Chapter 8
The Makeover
CHARLOTTE
“Um…what?” I asked in shock.
“Come on, be my dress-up doll. Please!” she begged.
“Um…what exactly does that mean?”
“I want to paint your nails, play with your hair, stuff like that,” she told
me.
“Uh…okay?” I replied timidly.
“YAY!” she yelled.
“I don’t want to mess up your clothes. Here, put this on,” she said, handing me a skimpy top and some boy shorts.
I quickly walked to the bathroom to change. These things left nothing to the imagination. Oh well, it wasn’t like anyone else would see me.
“OMG! You have such an amazing body!” Tracy gushed as I came out of the bathroom.
“I bet all the guys would be fighting over you if you didn’t always cover up so much.”
“I don’t really want them fighting over me,” I replied.
“Yeah, I guess that would be tough since you can’t talk to them.
Anyway, come sit down. I’m doing your toes first.”
“What’s that?” I asked, looking at this excessively bright-green bottle in her hand.
“This is your nail polish. It’s electric green.” She beamed at me.
“I think you can see it from space,” I said, making her crack up.
“Who knew you were so funny, Char,” she said between snorts of laughter.
After she finished turning my toes dayglo green, she put the same color on my fingers. I swear, this color should have come with a warning label.
Do not look at directly, or something.
Once my nails were completed and ready to direct air traffic, Tracy began playing with my hair. She put some sort of chemical in it and had me put on what looked like a shower cap. She assured me whatever she was doing would not permanently alter my hair in any way, so I just trusted her.
While my hair did whatever it was supposed to do in the shower cap, we went downstairs to watch a movie and eat pizza. Tracy put on some sappy romance where the boy and girl met, instantly fell in love, faced a conflict when the ex-girlfriend tried to break them up, but ended up together in the end. It was sweet, but pretty cliché.
Once the movie ended, I helped Tracy put away the leftover pizza. I was curious as to why she had ordered so much, but she said it was to feed her drunk-off-his-butt brother when he rolled in at who knew what time.
I had to laugh at that, but it was sweet that she thought about him.
We then went upstairs so she could finish whatever she was doing with my hair. She took off the shower cap and sprayed it with some citrusy- smelling liquid before gently massaging it into my scalp. I asked why she wasn’t using a brush or something, and she looked at me like I had two heads before making a comment about curls and frizz. This was the reason I
always just pulled my hair up in a bun.
Jupiter Yo man, whatcha up to?
Mars Isn’t it a little early for drunk texting your secret lover?
Jupiter First off, I’m not drunk…at least not too drunk. Second off, drop the lover stuff, man
Mars Awe, but you were getting my hopes up
Jupiter I’m too wasted for you to be messing with my mind like this
Mars
HA! I knew you were drunk. Why don’t you go find a chick or something
Jupiter
They are all so desperate, I told you I was sick of that. Besides, I can’t get my mind off a girl from school
Mars
Awe, someone got a girlfriend? Why aren’t you drunk texting her?
Jupiter
She’s not a girlfriend, just someone I think is cute
Mars
Aren’t you adorable. Listen man, if you aren’t having any fun, why don’t you go home?
Jupiter
Who said I’m not having fun?
Mars
You’re drunk texting your friend…and clearly thinking about some chick
Jupiter
Good point. I may leave a little early, but I need a few more beers first
Mars
Sounds good. Have someone drive you if you do go home. I don’t want to lose my secret lover/best friend
Jupiter
Ugh…but don’t worry, I will. Nite bro
After I finished my quick text conversation with Jup, I noticed that Tracy was looking at me with a little smirk.
“He’s not a boyfriend,” I said quickly, making her laugh.
When she was finally satisfied with my hair, she grabbed a box from her
dresser and came to sit in front of me.
“Um, what’s in there?” I asked.
“Face stuff.”
“Okay…why do I need that? We aren’t going anywhere.”
“Because you are my dress-up doll for the night. Besides, it’s not makeup, it’s masks, lotions, and other things to make your skin glow,” she explained.
“Oh fine,” I conceded, making her shriek with joy.
