Underneath //H.S. AU

seven.

I'm awakened by Aubrey's claws digging into my shoulder as she shakes me back and forth.

"Noelle, we're going to be late!"

I push the pillow out from under me and place it over my head to muffle her voice. She quickly removes it and I open my eyes slowly. Her face is bare but still glowing and her auburn hair is pulled into a tight bun.

I ask in a raspy voice, "Why are you here?"

"I know you don't have your phone so I figured that you needed a personal wake up call," she explains.

Wait, what? I don't have my phone? Where is it? I could've sworn it was in my clutch from the previous day and I just hadn't bothered to take it out so that it couldn't distract me from my studying. Then again, I was dazed all day from my horrible hangover so I could be wrong.

Seeing that I'm still confused, she continues, "Harry called me from your phone. You left it at his place." She raises an eyebrow and I can tell that she's loving this. I grumble in frustration as I force myself to get up.

As I gander my horrific appearance in the mirror, I ask her, "Why would he call you?" It came out ruder than I had intended.

"Actually, I called you around four times to wake you up and then on the fifth call, I got an answer," She laughed at the memory and finished her story, "he was all like 'what?!' And I was like, 'you're not Noelle?' And he was like, 'no shit, she left her phone here and I had no way of contacting her.' And then just to be a bitch I said, 'and who exactly is this?' He was so pissed that he hung up on me!" She bursted into a fit of hysterics and I gaped at her, wondering how the hell this was funny.

"Aubrey how am I supposed to get it back?" I yelled, pleading for her to come to her senses and realize that I have no way of retrieving it.

"Calm down grumpy pants, I texted and told him to meet us at the shoot today. You're welcome," she taunts. I hope she knows that she is doing me no favor here. I was hoping to get it back without having to actually have contact with him. Then again, this does seem like the type of job that an assistant would take care of so maybe I shouldn't worry.

I glide over to the closet, pulling my favorite Ramones sweatshirt over my head and don't even bother brushing my hair. I'm going to be spending hours in hair and makeup anyway so I'll just leave it for now. In less than five minutes, we're out the door and on our way to Big Ben.

I would love to know whose genius idea it was to have girls posing in bikinis in front of a historic monument. Not like I was complaining since bikini shoots pay loads more than regular ones and my last tuition payment before finals was coming up. So I'm not really one to be complaining right now.

I keep my eyes shut while the stylist straightens my hair and gives me clip in bangs and actually doze off while they apply my makeup. They've done a "natural" look on me but it still took forty-five minutes to apply. When I look up, my false lashes reach the bottom of my eyebrow and my lips are twice the size. They still sting from whatever plumper they used but I'm used to it by now and it was much better than getting the lip injections that they had suggested. 

I stumble into the tent to change into the suit that they've supplied. I make the mistake of putting the clogs on first because while I'm trying to remove my sweatpants, I practically fall over onto my face. Regaining my balance, I quickly change into the crocheted sandy brown string bikini and am actually pleased with my reflection. This color looks better on me than I would have imagined.

As I walk over to Aubrey, I see that she has gotten the more extravagant ensemble, as the cups of her bikini top are decorated in rhinestones. The shade of green she's wearing really brings out the red in her hair. She looks radiant and I can tell that this is going to become her favorite shoot.