Under the Stars and Stripes (Under Him)

“Really?” I ask him. “Nothing to say? You come in here and find me as happy as I’ve ever been because I’ve got a legitimate modeling job and have met a nice guy and you shit on that, and you’re telling me you have not one thing left to say?”

“Oh,” he says, “I’ve got plenty to say. That’s starting with telling you that this ‘legitimate modeling job’ of yours… is a fraud. They don’t even have their license to act as agents in Los Angeles. And even though they’re photographers, they’re also acting as agents, so they need that and don’t have it.

“This place shouldn’t even be open right now, but I’m assuming the reason that it is open is so that they can use young girls like the two of you to make enough money from advertisers who need their services to pay back all the money they earn off of you in back taxes they owe to to L.A.”

“Ohhhh, I did not see that coming,” Sarah says.

“Is that true?” I ask Simon.

He shakes his head and puts his hands on his thighs.

“Yeah, it is. But I already tried telling you all of this when we first met. Remember?”

He’s right, he had told me all of this. I pretended I knew what he was talking about so that he wouldn’t have to go into a long, boring explanation and keep talking about it. So, I had forgotten all about it.

“We’re working it out. And for the record,” Tony says, “we are not using anyone. These girls both walked out of here with $500 immediately after signing their contracts and will be paid every two weeks per project they’re assigned to.”

“No, they won’t,” my dad interjects. “Sarah can; I’m not her father. But Brittany is coming home with me.”

“If you think I’m going to let her walk away with a man who struck her, you must be a lot stupider than I thought you were when I just assumed you thought it was okay to come here to my business slamming doors and screaming at strangers,” Simon says, as he glares at my father.

He is putting on quite the defense of me and I love how bold and strong he is being.

But my dad doesn’t relent.

“The girl comes with me,” my dad says, “or I will walk back into that bullshit room you call a lobby, pick up your cheap ass Cisco phone on your IKEA catalog-reject reception desk, and dial the number to L.A.P.D. to let them know that there is an illegal modeling agency operating at this address and that it is trying to lure in young girls that they can take advantage of because they don’t know the first goddamn thing about the modeling agency.

“And as someone who has been in this industry for thirty years as opposed to two unlicensed creeps with a camera and a lot of debt, who do you think is going to walk away in cuffs?”

I can’t do this.

I can’t go back with him.

If I go back now, it’s all going to be so much worse than it was before.

Tony’s love gives me strength and courage I’ve never had before. It’s like I’m borrowing attributes he has and trying them on for size.

“I can’t do this,” I announce, to none of them in particular.

“I can’t keep living in fear of you,” I say, this time to my dad.

“Brittany, let’s go,” my father demands one last time.

“Oh, we can go, Dad,” I tell him, with tears streaming down my face. “In about thirty seconds I am going to go out the door running. And then after that, you can go–”

I scoff.

“Well you can go to hell for all I care.”

Then I just… go.

Without another word to any of them or even an idea as to where I’ll go, I leave.

But even as I’m fleeing, I know it’s for the best. Simon has been my protector, my defender, and my hero—along with Sarah and Tony, too.

But now it’s time to take matters into my own hands— or feet, I think, as my shoes continue to hit the pavement beneath them.

Chapter Ten - Simon

The sun is beginning to set and just upon noticing this, I blink in anger, thinking that I’ll never get to show Brittany what this looks like over the watery horizon through the plate glass wall in my bedroom.

We’ve been looking all over LA for her all day, but not a single one of us can find her, and no one we’ve shown pictures to using the photos I took at her test shoot have seen her either.

One old lady walking her dog near the studio even says, “What a shame. A girl that beautiful should never feel so bad that her only option is to run.”

“I didn’t mention that she ran away, ma’am,” I told her.