Luxana Does the Cat-walk

By SuperCat

“Oh, I do so like going home.”
Luxana looked out the window of the Gulfstream as it flew over Las Vegas, her once home.
She habitually picked where Roger’s penthouse suite would be. Even from 30,000 feet she knew, exactly. She momentarily wondered what Monique was doing tonight. Then she smiled and shook her head.
Luxana was on her way back to New York, her once and current home.
She had spent the past week at Inferwebz west coast headquarters in Santa Cruz, overseeing one of their higher profile software development projects as it was about to get to the release state. The days had been long, but rewarding, and she was tired, but very pleased.
She very much liked the idea of sleeping in her own bed tonight, and even more so the idea of sleeping in Rogers bed tomorrow night.
And then in three days they would be flying to Europe.
Her once home.
“Oh, it will be special to see my birthplace and my family. I will make a triumphant return. So many, they laughed at me when I left to come to America.
“Luxana, you will be returning in six months.”
“Luxana, you are being silly and flighty, America is a land of phony dreams!”
“Luxana, you will never make it as a model!”
Well, the last one was true enough.
But she HAD made it in America. In ways nobody could ever have expected, and more than she ever even dreamed of.
And in six months, she would be Luxana Conrad.
As the lights of Vegas faded behind the jet, Luxana remembered the first time she had flown on a private jet, when Roger had brought her back to New York from Vegas after they had fallen in love.
It was a triumphant return.
Luxana had left Manhattan on a filthy bus with one small suitcase in her hand.
Her career was in a shambles. She had barely enough money to make her way west and nothing more than a name and a phone number to call when she got to Las Vegas.
It was the closest Luxana had ever come to losing her general cheerful optimism.
And it was all because of Mallory Belladonna.
Well, no, Luxana considered in retrospect, it was as much her own fault as anybodies. She should have known better. Even at twenty years old, she should have known better.
But the bitch. She asked for it.
And Luxana certainly couldn’t say things hadn’t turned out just fine for her this way.

“MORE MORE MORE, HOW DO YOU LIKE IT…”
She had been rushing across 9th Avenue westward down 44th Street when she got the call, heading home to the tiny apartment she shared with two other aspiring models in the Hells Kitchen area of New York. They had been thrown together by the agency that had recruited the three of them from various casting calls worldwide over the five months previous. Luxana had actually auditioned in Prague, the first time she had ever left the small steppe town where she grew up.
They were a diverse group: Aleeyah Howard was an eighteen year old six foot two, rail thin, very dark skinned black woman with stunning facial bone structure. She gave off the aura of a Nubian queen, but in fact she was from Jackson, Mississippi.
She was a sweet, caring girl, at 18 already the mama figure to her roomates. She didn’t curse or smoke, would have a glass of wine about once a month, and she prayed to the Lord Jesus every night before bed. She also liked to talk, a lot, and Aleeyah talked a mile a minute.
And she was the best model Luxana had ever seen. The young Ukrainian girl was blown away by the way the black girl walked and posed, her natural flow of movement, her easy grasp of savagery and her usage of angles. Luxana knew talent when she saw it, and Aleeyah was the kind of person who could go far in the world.
Aleeyah and Luxana had become fast friends; Aleeyah’s nonstop chatter making a wonderful foil for the shy girl from the rural Ukraine who was still working hard on her English, a language she had made a point of learning just so she could be an international model. They would spend many days together working on various facets of their burgeoning careers: walking, posing, smiling. Or they would go over to the park and have lunch at one of the small places that dotted the streets of Manhattan.
Luxana spent days with Aleeyah, but when the sun went down is when Rita awoke, and then it was party time.
Rita O’Leary was the native New Yorker out of the three, straight over from Brooklyn. She was also twenty, was six foot tall, skinny and had an angelic face framed by long straight bright red hair. Her skin was even lighter than Luxana’s pale eastern European tone. She had that alternative, heroin chic, edgy, look that high fashion advertisers coveted.
In fact, out of the three of them, Luxana was the only one who did not have a look for high fashion/couture. She had curves, a very, very nice set of breasts, and her face tended to play more towards pretty than pretty/ugly. She had been advised that she was just a “pretty girl” and her future would be best served in the commercial industry. But she also knew the camera loved her, in a way it loved few other women, and Luxana dearly wanted to try her best to be at the top of the one thing she had ever truly wanted to do.
She knew she could make it. If anybody could prove the doubters wrong, Luxana knew it was her.
Often, as Aleeyah was settling down to read before bed at nine PM, Rita would be getting ready to take Luxana out for a night on the town.
They had had two places to drink in the small town where she had grown up. The only time Luxana had even seen a dance club was when she snuck out in Prague the night after the won the contract that brought her to New York. Cocaine was just the stuff of movies.
Going out three times a week with Rita was one hell of a crash course into the New York life. Luxana could handle her alcohol, but Rita had a truly heroic intake. Together, the stunning blue/grey eyed brunette and the fiery redhead were a formidable pair. The fact that they were both underage was inconsequential. No club was going to refuse them. Rita had been modeling in New York since she was 16; she knew a lot of people.
Luxana had had a lot of firsts during those months. She smiled as she remembered some: like the time she was seduced by a pretty blonde girl in the back of a rave in a warehouse in Jersey City, or the feeling of unlimited energy she felt after the first time she had risen up from inhaling a long line of cocaine. But there was also when she had done ketamine for the first time and had nodded out, only to be awoken, frightened and confused, on a couch as an Asian guy she had never seen before was pawing at her panties. The tiny shorts she had been wearing that night were nowhere to be found.
And there were also the fights. The redhead could get quite aggressive when she was drunk, and the native Brooklynite didn’t take shit from anybody. Many times a burly bouncer would be leading the redhead and the brunette from the club and out into the Manhattan night because Rita had clocked some bimbo upside her, usually blonde, head.
Luxana loved Rita and going out with the redhead was one of the highlights of her week, but the brunette beauty knew she could not keep up the pace the redhead set, and even trying would probably ruin her career, and since Luxana had nothing to fall back on and was halfway across the world from home, she could not let that happen.
