Thanks for the reviews on the prologue, so here's the first chapter. It's a bit long with (to be honest) not a massive amount of action, I'm just trying to set up the characters at the moment so try to suffer through it for now. Oh and even though Jess and Sadie are at college in the story, the American schooling system fully confuses me because it's so different to the one I'm used to and I'm just kind of playing it by ear, so if I make any massive mistakes (or any cultural mistakes in general, even if it's just phrasing I use) feel free to tell me. Enjoy :)
Magazines, Shots and Bad Disguises
1.
It is common knowledge that three twenty-something women, living together in an apartment barely big enough to house one of the girl's shoe collections, can be at times, nothing less than complete chaos.
Sadie Foster dropped her armful of textbooks down on the couch with a well-practiced sigh as she entered the room, picking up a copy of Empire magazine from the top and waving it in the air. "Guess what?"
Her flatmates were settled at the kitchen table, Jessica Day had books spread out haphazardly in front of her, titles like How Well Do You Really Know Hamlet? and An Anthology of The Great Classics shining in gold writing on the spines.
"You've finally memorised the entire of that Anatomy textbook you've been pouring over for months?" Cece Parekh guessed, not looking up from her task of painting her nails a vibrant red.
"The professor you've been pining after for two years finally told you she was gay and that you could run away together?' Jess offered, reaching for her mug of coffee and taking a sip, grimacing when she found that it was cold.
"Even better," Sadie smiled "The guys behind Pepperwood are speaking at a convention this weekend for An Introduction to the art and technique of filmmaking. Apparently all three guys are gonna be there!'
"Pepperwood?" Cece screwed her face up "Which one was Pepperwood again?"
"I don't even see how you manage to go to so many of these events Sadie," Jess stated, standing and grabbing her coffee mug, "I barely have time for anything outside of working and studying and you're doing Medicine, your work load is twice as much as mine- Does anybody want a coffee while I'm up?"
"No I'm good" Cece murmured, putting the finishing coat on her nails. Then, she looked up, "Hey do we have any of that green tea left?"
"Pepperwood guys!" Sadie threw her hands up, letting the other girls' attention fall to the magazine in her hand. "I said it was one of the most creative films I'd seen in like five years."
She grew exasperated quickly at her friends' blank faces, "I took you guys to see it at the small cinema in West LA last year, the one with the really comfy seats."
Jess' brow furrowed, "Was that the time Cece threw up in that guy's fedora?"
"Oh shit, it was." Cece grimaced, smiling at Jess as she placed a mug of green tea on the table in front of her.
"God, I'd forgotten about that," Sadie admitted, "Why was that again, were you sick or something?"
"Try drunk," Cece laughed, "If I remember correctly Kyle had just broken up with me and I decided to console myself using a full bottle of vodka."
"Kyle," Jess huffed, shaking her head, "He was such a jerk."
"Can't say I remember much of the actual film though Sade" Cece glanced at her friend, offering her a sympathising smile. "I was otherwise engaged in throwing up my guts into people's personal possessions."
"Serves him right for wearing a fedora anyway," Sadie told her, making her way round the couch and towards the kitchen table 'Look anyway, Empire just did a huge four page interview with them, that's them on the cover, there!"
All three girls looked down at the black and white cover that featured three relatively young looking guys, two of them with fairly serious expressions on their faces, their arms crossed across their stomachs, the guy on the left however looked like he was mid-laugh, and his arms were spread out wide either side of him showing off his defined muscles.
"I recognise that guy from somewhere,' Cece acknowledged, pointing her finger to the laughing man on the cover.
"They look young." Jess commented shortly after, "You sure they did the entire movie completely by themselves? I bet their parents are in the business or something, or at least crazy rich."
"Not at all," Sadie gushed, turning the magazine to the four page spread someone near the middle, "That's one of the reasons they're so popular. It's a real rags-to-riches story, it's all here in the interview, they were just friends in college and they had this film idea and just decided it was too good to pass by. The entire film only cost about twenty-eight thousand dollars to make, which is a tiny amount for movies these days, and they put themselves into crazy amount of debt making it- the writer Nick, he's that one there," She pointed to a guy in one the pictures who was posed holding a clapper board, the corners of his mouth turned down into what wasn't exactly a frown, more like a look of disfavour, "He maxed out like two credit cards, sold a bunch of his possessions and used like his entire fund for Law school just to get the movie finished."
"That's impressive I guess," Jess relented "Irresponsible though, what if nobody had liked the movie, they'd have been screwed."
"I know where I know him from!" Cece suddenly announced, jumping to her feet and making her way across the room and into her bedroom. "I saw him in one of my magazines," she shouted through to them, emerging a few minutes later with a copy of Cosmopolitan under her arm. "They did a section this month on 'beach hunks' and-" She paused momentarily to glare at Jess, who had just snorted into her coffee, "And anyway he was one of them, look!"
The Cosmopolitan spread had given the actor a nine and half out of ten on their 'hot-o-meter', based on a photo of him strutting shirtless down Manhattan Beach with the caption 'Pepperwood's Schmidt soaks up the rays in the LA morning sun'.
