That evening at the Harrison plaza hotel, Carmella was trying on a beautiful black and white gown. She looked at herself in the mirror and admired herself for a moment. An empty feeling filled her heart as she ran her fingers through her hair. 

"Sweetheart.." Carmella's mother, Elaine, commented as she approached. 

"Hey, mom. What do you think? Am I good enough to be on your next magazine cover?" Carmella asked with confidence. 

Elaine examined her daughter with harshly judgemental eyes. 

"No.. not at all. This won't do." Elaine said in deep thought. 

"What do you mean?" Carmella tried to keep herself together. 

"Sweetheart, your legs are too short. Your hair needs to be blonder.. and your cheek bones are weak. You're not modeling the cover for us, my board members would be furious." Elaine said before walking away. 

Carmella stood there with an ache in her heart. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered her mother's words. 

Just on the other side of the dressing room, Renee walked in. Elaine was the first to notice her. 

"Renee Paquette!" Elaine shouted in excitement  as she greeted her with a hug. 

"Ms. VanDale!" Renee with a big smile. 

"What are you doing here?" Elaine asked in excitement. 

"Carmella invited me." Renee said as she tried to look for her friend. 

A smile came across Elaine's face as she watched Renee for a moment. 

"You know what.. I have this new design and I think it would look just stunning on you. Why don't you go try it on?" Elaine asked hopefully.

"Oh um, well I should really friend Mella, we-." Renee tried to explain.

"Don't worry about her right now, she's busy trying on a few things of her own." Elaine said as she lead Renee to a dressing room. 

A few streets over at Dave's pizzeria, Kota was putting in a few extra hours of work. He was on his fifth straight hour of delivering pizza without having eaten anything himself. He tried snacking on a twix bar he had found in his backpack while he was waiting for the cook to get his next delivery ready. It was then that he saw Kenny walk in with Roman and Cody. 

"Where the hell is Miz?" Roman asked. 

"Are you really one to be asking where peole are? You go AWOL on us all the time." Cody commented. 

Roman looked away with a bit of shame in his face. 

"Miz and Maryse are hanging out at my place tonight."  Kenny informed his friends. 

Cody looked over and saw Kota struggling in the back.

"So this is why you wanted to co, no me here? Boy-toy is working today?" Cody asked. 

Kenny looked himself and sighed when he realized Kota was there. 

"Fuck. I didn't know he was working today." Kenny said to himself. 

Cody watched Kenny for a moment, thinking about the situation. Kota got his next order and hurried out of the pizzeria. 

At the hotel, Carmella was in search of her mother. She knew she had to hide whatever pain she was feeling and put on a show for her mother. Carmella looked up to her mother, she admired her. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her.

"Have you seen my mother?" Carmella asked a model. 

"I think they're shooting the cover outside." The model told her. 

Carmella was a little confused because she thought her mother wanted to do the photoshoot on her. She walked through the dressing rooms and fianlly made her way outside. All that could be heard at first was the sound of camera's flashing and her mother praising the photoshoot.

"She is stunning! This is perfect!" Her mother Elaine could be heard saying. 

Carmella made her way through the small crowd to find her best friend, Renee had taken her place as the star of the photoshoot. 

"You look amazing darling!" Elaine adding. 

Carmella's heart dropped at the sight before her. This time she couldn't hold back the tears. Renee looked over and saw her friend. 

"Mella?" Renee asked.

Carmella turned around and stormmed off back inside. 

"Renee we need you to smile!" Elaine told her. 

Renee ignored Elaine and ran after her best friend. 

Inside, Dean was trying his best to find his way to Renee. All he kept thinking to himself was that he definitely shouldn't be here. The models gave him a few dirty looks before he finally made his way to a stairway. Just as he made his way up the first set of stairs he hear a door burst open from the top of the stairway.

"Mella wait!" Renee yelled. 

"How could you?" Carmella asked in tears. 

"How could I what? I was just-." Renee tried to explain herself. 