She knew how very, very lucky she had been to win that contract in Prague; a nineteen year old from a town in the Ukraine not even worthy of a rail station in her very first tryout? But she had blown them all away. She was the conclusive winner and was booked into a “model house” in New York as soon as they could ship her over there. She had been assigned various coaches and trainers, and given a tough talking Jewish lady named Fran Rosenberg as her agent.
Many girls would have been nervous, or changed inside, but Luxana just rolled with it. She found everything to be a depthless fountain of life for her to swim in to her heart’s content. Her enthusiasm, bright curiosity, intelligence, and wit gave her an upbeat charm that helped her make it through the tough transition to the fast paced insanity of New York life.
Alas, none of those qualities were priorities in the modeling world, and although Luxana made many calls, had tried on many clothes, and had walked back and forth a million times, work wasn’t nearly as forthcoming for her, or any of the girls, as they wanted it to be.
But Luxana knew in her heart that she would make it big, all she needed was to keep trying, and she’d get that one big break…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```
“MORE MORE MORE…”
She stopped on the northwestern corner of 9th and 44th.
“Hello, this is Luxana.”
“Luxana Baby, I got something for you. Do you have a minute?”
Fran’s voiced was sandblasted by two packs of Virginia Slims a day. She sounded like she had a perpetual ball of phlegm in the back of her throat.
But her voice was sweet angel harps and bluebirds to Luxana, who hadn’t worked in two weeks and was not far away from eating nothing but peanut butter and jelly and Top Ramen.
“For you, I will always have the minute. You have working for me I hope please?” as usual you could hear the smile in her cheerful voice.
“Yes dear, I have a job for you. Now listen, this may be a big break for you, so I want you to pay attention. I had to talk my client into this because this shoot and walk is a bit more high fashion than you would normally book, but I think their line is going to look amazing you on you and I want you to prove me right dear.”
Luxana smiled as the wind rushed down between the tall buildings, brushing the light brown hair away from her face. She turned away from the wind and walked next to the building on the corner to shield herself so she could hear properly.
“I promise to you I will do proud Fran, so, what is this?”
“Ok, I need you to be at this building at 7AM tomorrow” and she rattled off an address over on 6th Avenue in the garment district. “Don’t worry, I’ll send you an email with the details too. Your client is Raymond Felcher. I know you’ve heard of him, he’s one of the hottest designers out there right now. You will be doing a runway walk at 9 for his new collection, and you will be doing a photo shoot with Clint Carson in the afternoon and another girl. Mallory Belladonna. I know you’ve heard of her.
Luxana, I cannot stress to you how important this is. These are the big leagues here. These people can make or break your career babe, and I want you to go in there and knock them out like I know only you can! If you show them that you can handle fashion like this with your body type, the sky is the limit for you Luxana.
Now, I want you to go home and practice Luxana, practice your runway, practice your posing. Get a good night’s rest and eat right. Call me when you get out of your shoot ok?”
“Yes, ok, I will do well for you! Thank you so much for this, for thinking of me for this!”
“It’s no problem Luxana; I know you’ll do just fine. Now go get them tiger!”
The phone clicked off in her hand.
Luxana started jumping up and down on the corner, clapping her hands and squealing with delight. She was sure she looked like a crazy person, but that was one of the things she loved about New York. Nobody paid crazy people any mind.
She all but ran down 44th street to her fourth floor walkup.
Aleeyah was awake and watching Oprah when Luxana burst in the door.
“I have job tomorrow! I have job! Oh what a wonderful news! I have job!”
“Well, I’ll be! That’s just wonderful Luxanna! I’m so glad for you!” The tall black girl got up quickly, ran over and gave her beautiful roommate a big hug.
“So what’s the job Luxana? You gotta tell me all about it!”
Luxana told her the details she could remember.
They screamed like teenagers and jumped up and down, hugging each other.
“Girl, this is gonna be so big for you! Luxana, girl you gotta go out there and you need to kill it girl, just kill it! Working with those names in your portfolio, and if they think well of you ummm umm, girl your ticket could be punched. I always knew you could do it Luxana, you’re so pretty and you deserve to make it in this business! Oh dear Lord I hope I can get the same luck next, we can all make it out of here I know we can yes, I know we ca...”
“Wait. Did you say “Mallory Belladonna”?”
It was Rita, still shaking the sleep out of her eyes. She leaned in the doorway to the bedroom she shared with Luxana. They gave Aleeyah the solo bedroom because the black girl liked to go to bed far earlier.
“Yes Rita, yes, I believe she did you know.” Aleeyah cut Luxana off. “She’s a big name, but I bet Luxana here could outshine her, you bet you could dear, I know it, and if you can do that to a well known model, girl, you’ll be getting bookings in no time!”
The red haired girl half stumbled across the living room and flicked a cigarette from her pack of Newports. She opened a window, lit up and inhaled. She was the only regular smoker out of the three, Luxana would indulge in one of two if she was drinking or the rare occasions where she’d be doing a couple lines, but Rita tried to respect her roommate’s wishes. Her roomies were some of the only people Rita did in fact show some respect to. The tough talking party girl was actually a big believer in sisterhood.
She exhaled out the window into the late afternoon sky. “Be careful Luxurious. I’ve heard from a lot of girls Mallory Belladonna is one top flight premium fucking cunt.”
“What are you meaning by “cunt” Rita”? Luxana cocked her head in that puzzled way. “What should I be knowing about this?”
“I’ve known girls that have worked with her, girls I trust not to make shit up and be dumb. And even in New York, word gets around fast. Mallory is one hell of a good model. That’s for damn fuckin sure, she doesn’t get on the perfume ad on side of a bus or on Italian Vogue for no reason, but she’s one mean diva bitch to girls she works with. She’s always sweet as sugar to clients and the…*derisive snort*men…who run the industry, so the bitch has got friends everywhere. But the other girls out there like us, well, let’s just say she isn’t gonna win any popularity contests. Maybe she’s like it because she’s bulimic or anorexic like they say; chicks who do that to themselves got fucking issues. And apparently she likes to party with the nose candy a LOT, and I know I can be a bitch if I’m kickin on that shit myself.
In fact my little Euro-honey, I fucking just bet you got this gig because somebody canceled out or refused the book. Even for a high profile gig like this, some of us just don’t feel like putting up with the fuckin bullshit from that cunt.”
