Falsies (The Makeup Series Book 1)

by Olive East

  “I’m tired and I have stuff to do. Can’t we schedule for next week?” When you’re over wanting to see me.

  “No, I’m your mother and I said now.”

  “Fine, whatever,” I mumbled like the small child she always managed to reduce me to.

  I quickly showered in an attempt to wash my foul mood off. It didn’t work. Wretched emotions don’t fit down tiny little drain holes. Dripping water all over my scratched-up wood floor and searching in the back of my closet, I found the hideous pastel dress Val bought me for my last birthday, which I saved for just this occasion.

  In my last mother-pleasing effort, I completely pulled my long, messy curls off my face. When I glanced in the mirror before I went outside to wait for her, I hated everything I saw. I looked perfect.

  Standing in the cold was infinitely preferable to my mother coming up. My bed was never made, I only ever had peanut butter and Mountain Dew in the fridge, and books, clothes, makeup, and magazines occupied every available surface. Not to mention the lack of space in general. I loved everything about my apartment, so she hated it by default.

  Val rolled to a stop at the curb forty minutes later instead of twenty.

  “Fix the time on my dash, will you?” my mother said as soon as I plopped my cold butt down on the new seat of her Lexus.

  “That didn’t sound like an apology or a hello to me.”

  “Apologize? For what now, Ollie?” She sighed, making me feel like she was already exhausted with me.

  “Nothing.”

  I began adjusting the time as she applied more powder to her overly done-up face. Val thought the more makeup she wore, the younger she looked. I tried to convince her the pancake look wasn’t fooling anyone, but she didn’t listen. Instead she applied layer after layer of foundation and powder until she was more makeup than woman.

  “Isn’t a floral dress out of season right now?”

  I had absolutely nothing to say to that; besides, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. We sat in silence until she put the compact down and finally looked at me.

  “You do look lovely in that dress, though. I have marvelous taste, it’s just the wrong season.” She brushed the nonexistent dark hair out of my eyes purely out of habit, frowned at my fake lashes, and then pulled away from the curb.

  “Where exactly are we going?” I finally thought to ask.

  “You said you had errands to run.” She barely took her foot off the gas at a stop sign.

  The only place I had to go was the supermarket. I could always use groceries, but there was about a zero percent chance she’d want to shop for food.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Whatever. Don’t you have things to do?”

  “We could do a little shopping, then lunch.” She was already headed in the direction of the mall and I was already regretting saying she could pick.

  Shopping with my mother usually meant being dragged from dressing room to dressing room while she asked how she looked in her questionable clothing choices. She was always buying me clothes too, but I would only occasionally like them. That’s not to say they went unappreciated. Whenever I had trouble making ends meet, Val somehow always knew. She’d send me a card with some money in it or randomly drop off dinner. Those were the things that meant so much to me, but the gifts got shoved in the back of my closet or balled up in a drawer and only made me feel guilty.

  This time was no different.

  We walked through the juniors section of the department store, even though I told her I hadn’t worn juniors clothes for ages. Val piled clothing of every style and color over her arm.

  “Oh, what do you think of this?” She held up a white shirt covered in gold and silver sequins.

  “I’d never wear that.”

  She laughed. “Not for you. For me.”

  It was a crop top and made from that stretchy material that clung to everything. Val was tiny, but not in good enough shape to bare her belly in sequins.

  “It’s really young, don’t you think?”

  She draped the shirt over her arm. “I’m not old. I’m trying it on.”

  In a move that made me cringe, Val snapped her fingers until the saleswoman came over. “We both need fitting rooms, hun. Right next to each other and without other people’s leftover clothes in them still.”

  “Sure.” The woman smiled and I mouthed, “Sorry.”

  “Here.” Val dumped half the clothes she’d gathered in my arms. “Try these on. Start with the floral dress.”

