CH 15

Back in the supermodel house after the elimination round, the screen in the living room that had originally featured Marvin's polygamy-themed hard photos was replaced with dynamic hard photos of me. In fact, if it was a normal themed model photo, it wouldn't have looked weird on the one metre wide TV screen.

But when I was on the floor in a kneeling position in the hard photo, the whole picture was erotic. It always makes me feel uncomfortable when everyone walks in and sees me in the picture.

"Phew!" Ashton whistled and then said, to the roar of the female models, "I have to admit you're gay just by looking at this picture!"

I made an awkward face and laughed, not saying anything.

"So you'd pick Chris to share the Taylor Suite with you, right?" Nina smiled as she glanced back and forth between the hard picture on the screen and me.

Hearing her mention Chris, I subconsciously turned my head to find Chris in person, only to find that somehow he had walked to the kitchen and pulled a can of beer out of the fridge.

"If he's still up for it." I replied with a shrug and a smile. Nina turned her head and saw Chris's move as well and she giggled.

Ashton glanced at Chris and suddenly raised his hand and shouted, "If he doesn't want to remember to piggyback on me! I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with you at night at all."

The staff in charge of the shoot in the Supermodel House asked the model who won the best hard photo and the key to the Taylor Suite each time to decide in front of the camera who they would invite to share the Taylor Suite with them. So I had to stand in front of the camera and say in a loud voice, "Chris, do you want to share the Taylor Suite with me?"

Chris's hand visibly paused as the camera's lens drew into focus. He just seemed to turn around with a grin of realization and said, "You mean the Guess cloakroom? Of course!"

Ashton walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder as he whispered with a laugh, "You see that, don't you? That's how they're supposed to react when your sexuality is exposed to straight men. It looks like I've established that Chris really is straight."

I gave Chris a deep look as he turned a little uncomfortably and headed outside. I looked away from him and stopped looking at him, if he felt awkward I wouldn't push it too much. After all, the two had only known each other for less than a week, and it would be a bewildering miracle if three or four of the people here would be in touch again after the game.

I backhanded Ashton's head with the hood on his shirt and said, "You're too much of a gossip Ashton." Ashton seemed to stiffen for a moment, and I didn't care or withdraw my hand as I walked towards the hallway leading to the bedroom. I was going to pack some washing up and check into the Taylor suite tonight, it looked like I would finally have a space of my own.

Ashton trotted after me, he pulled back the hood I had jerked off and put it back on, "Oh? Who are you calling this weekend? You know the All-American supermodel has time to talk to her family every Sunday, right?"

Ashton had switched sides since yesterday when he found out I was of a male sexual orientation; instead of just hanging out with Nina and the girls, he was mostly pestering me to talk. Chris was indeed much quieter in comparison. Maybe the subject of my sexuality did affect him.

I stepped out of range of the camera before I said, "We have five minutes each for a total of one hour of talk time. You remember to think of a point to make, and I'll be talking to a friend."

Ashton's instant fire of gossip burned as he excitedly followed me into the bedroom and watched me bend down to gather up the clothes and books I would be using for the evening. "A friend, what friend? Your boyfriend?! What's his name and how long have you been together?"

I said, rubbing my brow as I got a headache from Ashton's noise, "Not a boyfriend, just a regular friend. A co-worker I met in the dance company after I got out of the nursing home, Mike."

"Whoa, what colleague needs to call back specifically at this time of night?" Ashton was incredibly excited as he persistently continued to press the issue, "Wait, one of your dance troupes means he's a dancer too? He must be in great shape! Tell me about it, I'll keep my mouth shut this time!"

I straightened up clutching my pyjama bath towel and half-read book and spoke helplessly to satisfy Ashton's curiosity, "Not a special friend, just the only person I've known in the last two years who counts as a friend and there's no one else to beat."

With that said I turned towards the bedroom door, ready to settle my things in the Taylor suite first and take a look at Guess's wardrobe in the meantime.

"Haha, does he have a girlfriend then?" Ashton followed me relentlessly.

"Nope." I walked to the door and twisted it open.

"Then he definitely has a crush on you!" Ashton concluded cheerfully, "Another one of your colleagues, hasn't had a steady girlfriend in two years, knows your sexuality and hangs out with you all day."

