?WINGLESS AND BEAUTIFUL?
?EPISODE 51 ?
The following week, I worked with the local band that
Denise hired to perform at the concert. They’re called ‘Dark
Rose’.
I was quite happy because Dominic, the guy I used to work with at Strung, was part of it.
“I have missed you, girl!” he greeted me with a hug.
“You too!” I hugged him back.
I heard Chaise coughing behind me, forcing me to pull
away from Dominic’s embrace.
“Oh, Dom, this is Chaise. Chaise, this is Dominic. We
worked together at Strung.”
Chaise shook Dominic’s hand. I didn’t miss the warning
look he gave him. Dominic merely raised a brow, giving
Chaise a smirk.
Boys! And I’m not even romantically interested with
either of them.
Dominic turned to me. “You should play with us.”
“What?”
“Good luck convincing her,” Chaise murmured.
I shook my head. “I’m not exactly stage material, you
know.”
“No, I don’t know,” Dominic said. “Because I’ve always
thought you were pretty.”
I was pretty sure he said that just to spite Chaise.
Dominic was never attracted to me. I’d met his girlfriend,
and she was gorgeous.
“Come on. In case you haven’t noticed my scars, let me
show them to you,” I said, pulling my hair away from my
face.
“I see a patch of broken skin,” Dominic said. “Nothing
makeup couldn’t fix. I’m sure you have concealers for that.
Or better yet, let’s highlight it. Get a temporary cheek tat.
That would look really cool.”
“A tattoo?” I echoed.
Dominic nodded. “Yeah. You get those erasable ones. Or
we paint some flower designs on that. It would hide the
scars and it would look cool.”
“Please, let’s not get there.
I’m not going to play,” I said
firmly. “Now, you guys practice and Chaise and I will listen.
Pretend we’re not even here. We’ll choose a list of songs for you to play.”
“Alright. But if you ever change your mind in the coming
days, just let me know.”
Two days before the concert, Denise stepped up her
game.
She was pressuring us more than ever. The concert was the final highlight of the immersion program and she wanted everything to be impeccable.
That was why I was making sure Dark Rose performed well on Friday night.
I sat in the cafeteria alone.
Denise was obviously busy
with a lot of things, and maybe she asked Chaise to run
another errand for her.
I quickly ate my sandwich because I wanted to call Dominic and give him some additional playlists.
“Why are you curious about her?” I heard somebody say
from the table behind me. I think it was Chelsea. “No one is interested in her.
If someone ever was, it’s because she looks hideous!”
Yep. No doubt she was talking about me again.
As if that would affect me. That wasn’t the first time
Chelsea or one of her myriad of brainless followers talked
down on me.
“Some of our boys are curious,” another girl replied.
There was a series of laughter.
“I’m sure they’re only curious because of her scars. But
other than that, nothing about her was ever interesting! I mean… maybe she could have been cute if she was
flawless. But she’s not. She’s a mon$ter.”
In fairness to them, I think they were really unaware
that I was on the table behind them and I could hear every
word that they were saying.
“Well, there were rumors that somebody saw her with
Hunter on the beach.”
“Seriously? Hunter Vaughn?”
“That’s why Tania was so worried. She heard the rumors
that Hunter was carrying that girl around on the beach.”
“What?!”
I wish I could turn around to see their white, shocked
faces. But I didn’t want to give up my position yet, and
reveal that their conversation wasn’t really private anymore.
“That’s absurd! Why would Hunter Vaughn even give
her the time of day?”
“He’s probably the snobbiest person on the planet. He
ignores everybody.
He doesn’t know how to smile, he looks angry all the time. Why would he even look at that vermin?”
“Tania was fuming when she heard. She confronted
Hunter about it.”
“And what did he say?”
Suddenly, I was curious about the answer to that
question too.
“Nothing.”
“See? That means that’s not true,” Chelsea breathed in
a sigh of relief. “Hunter won’t even bother explaining her to
his girlfriend. She’s not worth the effort. Tania shouldn’t be
worried. That girl had nothing on her.”
“Even if it were true, I’m sure Hunter would never admit
it. I mean… maybe she needed his help for something.
Maybe they were just in the same place at the same time.
But he won’t even tell people about it because… he’d be
ashamed to be seen with her.”
I sank on my seat. That girl had a point. Hunter wouldn’t
even bother talking about me. I have a big hunch that he knew who I was.
But now that he could finally see again, he was ashamed of our past.
“It’s bad enough that she got Chaise under her spell…”
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