C5 Five

She jumps off her office chair, her designer dresses never seeming to fit her petite body.

" Because of a few papers? " She speaks, what was meant to be a question sounding like a mocking statement.

" I need to write those exams, Florentine, you know it " I tried to reason with her.

" Oh, Mia darling, my beautiful beautiful Mia " she sings, walking towards me. I knew what was coming when she uses that voice for me. She places her hands over my shoulders and smiled into my face before continuing " I don't know why you bother yourself so much about school. I mean look at you, you're beautiful, so elegant, with this killer body! And you're slaying fashion, Mia! "

" I need it. . . . . . . "

". . . . . . Because it's what your father would've wanted, I know " she cuts me off, completing the statement she has grown so used to. But it's true. My father would've wanted me to go to college.

My father died when I was twelve years old, my younger brother barely nine years old when we lost him. That wound has never healed. Even after twelve years.

Now sitting down here, in the dark, the thunder trembling high above me, I could feel the sinking feeling washing over me all over again.

Just when I was about drifting into memory lane, I heard the tapping sound on the window and the door opened for Ashley.

" What did Sam say? " I asked her.

Florentine had asked me to meet with him. Said he was going to help me through some papers I needed to see for my next shooting. But the man has always been a flirt and I've never enjoyed his company. I didn't want to make an appearance in his club tonight so I asked Ashley to go tell him to meet me at a meet place tomorrow. Hopefully, Ashley had some good news.

" He agreed " Ashley replied, a broad smile on her face.

I put on my glasses, my face unchanged before looking forward. The car drove off, the rain starting to stop.

The car drove into my house, more like my white mansion and I stepped out of it, bidding my driver a good night.

The first thing I did was get into shower. With very little appetite, I decided an apple would be just fine to eat to bed. After that, I retired to my bedroom to work on some of my homeworks.

I sat against my bed board, my laptop opened up in front of me. But the instant I pushed the laptop open, my hands instantly went to my modeling files and clicked on it.

Pictures and videos of me displayed on the screen. Pictures of me rocking dresses. I saw the photo of me dressed as a 60's regency model and I never get over how accurate the setting was. It still made me smile everyday. I remembered how Ralph said he loved the picture.

Hmm. Ralph. . . . . . .

I felt my mood slowly shift into something irritable.

Ralph was my younger brother. He was twenty years old. I remembered our last argument, the reason why he has refused to pick or return any of my calls.

Ralph finished highschool two years ago but at that time, I was walking my way into this job and couldn't afford to send him to a university. Things were pretty much hard then and I struggled to meet our family's ends meet with the waitressing and bar tendering jobs I did. And even that wasn't enough. Having to take care of a mother who was suffering from constant heart burn and a brother who was going to college. It wasn't easy. I knew I needed more.

On one of the occasions at the bar I worked at, I'd met Blake for the first time. He had needed someone to talk to. He was a good talker to begin with, saw me more than a mere bartender and I knew instantly that he needed a talk. Unfortunately he'd just graduated from the university of California but he'd only gone to the school because his father wanted him to. Wanted him to become a business man. But he always had passion for public stuffs. Journalism and the likes of it.

So I decided to move to L.A and find a better job, and maybe get into the university one day too. That's how I started my job as a model for Florentine.

I'd first taken a cooking job at a fancy restaurant here. Turned out it paid better than any job I ever did. Thanks to my glistening stars, Florentine had come to eat and I was serving her table. I had no idea she had seen some potentials in me as she'll say later. Before she left, she handed me her card and asked me to 'swing' by at her office so we could talk.

And viola, I was walking my way into my first job. Because it's been my biggest dream. Modeling.

The job paid well and it gave me opportunities to see the world too. Then I could finally put myself in school and treat my mother. And this is where Ralph comes in.

I told him to enroll into a university there at California but he refused. Said he wanted to leave the place. Wanted a real job not some school. I didn't know what happened to change his perspective so suddenly but I knew he always loved school. We both did. And I didn't want him leaving our mother while I'm here doing the best I can to put him into college.

That was the conversation we had over the phone a few days ago and he hasn't picked my call ever since. My mother has been on a therapy since last year and the doctor said she's getting better real quick. She was getting old and I didn't want anything contributing to her failing health.

I breathed out loudly, trying to get the thoughts out of my mind and just focus on studying this night.