"Okay, okay, he's my boyfriend, okay?" I said as I twisted open the bedroom door and turned to Ashton, "So are you still going to go to the Taylor Suite for your eye candy or not?" Ashton was the simpler thinker, you don't have to calculate too much when talking to someone like that, but sometimes it can cause unexpected problems.

Ashton was nodding cheerfully when he heard the front, then for some reason his expression froze.

"You've got a boyfriend?"

I turned my head to look out the bedroom door where Chris was standing in the doorway with a couple of cans of beer at some point.

"Startled me, Chris." I looked at the neck of his neck which had turned red, it seemed like he'd had a lot to drink in just a moment, "That was bullshit for Ashton. Why are you drinking so much? We were just about to go for a look around the Guess wardrobe, do you want to come along?"

"...No, I'll talk tomorrow." He was silent for a moment before answering, and he shifted to head for the bedroom.

I sidled up to let him walk past, giving Ashton a look to signal the two men to walk out as I covered the door.

Ashton followed close behind me towards the Taylor suite, "It's weird to say why Chris is always jealous of you when he's obviously straight. It's so funny."

I didn't respond to Ashton's words.

Early Sunday morning I got up early as usual and prepared to make breakfast for a couple of people for Chris, Ashton and Nina. To my surprise, however, Chris was shoveling freshly made omelettes out of the skillet when I arrived in the kitchen.

"You're up early today." I rubbed my eyes and walked towards him, looking at the breakfast for two on my plate.

Chris gave me a look, looked down at the frying pan and said, "Good morning, I slept a little early yesterday so I happened to be up earlier than you today. So I made breakfast." With that he handed me the plate with two fried eggs and a couple of small sausages.

I took the plate and surveyed the dark circles and scruff under his eyes, still not nailing the fact that he probably hadn't slept at all last night.

I couldn't exactly analyse Chris's state of mind today; he hid it so well that while it was easy to see his unnaturalness, it was hard to draw the right conclusions. In the end I decided to ignore it.

I put my dinner plate on the table, walked to the fridge and took out the milk, casually grabbing two glasses washed on the stove top and pouring one for each of us.

"They don't usually get up for half an hour, so after you eat you can go and wash up and then I'll show you the Guess wardrobe in the Taylor suite?" I said in a questioning tone.

Chris put the skillet in the sink, walked over to the table and sat down and said, "Okay. By the way, the call time later...I don't have anyone I have to call, you can use my call time to call your boyfriend if you need to...speaking of which, what's your boyfriend's name?"

I took a bite from a sausage with my fork and smiled at Chris's uncomfortable look, "Didn't I tell you yesterday that the boyfriend thing was a casual perfunctory remark I made to Ashton. Mike is a colleague of mine from the George Robles Dance Company."

Chris nodded, but the look on his face showed he didn't believe it as he returned, "Well...you can call Mike on my airtime, I don't really need to."

I gave him a look, lowered my head and took a bite of my omelette and stopped explaining.

It seemed to me that Chris was starting to struggle with his perception of his sexuality, which was not a good sign for me because I hated trouble. If I accidentally bent Chris, it would be a problem for me.

It was finally time for the weekly call after 11am.

As I had won the Taylor Suite, I was scheduled to be the first caller. The America's Next Top Model working group had taken special pleasure in building a special red phone booth in the Supermodel House, which when you sit in it is completely cut off from the sound inside and out, ensuring complete privacy, but there is a camera in the booth.

I sat in the booth and closed the door, and with a wave of Chris' hand dialed Mike's mobile number, which I had memorised at some point. After a few beeps, the other end quickly picked up the phone.

"Hello, this is Mike."

"Mike," I smiled at the sound of Mike's rarely businesslike voice, "Guess who's on the phone with you again?"

"Brian?" Mike seemed to put something down on his end and walked away into relative silence. "Have you finally been allowed to call. How does it feel to be living in the legendary supermodel house?"

"How's the supermodel house for the first question, don't you think it's too heartless?" I chatted to Mike as usual about the unconventional. "As per your interest, the supermodel house is full of female models walking around in bathrobes after their showers, you should sign up yourself if you want to have a good time."

