Roses & Ruin

Chapter 29 (Lexi)

        Mia's instruction was to meet her at the fucking Coney Island beach at the tip of Brooklyn for sunrise...what? I despise mornings. I like sleeping in late, but a job is a job, even though I'm not even getting paid for it. Still, it could pay itself forward if this Sammi chicks gallery is a huge success.

    I wasn't sure who to expect when approaching the beach where I could see two women in the distance, but I kinda assumed a friend of Mia is probably this fluffy sunshine kinda girl.

Instead I was approaching a woman with tattoos over 60% of her body. It was an interesting surprise. Sammi has gray ash dyed hair and an edgy style. I could see she was wearing designer clothes, but there was a lot of black and leather, and best of all a damn two strap harness.

Of course she's British so she's got the great accent like my roommate Chloe has. She's got a big smile, and good teeth though.

Mia came practically skipping forward. It's too goddamn early for that.

        "Oh, I'm so glad you could make it. Sammi this is Lexi, and Lexi this is my very talented friend Sammi" she gave the girl her props and was quickly waved off. "Hi, you're gorgeous" was Sammi's greeting to me. I looked her up and down and nodded. "You too."

There was no awkward pause. As soon as introductions were had Mia started moving us along. Sammi wanted to capture us in a certain lighting.

        "Do you mind if I do your eye makeup? I want a bit of a smudged look. Here, get comfy in this robe, did Mia mention I wanted a few nude shots?" Sammi asked me right away. Mia's eyes widened.

"You didn't tell me about the nude part," she reminded her friend.

Sammi tipped her head in thought. "Oh...well babes, I want some nudies" she grinned at her friend. "I don't do nudes..." Mia looked very uncomfortable.

I shrugged and raised my hand, "I do."

        What's so taboo about flesh? Has anyone ever stopped and asked themselves why we sexualized limbs, appendages, and other body parts? Does a giraffe look at another giraffe's long legs and think 'oh you're so hot'? It's damn weird.

"Ah, perfect, love it" Sammi started taking total control of what she wanted, where she wanted it, and how. A little skin never made me shy away. Everything Sammi was picturing she'd want done was totally doable for me.

Mia ended up taking a seat in the background and watching. Odd, since she's the actual big name between the two of us. I'm essentially a nobody and Mia is Karl Lagerfeld's muse.

But here I am.

-

        I spent the morning and a good portion of the afternoon working with Sammi and Mia. First we did the beach shoot and then we went back to Sammi's hotel room and did some fun shots in the tub. She wanted me to smoke my cigarettes and just take raw shots, so that's what I did.

I put on Madeleine Peyroux's french song, La Javanaise, which was really Serge Gainsbourg's song, but I liked her take on the song. Something about it felt romantically tragic or poignantly beautiful ...a vibe in my opinion. And we made some art.

Cigarettes, an old French record, and a woman's vision. The camera clicked many times.

        Of course Boris was in the background of all this as he usually is. Always watching, like Orwell's Big Brother. But the girls wouldn't have noticed something like that. Nobody ever seems to, but it's all I can ever feel. Eyes. Soon there will be three more pairs of eyes on me. I already feel crowded and it hasn't even fully begun yet.