Hunger

When they arrived, rather than wake Marcel up immediately, Julia got off the van with Marie and went into the large building that the auditions were going to take place. When they had left after dropping him off at the hospital that was their first destination as Julia was familiar with the lengthy queues on modelling auditions. So she went to ensure that Marcel wouldn't have to wait too long, fortunately, when she had arrived there weren't that many people but when they had arrived after coming back from the hospital, there were around two hundred more people that were present.

When she got in the building, the producer of the program immediately approached her. She turned her attention to him, and before anyone knew it, her black eyes curved as she smiled warmly at him.

"Have you started?" Julia asked directly, and the producer nodded as he led her to an inner room. The models who were waiting for their turn thought that she was one of the judges who would be assessing them from seeing her interactions with the producer.

"Yes, they've started the auditions, it shouldn't take long for your model to go in since you already secured a spot earlier." The director answered as he took her to the screening room. Marie silently followed behind the two while being reminded of how much influence Julia actually had in the field. She knew people that she didn't think to acquaint herself with and to a certain extent she could understand why she received so many offers from different management companies because they would get both her and her connections.

"Is this the second batch?" Julia asked as she watched the contestants on the different screens in the room.

"Mmh, there are a lot of good ones this time," the producer said with a proud smile.

"I can see, if you still had this many people after filtering through the applications then there must have been a lot of good ones," Julia commented.

"Take Marcel to go queue up as well, it shouldn't look like he skipped over everyone else. Don't forget to give him his number," Julia ordered and Marie nodded in assent before leaving the screening room.

She quickly went to the van that was currently in the underground parking lot. Mark opened the door when he noticed her, and Marie went inside to wake Marcel up.

"Marcel wake up," Marie said as she shook his shoulder.

"Five more minutes," Marcel said with a groan. He just started enjoying his sleep so he did not appreciate the efforts to shorten it by any means.

"You'll be late for your auditions and Julia will kill you," Marie answered as she continued to shake him so he wouldn't go back to sleep.

"Aargh," Marcel groaned as he pressed the button on the side that would fix his seat.

"Let's go," Marie said when she saw that he wasn't resisting anymore. The two of them got out of the car and made way to the building.

"Marie," Marcel called out to her as she was a few steps behind him.

"Hmm? What is it?" Marie asked.

"I'm hungry and thirsty," Marcel said once she was next to him. Marie opened and closed her mouth without knowing how to respond. She had forgotten that he had not eaten since the previous day and he fell asleep after getting into the van from the hospital.

"This, can you wait until after the audition? You won't have enough time to eat before being called in," Marie answered. Marcel opened the glass door and let her in before him, leaving the door to close behind him.

"Can I get some water for now? I feel like I'm not even producing enough saliva right now," Marcel asked and Marie nodded in acknowledgement.

"You need to stand in line, here is your number, stick it on your shirt," Marie said and gave him the sticker that he was supposed to put on his clothes.

"20?" he asked as he carelessly pasted it on his shirt. He looked at the people in the queue and saw 207 before looking at Marie in question.

"You should be happy you have such a responsible manager, go to the front, I'll go get you a drink," Marie said and patted his shoulder as she left. Marcel walked to the front of the queue and even though he was wearing sunglasses, he still managed to draw people's attention.

"Is he auditioning too?" one of the contestants asked their friend that was standing behind her.

"I bet he is, he has the participant number right?" the friend answered and pointed at the 20 that had been placed on his shirt.

"He looks like he'll make it," she answered her friend as she looked at his disappearing back.

"Doesn't he look familiar?" her friend asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Wouldn't you remember where you saw him?" the first girl challenged with a chuckle making her friend nod in agreement. He was too impressionable to forget.

Marcel was too hungry to care that he was drawing a lot of attention to himself and was just focused on following Marie's instructions.

He got to the front and saw that the first contestant in line was 11, so he counted the positions and ended up making eye contact with the 21st contestant. Marcel smiled politely before pointing at his number and the short-haired girl that was looking at him nodded for him to get in before her.

He would have explained on a normal day, but he was not in the best mood at the moment. Two minutes after he was standing there, Marie came with a bottle of juice and a box of doughnuts that she bought at a nearby cafe.

"Here, thank god you don't have to go in yet, go ahead and drink this," Marie said as she nudged his arm to get his attention. Marcel took off his sunglasses, his eyes shining with happiness. If they weren't in public, he would have hugged her in gratitude. Marie snorted when she saw his expression and opened the box of doughnuts for him.

"Thank you," Marcel said with a bright smile as he opened the bottle of juice while simultaneously grabbing a chocolate-covered doughnut.

"Will this be okay for your diet?" Marie asked and Marcel paused in the middle of a bite.

"I'm supposed to be on a diet?" Marcel asked while feigning surprise making Marie sigh.

"I'll have just one," Marcel said in comfort. For some reason, those words sounded familiar to Marie, but she couldn't remember where she heard them.

"Contestant 11 to 15 please come in!" someone came out to shout, and the queue moved forward.

"Are you confident? You aren't too nervous, right?" Marie asked Marcel, who had finished half his donut already.

"I'm fine, just hungry," Marcel answered, but Marie wasn't assured by him at all.

"Do you want a donut?" Marcel offered the person before and behind him, but they both declined. He shrugged his shoulders and finished his doughnut before stretching his hand out to reach for another one, but Marie closed the box immediately and handed him a napkin so he could wipe his sticky fingers.

"You said you'd have one," Marie explained, Marcel didn't complain and carefully wiped his lips and hands.

"You'll be in there for about 15 minutes, make sure you use your allotted time wisely," Marie advised as she took the juice and napkin from him.

"Wish me luck," Marcel said cheerfully. Marie mumbled to herself about how he seemed to be easygoing about everything.

"Mmmh, I'll ask Julia to take you for lunch after this," Marie said as she left Marcel alone. After she left, the smile on Marcel's face disappeared as he turned serious.

[If you aren't reading this at w e b n o v e l then you are reading stolen work. To support the author please read at the original site]

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