Mask of A Legend (17 page)

“Well, um . . . yeah, I mean, I don’t like to spread it around, but it’s true. I want a girl who I could fall in love with, and then allow myself to give her love, by having sex, and that’s the way I could show her my feelings.” Dina and Legend looked at him with a straight, caring face, while Stephen just looked at him with a huge, sinister smile. “Great, now I’m embarrassed.”

Legend grabbed his hand. “Don’t be.”

“Yeah, don’t be,” said Dina as if she was also falling for Mark’s mask.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t be,” said Stephen. “Boy, you’re really spreading it on thick,” he added in a silent way.

“It’s Stephen’s turn now. What do you look for when you see a girl?” Dina asked. Legend began smiling.

“He looks for big breasts, and clear skin,” Legend said. Stephen’s jealousy caused his face to create a sinister form to it.

“No, Legend, that’s not what I look for,” defended Stephen. He looked at Legend with anger in his eyes.

“Yes it is!”

“No, it’s not!”

“Okay, then tell us what you look for,” Legend said. Dina looked at her and then stared at Stephen with suspicious eyes. Dina knew the conversation was beginning to only be between him and Legend.

“Yeah, I want to hear your views also,” Mark said with a crooked smile, wrapping his arm around Legend.

Stephen looked at Legend, and at the same time, knew his views on what he wants out of a girl. His definition was Legend, that’s what he wanted. But then he turned to Dina, and saw her eyes as they stared heavily at his. That’s when he knew he couldn’t say his real views on beauty. So, he decided to cut corners, and say his views, without them knowing he was talking about Legend. “Well . . . when I look at a girl, I admit, I do look for beauty. . . . I mean, that’s my major job in the first place, I look for beauty and sell it. . . . But, um, well, I look for the inner part also. I mean, I look to see if the girl’s intelligent, funny, and caring, but yet strong at the same time,” Stephen explained as he stared at Legend. “I look at the girl’s eyes, and see if I could somehow imagine what she wants to see, that would make her smile. That’s when I try to create my character, so I would see, all the time, that girl’s grin . . . that prosperous image that every guy wants to see. . . .”

“Dude, that’s bullshit, you only look for beauty, everyone knows it,” Mark said. Dina laughed with him, but Legend still held a serious look on her face. It was as if Legend knew he was talking about her. But then she turned to Mark, and smiled, it was like she went into the trance again when she stared at Mark’s face and thought of his mental mask.

“No, I mean, I used to look for that a lot . . . but now I think, somehow, I look for the inner part of a girl, too,” Stephen said. It was as if he didn’t know his own character. Legend was beginning to change his views on beauty, only because she was the most beautiful being he ever set eyes on. That’s what caused Stephen’s unsureness about the question.

“Listen, dude, it’s alright to only look at beauty from the outside. I mean, look where it got you. It’s a talent. You discover some of the most beautiful women in the world, and for that, you allow their dreams to come true, and allow money to come into your hands,” Mark said. He knew his friend Stephen was beginning to feel anger, and he wanted to calm him down. Mark didn’t want Stephen to get upset about such a simple subject. But what Mark didn’t realize is that Stephen was getting upset, only because he didn’t want Legend to believe he only looks at outer beauty. Stephen didn’t want her to believe he was a pig. Nevertheless, Stephen knew he was a so-called pig, he knew he only looked for outer beauty, and that caused his confusion to grow. Skeletons.

“All I know is I don’t only look for outer beauty, I do look for the inner part also,” said Stephen.

“Well, like I said, it’s a talent, and you should be proud of it. I mean, Legend is going to become famous in no time at all, she already began that journey, and all because of you,” Mark explained. Dina started to feel jealous again. She became jealous because Mark didn’t mention her at all.

“What I don’t understand is where does this talent evolve from? How does a person develop it? When you saw me, what did you see?” Dina asked Stephen. She wanted him to say all the things that Mark said about Legend, and therefore her question had much deeper meaning than what Stephen thought.