"I looked at those hard photos you took on the official website, haha the last one fits your jazz dance style so well." Mike didn't respond to my words, instead he seemed to be in a good mood and joked.

"Thanks to you, that last one won best hard photo. What's annoying is that that hard photo is going to be lit up on the big screen in the living room all day."

Mike laughed loudly on the other end of the line, "Do you get a lot of sneaky photos and videos at fight shows on a regular basis? What are you so embarrassed about."

"You're rehearsing? Who's replaced our original partner's opening act now?" Again, I didn't pick up on this and instead brought up something that the two had in common.

"There's a new kid on the block, and the style-wise it overlaps right with your old clientele. It's just a bit duller than you, and I've been bringing him up to speed on our choreography lately." Mike replied.

I smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if he's a bit dodgy, it's the ones who don't save the day. Don't you hate co-workers who don't do clean business? It's more to your liking."

"Well, I'm afraid that if you're too nerdy, you'll be easily fooled." Mike didn't sound happy with the newcomer.

......

When I walked out of the phone booth I realized that Chris was still standing in the same place, waiting for me with a glass of milk in his hand. He looked quizzically at me walking towards him and said, "I don't think it's been five minutes yet, why did you hang up so fast? I gave you my airtime too, you could have kept calling."

I looked up at him for a moment and approached him to take the nearly finished glass of milk from his hand, Chris reflexively took a step back. I laughed and said, "I never call for more than three minutes because there's nothing special I need to say. Why don't you go and call some random friend, you can ask them to canvass for you, social media votes can make all the difference."

Chris seemed taken aback by his own reaction and lowered his head, not daring to meet my eyes. "Go on." I patted him on the shoulder and pointed to the phone booth. "I'll go ahead and tell them they can come over to the phone line."

Sunday day, clear time always passes quickly without people realizing it, and week two of America's Next Top Model comes around.

Monday of the second week, the challenge.

The bus took everyone to a show, a runway show put on by Nylon magazine. However, this time the catwalk show was a bit special, the platform was two giant old record discs that kept spinning. The models had to perform perfect catwalk steps on these two circular platforms that spun at the speed of a treadmill.

The challenge was hosted by Jonathan, who matched each model's outfit to her personality. The editor-in-chief of Nylon magazine will also be there to watch.

For a model's career, winning the editor-in-chief of a magazine can mean more work in the future, and even more work in magazine photo shoots, which can help raise awareness.

There is a very simple trick to getting a decent model's stride on a show like this. Your steps need to be equal to the speed at which the turntable is turning so that you can walk steadily and look comfortable on the turntable.

Those who ended up shining in this challenge, apart from me and Chris who I had been reminded of the technique beforehand, were Alice who was a total professional and Rena who had a particular swagger.

Dan, who was solid, and Nina, who was bouncy and quirky, were close behind.

Mark hadn't modelled before, which didn't give him an advantage in terms of stage presence. He got the same comments as several of the other female models. Jamie and Mike had the same reason, but their lack of confidence in their steps led to a wince on the catwalk and they ended up being named and shamed.

That was it, Jonathan's preference for Mike still didn't go down and he taught him round after round in the lounge how to walk the stage. There wasn't even much regard for me as a result, which was somewhat of a relief to me.

As long as I didn't usually have nothing to do with hanging around Jonathan, he shouldn't be betting much attention on me outside of the hard photo shoot. After all, Brian's usual harmless schoolboy look wasn't really Jonathan's cup of tea. What Jonathan did wasn't exactly office sexual harassment, but his slimy attitude and forceful, intimate gestures left me indifferent.

The final winner of the challenge was Alice, who had completely specialised in tableaux.

After the challenge, back at the Supermodel House, the challenge scores of all the models were once again displayed on the big screen in the living room. Thank goodness my sexually suggestive hard photo was replaced.

Alice's tableau was impeccable and received a perfect ten. Me, Chris and Rena scored nine. Dan, Nina and Marvin scored a medium to high eight. Ashton, Gianna and Conani scored an unimpressive seven. The surprise was that Alyssa only scored six points, as did Mike and Jamie.

After the day's challenge, no one was as relaxed as they had been on Sunday, knowing that tomorrow would be another hard photo shoot.