Page 2 of Liv and Ripper

I couldn’t help but be insulted. “N-No,” I stuttered out. How could she even think that? I looked down at my flat stomach. Hell, I was smaller than my twin and that was saying something. After all, Lotte basically lived off fresh air, what with her eating disorder. Seeing as I was developing a drug habit, I didn’t need to adopt my sister’s eating disorder into my life, too. Instead, I brushed off Meg’s comment.

I worked my ass off for this body. I ran, I starved myself, I did everything possible to keep it ‘photo appropriate.’ And now I was doing drugs just to keep up with the crazy deadlines.

“Perhaps an extra half hour on the treadmill tonight.” She had the nerve to say that before backing away from the shoot. I think the only reason the lecture stopped was because the photographer waved the male model in. I was going to snap one day because this world was already eating my soul.

“Liv, you getting off, sweetheart?” Dad spoke over the engine of his bike. I braced my hands on my dad’s shoulders and got off the back while he held the weight of the bike. Climbing off, my mind was now back in the present. I had to just keep my shit together. If Dad knew I was taking thedevil’s poisons, he would murder the supplier, who was also my agent.

It’s funny, rappers and song writers write about this world eating you alive, but you don’t realize it truly does till you are inside of it and sadly, it’s too late.

“I’m tracking down ya sister, keep ya nose out of trouble while I’m gone,” Dad grumbled and walked off in the direction of the clubhouse. I watched him head off on a mission, the monster of mayhem logo on his back. The twisted skull, transforming into a beast emblem he wore so proudly.

I should hate everything he stood for, but I don’t. If anything, I love him for it. I loved that he didn’t conform to society’s standards.

I felt eyes on me as I stood beside Dad’s bike. But I didn’t look around the lot; instead, I pulled my sunglasses down. My hair was pulled back and I felt slightly less exposed with my sunglasses, as my hair was normally my shield against the world.

My mind twisted back to the thoughts of how the modelling world was eating me alive. How I was losing myself. I took a sharp breath in. I just needed to focus on training for a while. I didn’t have any upcoming shoots. Perhaps I could get clean? I scoffed immediately because I knew even if I did battle the shivers, shakes, and cravings, I’d only be forced to go back onto it once my next shoot started.

Either way, I was fucked. Get Clean. Stay Dirty. Hell, that sounded like a club motto.

The banging of a door opening and slamming shut caught my attention and out ran my twin sister, Lottie.

“Well, if it isn’t my evil other half.” She wrapped her arms around me. “Geez, I’ve missed you.” Her voice was below a whisper and I didn’t realize why till I felt her emotions and aura—she was tight, extremely worked up. My gift of being able to relive tense emotions was clearly what she had missed.

I had the natural gift to tap into people’s auras and relax them. So as Lottie hugged me out of comfort, I knew I was really like a stress relief pill for her.

“I’ve missed you, too,” I said, pulling back when I felt her aura back at a suitable energy. “How have you been?” We had spoken via messages but apart from that, we hadn’t had much contact since I’ve been away.

“Dad’s on my case,” she muttered, and then glanced over her shoulder. “I have something I need to tell you, but not around this lot of eavesdroppers.” She scanned the lot—it was fair to say we had a lot of eyes on us.

“How’s the music business?” I linked my arm with hers. “Still slamming billboard records?”

“Something like that.”

Lottie was an extremely talented artist. She was a rising star, and everything she sang was incredible. While she created something magically, I just posed in pictures.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out.

“Boyfriend?” Lottie teased. “Or bed material?”

“Neither, it’s just Den. He is a model I work with,” I lied, and she didn’t buy it.

“Okay, what is going on?”

I could never tell my sister that Den was more than a model I worked with. He was my dealer and I was completely in over my head.

---