“When I saw you and Legend–”

“Well, what did you see when you saw me?” Dina asked forcefully, but still held a smile on her face. “I mean, I was just wondering.” Dina discovered that her question was too forceful. She didn’t want her jealousy toward Legend to be known.

“When I saw you, I saw kindness, honesty, and beauty,” he replied. Dina realized the mask that she wore was the wrong one. She wanted to wear a mental mask that was just like Legend’s character, a mask that showed kindness, honesty and everything else that Legend had. Dina felt that Stephen would fall in love with her if she had that character, but now she realizes that he only mentions the inner parts of her, and only mentions a few parts of her outer beauty. Dina wanted him to say beauty, beauty and more beauty when she asked that question. But, instead, he only said beauty once. With Legend, he says the outer, as well as the inner, beauty equally. Legend was perfect in his eyes, as well as everyone else’s, and that created jealousy under Dina’s mental mask. A ticking bomb.

“What did you see when you saw me?” asked Legend. Mark poured himself another glass of champagne.

“When I saw you, I saw strength . . . honesty . . . kindness . . . beauty. I saw your eyes, how they reflect smiles onto other people’s faces. I saw your beautiful hair, and the way your sense of humor caused me to laugh,” Stephen said. He then turned to Dina and saw jealousy in her eyes. “That’s what I saw in the both of you.”

“How did you know that you wanted to make that a career? I mean, how did you develop that theoretical perspective on outer beauty, and actually have that theory work for you, and make you who you are today?” asked Legend. She then turned toward Mark and smiled.

“I know how he developed it,” Mark said with a smile after he took a swig of his champagne and stared at Stephen. “Remember, Stephen? It was when we were eight years old, and your father took us over to that ice cream shop down on Rodeo Drive.”

Stephen laughed, “Oh, yeah, I remember, that was the day he sat us both down and asked us what we wanted to be when we got older.”

Legend and Dina had confusion on their faces. “Well, tell us, what happened?” Dina asked. The waiter came to the table and placed another champagne bottle on it, while taking away three empty ones.

“Um, well, do you want to tell it, or me?” Stephen asked.

“You say it.”

The table had silence to it as Stephen began his story by saying, “Well, it’s a stupid, mythological story that really makes no sense to me. Wait a second, I take that back, it makes sense, but I really don’t follow it with my work.”

“Just tell them the story already.” Legend and Dina listened closely and watched Stephen’s eyes and lips.

“Alright, my father took me and Mark down to an ice cream shop when we were eight, and that’s when my father first opened up his modeling agency. He already made millions off of it, and me and Mark were curious as to why and how my father made money off of girls’ looks. I mean, anyone could look at a girl and say they’re beautiful, so that means that anyone could open up a modeling agency. And that’s when my father explained or, should I say, told us the story that his father told him when he was a kid. . . . The story mainly consists of a girl who–”

“No, tell us the whole story, don’t do any short cuts,” slurred Legend: the champagne was getting to her.

“Alright. . . . A long time ago, there was this girl, a black girl, her name was Angelica,” Stephen explained. Legend’s eyes widened. “She was a slave in this enormous castle, and she would always wait on the prince hand and foot, and therefore she developed a sort of love for him. . . . Well, Angelica was ugly: she had scars, zits, stringy hair, and everything that would cause a guy to call her beyond ugly. . . . But, even though she knew she was ugly, she still wanted to be in the prince’s heart. . . . So, one day, the King announced that his son was going to get married. It was a planned wedding, and that caused Angelica to run out of the castle, once she heard the news, and go beyond the territory that she worked at all of her life. She was sad. She ran into a vast field, looked up at the sky, and made a wish to this special star. But the thing was, it wasn’t a star, it was Heaven, and therefore her wish was heard. . . . This Angel came down, and granted her the wish,” he explained when Legend interrupted him again.

“What was the wish?” asked Legend.