She spent the next hour or so doing random things to my face and asking me to go wash it between steps. First, she put some sort of black liquid on it, and we watched a show on her laptop while we waited for it to dry. Once she said it was good enough, she had me go wash it off.
After that, she had me put on this blue liquid, and once it dried, I had to go peel it off in the bathroom and wash off the excess. The final thing she put on was this moisturizer that she said had to soak into my skin for fifteen minutes, so she set a timer. Once that timer went off, she sent me to the bathroom to wash that off.
After drying my face, I looked at the mirror and had to admit that I did look pretty. My hair was super shiny in soft curls instead of the normal frizzy mess, and my skin was glowing. The nails—they were still dayglo green, but they didn’t look as egregious when combined with the rest of the changes. I also still felt self-conscious in the revealing clothing but had to admit that I looked good overall.
I was still a little distracted by the vast difference Tracy had made in my appearance when I walked out of the bathroom. I turned around to switch off the light before walking down the hall toward Tracy’s room. I had made the trek so many times today that I knew exactly where to go without looking—until I walked straight into a wall and stumbled backward.
I was preparing to land on my butt when two arms wrapped around my waist and stopped me from falling.
I was still a little confused about what I had smashed into until I heard a deep voice say, “Wow!”
My head snapped forward and I realized I was staring straight into a very muscular and very naked chest. I began to panic as my eyes moved upward and were met by the most mesmerizing blue eyes I had ever seen.
I got lost in those eyes as they seemed to pull me into their mystifying depths.
“Whoa, are you okay?” the stranger asked in a deep, captivating voice.
My heart was pounding in my chest. I suddenly realized I’d been standing there, staring at him, without uttering a single word. I felt like a
complete idiot. Here was this incredibly attractive guy, talking to me, and I was frozen, unable to respond.
What should I say? I needed to say something before he thought even worse of me. My head started to spin. Please, don’t let me faint. I just wanted to be normal.
“You don’t look so good. I didn’t think we bumped that hard. Do you need help getting back to Tracy’s room?” he asked.
No! I screamed internally. I needed to speak, but I couldn’t. I was just standing there, looking more and more foolish by the second. He’s so handsome. I shook my head. Focus, Charlotte. You need to respond. You can’t just stand here. The room was definitely spinning now. I was going to faint. This was a nightmare.
Just as my vision started to blur, Tracy appeared, wondering what was taking me so long.
“TJ, why are you home? And why are you bothering Charlotte?” Tracy asked.
“Bothering? I’m not bothering her,” he said before turning to me.
“I’m not bothering you, am I?”
I just stood there, staring at him, unable to speak. My panic was skyrocketing. Please, don’t let me faint. Or worse, throw up! The thought made me feel even sicker. That would be so much worse than fainting. I’d be mortified.
I wished the room would just spin me into unconsciousness. But the spinning was making me feel even more nauseous. I needed to get out of there before I had a full-blown panic attack. I looked at Tracy, my eyes wide with fear.
“If you’re not bothering her, then let her go,” Tracy said, pulling me into
her room.
Thank you, Tracy. You’re my hero.
“I’m so sorry, Char. I didn’t know he was home. Come, sit with me.
Let’s just breathe and calm down. It’ll be okay.”
“Your…brother…thinks…I’m…crazy…” I managed to say, gasping for air between each word.
“I think I’m going to faint or throw up!”
“Shh, he doesn’t think you’re crazy. He’s not judgmental. It’ll be okay.
Do you want me to get a cold washcloth for your forehead?”
“That might help, thank you.”
She quickly left the room and came back with a damp washcloth. I lay back on her bed and put it on my face. Gradually, the room stopped
spinning.
“I’m sorry I’m so weird,” I said.
“You’re not weird. Although, I think you’re the first person to almost throw up after seeing my brother.” She giggled, making me laugh too.
“I’ll have to tease him about that. His ego could use a little deflating.”
“Oh, please don’t tell him!” I pleaded.
“Fine,” she sighed.
“But it would be fun to tease him.”
After that, we went back to our sleepover. I made sure to avoid TJ. I couldn’t believe how hot Tracy’s brother was! Six feet one, blue eyes, blond hair, and muscles that made me weak in the knees.
I was in deep trouble.