"Just what? Being the perfect daughter for my mother?" Carmella asked with a heavy heart.

Renee was a little taken back by what her best friend was insinuating. Dean had felt himself in an awkward situation. He stood there and try to debate if he should leave or not but his feet seemed to be staying put, so he listened. 

"Everyone already knows your perfect! You're the perfect girl next door and you never do anything wrong. You're a goddamn saint! I really didn't think you'd need people to like you so much that you'd steal my place on my mother's cover. You know how important this was to me.. I wanted to show her that she can be proud of me.. but you ruined everything." Carmella said in distress. 

"Mella, I was trying t-." Renee tried to explain but Carmella didn't want to hear it. 

Dean stood back as Carmella ran down the stairs. She stopped ofr a second when she saw him and rolled her eyes. Carmella went on and Dean looked up to find a tear falling from Renee's cheek. She felt a sharp pain in her chest when she realized how much she'd hurt her best friend. That's when she decided to make her way back outside. Dean thought to himself for a moment before noticing Carmella was sitting at the end of the hallway in tears. He wanted more than anything to leave, he really shouldn't have come in the first place. In that moment, Dean knew he couldn't walk away. He took a deep breath and started to walk down the hall. As he approached her, Carmella looked up at him with mascara running down her face.

"What do you want scrub?"  Carmella asked.

Dean took anther deep breath and reluctantly sat down beside her. Carmella tried her best to  give him a dirty look.

"Wow.. Even when she's drowning in tears she tries to keep up the mean girl act. That's impressive." Dean tried to joke. 

Carmella looked at him for a moment, realizing that she was feeling vulnerable. Dean gave her a comforting look, trying to let her know that it is okay to let herself go for a few moments. She sighed and looked down at the floor as tears began streaming down her face again. The hallway was silent as the two adversaries sat side by side. Dean kept his eyes on the wall, knowing that even though he was trying to be a good guy, the situation was still awkward for the both of them.

Outside, Elaine was having a frustrating conversation with the photographers in charge of the photo shoot when Renee approached her. 

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Renee told her. 

Elaine looked at her in disbelief as everyone got quiet. 

"Excuse me for a moment." Elaine dismissed herself and pulled Renee aside. 

"Do you have any idea how important this photo shoot was for Carmella?" Renee asked. 

"You need to lower your voice." Elaine warned her. 

"She invited everyone to this becasue she was so proud of you. For months she has been obsessing over her looks because she wanted to impress you when you came to town. All she has ever wanted was for you to see her. She just wants her mother to love her but all you seem to care about is your clothing  line." Renee began as everyone listened in. " This photo shoot meant everything to her. She thought this would be the chance she'd always hoped for.. A chance for you to be proud of her.. And I don't know why the hell you tricked me into that photo shoot.. You told me that she would be out to join me, Elaine. But clearly that was never going to happen. You used me and hurt your daughter in the process." Renee said with disappoitnment. 

Elaine just stared at Renee, not understanding where any of this was coming from. 

"And you know what? I never understood why she felt the need to jump through all these hoops just to get your attention. I never understood why she cared so much about your approval of her. I mean what the hell makes you so special anyway? Because if you ask me.. you're the one that should be begging for her love. Do you realize how amazing your daughter is? Do you even know anything about her anymore? I mean to be honest.. There must be something seriously wrong with you to not love that girl to death. She's someone that I am damn proud to have as my best friend. I just wish you could see how amazing she is.." Renee told her before walking off. 

In the hall, Dean continued to sit next to Carmella in silence as she cried to herself. He glanced over at her for a moment, trying to think of something to say. 

"Why are you even here?" Carmella asked through her tears. 

"Renee and I were supposed to have our first date tonight.. She forgot that she already had plans to do.. whatever this is.. So she asked me to meet her here." Dean told her. 

Carmella rolled her eyes. 

"I meant why are you sitting here with me? Don't you hate me?" Carmella asked. 

"Yes, yes I do." Dean told her honestly. 

