☼Leila Perez☼

I bounded into my mum's arms as soon as she opened the door, "Mum!"

She laughed and held me tightly, "Hi, kiddo!"

I buried my face in her neck, "How are you?! Tell me everything! How's the campaign going?! You'll never guess who's living here! I got a boyfriend! What's up?!"

She smiled brightly and chided, "Let me into the living room to sit down first, and I'll tell you."

"Th-there's someone in the living room," I said but I couldn't stop smiling.

"Aunt Alexandra?" Mum raised her eyebrows, "She called and asked if she could stay, I know."

She pushed open the living room door. Aunt Alexandra was in town looking for a job at the moment, but Castor was on the living room couch, shirtless, eating out of a tub of Ben & Jerry's. 

He scowled at the TV, "You can't do that! She was Spiderman's first love!"

I chuckled a little and Mum turned back to me, "Is this the new boyfriend?"

I grinned with a slight blush, "Maybe."

Mum smirked and chimed, "Hi Castor!"

Castor jumped on his spot on the couch and then smiled brightly, "Hey Tanya!"

Then he turned back to the TV with a furious expression and said to me without glancing my way, "They just killed Gwen."

"No!" I shrieked and ran to the couch but it was true. 

The blonde was limp and dead in Peter's arms. 

Mum sighed, "You didn't want to hear about how it's going?"

"Tell. Me. Everything." I waved a finger at her.

She smiled and sat in the armchair, "Well, the campaign's actually going really well. They aren't releasing anything for a while, but so far I've gotten a bunch of contracts to certain things. I have at least a billboard, commercial and feature wall."

"That's so good!" I said with wide eyes.

Mum chuckled and leaned forward with her hands cupping her head, "Well, I wasn't even expecting you to be home. I thought you'd have a rehearsal for tonight."

"Tonight?" I cocked my head.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "The Fashion Show?"

"Oh!" I burst out loud, "Lucy didn't call you?"

Mum frowned at me deeply.

Castor began flicking through for a new movie. 

"I got cancelled off the show," I didn't exactly want to go into specs about it, "But she got me and Castor a casting with Louis Vuitton instead."

Mum nodded, "Louis Vuitton? Impressive... but why did you get cancelled?"

She could read me like an open book.

I blushed and looked down at my lap. I didn't want to upset her. Or make her mad. Or make myself upset either...

Castor hummed softly, "If you don't tell her, I will..."

I glared at him though tears threatened to spill. I really didn't want to make Mum upset.

Castor sighed, "Fine, I'll tell her." He turned to Mum, "Tanya... she felt extremely out of her league when she went to one of the rehearsals. The models there made her feel horrible. One of them even got her number and went to the trouble of sending her mean messages about her body. You can imagine what happened from there."

"About her body?" Mum gulped and studied me, "Th-thank you Castor..."

I looked back down at my lap as the tears silently streamed down my cheeks. 

Mum walked over and kissed my forehead, "You are beautiful. You are one of those girls that have absolutely no beauty flaws. And I love you no matter how you look."

"Thanks Mum," I choked. 

"I better go say 'hi' to Rachel," she ruffled my hair and left.

*****

I glared at the suitcase by Alexandra's feet. The sister-in-laws hugged for a while before Alexandra said, "Thanks for letting me stay here for the week..."

Mum winked at her.

Alexandra smiled at me, "Thanks, Leila. You be good, alright?"

I nodded once, "But why do you have to leave?"

Alexandra blushed and then said, "I found a job. A bookstore not far from here. And the girl there is around my age. She's interested in letting me receive less salary than I should be as rent to stay with her in the house upstairs."

I ran to her and hugged her, "Thank you for helping me the other day."

She kissed my forehead, "No problem, sweetie. I'll try and visit you some time this week and next week."

School holidays, right.

Mum hugged her sister-in-law once more and then Alexandra left. Like a ghost, I thought.

✌︎

So I hope you enjoyed :) If you did, leave me a comment, if you didn't, tell me what I can improve on. How are you? Leave me a comment and a vote if you're healthy or sick. If you're sick, I hope you feel better. Shoutout to those that are reading this at 1am. An extremely short chappie. How do you feel about Tanya? Do you think she shared everything about her campaign? ;) 

Sharky.