The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,15

only a single cog in the machine; there were so many other people that made all this possible.”

“Yeah, like us,” Kerynne said as she and Cai put down their water bottles and got back into position. “We’re ready, let’s go.”

About halfway through the shoot, some of the press that Arlo had called in arrived. And with them, a few of the industry’s top designers came in to see what the fuss was all about afterword had leaked about the shoot.

“Are you kidding me with this?” one of the designers said.

I knew who he was. He owned an entire building near Union Square that housed a five-story clothing boutique and was one of the most prestigious and cutting-edge designers of the time. For a moment, my heart sank. He sounded as if he were about to hurl a mouthful of insults and critique at my designs. Arlo turned around to look at him, and I just put my head down to save myself from embarrassment. I tried to mentally prepare myself to be truly saddened by a harsh jab at my concepts for the runway show. I thought that I had done such a great job on the designs, and my heart was about to be broken.

“This!” he said as he walked up closer to Cai and Kerynne, without even caring that we were in the middle of a shoot. He walked right in front of the camera and clasped his hand over his mouth, with the other hand on his hip. “This is the best stuff I have seen since—well, I can’t even remember!”

I lifted up my head in shock and watched as he walked full circles around both models.

“I am in awe, Arlo. I am in absolute and unbelievable awe. If the rest of your show is this good, you’ll take the front seat on driving this year’s fashion trends, without a doubt.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was impossible to think that this famous designer was wowed by my work. I was literally jumping up and down on the inside of my skin.

Arlo smiled. “Let me introduce you to the designer for the entire line,” he said. “This is Miss Hensley Ward.”

The man practically ran across the floor of the shoot to take my hand and clasp it between both of his, which he then held up to his chest. “You are going to be a legend,” he said with excitement. “Your work is breathtaking. Not breathtaking like a beautiful face, breathtaking like a galaxy.”

I was so excited that I could barely breathe. “Thank you,” I said as I felt the thrilled happiness beam out of me.

He wasn’t the only one to come up to me during the shoot. Reporters and industry reps, so many people I had idolized ever since I first decided to go into fashion, and then even more I had never seen nor heard from before—all of them fawned over my designs. I didn’t know what to make of all the attention, but I couldn’t have possibly been happier about how much everyone seemed to love my work. Even Cai was smiling about it and seemed to strike some more intense poses to really work the outfit as more and more people came by to rave about what they were wearing. The only person who didn’t seem so happy about it all was Kerynne. The more the shoot got interrupted with onlookers praising my designs, the more jealous she started to get. We were just about to wrap the extremely successful shoot when Kerynne decided to pull a stunt.

I could see it coming a mile away, even if no one else could. She went from being perfectly fine to looking around and making sure Arlo was going to be watching. Then she sent Cai to go fetch her some water so that he wouldn’t be right next to her, and she started to make a noise that was a cross between a whimper and a moan. As soon as Arlo turned around to see what the noise was, Kerynne pretended to pass out. I saw it happen as if it were in slow motion.

All I could see was my beautiful, delicate dress about to be ripped to shreds against the floor simply because that damn girl was jealous and wanted attention. Thankfully, Arlo saw her start to sway on her tiny feet, and he ran toward her and caught her just before she bottomed out. I wasn’t keen on the fact that