  I shut myself in the small room and took a deep breath. With all the clothes hanging on the hooks I could tell I wasn’t going to like any of them. There were lacy, bright colors and shiny fabric galore. The dress I was supposed to put on was the worst. I avoided the mirror as I slipped the dress over my head. The long sleeves were too tight and too long. The slit on the side went up to my thigh and probably looked awful, and the dark flowers looked more suitable for curtains than to wear. The price wasn’t too bad. Maybe if she insisted I buy it I could return it later.

  “What’s the hold up?” Val asked from the other side of the door.

  I pushed out of the room, still wearing my boots, to see her wearing the exact same dress.

  “We look darling!”

  She pulled me beside her in front of the large mirror in the hall. She looked okay. I guess. The dress at least fit her. I looked…like a sausage.

  “I look awful.” I turned away from the mirror.

  “You know,” she said, ignoring me, “we almost look like sisters.”

  “Yeah.” I only agreed because it was easier than pointing out how wrong she was. Her hair was short and blonde, her legs were long and thin, and her eyes were a light blue. I had the opposite of all those things. But yeah, we looked like twins.

  I prayed, wished, hoped, and dreamed that I would never grow into her. Most choices I made were purely based on what I thought my mother would do and then doing the opposite. She was overtly emotional, and honestly, I was too. But Val wore her emotions on the outside for all to see. She didn’t mind crying in public. She never shied away from confrontation. Val loved an audience. Which led me to keep my emotional expression level with that of a coma patient, no matter what I was feeling on the inside. She was pushy, loud, and outgoing. I was none of those things, oftentimes to an extreme fault.

  A couple hours and several hundred snide comments from Val later, I had enough.

  “Can we please go eat now? I’m starved.”

  “Sure. I could use a bite or two.” And she probably really meant one or two. My mom would always leave a restaurant with a to-go box and devour the contents as soon as she was behind closed doors. Val was all about the illusions in life.

  She pulled out her phone as we got into the car and I searched my bag for my headphones. They, of course, weren’t in there.

  “Hey, babe,” she gushed when Karl picked up.

  She went into detail with him about every piece of clothing she tried on and then bought, while I wondered how anyone could pretend to care that much. Then the startling thought hit me: what if he actually cared that much? Did my dad ever care that much? I bet he didn’t. I bet that was the problem. How did he ever fall for her?

  My phone buzzed with a text from Sadie, but I didn’t read it. I was too busy thinking about my parents’ doomed relationship.

  When we got in the booth at Eat’n Park, I knew the finish line of the gagworthy mother-daughter day was in sight. A quick Breakfast Smile for lunch and then I’d be back home to sulk.

  “I heard you’re fighting with Sadie,” my mother said.

  I shrugged but didn’t look up from the water I’d ordered so she wouldn’t lecture me on the horrors of Mountain Dew. “Not really.”

  “She’s worried about you.”

  “Well, she needs to worry about herself.”

  “Sounds like there are things we need to talk about.” She made circles with the tip of her finger on the speckled tabletop.

  “Sounds like y
ou already had a talk with Sadie.”

  “Ollie, I hate when you do that.” She was talking so loudly I wanted to hide.

  “Do what?” Breathe, she probably hated it when I breathed.

  “Just say what I say but turn it around. I can’t help it if I have to talk to Sadie because you won’t talk to me. She even offered to get lunch with me…”

  “I’m sitting here with you right now.” What did she want from me?

  “Yes, you’re sitting here, but you hardly speak unless I drag it out of you, and you always act so miserable. Look, she told me she’s worried about…” She pursed her lips while she tested her words in her mind first. “What this time of year is a reminder of.”

  “What?” My stomach flopped uncomfortably and I pulled my hands into the sleeves of my sweater.

  Sadie was the one who brought my dad up in the first place, Sadie was the one who reminded me it was the anniversary, and Sadie was the one talking about him to my mother. Maybe she was the one with the problem.

