His Rotten Apple

54 ~ Mother Nature

Questions fired as soon as she walked into the room. Her head was spinning with emotional and physical exhaustion, though she made sure none of it seeped out.

She had had enough of it. The lights. The cameras. The attention. The fact that she had to explain herself to people who didn't know the first thing about her.

Maintaining a stoic face, she walked to the podium to face the press. The questions didn't stop until they saw the threateningly serious look in her eyes. The person in front of them was not a celebrity, nor a dancer, but a businesswoman.

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to launch of Reverie's Millennial Line."

One Day Before

"Are you out of your mind?!" Mrs. Jones exclaimed. "You can't just use cheap celebrity gossip for a launch... This is Reverie we're talking about. We're an exclusive, high-end brand."

"If we don't do this, Reverie's reputation will plummet. I'm just saying we should turn the tables and use it as an advantage," Zailey argued.

"I think she's right, Mrs. Jones. The tabloids are buzzing and it doesn't look like it'll die down anytime soon," Marcus said.

Mrs. Jones took a deep breath, massaging her head. "Then, if we do go through with it, what's your plan?"

"I'm meeting with Gavin in a bit. I was... Gonna break off our team," Zailey said.

"No, no, no... I'm not gonna let you ruin your career because of such lies," Mrs. Jones said.

Zailey shook her head, "Trust me. I'll be fine. It's been something I've been considering for awhile. I just couldn't find the right time."

"And you think this is the right time? You and Gavin are in the prime of your fame," Marcus said.

"Exactly why I should do it," Zailey said.

"But Zai-"

"Please, I want to do this," she assured them. "That article was my fault in the first place, and I can't let Reverie suffer because of it."

***

Cameras flashed and keyboards clicked. It was an environment Zailey was all too familiar with. But for the first time, she read from a script she had devised with words she strung together and beliefs she held dearly.

"Throughout the years, the Flora and Fauna have been real and metaphorical symbols of the world around us. They represent beauty and life in which we, as human beings in the 21st century, have come to take for granted," Zailey said. "My objective when I took on this project with Reverie was to rebuild a bridge between human nature and the nature that surrounds it."

"As a child I've always wondered why the name coined for the environment was 'Mother Nature.' Nature was so strong, captivating, and it can endure the pain that the human race inflicts upon it."

Zailey looked at the reporters' confused expressions. They had come to juice details out of her, not to listen to her talk about where fruit juice came from.

She smiled, "So, with Mother Nature's inspiration, I dedicate a fashion line to every single female identifying body of any size and shape out there. But most of all... I dedicate it to myself. When I first started dancing, I felt all of the qualities I just described. Pain was not a foreign feeling to me, and I don't believe it is to anyone else. Dancing somewhat froze that pain... It made me stronger."

"But after some time, I realized it wasn't doing that anymore. I got caught up in gossip and endorsements and media... It felt fake."

Her mind brought her back to her conversation with Connor, I chose to try to fight it. I would fake smiles, fake happiness...