“Girl, I wish you’d watch your language, you know the Lord Jesus be listenin!” Aleeyah said.
“It’s all good A-Train. You know God loves even stone cold sinners like me anyway, right?”
“It’s not for me to forgive girl, but you corruptin this little thing here” Aleeyah shook her head and laughed, nudging Luxana.
“Oh I know...ah…cunts. We have them in Ukraine too. Believe me, we have them in Ukraine. So what is this meaning Rita? Do I need to be…worried about this? I just want to do good job, this could be big break for me. I do not need this bitch making it difficult.”
“Yeah, Luxurious: Be on your guard. Don’t let her trip you on the catwalk, watch what she does at the photoshoot, and don’t let her make you lose your temper. If she fucks with you girl, you tell me and we’ll deal with it the old fashioned way, behind the club.
I guess this means you won’t be coming out with me tonight then, does it”
Luxana laughed. “No my dear sweet ruby friend. But if you want to stay in until I go to bed and help give me critique with Aleeyah so I can do well, I would be very happy.
If I make it from this, I will make sure I will try to help you all out, I love you both so much!”
Rita stubbed her smoke out on the ashtray on the fire escape. She sighed theatrically and then smiled.
“For you, my Ukrainian friend, yeah.”
“Let’s order out some Chinese and make a night out of it, get some popcorn, maybe get a bottle of wine, you know I’d even consider having a glass myself for you Luxana.”
“You two, you are both so sweet! Yes, let us be models for a while tonight! And I will go be model for all of us tomorrow!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day was grey and chilly as Luxana hustled into the glass tower.
Twenty stories. In Manhattan, just a flyspeck. In her home, it would tower over anything within hundreds of miles.
God, she loved this city. She loved New York, she loved America, and Luxana loved life.
First, some quick passes on the catwalk. She was feeling slightly wanky from the night before, as one bottle had turned to four in short order, they had had a wonderful time, even Rita had stayed in for the night. But being wanky was no problem. She was Ukrainian, she could handle her liquor.
She was early, and found Mr. Felcher engaged with a couple other early arrivals. She introduced herself and he seemed pleased to see her. “Darling, you look just STUNNING, just STUNNNN-NING! I hope to God you can walk as good as you look. OK MY DARLINGS, LETS GET YOU BACK TO HAIR AND MAKEUP, WE’LL GET THE OTHERS BACK AS THEY COME, CHOP CHOP NOW!”
Luxana found herself whisked away and a team of stylists of all sorts went to work on her. Teasing her hair, painting her in all sorts of things Luxana (who only very rarely wore makeup, not even the stuff the animal lover knew wasn’t tested) would never have imagined using in real life.
The flurry and flutter of the attention always reminded her of the hens and roosters in the back of her family’s land back home. She smiled inside, not wanting to disturb them.
She was the new girl there, and they fussed over her constantly; they loved having a new face around.
“mmm…mmm…mmm! Girl, look at those baby blue eyes, girl, you gonna suck the soul out some people with those things!”
“Oh look at this one!” the stylist leaned in close and whispered “it is nice to see a woman who looks like a real woman in here, you go girl!”
“I know, I know, she is so beau-ti-fulllllllllllll”
Luxana loved the attention. It was nice to be attended to. It wasn’t something that was done to her in real life.
She listened to the other girls. Everybody was here now; there were five girls total walking and two serving as backups. The room flew with the usual chat and silliness of people who really didn’t have much going on except for ego upstairs.
Luxana had found it difficult to find models with whom to discuss Dostoyevsky.
When she was made up, she walked over to where the other girls were standing around chatting. They all made small talk it was peasant. They were waiting on one more person as Mallory Belladonna, who up until now Luxana had made no point of even noticing, walked up to the group.

She was about 5’11” and almost grotesquely thin. She had the high fashion body style taken to the extreme. Her breasts nothing more than token nubs on her chest, her ribs were pronounced and her stomach concave. She had dyed blonde hair that was also dyed black at the roots and shot through in a few streaks. She had the dead, haunted eyes and slack facial features of somebody who made a living being a blank canvas for others.
Luxana understood how that made her a GREAT model. But it still frankly kinda gave her the creeps.
The brunette offered her hand and said it was a pleasure to meet her.
Mallory completely ignored her hand and just chuckled derisively at the Ukrainian woman.
“Yeah, so anyway. I’m so ready for this to be over. I got shit to fuckin do tonight.”
They chatted for a few more moments, and it was brought up Luxana was at her first big shoot.
Mallory rolled her eyes and said “Well, you had better not fuck up MY runway, or I’ll make sure it’s your last show in this town bitch.”
The other girls laughed and one went “ooo”.
Luxana replied “Oh, I will be just fine. I will be upstage from you most of the day anyway, I imagine.” And she raised her head imperiously at Mallory. She had decided backing down to this woman wasn’t an option, and she was going to give as she got.
The other girls laughed louder.
“Daaaamn!”
Mallory’s blue, contact enhanced, eyes flared with anger. Her mouth went to a thin, line. She went to respond but the last girl was coming up and Felcher was with her.
“OK GIRLS, OK, LETS GO GET YOU INTO DRESSES!”
“I’ll go find Noah Mr. Felcher.”
“Thanks Mallory, you’re so sweet babydoll! OK GIRLS, FOLLOW MISS BELLADONNA, LET’S GOOO!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And so began and so went Luxana’s morning on the catwalk. Fortunately, she found she could get into her rhythm and isolate herself from Mallory’s nasty jabs about her face, shape, walk, and posing. Every time the bitch noticed Luxana away from Felcher, Noah Johnson, the fashion show director, or any of the other main players, she would sidle past and dig in a little.
“Gee, that dress does NOT flatter your…heh…shape.”
“You’ll need to wear some more accessories to take the focus off your face.”
“I know it’s a catwalk, but we don’t need to smell your pussy.”
“Your walk fucking sucks slut. Just go home.”
The brunette beauty just tried to let it all roll off her back. She was having a damn fine morning on the catwalk actually. She knew she wore the clothes VERY well, and she was just NAILING her walk and her turn. Not even Mallory Belladonna and all her bullshit could bring her down.
