Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[2.09]

ꪻwo months passed after spring break and Taryn hadn't allowed herself to dwell on the things she remembered from the night of Ri's birthday. She kept herself constantly busy and college came with natural stresses anyway that were all excellent distractors. She had not told a soul whom she had disappeared off with, just said it was some hot guy and she had wanted to get out of the club anyway. The only time Taryn would think about it, not of her own accord, was when everything was quiet in the smaller hours of the night when she couldn't sleep. The lack of sleep, stress and constant moving had developed quickly into physical symptoms like the rash across the tops of her arms and an unignorable ache in her limbs. But, wanting to just get to summer where she could be distracted by a small town charm where there was no risk of running into him, Taryn pushed through and counted down the days until she could be in her old bed again.

Taryn found herself on the brink of falling asleep as she fixed a part of her own design that the model had torn whilst putting the dress on. She tried not to be angry at her carelessness but it was rather difficult, given that she had focused on making the piece perfect for so long. C had a tradition of a second year showcase in May, wanting to give those who had managed to make it this far something to celebrate their talents. The twelve people that had been on the course at the beginning of their first year had now dwindled to seven and the third year exams were likely to cut their group down even smaller. Stresses were high but C wanted to weed out those who still weren't serious about the field and her methods were highly effective. Ri and Taryn already had bets of who would get cut, both figuring it would be the party animals who didn't focus on their work as much as others did.

As she was close to finishing the bead work at the zip of the models dress, Taryn 's processors beeped for the fourth time that day. She sighed, briefly wondering why low batteries always came at the most inconvenient times. "What was that?" the model asked, looking around for the source of the sound. "Did you hear that?"

"It's just my processor, the battery's running out," she explained dismissively, mind completely elsewhere as she tied the final knot in the piece of thread she had been working with.

"Oh," the model sighed, attention now focused on the white plastic somewhat hidden in Taryn's hair. "Weird."

"You're done," she smiled, trying to remain as professional as possible despite the wave of vexation that turned her tone slightly sour. The model took one look in the mirror then walked out of the changing room, heading to where all the other models had congested to talk over the pieces they were wearing. Models were the harshest critics out there and she had quickly learned to not listen to a word they had to say, unless it was a genuine concern about the way something was sitting on their body. There were a few rare good ones after all. Taryn walked over to her desk and rustled through her bag, pulling out book after book in search of the small container she kept her spare batteries in. She sighed in left over frustration and channeled her vexation in how furiously she searched through her bag.

Ri noticed her searching from a mile away and rushed over when she began to tip the entire contents of her bag into her near empty top desk drawer. Taryn proceeded to rummage through the drawer, binning old receipts, whilst placing things back into her bag one by one in case the box was somehow stuck to something. "Dude, what are you looking for?" Ri asked as Taryn picked up a handful of tampons and chucked them back into her bag.

"I forgot batteries again," she sighed heavily. "I keep forgetting to charge the stupid batteries at night and some model is giving me shit for having to have these stupid things attached to my head."

Aria frowned at her tone and quickly looked around for C, not wanting to run the risk of their boss catching whatever was going on with her. "I have some in my bag for you, like always."

"I hate that you have to do that, it's so stupid. I should be able to do it myself, be responsible and all that. It's not like they help me communicate or anything!" she paused as everything had been placed back into her bag as she talked. She sank down in her chair, thankful that no one was in the office as they were too focused on the show about to happen downstairs. "God, I'm so stupid-"

"Woah woah woah," Ri interrupted before she could go too deep down that rabbit hole. She took a seat atop Taryn 's desk, looking her in the eyes as she asked, "What is going on with you?"

"I don't know Ri," she shrugged, trying desperately to move away from the subject at hand. Aria gave her a look and Taryn knew that she wouldn't get out of this situation with just that. "I'm just tired I think. Haven't been able to sleep since spring break," she replied and it wasn't that much of a lie, she was just withholding why she hadn't been able to sleep. Thoughts of Jess plagued her mind and her dreams, they were inescapable.

"Come here," Ri sighed as she opened her arms to hug her. Though the positioning was awkward, the two women hugged tightly and Taryn had to fight the tears that brewed in her eyes the more she sunk into the embrace. "New perfume?" she asked softly, attempting to distract her with something that would make her think about life outside the walls of their work.

"Yeah, Dad brought it for me," she replied with a soft smile, remembering how proud he had been of himself to finally find a perfume that Taryn liked that wasn't vanilla scented.

"It's nice, I like it."

"You can borrow it whenever you want."

Aria pulled away, a grin playing on her lips, "You know I love you right?"

Taryn laughed softly and trailed it off as her processors gave the final beep and died completely. Aria, knowing that sound by now, gestured for Taryn to follow her to where she had put her bag in the main room. They traveled down the stairs and Aria used the time to try and work on her sign. Taryn commented on how it had greatly improved as they walked into the room of pre-show chaos, both of them weaving through the crowd to a quieter corner of empty hangers and vanities.

Aria smiled as she handed over a glitter covered pot with two batteries within it. Taryn detached her processors and worked quickly to change the batteries, placing the empty ones in her jacket pocket. After she had changed the first and was just placing the backs back on, she looked up and noticed a funny look on Ri's face that she hadn't ever seen before. She looked infuriated, eyes stern and mouth fixed in a line. Taryn followed where she was looking and found her throat drying at the sight before her. The models were all looking in her direction, bodies inclined towards each other as they engaged in whispers and snide looks. Ri proceeded to flip them all off, with both hands, as she yelled something with a turned head so Taryn couldn't lip read. It sounded completely garbled and distant to her and by the time she slipped both of her processors back on, the models were all red in the face, stiff and looked frightened for their lives.

"What did you say?" she whispered, gently slotting the empty pot back into Ri's bag. 

She shrugged as if she hadn't threatened the lives of about fifty people. Taryn would have never expected her to have that in her, given her usual happy and calm self and Aria wanted to keep it that way. She liked having a hidden scary side. "What they all needed to hear."