  “She told me the whole story of Friday night.” My eyes widened as I waited for her to mention my escape to Brooks’s, but she didn’t. At least Sadie had that much sense. “She said she was devastated you ran out on your little get-together.”

  “Well, if she wanted to see me she shouldn’t have lied to me.” I began ripping my paper napkin to shreds.

  “Is this really about you and Aaron?” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “I knew it, and you were doing so well. The three of you would get along if you were with someone. Maybe you should try online dating.”

  She truly believed what she’d just said. I just had the worst year of my life and she said I was doing well? I’d stopped eating and speaking. I moved out of her home because I couldn’t stand the sight of her, and then there were the more pressing, and much darker issues I tried to never think of.

  She casually dumped seven Splenda packets into her iced tea like we were talking about the weather. Could she be more of a hypocrite? I can’t drink Mountain Dew but she can shovel in Splenda like she owns stock.

  “I don’t think that will be something that’ll ever happen.” I willed the cook to prepare my eggs as quickly as possible.

  Online dating was fine for normal people. People who only have your standard past traumas, possess the ability to be semi-charming, and at the very least don’t believe in magical fake eyelashes.

  “You’re still single, so that’s why I’m concerned.”

  “I hardly think being single is a cause for concern. There’re plenty of worse things in life.”

  “That might be true, but with your past”—she whispered the last part—“being single isn’t a good idea. Boyfriends make girls happy and you need to do everything you can to keep happy.”

  Val was still working under the delusion that I had only one trigger for my problem.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You need to talk about this. Sadie is a very good friend to you, and if you keep acting like this, you’ll push her right out of your life. And besides, what will my friends think if my daughter is not only single, but friendless? Doesn’t Aaron have any single friends?”

  The warmth in my mom’s voice at just the mention of Aaron’s name made me irate. How could she still like him so much? And maybe I didn’t have many friends, but there were always the guys at the shop. They were quickly becoming my friends. But I couldn’t bring them up because she’d probably use that as a jumping point for a lecture about respectable career paths.

  I chose that moment to check my text.

  Sadie: Come over ASAP!!!

  That was it. Nothing more. I wasn’t about to fall into that trap. It could mean a million things. I didn’t answer her.

  I navigated my remaining time with my mother with a fake smile and fake interest. It was that easy. When she dropped me off, I promised to call Sadie and set up a date with one of Aaron’s friends. Appeasing her was that easy too.

  Chapter Six

  As I sat at a red light at 6:39 p.m. on Wednesday, I finally decided I was lonely enough to call Sadie. The phone only rang once before she answered, a side effect of having it glued to her hand. As usual she didn’t ask for an apology and neither did I. We picked up like the last several days never happened and I had never got upset with her.

  “Where are you?”

  “Driving home from the shop.”

  “Good, good! Just come over.”

  I parked next to Aaron’s pickup in the driveway, only slightly surprised that he was there. Of course I wasn’t lucky enough to get just Sadie. I ran right up her spilt-level. I hadn’t bothered with knocking on the door to the familiar house since I was ten, and I wasn’t about to change that.

  “Hey, love,” she yelled as I walked up the steps.

  “Hi, dear,” I answered. She was sitting on Aaron’s lap. Vomit. All PDA freaked me out, but I hated it even more when it was between the two of them.

  “What’s shakin’, O?” Aaron asked with a blank expression as I parked it on the overstuffed tan couch.

  “Nothing.”

  “Well, you’ve been MIA for a few days now, so I assumed you’d be off doing really interesting shit.”

  Sadie stood up and smoothed down her too-short skirt that she probably wore to class. She had been managing to get straight A’s since the ninth grade. Coincidentally, that was the same year she discovered push-up bras, miniskirts, and high heels. I never looked to confirm, but I bet if I peeked at Sadie’s course schedule, it’d boast all male professors.

  “Aaron, drop it.”

  “No. She isn’t invisible. She can’t disappear whenever she feels like it. People worry about you, you know that, Ollie.”

