Free Game Over by Winter Ramos Page B

though. Needless to say, Fab blew up. His success kept him busy and his name grew. We would see each other at events and parties. Sometimes we would speak, other times we didn’t. He would always text me right after those moments and ask me why I didn’t speak. That shit was childish to me. I never understood it. Success was changing him like it changed everybody. Sometimes I’d respond to his texts, other times I wouldn’t. He still had a special place in my heart though. Every time I’d see him in his videos showing off his money and cars, I couldn’t help but smile, remembering those three days in that raggedy apartment when he had nothing. I’ll always treasure those times.
    I went on with my life, realizing my time would come eventually. Finally, it did. My home girl , Janine, who I’d known for years, had to drop off some paperwork one day to Anton Marchand, who was rapper Foxy Brown’s brother and manager. While I was waiting for Janine in the lounge of the studio where the photo shoot was taking place, I met a girl named Kiersten, an independent stylist. We small talked for a moment and she told me about her job. She talked about the cities and countries she’d been to and the people she’d worked with detailing all of the glamour. I listened intently to every word. I knew then that styling was what I wanted to do.
    Kiersten and I swapped information and kept in touch. She eventually allowed me to assist her on styling jobs on the weekends. I would drive up from Delaware to New York and bask in my new passion. We worked with high end clients from outside the Hip Hop world, people I didn’t know anything about like Laura Linney and Javier Bardem. We styled them for the cover of L.A Magazine . We also worked on issues for The Source, XXL, Italian Vogue and even shopped for Britney Spears. The experience meant a lot to me and I learned so much from Kiersten about the basics of styling.
    Styling Laura Linney in Alice & Olivia and Fred Leighton jewelry impressed me the most. That jewelry is considered estate jewelry causing us to have insurance just to walk into the store to pull pieces. It was my first experience seeing that designers allow you to come into their showroom and borrow thousand dollar pieces. Jimmy Choo sending Kiersten 20 to 30 pair of shoes all thrown in a shopping bag sent by messenger excited me too. Along with the fact that when we worked big jobs we would have a car service driving us around the city as we did our pulls.
    Despite all the newness and excitement, I remained in school. I felt the fashion vibe so much that I changed my major the next semester from Nursing to Fashion Merchandising, eager to suck up as much about the craft as possible. Fashion became my new drug. And I knew becoming a stylist was what I was destined to do.
    Finally, I had discovered exactly what I wanted out of life. I had discovered a way to create my own identity and make my own way. I would finally be able to break into not only the Hip Hop world that I loved so much, but also the entertainment world period. It was finally going to happen. I was happy and couldn’t wait to find out where my career decision was going to lead. But little did I know I wasn’t going to like where it would take me.
     
     

 
     
    8- Power Move
    Like that old song, “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” relationships weren’t a priority for me anymore. And catching feelings for any man was definitely out of the question. I had been played and made a fool of by too many of them. Relationships proved to be a waste of time and energy in my book. I just didn’t have time for the disappointment it brought. If anything, I’d grown extra heartless.
    It may be wrong to say but after all I’d been through with the male species, especially in the industry, all they could do for me at that point was pay my bills and occasionally eat me. I was out for self. If I decided to fuck with a man, he would serve a purpose. There would be no love