"Schmidt?" Jess read over the caption, "What kind of name is Schmidt?"
"He's Jewish I think," Cece informed her friend.
"But I mean, is that his first name or his last name?" She continued, a look of censure on her face, "Why do celebrities think it's acceptable to just go by one name?"
"Worked for Madonna," Cece offered.
"And Jesus," Sadie smirked, looking over her friends shoulder at the picture once more.
"I don't care if he is Jesus," Cece grinned, "I mean, look at his body!"
Jess scrunched up her nose "His chest is so smooth and hairless though, he looks like a baby seal."
Sadie pressed her lips together; trying to keep a straight face as Cece openly gawped at Jess. "He's gorgeous!"
"He's got the body of a God," Sadie chimed in, and when given sidelong glances from both of her friends merely shrugged, "What? Just 'cos I don't wanna touch it doesn't mean I can't admire from afar, the guy's hot!"
"You're terrible," Jess said light-heartedly, shaking her head and collecting her books together, "And on that note, I'm gonna go study in my room, the level of hormones radiating from you two right now is giving me a headache and I have work tonight."
"When's your shift start?" Cece asked her as she walked away, her head now turned downwards as she flicked absently through her magazine.
"Eight," Jess told her with a quick glance over her shoulder as she headed for her room, "You gonna stop by for a drink?"
"I'm having dinner with a girl from last week's shoot called Nadia tonight," she voiced with an air of slight exasperation "She comes across as clinically insane but she's been modelling longer than me and she has contacts so I figured it wouldn't hurt. She weighs about twelve pounds though and all I saw her eat the full shoot was a carrot stick so I can't imagine I'll be at dinner long, I'll stop by afterwards."
"Okay, see you later," Jess said once more over her shoulder before she stepped into her room and closed the door to her friends.
"Insane?" Sadie said, her eyebrows rising at her friend as she joined her at the kitchen table.
"Seriously," Cece emphasised, "I'm fairly sure she was kicked out of Russia Sades, Russia!"
2.
It was almost nine when Cece dropped her bag on the bar in front of Jess, sighing dramatically. Jess gave her a sympathetic smile as a guy shouted her from the other end of the bar, walking away from her momentarily to take his order. After pouring three beers she returned to her friend, noticing her appearance for the first time since she came in.
"Hey, you look nice," she motioned to her dress, and then let her eyes sweep over her hair, which was fastened in a large, neat bun on the top of her head. "Was the place you went with that other model fancy?"
"Nadia," Cece offered, and then nodded slowly as if in pain, "And yes, it was, far more fancy than I can afford right now, and I didn't want to seem cheap, so I ordered a steak, and then I had to watch as she ordered a Caesar Salad and ate nothing but the lettuce."
Jess grimaced, not envying Cece at all for having to put up with the girls in the modelling industry. "Was the steak at least nice?" she asked her, grabbing a towel from underneath the bar and starting to clean the surface around her best friend.
Cece seemed to perk up. "It was divine," she admitted and then she let a grin spread over her face, "But enough talk of steak and crazy models, get me a whisky."
Sadie joined them ten minutes later, practically throwing her body down on a barstool and cradling her head in her hands. "Remind me," she huffed "whose idea was it for me to study Medicine again?"
"Um, yours?" Jess provided.
"When you decided you wanted to be an OB/GYN when we were like fifteen," Cece finished, and then giving her friends shoulder a squeeze she added, "Is your brain turning to mush?"
"It's not even a brain anymore; it's just a pile of crap in my head." Sadie grumped, lowering her body down so her forehead was rested on the cool surface of the bar. "And I made the mistake of ringing Lucy, who offered to help me in her own special little way."
Jess held back a smile. "And what special way would that be?"
"She sang Hannah Montana's Bone Dance down the phone to me! And now I can't study properly because I can't get the damn song out of my head!"
Cece watched as Sadie emphasised her point by banging her forehead hard on the bar and chuckled. "She's your sister, she's supposed to annoy you- it's what they're for."
Sadie simply groaned into her arms and waited a few seconds before lifting her head up just enough so that she could stare at her bartender friend with pleading eyes. "Jess, for the love of God, please get me drunk."
And that was when the first of many rounds of shots was ordered that night.
3.
"This is ridiculous; we're three normal guys, we should not have to be sneaking about and- Nick! Are you listening to me, can you please take that damn baseball cap off!"
Winston threw his hands up in the air in defeat as Nick pulled the cap down to shield his face even further.
"Yes, really Nicholas!" Schmidt chimed in, shaking his head, his face a picture of disgust, "And can you please take off that goddamn trench coat while you're at it, you're drawing more attention to us with the damn thing on- where the hell did you get it anyway its hideous!"
Nick shot him a glare from underneath his cap. "I'm in disguise you morons," he reasoned, "I'm sick of being ambushed by people, by bloody women! I wouldn't mind but most of them haven't even seen the movie, they've just read that fucking interview in Empire. I knew we shouldn't have done the damn thing."
"Oh yeah," Winston agreed sarcastically, "Because it's not like we need the money or anything."
"Or the publicity," Schmidt mocked.