“Oh, sorry, um, she wished for beauty, she wanted to be beautiful.” Dina poured herself some champagne, but spilt a little bit on the table, due to her drunkenness. “Anyway, this angel granted her the wish, and Angelica ran back to the castle. She found the prince, and he fell in love with her beauty, it was as if he was staring at an angel. As the story goes on, they fell in love together, and then the prince proposed to her, and asked if she would have his hand in marriage. . . . Well, back then, it was practically illegal for a prince to marry a slave, let alone to marry a slave with dark skin. But, her beauty was so incredibly great that he was willing to go against everything that he was taught, such as not marrying a slave, and go through with the wedding anyway.

“Well, suddenly Angelica wanted to take off her beauty, her mask, and allow the prince to fall in love with her real image. Angelica remembered what the angel told her after she made the wish. The angel said she would be back in a year to see if she wanted to take back the wish, or keep it. Well, a year passed, the angel appeared and asked her, and Angelica said ‘yes’. The angel took off the mask of beauty from her, and then, I guess, Angelica ran to the prince and showed her the real Angelica. The prince saw her face, and realized it was the black slave that he fell in love with. You see, he didn’t know it was the black slave at first, when Angelica came to him for the first time with this mask,” Stephen explained before Mark cut him off.

“No, when Angelica came to him for the first time, with this mask of beauty, he didn’t recognize her, but he still kind of knew who it was, only because of her character. Like the way she talked in the past, when she was ugly, and that’s how he knew it was her,” Mark explained.

“Well, anyway, she came to him with the mask off, and he saw her ugliness. Nevertheless, she started crying out that she loves him, and he had to decide whether he should stay with her, or not. He had to decide whether he should still go through with marrying Angelica, or not,” Stephen smiled. “That’s it.”

“That’s it?” Legend said. “Did he stay with her, or not?”

“Yeah, did he still marry Angelica?” Dina asked.

“I don’t know, my father never told me the ending. I guess it’s one of those stories where you have to decide it. But, anyway, my father told us that story, because you have to look at a model’s character and her beauty together. A model can’t make it to the top if she’s a bitch. Well, some models do, as in every profession, but that’s only a small minority. You have to have a good and kind character in order to make it in modeling. I guess my father was stressing that it’s more than looks when it comes to judging if a girl is right for this sort of career,” Stephen explained.

Mark jumped in the conversation. “Dude, tell the myth that goes along with that story.” Legend stared at Stephen with nervous eyes.

“Oh well, legend has it that Angelica grants wishes of beauty to girls, even to this day. She grants them only because she wants a girl to make the same decision she did. I guess every girl she grants it to doesn’t want to take back the wish, and therefore Angelica hunts for a girl, sort of like a mission. And once a girl makes the same decision, Angelica will stop granting wishes, and pass it on to someone else,” Stephen explained. “It’s a bunch of B.S. if you ask me. I mean, when my father told us that, me and Mark laughed.”

“I think it’s a great story, with a lot of meaning to it,” said Legend. She stared at Stephen: it was as if she was falling in love with him. But then Mark turned to Legend, and she turned away from Stephen and looked at him. That’s when Mark grasped onto her lips with his, and allowed Legend’s feelings for Stephen to be transferred over to him instead.

Stephen saw the way she was kissing him, and then said in a fast manner, “Well, it’s getting pretty late, and you two beauties have to wake up early tomorrow.”

“When does this show end?” Mark asked, still staring at Legend.

“Well, the New York show ends on December fourteenth. And then directly after that, Legend has a few cover shoots to do. Plus, I know that Legend and Dina will have another contract given to them. These two girls have a very busy schedule ahead of them, especially Legend,” Stephen replied.

“You have a busy schedule also, Stephen. I mean, you’re in the same show as them, and you also run your father’s business. You should give yourself credit,” Mark stressed. They all got up from the table and walked toward the exit.

“I know, but I mostly concentrate on the girls, they’re the important ones,” said Stephen. They put on their jackets and exited the restaurant. They went back to the hotel, while Stephen and Mark held onto the girls’ bodies, due to them being drunk. Mark kissed Legend heavily on the lips and said his goodbyes to her.

“I had a great time tonight,” Mark said, staring into the depths of Legend’s beauty.