The Bartender

Chapter 32

I watched as he walked away smugly, tears threatening to fall from my eyes as I could only feel rage towards him.
After pulling myself together, I was finally introduced to my model for the event.

She is a business student as well, I found out after having a little chat with her. She was a pretty black girl with straight long hair. She kept wowing and complementing my designs and how lucky she is to model in them.

She was a talker, that, I must give her... but, her body type was great for all my designs so I was at least happy about that. I was tagged designer for 45 out of the 200 fashion students.

In the first round of judging, one hundred designers were already eliminated for not completing all five designs. 'Rules are rules' said one of the Judges.

By the middle of the second round, there were only fifteen of us standing with complete five designs. I was a nervous wreck and it was quite obvious with how sweaty my palms were.

It was finally my turn to present my work. The only thing I held onto was how nice the designs looked on my model and how well she was rocking it.

I watched patiently as she modelled her way across the runway. She knew exactly what she is doing and the judges are loving it. The crowd cheered louder and I might have gained a tiny little confidence.

We finally got down to only eight contestants with two designs each waiting to be showcased. Mr Coleman kept spying on me occasionally but there's no way in hell I would stand so low. Winning would mean a lot to me, and probably change my life. But my dignity in exchange is a no for me.

AJ is my threat so far. The girl knows what she's doing. Since last semester, she's been wild and well, she seems to be winning the nods of the judges as well. By the end of the final walk down, AJ's and my designs were projected.

I knew choosing between the both of us would be hard but I hoped for the best and silently prayed to earn an internship with them.

We both were called onto the stage a little after the final judgment. I studies AJ's face and she had a very confident smile on her face.

Mr Coleman stood to our immediate right and at the front seats amongst the audience were the judges.

"Congratulations to both designers! You two have interesting skills both brands would love to nature but there has to be only one winner here...." I took in a shaky breath as he proceeded.

"Before I declare who wins, I just want the other designer to know that it is definitely not the end of the world, you have great things ahead of you...." Let it be me! Let it be me! Let it be me! I silently chanted in my head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Going home with a cool fifteen years contract with Louis Vuitton and the official stylist of Wendy Williams for the upcoming Oscars...The winner of the contest is none other than AJ Sanchez!!!"

I wasn't hurt, It was as if I had known all along that I wasn't going to win. I expected this to happen, but deep down, I was hopeful. I shrugged off the tension and hugged her.

"You deserve this..." I whispered into her ear before I pulled away.

"Congratulations once again AJ, you are our star of the show." The head Judge spoke. I quickly exited the stage and made my way back to the conference hall. Miley was waiting for me with a disappointed look on
and we went home.

I have been talking with Maxwell though I wasn't in high spirits to go out on a date. The snow has slowly melted away and spring set right in.

In Boston, Spring usually comes later, in the middle of March and ends middle of June. Friday night was fun, Mark had stopped by for dinner. He also had good news on Liam's case.

"We finally tracked down Wendy McCain."

"Really? that's great, right? So Umm, you are gonna put her in police custody? Because you know she is pregnant and all..." I hate when I'm rambling damn!

"Oh, and about that, she had delivered a baby girl a few days after we arrested her...She also swears she knows nothing about Liam's whereabouts."

"And you believe her?"

"Obviously not, but we're still investigating with the FBI agents...trust me, I'll keep you informed."

"Thank you so much, Mark, I don't know how we would have handled all this without you."

"Everything is under control, and you're still safe so there's no need to worry about Liam hurting you...we'll find him."

Later that night, I saw Kim sneaking out. It's a habit she picked up recently. I haven't had the energy to confront her about it, but I'm watching her. It was a little after 10:00 pm, mom went to bed about an hour ago.

I peeked out of the window and realised she had gone outside to meet up with her boyfriend. The same boy she had invited home sometime back. I kept an eye on them while they kept kissing and touching each other. Typical teenagers and their horny selves.

When they were finally tired of sucking faces, they pulled away from each other. The young boy with the pretty face pulled out something like a stick and lit it up, then he started smoking.

After taking a few puffs, he offered it to Kim. I saw the hesitation in her eyes but she gave in too quickly and eventually took long drags from whatever it is they were smoking.

I watched them silently until they had smoked the entire blunt. I glanced at my phone and it read 12:30 am. After a dramatic way of saying goodbye, the boy rode his motorcycle away and Kim headed towards the house again.

Every light was turned off so she had no idea I was standing in the middle of the hallway until I called her.

"Oh, my God! April, what're doing...are you trying to give me a heart attack!!" Ignoring her exaggerated outburst, I spoke.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, I'll start work at 8:00 pm, you wanna come?" I asked completely throwing her off guard.

"April, you want me to go to BOTS with you?!"

"Yes, you've always wanted to go right?"

"I mean yeah, but..."

"Good, go to bed, you need to rest very well for tomorrow," I said as I headed upstairs.

"Okay,"

"Good night."

As I climbed back into my bed, I couldn't help but wonder. What is my sister getting herself into?

A/N
Love you guys
Peace~