On her fourth look as she was walking up to the runway, it was Mallory who was coming in from the walk. Luxana inwardly braced herself for another verbal taunt, and was unpleasantly surprised as Mallory deftly hooked the heel of her left shoe in front of Luxana’s own heel.
Luxana fell forward, overbalanced on her right leg, and went sprawling on the catwalk.
Her face went crimson in embarrassment and…rage? Yes, rage. She didn’t get pissed off much, but Luxana was honestly irate. “That bitch! She try to end my career!” But she knew she had to keep it as cool as she could to possibly salvage the show for herself.
Luxana composed herself and made it down the runway and back as best she could.
She had to seriously restrain herself from immediately going after Mallory backstage. She gritted her teeth, smiled, and got into her next design. Luxana wasn’t quite the same after that; she just could not get fully back into her groove. She still wasn’t the worst ever, but she knew she could do better, and that hurt knowing how much this show meant to her.
And then on the last design, she knew she had to come out and give her best so she could end her morning on a good note, she hit the top of the catwalk to see Mallory coming back on her last pass. The bitch had been quiet the last two times, and this made Luxana more nervous than anything. She was staring Luxana straight in the eyes.
Malice gleamed in her features.
She twitched towards the brunette as they crossed. Nothing anybody could even see, but Luxana felt it, and shied.
She was ashamed of herself at that moment.
But it got worse when after they passed, Mallory snuck a ninja-quick and boney-sharp elbow into Luxana’s kidney. The brunette stumbled and almost went to a knee. She knew that to everybody looking, it would have totally looked like she just stumbled.
It was terrible. One miscue could be overlooked, but two terrible passes and a model wouldn’t be invited back and their name would be a joke in the close knit community.
She managed to make it back without any further incident, but she descended the catwalk stairs feeling like a failure.
Noah met her at the bottom, gave her a quick hug and told her “It’s ok babydoll, it was your first show, you had some good passes.
Raymond Felcher pulled her aside and said “Look, it is ok, it happens. You had a bad runway, you just need to put it behind you, ok? We have a big photo shoot this afternoon and I need you to be focused, are you allright?”
Luxana smiled and nodded and said “Yes, I am fine, I apologize so much, I do not know what happened to me. I am better than that, I promise you.”
He gave her a stern look, then patted her on the back and was away.
Luxana went and got changed out of her last look. She had to be alone right now. She didn’t know if she was going to laugh, cry or scream in anger, but she had to be alone.
She found a more or less empty room on the floor their dressing room was on, nothing but a table and a couple racks of random clothing. She sank down against the wall and tried to hold back the tears.
She was unsuccessful, but only for a minute. The great huge gasping sobs were a luxury she couldn’t afford and she knew it. She wiped her eyes and just sat there; taking deep breaths and pulling herself back together again.
It was both a good and bad thing that she had the photo shoot left to go. Bad because she was so keyed up and her confidence had taken such a hit, but good because she realized that if she could get it back together, she could salvage her career.
All she had to do was make it through a photoshoot with a supermodel who hated her and was out to ruin her life.
“It piece of cake, yes?” she thought, and she laughed.
She sighed and stood up. “I think this one of those times where I am needing a cigarette.”
The fresh air and the cig helped her clear her head, and when she got back upstairs for makeup and styling for her photoshoot, she felt like herself again.
“This bitch, I do not know what her problem is, but I can be better than she is. I am Luxana, and I did not make it to America to lose!”

“Jesus, you don’t know when to quit do you? Look Ogla, Helga, Slutlana *sniff*whatever the fuck you name is, you had better not ruin my photoshoot like you did the runway.”
It gagged her to no end to do it, but Luxana had to choke back her urge to punch this bitch in the face and put on her smile.
“I am sorry Miss Belladonna, truly I am, I think one of the girls who went before me, she was…unclean, and it made me slip. I do not make excuses though, and I will do better, I promise.”
Mallory glared at her, like she didn’t quite know what to make of that response.
“Oh my, she has done lots of cocaine during lunch break. It is obvious. Oh Luxana, be careful.” She thought to herself.
“Yeah well, whatever you fat foreign cow, remember who the star is here *sniffle* and remember, I *sniffle* don’t like you, so you better *sniffle* kiss my beautiful ass, you skankbeast.”
“I don’t know what I did to offend you Miss Belladonna, but I will make a good photo with…”
“Shut up bitch. I don’t wanna *sniffle* hear your dumb accent anymore. Bad enough *sniffle* I have to look at your face. Now get out of my way, I need to get my makeup on.”
“Oh, this is just being the greatest. Why this have to happen to me? This supposed to be my big break. Now I will be ruined.”
The shoot was with Clint Carson, a HUGE name in fashion photography. Luxana thought he looked like a cross between Tom Wolfe and a pimp from a 70’s movie, all decked out in white, but with outlandish flares, straight down to the huge white feather sticking out from his pimp hat.
He greeted Mallory like an old family member.
“OH HEY THWEETIE! MITHED YOU! You know you’re ALWAYS my favorite…woman…to thoot.”
They laughed. Mallory whispered something in his ear and they both glanced at Luxana and giggled.
The brunette felt the heat rise to her face.
“OK GIRLS, OK GIRLS” Felcher called them together. “This is what I want here, these clothes tell a story, and I want you two to do the same. You” he pointed at Mallory, “you have just stolen her” and he pointed at Luxana “lover. And you” to Luxana “are by turns angry, sad and horrified as you look at her.”
Mallory laughed and said “I like it, sounds like the truth to me. It’ll be great Raymond, I’ll help out the new, less talented, girl.”
Luxana seethed. “Hold on Luxana, do not lose cool, please God, do not lose cool.”
The first part of the shoot, Luxana ate Mallory Belladonna for lunch.
She left it all out, and she loved the camera, or as her character in the photo, she loathed and despised the camera. The camera, in turn, loved her back. Her eyes, her mouth, her facial features, her amazing body, she used them all like she had been born to do it. She owned the dead eyed bleached blonde in shot after shot. Even Carson was singing her praises.
Luxana could feel the steam coming from Mallory’s ears.