"Or the girls throwing themselves at our feet."
"Yeah," Schmidt deadpanned, "If it's one thing I'm sick of its girls that wouldn't usually look twice at us, hurling themselves in our direction- it's sickening."
Winston spun around to face Nick, yanking the baseball cap off his head and motioning around him in one movement. "Look, being noticed isn't necessarily a bad thing Nick," he reasoned "And besides, we're not gonna get hassled here, it's mainly a student bar by the looks of it and I can guarantee that they're all far too busy to pay any attention to us." He gestured to a booth a couple of metres away from where they were standing, "So sit down, stop complaining and I'll get us some beers."
Nick scowled at his friends once more but his shoulders had already dropped in resolve. "Fine," he mumbled to himself as he trudged towards the booth, "But the trench coat stays on!"
When Winston returned with the beers Nick and Schmidt were not talking to each other, but rather, were busy staring at something in the corner of the room. "What the-"
"Quiet!" Nick shushed him, "Look at those girls dancing near the jukebox, they're the most wasted I've seen anybody in years!"
"The tall Indian girl just did two shots at once Winston, two shots at once!" Schmidt told him in hushed tones, his eyes never leaving the pair in the corner, "I'm not sure but I think this might be love."
Winston shook his head slightly and put the pitcher of beer and glasses down on the table a little louder the necessary, regaining the attention of his two friends. "Right," he said to them both, his eyebrows rising slightly, "Now I've got your attention again, let's talk about the TV appearances we've been asked to make, clearly we need to start picking them more carefully in order to avoid awful ones like when we did The View last month, they didn't ask us about the movie, plans for a new movie or about any of our projects whatsoever, they literally stared at Schmidt's chest and felt him up for ten minutes."
Schmidt beamed. "What can I say, the ladies love me."
The discussion quickly became more serious, and as it happened, the three were so absorbed in going through the list of public appearances they'd been asked to make that they didn't see the two girls in the background become so drunk that the Indian girl passed out in one of the nearby booths, her legs sticking clumsily out of the end, and the girl with the shoulder length mousy hair- who had been dancing wildly up until this point- suddenly hold her mouth in surprise and run off towards the bathroom.
"I say we definitely do Jimmy Fallon," Nick stated, downing the rest of his beer and standing up, "I mean come on, It's Jimmy Fallon, we have to do it," he added as he headed to the bathroom leaving his two friends behind.
When he turned the corner into the corridor where the bathrooms were however, he found his path was blocked by one of the girls they had been watching dance earlier, her body laid out across the corridor with her face in a trashcan. There was a petite girl leaning over her, rubbing circles on her back and muttering things, and Nick distinctly heard her say "I'm dying Jess, this is the end," before throwing up instantly into the can.
"Jesus," he said on instinct, and regretted it immediately as the girl not throwing up looked immediately up at him.
"Ah, sorry about this, feel free to err…" Jess looked around her and seemed to realise that they were blocking the full width of the corridor "Step over us," she finished lamely, giving Nick a slight smile. "This is just my friend Sadie; she's probably too drunk to notice anyway."
Nick heard slight mumbles from inside the trashcan but they stopped almost straight away as she began throwing up again.
"Maybe I should go get somebody who works here," he offered, motioning back to the bar.
"I work here actually," Jess said, glancing back at her friend and gathering her hair up in her hands.
"Oh, a manager then?"
Jess smiled, "No it's fine honestly, I got her into this state, I should probably be the one to take care of her." She paused to pat her friends back "And my shift ended ten minutes ago anyway, I'm just gonna wait for her to finish what she's doing here and then attempt to get her and my other friend home." She stopped talking momentarily, "You wouldn't happen to have seen her out there would you? Tall, Dark hair, black dress?"
"I think I saw her passed out in a booth on my way in here."
Jess' shoulders slumped. "Crap."
Nick furrowed his brow and unconsciously rubbed his hand across his jaw. "Wait here," he motioned to her, "I'll be two minutes,"
Ten minutes later and they were heading to a cab that was pulled up outside. Schmidt had a passed out Cece threw over his shoulder while Nick and Winston were transporting a not quite unconscious- but still not able to hold her head up- Sadie. When they were safely laid in the back seats Jess took a moment to turn to her helpers.
"Thank you for this, seriously," she said sincerely to all three of them, and then on hearing Sadie moan in the back seat she looked hurriedly back and them and spoke in a much quicker voice, "Sorry, I really am thankful but I've got to go before Sadie throws up in the cab, thanks, bye!"
She climbed into the cab, stopping and glancing at Nick before she shut the door completely with a look of confusion on her face. "You do know that's a ladies coat, right?" And without waiting for a reply she chuckled and closed the door.
Schmidt sighed as the cab drove off. "I definitely had a moment with the Indian girl."
"She was passed out Schmidt!" Winston laughed, shaking his head and turning to Nick, who still looked slightly traumatised from having to empty the trashcan full of vomit five minutes earlier.
"Well on a positive note Nick" he started, giving his best friend a knowing smile and a nudge on the shoulder. "Those three girls at least, didn't seem to have the faintest idea who we were!"