with dark features starting walking closer, followed by two brown haired boys. Assuming this was most of the boy band she would be working for, Natasha stood politely to introducer herself.

“Natasha,” she shook each of their hands as they said their names and tried to match the faces so she wouldn’t forget. Niall was the adorable blonde, Zayn the exotic one, Louis was the blue eyed brunette, Liam the brown eyed brunette.

“Isn’t there supposed to be one more of you?” she asked.

“Yeah, he’s coming, just had to stop at the toilet” Louis said, his accent making Natasha smile. She had always wanted an accent, something Australian or maybe even Latin. Although she was a fullblood Russian, being raised in America hadn’t allowed her the thick accent that her parents had.

“These the girls, yeah?” a deep accent she recognized faintly spoke up and those familiar green eyes rounded the corner, stopping right as they met Natasha’s wide eyes.

“Yeah, these are them. Gorgeous, right? This is Lucy, Natasha, and we already know Melissa here,” Niall said cheerily, throwing an arm around the short brunette, a scowl instantly appearing on her face as she shrugged his arm off her.

Natasha looked back at Harry who was looking at anything and everyone except her, she could feel the tension oozing off his body.

The director’s head poked back out of the test room as he called out, “Natasha and Harry please, we need you in here”

The two kept their face neutral as they stepped into the room, standing as far away from each other as possible without being too obvious.

“Harry, Natasha will be your love interest, I just need to test the chemistry,” he mumbled distractedly as he messed with his camera, “just go stand on that red tape over there, face to face please”

They did as they were told, still wary of the other, not wanting to stand too close.

“Closer please. Now just carry on, talk about whatever, I don’t care. Just try to make it look as though you’re interested in each other,” the camera’s red recording light started to blink.

Putting personal issues aside and remembering this was for a job, Natasha took a step closer to Harry so that their foreheads were nearly touching, smiling up at him genuinely. Harry instantly got lost in her eyes, just as he did that night at the club.

“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again, I thought the last memory I’d have of you was your back as you snuck out of my hotel room,” Harry said smoothly as Natasha rolled her eyes.

“Oh please, what was I supposed to do, stay and make you breakfast?” she quipped sarcastically. Harry was pleasantly surprised at her quick wit and the guts she had to speak back to him like that.

“Touche. But nobody can know what happened, so don’t go telling anyone,” he said, looking into her eyes to convey how serious he was.

“Like I’m going to go around telling everyone that I had a one night stand with a boy bander, that would ruin my reputation,” she said, a smirk falling onto her lips.

“And what reputation would that be?” he asked curiously.

Natasha bit her lip and leaned up to whisper in his ear, her fingers resting gently on his chest as his hand found her lower back, “you wouldn’t wanna know, backstreet boy”

“Perfect, just perfect. You two are going to be splendid” the director praised as Natasha backed away from Harry, the smirk never leaving her lips as she left him dumbstruck.