  Aaron, I’m…I began to sign, not wanting Sadie to know what I was saying, but she cut me off.

  “Just stop it.” She patted his knee and a few fingers disappeared in the holes in his jeans. She was trying hard to keep a light tone, but it was so flimsy anyone could see through it.

  You can make my blood boil like no one else—I swear, Aaron signed.

  Sadie pulled her hand away from him so quickly I thought something might have bitten her. She kept looking from him to me, but I only looked at her. I didn’t want her to be mad.

  The tension was almost unbearable as we sat in silence for a few painful moments. Something major was brewing between them, hopefully before I even walked in the door, but I seemed to be the trigger.

  Sadie had her fists on her slender hips. Her eyes shot daggers at Aaron while he continued to stare at me.

  I’m sorry if I worried you, but I’m old enough to make my own decisions. I didn’t see you running after me or even calling, I signed to Aaron despite Sadie’s presence.

  Is that what you wanted, Ollie? Attention? Well, you’ve got it. Aaron leaned forward; our knees were almost touching. I was worried about you and you could’ve called too.

  Sadie said nothing. She didn’t even look at me or him anymore and it wouldn’t have mattered if she did—she never bothered to learn any signs. I didn’t have anything to say either. I didn’t even get where his anger was coming from.

  It was silent for an eternity while the calming scent of Cozy by the Fire burning on the coffee table mocked me. The landmines of paper-thin friendships and barely concealed resentment all around me were becoming unavoidable.

  I was starting to think they were both frozen in place until Aaron said, “I can’t play this fucking game anymore.” He stood up and headed toward the door with Sadie tailing him like kite string.

  “Babe. Babe. Come on. Where’re you going?”

  “Just away,” he told her. She spent a few more minutes pleading with him in the entryway while I stood at the top of the steps, watching them like it was a movie. She kept her voice low and pleading so I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

  Aaron kept glancing up with his hands shoved in the pockets of his low slung jeans; Sadie had her back to me. Eventually Sadie lost and Aaron left w
ith a slam of the door the whole neighborhood probably heard.

  The second he stepped out of the house, Sadie turned around and said, “I think you should go.” That hurt.

  I suddenly wanted to stay more than anything. We needed to talk, I needed to make sense of what was happening, but most of all, I needed to not be alone. I could handle being the reason Sadie wouldn’t talk to me, but I couldn’t deal with her not wanting to talk to me because of Aaron.

  She came back up the steps in a flash and brushed past me like I wasn’t even there. Everything went cold and I knew attempting to stay would be futile. I stepped out of her warm home and into the cold outdoors, wishing Lydia was already home from work. I stood motionlessly just on the other side of the door. Aaron’s truck was gone, so there was no point in trying to find him—even if I wanted to.

  Before I got to the house I knew I’d end up back at Brooks’s door. At least I hoped I would. Trying to be sneaky, I pulled my Accord around the rear of the block so if Aaron came back he wouldn’t know my location. I jogged, which was something I hated and never did, around the sidewalk to Brooks’s front door and knocked like the police were after me.

  “Can I help you?” he answered quickly and without expression.

  “I want to come in,” I told him, thanking my stars he was home.

  “I noticed.” He didn’t move or motion for me to pass.

  “Please, I don’t want Sadie or Aaron to know I’m here.”

  “Did you smudge one of Sadie’s mirrors with your fingerprints?”

  I snorted in an exaggerated way. What he said was funny but left me uncomfortable at the same time. Was it just a guess that Sadie was a neat freak or did he know firsthand? Plus, the girl was vainer than the Evil Queen. Did he say mirror because it’s a common object, or did he know how the depth of Sadie’s love for her looks?

  He probably thought she was beautiful.

  She was beautiful.

  “Worse,” I said in a tiny voice. Involuntarily, I took a step backward.

  “Worse?” His eyes tightened with my movement like maybe he didn’t want me to go.

  “Yes.”