Esmeralda looked up at Lady Tremaine's modeling studio through her windshield. She tapped her newly manicured nail against the small bottle of Jack Daniels she had stored in her glove compartment from the hotel party she attended last weekend. She didn't particularly like the taste of the whiskey, but it was the only alcohol she had available to her at the moment and her nerves needed it.
Esmeralda hadn't seen Lady Tremaine or her former agent, Maleficent, since last semester when she became bulimic to fit their idea of beauty. It was a dark time for her and she still harbored resentment towards the women. She had been wanting to confront them for so long, but never had the courage. She didn't know why.
Esmeralda unscrewed the cap and took a quick swig of the whiskey. She made a face before replacing the cap and dropping the bottle in her purse. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open her car door and started across the parking lot. Lady Tremaine's Porsche was parked diagonally in a handicap parking spot while Maleficent's black BMW was parked on the other side of the parking lot, far from the other cars in the lot.
Esmeralda pulled open the side door and walked into the dimly lit studio. A petite girl around Esmeralda's age walked passed in a hurry. She was wearing a tiny pleated skirt and a bikini top that showed off her rib cage. She was talking to another model in a similar outfit about how brilliant Lady Tremaine was. Esmeralda resisted the urge to laugh out loud. A year ago, Esmeralda thought the same thing; now she knew better.
"Esmeralda, darling!" Renowned fashion designer, Cruella De Vil, breezed up to Esmeralda and air-kissed her cheek. Cruella owned the popular clothing store, De Vil's; which Esmeralda had worked at sophomore and junior year. "It's been ages since I've seen you. You look fantastic!"
"Thank you, Miss De Vil."
Cruella wrapped a cold, bony hand around Esmeralda's arm, causing Esmeralda to flinch. "Come, darling. Maleficent and Lady Tremaine will want to see you."
Esmeralda let Cruella lead her to a photoshoot in progress where the models she had seen earlier were posing on fake beach set.
Maleficent saw her first. "Esmeralda, you've returned," she stated.
This caught Lady Tremaine's attention. She lowered her camera and turned around. "I was wondering when you'd come back."
Esmeralda frowned. "I'm not-"
"You must let me represent you again," Maleficent told her. "Now that you've actually made a name for yourself, you can finally be of some use to me."
Esmeralda glared hard at her. "You will never represent me again. I made myself sick for you and I still wasn't good enough for you! But, suddenly I'm good enough because I'm famous?"
Lady Tremaine rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, Esmeralda. You're where you are because of us. No one knew who you were until you started working for us."
Esmeralda laughed in disbelief. "I got where I am because of my talent. Because of my dancing; not because I showed off my ribs in a magazine ad. I'm not a size 0, I'm not even a size 2, but guess what! It doesn't matter! I can be successful without being stick-thin." Esmeralda turned her attention to the two models who were staring at her in shock. "Not that there's anything wrong with being skinny."
Maleficent advanced towards her, signaling a nearby security guard. "Honestly, Esmeralda: who do you think you are?"
Esmeralda stepped away from her and held up her hand. "Don't worry, I'll see myself out."
Cruella called out to her as she walked passed, but Esmeralda ignored her. She stepped out of the studio, letting the door slam shut; forever blocking those women of fashion from ever bringing her down again. And that moment was totally worth ditching PE for.
XXX
"Ariel!"
Ariel kept her eyes on the sidewalk and didn't acknowledge Aurora yelling after her. Aurora's high-heeled sandals clicked nosily against the sidewalk as she ran after Ariel.
"Hey!" Aurora shoved Ariel from behind, causing Ariel to stumble forward.
Ariel caught herself before falling and turned to face Aurora. "What?" she snapped.
"How dare you! Do you have any idea what you've done to Eric?" Aurora demanded.
Ariel clenched her jaw. She was completely fed up with the way everyone was treating her. "Eric will get over it."
Aurora gaped at her former friend. "Get over it?! How cold can you be, Ariel? He's not just going to get over you murdering his baby!"
"Oh my God!" Ariel cried. "I didn't 'murder' anyone. I was only a few weeks pregnant when I had the abortion. Stop trying to make it sound like I killed the baby after it was born."
"That baby was just as much Eric's as it was yours; you had no right to do what you did. And you certainly had no right to do it without even talking to Eric about it first."
"It's my body, not his."
"It's not about your body, you selfish bitch! It's about your guys' unborn child!" Aurora cried. "Eric will never forgive you for this."
"I'm barely eighteen, Aurora! This is my life and I have every right to be selfish when it comes to how I live it. I can't have a child to take care of and raise before I even graduate high school. I'm sorry Eric is hurting, I truly am. And I hate that I lost him over this. But I was not going to throw away my entire future just to save a high school romance." Ariel took a step towards Aurora. "Everyone can hate me all they want and say whatever they want about me behind my back. And even harass me at school. I. Don't. Care. In eight months, I'll be gone and I will never see any of you again. So, if you all want to hold a grudge against me, that's your burden, not mine."
Aurora narrowed her purple eyes at Ariel. "Your burden is knowing you betrayed and destroyed the boy who loved you. You've scarred him deeper than you know, Ariel."
"And I have to live with that. But I'll take being weighed down by guilt over being tied down by a child any day." Ariel took a deep breath and sighed. "I love Eric and I know this is it for us. And it hurts and it sucks that this is how it all played out. But, I had to do this. And a year from now, it's not even going to matter. Eric will be away at college with his new girlfriend and he won't even think twice about the shy choir girl he dated briefly in high school. I did him a favor, Aurora. If I had kept the baby, he would have been obligated to marry me and raise the child with me; everything he had planned for his life would become nothing more than unfulfilled dreams of a teenager. That would lead to resentment towards me and our child when he's stuck at a job he hates but can't leave because he has to support the family he was forced into." Ariel lowered her eyes. "Believe me, Aurora: I thought about it long and hard before making the decision. I didn't act on impulse."
Aurora was quiet for a moment before saying, "You can try to justify it any way you want, but what you did was despicable and you know it. That was a decision you and Eric should have made together."
Ariel shook her head. "I don't have to defend myself to you or anyone else. It's done and it doesn't matter what anyone has to say about it. Just leave me alone, Aurora."
Ariel spun on her heel and started walking away. She anxiously held her breath and didn't let it out until she heard Aurora walking away in the opposite direction. Only then did she let herself cry.