But Mallory was not going to let herself be upstaged. Instead of bringing it herself, she used her experience to start giving Luxana just enough of a *tweak* with a finger, a toe, whatever she could, to throw the brunettes photo off, juuust so.
The last half of the film, Mallory looked gaunt, haunted, if for her a little slack, but with Luxana, picture after picture, it was always something. Her face, her body, something was always “off”. Finally, they had them posing close together, and Mallory ran a lot of film off making Luxana more and more uncomfortable.
Carson stopped several times to try to correct Luxana, but he had no idea it was Mallory who was messing up the shot.
Finally Carson and Felcher called “TIME” and they simply pulled Luxana away and sat her down, like she was a player who had been benched.
“What happened to you out there? You started off so strong.” They asked her.
“I am so sorry, it was not me, Miss Belladonna, she was…throwing me off.”
“Now Luxana, please don’t be blaming your mistakes on others, especially not people like Mallory. It is SO unbecoming dear.” Felcher replied. “There may be other shots for you. But you did your best today and well....I took a chance on you and I was wrong, more fool me.” And he turned and walked away.
“Try again thweetie, you were doing good, but the cream roth to the top and it wasn’t you.” Carson chimed in and turned away “OK MALLORY, LETS FINITH THITH, BRING IT HOME FOR ME BABY LIKE ONLY YOU CAN!”
Luxana had to sit down a moment. She found a chair away from everybody and collapsed into it.
Her career…oh God…her life was over.
Her career.
She was on the verge of hysterical tears, but she knew full well THIS was not the place for it.
“I will NEVER let them see me cry.”
She was hurt, humiliated, and like a little white flame inside her, she found herself becoming PISSED more than anything.
“That cocaine doing no eating bitch. She ruined my career. Why? Why did she do that to me? I did nothing to her, nothing. Now my life in America, it is over. Nobody will be booking me now. I cannot believe it, THAT FUCKING BITCH!”
Her blue eyes grew cold as an arctic winter, and her mouth, which always wanted to leap into a smile, turned into a hard line.
“THAT FUCKING BITCH, SHE STOLE MY DREAM!”
The shoot was ending. Luxana went back to get her makeup removed and her hair combed out.
She didn’t say a word to Mallory, who just looked at her, laughed and said “Aww, the little euro piggy didn’t get her job done today, sorry you suck at *sniff* everything you fat skank. Should have just admitted I was better than you and you’d *snuffle* still have a chance to succeed as a model who could book something better than a Gold Bond commercial. Well, I hope they *sniffle* have McDonalds wherever it is you come from. Cuz you’ll never be a model now.”
She kept right on, riding Luxana as they both made their way to the dressing area where they got into their street clothes to leave. Right now, they were in the dressing robes provided to cover the models up as the moved between areas.
Luxana walked in front head down.
The white flame had grown into an all encompassing rage in her head.
She had never, ever felt anything like this. She hated feeling this way, she felt like she was going to be sick with her hate.
Her career, it was over.
This was supposed to be her big day.
Instead, her life was in a shambles.
All because of this bleached blonde bitch walking behind her.
Who was STILL shitting on her.
She saw the door to the storeroom she had cried in earlier on the left.
She slowed down.
Mallory walked up behind her, still talking shit.
“And that’s why women like me always win and dumb skanks like you always los…”
Luxana quickly opened the door with her right hand; with her left she grabbed Mallory and shoved her into the small room as hard as she could.
She stepped inside and locked the door behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
“Just what the fuck do you think YOU’RE doing skank?” Mallory snarled at Luxana.
“I ask you the same thing. Why you do that to me? You bitch! You try to destroy my career. Why, why, WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME?!”
“I didn’t try to slut; I DID destroy your *sniff* career. And I did it because I fucking felt like it, that’s why. I just don’t like the way you look, I don’t like hearing your *sniffle* dumb ass accent, and the fuck if I wanted to have to look at, or listen to you, again.”
Luxana made sure she was between Mallory and the locked door. She clinched her jaw in anger and hissed. “You are ridiculous. You knew even on my first try I, Luxana, was better model than you hope to be. It is why you sabotaged me only after you knew I had won.”
Mallory snorted.
“Bitch, you walk like a drunk Russian bear and *sniffle* you’re a fat cow, you can’t model for shit, fucking Russian slut. *sniffle* Now get out of my fucking way and let me out of here, or not only will I end your career, I’ll fuck you up!”
“Never. If you apologize to me, and admit to everybody what you did, there MAY not be fight, you bitch. But I am real woman and I will fight you like one if that is what you want. Then you will apologize to me in blood.”
Luxana undid her robe and let it fall to the floor. She put her hands on her shapely hips and struck a challenge to the streaked blonde.
“Fuck you, get out of my way you stupid slut.”
And Mallory tried to push past her.
Luxana shoved her back like she weighed nothing.
“Let me go or you’re gonna regret it, you asshole.”
She tried to shove Luxana out of the way again.
“No! Apologize or you will going through me!”
She shoved Mallory back again.
“Fuck you, cunt, this is MY town!” and with the swiftness of a lightning strike, her hand lashed out and smacked across the left side of Luxana’s face. It resounded like the crackle of a gunshot.
Luxana gave the blow a little pull to lesson it, but she took the brunt of it and she could feel the side of her face growing red.
“Ouch! This bitch, she is asking for me…”
Mallory tried to get past her again, going for the doorknob.
She almost made it.
Physically stronger, Luxana was able to once again shove her enemy away.
Her own hand shot out and she returned the slap, she noticed it had a higher tone against the face of the overly thin woman.
Mallory gave her another big open handed “WHAP!” in return.
Then she charged.
Mallory came at Luxana like a wild cat, swinging arms and slashing nails without thought or reason. She grabbed into Luxana’s long brown hair with her left hand and punched at her face with the right.
The brunette managed to deflect most of the blows, but truthfully, she was caught off guard by the awkward attack and she was staggered backwards, but she managed to brace herself on one leg and use it as a pivot as she rode Mallory’s momentum and took the streaked haired woman off her feet and to the floor.
They rolled back and forth on the carpet, hands in each other’s hair, knees working like pistons trying to find an opening into a stomach or groin.
