The Treasure She Never Asked For

Later that day, Marcel who had been feeling low was dragged to the living room by Alistair to watch the first episode of their program air. Marcel was laying down on a loveseat as he listened to the talkative Chloe who was chatting non-stop. Jeremy indulged her and chatted her up because she reminded him of his younger sister.

People continued to file into the living room and soon everyone had taken up their own space. When Lauren, who was talking to the directors about the props she would need came to the living room, she couldn't find a place to sit. Not that there was no space, but she was unwilling to sit with the people who had space next to them.

Alistair had been smart enough to sit in a single seater because he didn't want to sit with anyone. Chloe was too talkative, Adrian had sat with Jeremy and she was unwilling to sit with Nick who was occupying a three seater by himself. Lydia was also out of question, after seeing that she really couldn't find a comfortable place, her eyes turned on Marcel who was laying down on the sofa.

"Let's sit together," Lauren said as she casually pushed Marcel's leg off the armrest. He was too tall to fit on the sofa so his legs were hanging off the armrest on one side of the couch.

"I'm too depressed to sit," Marcel complained and refused to sit up, if he got up he would go to his room to sleep.

"Get up," Lauren said and pulled on his arm, surprisingly, she was strong enough to lift his body up. She then sat down, letting Marcel rest his head on her l.a.p.

"Aargh, why are you so thin?" Marcel complained as he took a pillow and placed it on her l.a.p before laying back down.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Lauren said while rolling her eyes

"Mmmh, so the for the shoot we'll be doing in a couple of days, you'll be playing both masculine and feminine roles" Marcel said in a low voice. His voice was so low that even Alistair who was closest to them.

"Will you do that too?" Lauren joked and Marcel laughed, his low mood improving a bit.

"Nice one," Marcel said as he chuckled before he continued to brief her on what they were going to be doing that day. When they were half way through their conversation, the program finally started, everyone's attention was turned to the television as the intro started playing. To keep the audience's curiosity, the intro for the first episode did not show any of their faces.

They then started to show how everyone arrived one by one, before Chloe arrived, everyone had been so silent that it was suffocating.

"It was this quiet before I arrived? Did the editing team do something to exaggerate it?" Marcel asked Lauren. He wasn't talking in a low voice anymore and everyone heard his question.

"It's not an exaggeration, besides introducing ourselves nothing happened," Lauren answered as she casually tugged his hair.

"You looked comfortable," Marcel commented as he watched how Lauren had been sitting up with her eyes closed, she seemed completely unbothered. In fact, if they were quieter, it looked like she would have fallen asleep.

"Mmmh, I had been working nonstop the week prior, I really just wanted to go to bed," Lauren confessed. The last thing she had in her head then was to make friends.

Marcel continued to watch and smiled when he saw himself on screen. He sighed with a smile when the camera showed a close up. He knew he looked handsome, and didn't have any qualms with looking at himself. If he was being honest, he really enjoyed watching himself.

The first episode focused more on introducing the models and showed how they interacted as roommates up until the interviews. Marcel enjoyed the interviews the most, most of them said that he looked very young and naïve and didn't seem to be aware of how good looking he was. 

It was when his interview was being shown that the atmosphere in the living room became more solemn. He talked about his real life situation in a bit more detail then, and everyone seemed to realise that this good natured young guy actually hasn't had it easy.

"How are you so bright all the time? I would have felt like the world owes me something," Lauren said and Marcel laughed at the irony, as the past marcel felt exactly the same.

"I'm not bright, okay? My baby went to boarding school today and I can't talk to him whenever I want to anymore," Marcel said.

"Your baby brother?" Lauren asked and Marcel nodded. It explained why he had been more withdrawn and quiet all day.

"Yes," Marcel answered and became silent as he continued to watch tv. The episode ended at the point where they were going to go to do some grocery shopping, then they showed the previews of the next episode which included a short clip of Lydia hanging off his arm. Alistair's expression immediately changed when he saw the familiar scene and unconsciously looked at Lydia. 

If she did not know what she had done that night, then she was definitely going to find out next week. No one really mentioned what happened that night, and Lydia just thought that someone helped her to the bedroom after she had fallen asleep on the sofa.

After the episode ended, they all logged in to their social media to see how everyone reacted to it. The first thing Marcel saw was the rapidly rising number of followers. He also saw a lot of people asking for more photos of his. 

After scrolling through the  comments, Marcel opened the camera app and quickly took a selfie and posted it on his profile and captioned it, [I hope you all enjoyed the episode J] 

It didn't take long before the photo was flooded with likes and comments. After reading a couple of them, he finally sat up and stretched his body and asked Lauren if they could continue their previous conversation outside.

The two of them went up the stairs and they both parted as they headed to their rooms. When Marcel walked into his room, he saw Alistair who was once again livestreaming for his fans.

"Livestream?" Marcel mouthed and Alistair nodded in confirmation. Marcel nodded and started taking off his hoodie as he walked to the walk-in closet. He was getting better at being b.a.r.e c.h.e.s.ted than he was before.

"Marcel took off his clothes and wrapped a towel around his waist and went to take a shower. His day felt quite long because of his mood but he couldn't be like this tomorrow, he knew that he needed to be very productive the next day.

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