For whatever reason, Carmella let out a chuckle. 

"Look.. I don't exactly know why I'm sitting here with you. But what I do know is what it feels like to be rejected by a parent... To not feel loved by them.." Dean began to tell her. 

Carmella watched with with curiosity as he looked into her eyes. 

"I wouldn't wish that feeling on my worst enemy." He told her. 

Carmella felt a sharp pain in her chest, hearing Dean say those words. What he said though did give her some comfort. As much as it hurt her to face the truth, it was nice to know that she wasn't alone.

Suddenly, a door from the top of the stairwell opened. Carmella stood up rather quickly. Once she saw Renee walk down the stairs she began to storm off. 

"Mella, wait-." Renee tried to stop her. 

Dean stood up and walked towards Renee. She now had tears in her eyes, realizing she may have just lost her best friend. 

"You okay?" Dean asked. 

"Can you take me home?" Renee asked.

"Of course." Dean told her as he tried to hide his disappointment. 

At Kathleen and August's house, Becky was taking advantage of the parents being out at a dinner party for the night. Seth stood at the end of her bed, naked as she started putting her clothes back on.

"We could go shower real quick." Seth suggested. 

Becky let out a small laugh. 

"That's cute." Becky said as she threw his pants to him. 

Seth stood there for a moment in confusion before beginning to put his clothes back on. 

"So what are we doing here exactly?" Seth asked curiously. 

Becky stopped for a moment before looking back up at him. 

"We're just having fun right?" Becky suggested. 

Seth looked at her with worrisome eyes. 

"Uh yeah.. sure of course. Just having fun." Seth reluctantly agreed.

"So if you're wondering if you can sleep with other girls the answer is yes, playboy." Becky told him. 

Seth furrowed his eyes in confusion. 

"Wait, that's not-." Seth began to say before Becky interrupted him. 

"You should get going, August and Kathleen will be back soon." Becky said as she opened her bedroom window. 

For the first time in what felt like forever, Seth was a little disappointed in how the night was ending. He did what she said and made his wait out the window. 

It was just downstairs that Alexa was grabbing a bag a few snacks in the kitchen. Miz walked downstairs to find her trying to sneak away with four bags of chips away. 

"Uh.." Alexa let out when she saw Miz. 

"You really going to eat all those?" Miz asked. 

Alexa looked at at the bag of chips in a bit of a panic. 

"Um.. It's fun to try a little bit of each one. Like I have barbecue here and dorittos and these here are sour cream and onion. Then there's the cheese puffs, my favorite." Alexa began to tell him. 

Miz stood there in amusement as she tried to explain herself. 

"Obviouosly I don't like eat four entire bags of chips myself... that would be.. not good for my health. What I am saying is that I eat a little bit from each bag, that way I'm not just eating one flavor of chips the entire movie, you know? But of course I eat more of the cheese puffs than the others because like I said, they're my favorite." Alexa rambled on. 

Miz shook his head at Alexa. 

"Did you say movie?" Miz asked. 

"Hmm?" Alexa said. 

"You said you were having the chips while watching a movie in that whole ramble that you did. What movie are you watching?" Miz asked. 

Alexa looked at him awkwardly for a second. 

"Uhh.. It's an older movie.." She tried to say. 

Miz rolled his eye brows, waiting for her to tell him. 

"It's Another Cinderella Story.." Alexa confessed. 

Miz tried to hold in his laugh so he let out a smile. 

"Busted." Miz said in amusement. 

"Okay, bye." Alexa said as she tried to hurry away with her four bags of chips. 

"Can I join you?" Miz asked. 

Alexa froze in place as her heart began racing. 

"Maryse canceled on our plans tonight so I don't really have anything to do." Miz told her. 

Alexa tried to take a deep breath and play it cool. 

"O-okay." Alexa stuttered as she turned around to face him. "But you have to get your own chips." 

Miz let out a genuine smile as he admired Alexa's blue and white, flannel pajama pants. 

To be continued..