Fallingforyou [H.S. au]

Chapter 8

*Claire Holt as Phoebe > in the sidebar*

Viola's POV

Whirl. Whirl. I moved my spoon around in the off brand Fruit Loops, I don't have much a appetite this morning because all I'm thinking about is hoping Noah is okay, I don't want what happened years ago to happen right now since we're in London. That would be a waste of money by coming here. I sigh loudly in exhaustion just with the thought of leaving this country less than a week of living here.

I hear footsteps come down the stairs and I immediately straighten up noticing I was slouching, waiting for a response from Noah. I see his brown hair messy in all places wearing only charcoal sweatpants, he goes to the refrigerator and starts pouring himself some orange juice. He doesn't even look at me. I keep stealing glances at him every now and then while he's sipping his juice, waiting in the tension filled air.

"Good morning." I fiddle with my spoon making a clanking noise looking up at him in hopeful eyes.

"Mornin'." He mumbles softly not meeting my eyes, reaching for the cereal box to pour himself some cereal as well.

As I part my chapped lips to speak, Noah beats me to it.

"I'm better... by the way," he utters looking around the scrubby kitchen of ours not meeting my gaze.

"Oh, that's nice." Laughing lightly at the end to limit the tension. "So, do you have anything planned today?" I say trying to start a conversation.

"I was actually thinking of buying some clothes for myself, I'm in need for them at the moment." Noah raises his hand to his mouth and grunts to clear his raspy throat.

"I'll go with you! I mean if y-you don't mind," I stutter. I'm hoping that Noah and I can spend some time together to ease the awkwardness and just hopefully get back to our normal selves.

Noah scratches his head and rubs his face like he was in deep thought.

"Uhh sure, maybe your good fashion choices can help me out," he manages to get out. The corner of my lips start to curve and he glances at me and smiles lightly as well.

~

"How about this?" Noah steps out of the dressing room posing ridiculously in his fifth outfit so far. He's wearing a dark yellow button up with grey slacks along with vans. He had to be joking, I can't control my laughter any longer and just start laugh loudly at his odd style. Noah stares at me dumbfound with my reaction as I continue to laugh in his face.

"Don't tell me you don't like this! What do you girls say these days? It's 'chic'." Noah emphasizes his voice as if he was French, I shake my head trying to control my laughter.

We were currently in Chanel trying on outfits that believed bet suit us but we soon got off board as usual. Controlling our laughter and giggles to ourselves is a task difficult to achieve. Every time we laughed loudly an elder would give us a nasty look, shake their head in disappointment, and/or say something rude under their breath. Noah didn't seem to care, so I didn't put any mind to it also.

Then Noah started pressuring me to try on some bizarre dresses because I was only watching him play dress up.

"Hurry up Vi! Its almost lunch time, just try on something at least."

Noah was right. We were here since nine in the morning and its past one o'clock and I haven't tried on a single fabric in any of the stores we've visited.

"Fine, fine, fine I'll try one of these stupid clothes. If it can hush you for a bit," I looked in the clothing racks and randomly chose a dress. I rush towards the girl's dressing room and quickly tried to put on the dress. As I noticed that it wasn't actually a dress, it's a two-piece outfit. I examined the outfit that was on my body, it was this gold old fashioned blazer and a matching skirt. I chuckled at my appearance and already imagining Noah's reaction.

I step out of the dressing room and see Noah looking through the racks of men clothes. I clear my throat to get his attention, he turns around and his eyes go huge, covering his mouth to stifle a laugh.

"You don't like it? What do you guys say these days? It's 'chic'." Mocking Noah from before.

"Oh no! I love it! Oh gosh, you look like a flight attendant for crying out loud!" Noah is bending over cluthcing his stomach laughing at me. I pretend to be offended and cross my arms over my chest looking like an angry four year old.

"Hey, don't wrinkle the blazer," I hear a deep voice that comes from behind Noah. Its a scrubby old man with circle glasses that were at the brim of his nose, he was pointing at me with a measuring ruler in his other hand. He starts to walk over to me with a concentrated look and starts straightening out the blazer, he reaches to touch my hair but I move away.

"Um, what are you doing?" I look up at the gray-haired man confused. Then I look back at Noah who simply shrugs.

The old man snorts and brings my head forward and starts teasing my hair with his fingers and a comb that I believe he got from his back pocket. I'm praying that if that's his comb...that hopefully he doesn't have lice.

"Finally this outfit looks good on someone. Mr. Pierce will be so proud!"
The man murmurs to himself, "Stay right here, I'll be right back sweetie," he walks quickly to the corner and disappears to who knows where.
Noah and I both mouth to each other, What.the.fuck.

Instantly the man comes back with a pale blonde girl, not older than 25, walks along beside him.

"Isn't she perfect, Phoebe! Pierce will finally give me a raise!" He beams.
"I don't know. I mean she does have the face, eyebrows are in these days, Gregory." I just stare at them astound with my mouth hanging almost touching the tile floors.
They seem to notice my confused and shocked face because their joyful faces eventually turned to worry. The worried duo looked at each other contemplating on what they will say.
The blonde girl, I believe her name is Phoebe, steps forward and starts rubbing her arms in aghast.

"Okay, so you most likely don't have a clue on what's going on but our boss," she points to Gregory and herself. "-Has assigned us a task to find a model to have a photo shoot in the company's name...or else. Now, Gregory and I were thinking and hoping that you would like to be that model." She rather slowly says.
Me? A model? They have to be kidding me. Why would they want me to be a model?

"Why me? I don't even have any experience in modeling!" I exclaim. Gregory steps forward towards me and rubs his gray stubble chin in frustration.

"Look, all you have to do is meet our boss and he will tell you if you're suited for the job. Simple as that."

I look taken a back. "What if I don't want to this 'photoshoot'? Hm? I'm not just going to agree with you right away."

Phoebe and Gregory both look at each other and start whispering into each other's ear. I look back at Noah and he's leaned back on a wall looking pretty amused with what's going on in front of him. They both turn around with smirks on their faces like they made a convincing plan. I stand there worried with the thought of them black mailing me badly.