Mallory took one hand and started to viciously go after Luxana’s bare breasts, grabbing, squeezing, and working her nails to great effect. Luxana cried out in pain and her body stiffened. This allowed Mallory to sink a sharp knee into Luxana’s taut belly.
The brunette beauty gagged and tried to cover up her midsection as Mallory went after her breasts and released her hold on Luxana’s light brown hair to start punching the girl in the stomach over and over. Failing in this, she tried to ward off Mallory’s hands, but that strategy didn’t work either.
Her pain was increased as one of Mallory’s wild fists hit her in the pubic area, Luxana cried out in a moaning gasp. She didn’t know where to defend herself, and Luxana was starting to worry.
“Please, oh please, I cannot let this day of humiliation end this way for me. I am overwhelmed! I do not know!”
Mallory shrugged off her bathrobe, exposing her emaciated body; you could clearly see all her ribs under her marshmallow sized A cup breasts.
She smiled a smile of viciousness and hate. She looked like she should have fangs rather than teeth.
Mallory’s long skinny arms were a whirlwind, she jabbed and slapped them anywhere she could, they hit Luxana on the head, face, breasts and stomach, a couple even finding their way into the brunettes shaven beauty.
“Fuck you bitch, you’re so finished, not only am I gonna run you out of modeling and New York, I’m gonna KILL you!” she spat in Luxana’s face.
Mallory mounted the thrashing Luxana and pulled her hair back with one hand, with the other, she began to choke the Ukrainian girl. Luxana’s blue eyes bugged out and she grabbed at the hands around her throat.
Mallory began smashing Luxana’s head into the floor by her hair as she choked the woman out. Luxana was on the verge of passing out, the world had turned to grayscale, when she was able to get her hand into the fabric of Mallory’s panties. In a blind panic, she grabbed the streaked-haired woman’s clit and caught in between two of her nails.
“You cunt! You fucking cunt, that’s MY moneymaker!”
Mallory got up and shook off the clit hold. She hauled the brunette to her feet by her hair and smashed her face onto the folding table on the far side of the room. The she stood Luxana up, sneered in her face “Good bye you stupid foreign fuck, I’m better than you in every way!” and sent Luxana onto the table on her back with a big full palm slap to the face.
Luxana lay there, she could taste her own blood in her mouth, and that was the lifeline she used to bring herself back. She had been beaten on and beaten up before, the violent battles against the girls of her hometown in the barn or the field had shown her the sometimes you cannot be on top in a fight and one must bide their time.
She ran her tongue over her ruby red lips, still made up from the shoot. The taste of rust and iron made her feel real.
Luxana opened her eyes to see Mallory standing over her, she was huffing and puffing with exertion, her scrawny, coked out, body didn’t have stamina, Luxana noted.
“Ah, you rancid bitch, you are not made to fight, just to claw like alley cat.”
But Mallory’s eyes were still filled with the savage light of cocaine fueled hate. They lit up with insane glee and she brought her right hand down in a claw, ready to rip Luxana’s womanhood apart.
And she only hit the table, as Luxana scooted her butt backwards and got her lovely pussy out of the way. Her legs were spread, but she clamped them shut like a bear trap around Mallory’s exposed neck. Luxana rolled her hips to the left, taking Mallory with her; she slammed her legs onto the hard table, compressing her grip on Mallory’s neck.
The dyed blonde went boneless, her legs went out from under her, and spit and drool came from her mouth. She scraped at the carpeted floor as Luxana bore down on the neck scissors.
As Luxana fully regained her senses, she could feel Mallory’s nails on her silky thighs, trying to claw her way to freedom. Luxana smiled and looked the woman in the face, her eyes were wildly rolling behind a lock of half black, half blonde hair, she was trying to make her mouth work, but nothing was coming out.
“What is matter Mallory? Catfight have your tongue, no?”
Bracing herself with her left hand, she sent her right fist into Mallory’s face and head, seven, ten times. Solid shots, she hit the woman in the forehead, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and she hit her as hard as she could.
Mallory tried to get her nails into Luxana’s panties, but the Ukrainian woman had her well formed thighs tight around the bitch’s neck. She jabbed once into Luxana’s pussy, but the brunette raised her legs and slammed Mallory’s head into the table again.
She leaned back and poured on the pressure “Do you like these legs bitch? They are the legs of a woman, Men, they like them wrapped around them. It makes them feel good. Your…toothpicks, they are no good for sex. This why you are model yes, you do not like men who like woman to be woman.” Luxana felt the woman’s struggles decreasing, her drug induced energy at an ebb.
She smiled her beautiful, heart melting smile.
But her beauty was no indicator of the anger, hurt, and savagery within. She knew she had this bitch in deep trouble, and Luxana had to make her pay.
The bitch had destroyed her life.
She reached down and clawed Mallory’s stomach and lower belly with her right hand, tearing at her emaciated stomach with abandon, and giving Mallory’s pussy the claw punishment Mallory wanted to give her previously. She ended by raking her nails HARD all over the area from her clit to her ribcage.
Luxana figured one more smash with her legs and Mallory was finished.
“Say goodbye, fucking cunt, it is time. You end my career, I end this fight.”
She raised the weakly struggling woman’s head with her legs again; she punched Mallory in the face several times. Blood was now running freely from the woman’s mouth.
“fuththk ooo shlut” Mallory spluttered.
Luxana rammed her head into the table with her legs.
The table gave way with a *SNAP*and collapsed in the middle.
Both women fell, Mallory rolled free from Luxana’s legs, and lay on her back, Luxana fell into the wreckage of the table. She caught the back of her head on the edge of the table behind her and was knocked senseless for a moment.
Mallory cleared out the cobwebs and saw the hated Russian skank lying half on and half out of the crumpled “V” of the table. She smiled a bloody smile and crawled over to the woman.
She spat blood in Luxana’s face and slapped her with utter contempt.
“I fucking hate you skank, look at what you did to me, ME? Do you know who the FUCK I AM?”
She grabbed Luxana’s perfect breasts and lifted her up by them, then she slammed her body back into the broken table, smacking the brunette’s head on the plastic, as well as mangling her tits.
“Gonna have Carson take so many pictures with me over your beat up skank ass. Gonna let everybody who is anybody in this town see them.”
