Conceited [H.S.]

FIFTY

Chapter Song: Forever by Labrinth

...

NOAH WILSON

My eyes continue to wander over the large groups of people in the living room as I attempt to find the one reason why I'm even here in the first place. It's almost nine-thirty, and considering Jo told me that people would start getting here at nine, I figured she would be here already.

I swear if I had to go through an insanely long and unnecessary lecture from mom about not being home for New Years just for her to not show up...

She's the only reason I pretended to be a student that's studying photography in the first place and took this job that I am absolutely not qualified for.

After I moved into my dorm at the beginning of my freshman year, I had been curious as to where she was and how she was doing. Mom watched my every single move under her roof, so the second I moved out, I was able to do shit on my own for once.

Which included trying to find my sister.

For a while, I just spent time enjoying not being hovered over by my mom and learning how to do the basics of living on my own in an unknown city. It wasn't until November that I started actively looking. Which, by then, it didn't take too long considering a girl in my class had a recent photo of her and some guy on her phone.

It wasn't hard to recognize her, considering her face looks incredibly similar to the last time I saw her. Just a bit more mature. The baby cheeks she always complained about, that I used to make fun of her for, aren't there anymore.

The girl that was sitting in front of me and her friends were all asking questions and talking about it until the professor showed up. I was confused until I was able to lean a bit closer and realize who she was with. Harry Styles. Kind of hard not to recognize him.

I have no idea how she managed to become friends with one of the most famous people in the world, but it made it easier to find her on social media. I made sure not to follow her, since I'm sure she would recognize my name within an instant, but it gave me the chance to scroll through what her life possibly has looked like since I last saw her.

Social media isn't necessarily a good representation of someone's life, especially when the person only posts every few months or so. Andrea hadn't really posted recently by the time I had found her account, but it was more than I had seen of her in years.

Then I figured that the blonde girl in nearly every photo with her was most likely her best friend, Jo. She had posted that she was looking for photographers for tonight, and for some reason, I figured that was my perfect way in. Which wasn't exactly smart considering I'm a computer science major and have never taken photos professionally before.

I swear I had to turn into some sort of FBI agent to try and figure out how to get into contact with her again, but I was too nervous to do it directly. After meeting Jo, I quickly realized that I took it a bit too far.

I thought that I would get lucky, and she would bring Andrea to meet me, but she didn't. Finding a bunch of random photos to create a fake portfolio was easy, but I didn't really expect her to hire me. It's why I offered to do it for 'the experience' rather than for money. I spent fifty bucks at a pawn shop on a decent looking camera, and thankfully it wasn't hard to figure out how to work the piece of shit in order to fulfill the part. More like the grave I dug for myself.

I've never been more disappointed and scared shitless to hear the words 'you're hired' before.

The one chance that I had to get out of the web of lies I had created was when I finally tried calling her. Which I completely failed at doing.