She grabbed Luxana by her hair and dragged her to the middle of the room. She kicked the woman in the head, then the stomach, causing Luxana to wretch. Then she grabbed Luxana’s ankles and opened her legs.
“I hate you, you’re SO over you fucking stupid ugly slut, you’re so OUT of fashion.”
She stomped down, twice.
Luxana howled in agony.
Mallory kicked her in the face.
Luxana lie there, listening to Mallory breathing heavily, her own mind was nothing but a world of pain. Involuntary tears rolled down her face, ruining the last of her makeup, she cried pathetically.
“No…No…this cannot be happening. This day…oh no, this day…I cannot lose. Let me have my pride, please God. Just my pride, do not let this terrible person win.”
But God was deaf at the time. Luxana was on her own.
She knew she had one chance.
“Get out of New York and don’t come back, or I’ll beat you even worse you fat whore.”
Mallory grabbed Luxana by her light brown hair and hauled her upright.
Luxana went with it.
As soon as she was on her feet, she swung her right fist as hard as she could.
It connected with Mallory’s pussy with an almost wet *crunch*. She hit it so spot on she could feel her fist start to go all the way in.
Mallory started to drop to her knees.
There was a knock at the door. “Hello? Anybody in there?”
Luxana swung again. She caught Mallory in the throat as she sank down.
Mallory’s eyes bugged out of her head. She had lost one of her contacts, now she had one blue and one brown eye. She tried to speak or scream, but all that came out was a sound like a nonwhistling teakettle boiling over.
Luxana grabbed her by her hair this time, holding her hated rail thin enemy up by a handful of white and black.
She swung again, catching Mallory on the cheekbone.
The woman spun in a near circle.
Luxana let go of the hair and swung with her left fist.
Mallory spun the other direction.
Luxana jabbed straight into the bitch’s mouth.
Mallory stumbled backwards.
There was a commotion at the door. “HEY, WHATS GOING ON IN HERE!”
Somebody was trying to get in.
Luxana alternated lefts and rights to the woman’s face. She threw the rack of clothing to the side as she backed Mallory into a corner.
“No…please…no, please, you win, I apologize, I’m sorry! Stop it please!”
But Luxana had no mercy in her heart just now.
“You destroy my LIFE and THAT is what I GET for apology?” punctuating each stress with a left and a right to the woman’s face.
Mallory was a bloody mess from Luxana’s fists. She had cuts on her forehead, above her left eye, and on her right cheek. Blood was running freely from her nose and mouth, down onto her almost breastless chest.
Luxana knew even if Mallory apologized, her career was still over. It had gone too far.
She sent a SAVAGE kick to Mallory’s pussy.
They were trying to break the door down outside. They were yelling “MALLORY, ARE YOU IN THERE, ARE YOU OK?”
They didn’t care if Luxana was in there and OK, just the bitch.
Mallory went to her knees in the corner; she held her pussy and wailed in agony.
Luxana knew it was over; they would have the door opened in seconds.
“Better make this count.”
She looked the destroyed bitch in the eye, “Remember this always, I Luxana, I beat your ass, you bitch. You’re no good as me in anything and now you know.”
Mallory lowered her gaze; she couldn’t meet Luxana’s eyes. She just mewled in pain.
“You deserved this slut. I WILL be back someday.”
Mallory got out a “Fuck you you’re don…!”
Luxana let loose with one final barrage of fists, finally knocking the woman out cold just as the door burst open.
Felcher, Carson, and assorted others stumbled into the room. Their jaws dropped in shock as they saw Mallory unconscious in the corner, naked except for her panties. Her face was a crimson mask; her blonde streaks had turned pink in the front. She was sitting spread eagled with her hands still holding her crotch. The table on the far side of the room was broken in half; there were clothes everywhere, from the girl’s robes to the remnants of the overturned rack.
They almost fell over the rack as they saw Luxana, her brown hair a mess, bleeding from the mouth and a small cut above her eye, breasts covered in scratches, and a look of utter hate on her usually smiling beautiful face.
She was standing over Mallory, her right hand curled into a fist. There was blood on her knuckles.
“JUST WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FUCKING DOING?
DO YOU FUCKING KNOW WHO THAT IS? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID? YOU’RE FINISHED IN THIS TOWN, YOU FUCKING IDIOT BITCH!”
Felcher was PISSED.
Carson and two other were trying to bring Mallory back around, “OH GOD, OH GOD, YOU KILLED HER, YOU DUMB SKANK, YOU KILLED HER, YOU RUINED THE THOOT AND YOU WERE SO JEALOUTH OF HER THE WHOLE TIME, GET OUT OF MY THOOT BITCHTH!”
Carson was PITHED.
Luxana surveyed the scene,
She sighed a sigh of resignation and sorrow.
“She will be fine. And she deserved it. You know nothing of what happened today, and you are the idiots.”
“GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE CALL THE COPS YOU STUPID WHORE! OH YOU’RE SO DONE MISSY, YOU ARE SO DONE, YOU SCREWED UP BITCH, BAD!”
“Yes, I know. Do not worry, I am leaving. I will be fine. I do not need to model. I am Luxana, and I still have a dream to live.”
“GET OUT OF HERE NOW YOU FUCKING EUROPEAN BIMBO BARBARIAN!”
She turned and walked out of the room, her head held high. She was still topless. Her bare, perfectly womanly, breasts were out, as if in a challenge, as the gawking crowd gave her a wide berth.
She was shocked when a couple people gave her a very secret thumbs up or a quick wink as she made her way.
“Not that it will save me, but at least some people will know the truth of things.”
Behind her she heard Mallory sputtering back into reality.
She was only somewhat grateful she hadn’t killed the bitch.
She washed herself up, and then got dressed quickly and alone. Nobody even came in the dressing room.
She was already Persona Non Grata Luxana.
She didn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry, nobody in any of those buildings of fashion and style. They didn’t deserve it.
She made it two blocks west and out of the district before she ducked out of the Manhattan wind into an alcove made by the recess of a hotel that rose into the grey sky like an old granite lady. She stopped; made sure she was more or less as alone in New York at 4:30PM as could be, and then she finally permitted herself to sit down against the building and bawl like the lost little girl she suddenly felt like.

After a while she composed herself and walked back to her home.
Not that it was going to be home much longer. The house was leased by her modeling agency, and Luxana was well aware that after today, she would be losing her contract.
No contract, no house.
No house…fuck.
Fuck.
FUCK.
The tears had stopped, but Luxana was still shaking in both anger and anxiety as she entered her apartment.
Rita was there in her usual pose, sitting half in the window, half on the fire escape in the misty rain and wind, smoking a Newport; her red hair blowing back from her thin face.
“Hey Luxurious, so how the fuck did it go?”
She almost dropped her smoke when she saw Luxana, her usually unflappable demeanor dropped like a rock.
“Oh my God, Luxana, what happened? Are you Ok? Oh girl, what the fuck just happened to you?’
Luxana held back the tears, but accepted a long hug from the redhead. Her body trembled against the other girl.
“It’s ok Luxana, come here and tell me all about it.”
She offered Luxana a cigarette.
And they sat by the window and smoked as Luxana told her story.
Aleeyah came in halfway through. She had been on a go-see, she had gotten the call about noon.
“Oh MY Lordy Lordy, what a long day I just had, let me tell you, girls, my feet, they’re just killin me, umm umm, but let me tell you…oh, Rita girl, how many times I gotta tell you not to smoke in the apartment this place smells like an ashtray, girl that is so gros…what?”
Luxana walked over and hugged the black woman. “I will miss you Aleeyah. So much.”
“Wait, what? What you talking about L-girl?”
Rita uncorked a bottle of wine and poured each of them a glass. “Sit down A-Train. By the time Luxurious here is done talking, YOU might need a fuckin smoke.”
So Luxana told her tale again.
“She’s lucky, I would have fuckin killed the bitch.” Rita said when she had finished.
“Oh Luxana, I am so sorry. Girl, what are we gonna do with you. You know you can’t stay here, they gonna have you out of here by the end of the week. Where you gonna go baby? I can’t have you homeless, and jobless. I don’t wanna lose you Luxana, you two my only friends in this town.”
“She’s fucked A-Train. You know anybody in this town who can help her?”
Aleeyah sighed, “No. I got nothing. I can help her in Mississippi, but I don’t think that’s gonna be much help to her.”
Luxana was sitting with her chin in her hands. She had changed into a long Giants Jersey (she and Rita had changed “TUCK” to “FUCK”) and a pair of tube socks. “My career here. It is over. Maybe best thing for me would be to leave New York for a while. America. It is…a big country. Maybe my dream…it is someplace else.”
Rita swirled her wine in the glass and took a sip.
“I may be able to help, I guess.
How do you feel about Vegas Luxurious?”

She got the call at noon the next day.
Disappointed, incredibly disappointed, pissed, disgusted, do you know what you just did, who you did it to, lucky no charges will be pressed, pack up your bags and be out by Friday, blah blah blah…it all ran together in Luxana’s brain.
She was still in shock. Her life as she knew it had ended in a little over 24 hours.
She would be homeless in 36 hours and she was dead broke.
She wasn’t even going to be paid for her last assignment, which would have been a nice check indeed. It was all going to pay for Mallory Belladonna’s doctor bills.
But she had a number and a name to call when she got out to Sin City, a close associate of one of Rita’s old friends from Brooklyn. Luxana was scared what she might have to do when she got there. She had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the same as living in a paid for house practicing at modeling all day.
They all got drunk again that night, their last night together, and Rita held Luxana as the brunette quietly cried herself to sleep.
The next day, Luxana packed her small suitcase.
“Next time L-Bomb, girl, you watch yourself out in Vegas, ok? It’s crazy out there. I’m gonna miss you girl. But we gonna stay in touch, allright? God and Lord Jesus guide you well girl.”
“Hey, you keep in fuckin touch Luxurious. This isn’t goodbye, so fuck that. Tell Frankie Boy I send my love and thanks for taking you in. I love ya baby, get back here soon. And if I ever see that cunt, I’ll finish the job for you.”
“Thank you both, I love you too, and I’ll miss you both so much.”
And she walked out the door.
She had had to walk to Port Authority. She had enough on her for a bus ticket and a few dollars to buy food.
As the Greyhound pulled through the Lincoln Tunnel, she could feel New York falling away from her like night yielding to day as she shed her old career and her old life.
She was changing the venue, but she still had the same dream.

“Dream…”
*KA-CHUK-KA-CHUK*
The turbulence shook Luxana out of her revelry. Had she been dozing?
Then, Sheila, the one attendant Luxana required for the flight, buzzed back from her cabin up front.
“Yes, Sheila?”
“Miss Romanova, I’d suggest putting on your seat beat for a few minutes, Captain DeLlama says we’re going to get a little more of that as we cross the mountains.”
“Thank you very much Sheila. You be making sure to do the same! We shall be landing in…?”
“A little over an hour to Newark Miss Romanova.”
“Thank you Sheila.”
Luxana turned down her laptop screen, putting it into hibernation.
She had a sip of her water and looked out the window, seeing if there was anything in sight over the Appalachian Mountains this night. But nothing was really out there, just the occasional dot of light like a lost star.
Luxana was troubled. Aleeyah was currently in Rome, walking the catwalk for some of the biggest names in fashion. She would see her in a week actually. They had kept in touch. Rita…vanished. Gone in a descent into drugs and booze, neither of them had talked to her in years. Luxana missed the redhead. Rita had saved her life.
But she hadn’t really thought about Mallory Belladonna in months. Maybe not even since her war with Janice. In fact, she tried not to think about any of her battles in general; the pain was just too much. Now, she had summoned up both Monique and Mallory in the same night, and now Janice. Her beautiful young face creased into a frown.
She knew she was going back to the place where she grew up soon.
Her family would be happy to see her.
But she knew others…not so much.
Luxana sighed. “Please, no, let this just be the crazy thinking of a tired woman who needs rest, yes? I cannot go through it again.”
She closed her eyes and listened to the hum of the engines. It was so amazing to her that the Gulfstream muted them so well. She always found it soothing, and within minutes she was deep in sleep.
Luxana was coming home.
This time, she did not dream.