by Lake, D. K.
After we were done and there was no more work for us, Alice dismissed us and we wandered back to the trailer to get ready for tonight.
Chapter 6
"So have you decided on a color?" Sophie asked.
"You weren't kidding when you said you had every color under the sun." I said, still trying to decide what color to paint my nails.
We had gone to the showers together and got washed and come back to Sophie's trailer. I hadn't really got dressed properly and was still sitting in my panties and just a t-shirt, with my damp hair dripping down my back. We were currently sat at the dining table which was covered with hundreds of bottles of nail polish, but I still couldn't decide what I wanted. Sophie had her foot up on the table painting her toenails some hot pink shade.
"I think you should have..." she mused, screwing the cap on the nail polish and setting it down.
She pinched the turquoise from me which is the only one I had picked out so far, and quickly browsed the colors and picked out three colors, Lemon Sherbet (neon lemon), Spicy Salsa (neon orange), Green Graze (neon green). She pushed the other bottles aside and placed the three colors in front of me.
"Hmm...I like the lemon, possibly the green but I'm not too keen on the orange." I said.
"Ok, I love the lemon so why don't we paint your fingernails lemon, and then mix and match your toenails with the lemon and green?"
I nodded in agreement just as there was a knock at the door. I bounded out of the seat and hurried to the door with Sophie chasing after me.
"Alex, let me open it first-" Sophie started to say but I already had the door open.
I was hoping it was Drew, but instead, Rosie stood on the bottom step with a smile on her face. Rosie had mentioned to Sophie that she didn't have anything nice to wear to the party and Sophie had told her that she was welcome to come by and rummage through her closet to see if there was anything she liked.
"Hey." Rosie said, her smile faltering for a split second as she took in the sight of my eyes as she hadn't seen them before as I had worn sunglasses all afternoon. "Um, I just came by to have a snout through your clothes if that's all right?" Rosie continued, putting on a smile again.
"Sure, get in here." Sophie waved her inside and I trudged over to the end of the trailer and peeked out the nets.
Where is Drew? What is taking him so long?
"Alex, what have I told you about doing that? Get away from the nets!" Sophie scolded me.
I walked back to the table and slid into my space and picked up the Lemon Sherbet and got started on my fingernails. I could hear Sophie and Rosie chatting in the bedroom, laughing and giggling as Sophie helped Rosie to pick out something to wear. Sophie finally walked out and stopped at the end of the table.
"Stop what you are doing immediately." she snapped, looking horrified.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Your nails!" She pointed at my hands.
"I thought you wanted me to paint my nails?" I said, sticking the brush back in the pot.
"Yes, your nails, not your fingers as well."
"They're not that bad." I defended, using my other hand to wipe some of the nail polish away from my finger skin and I ended up smudging one of the nails.
"Not that bad? It looks as though a four-year-old has done it. Here...wipe it off and I'll do it for you." Sophie passed the nail remover to me and chucked some cotton wool at me and I quickly wiped it off.
Sophie sat down opposite me and I gave her my hand and she started painting my nails for me.
"Remind me to never ask you to help with the decorating." she teased.
"Whatever!" I laughed.
"What do you guys think?" Rosie asked, walking into the kitchen, not even batting an eyelid at my eyes this time.
She was wearing a pair of black lace short shorts with frills and a cold-shoulder crop top with long sleeves. Her belly button was on display and I could see she had it pierced with a little butterfly dangling down.
She fidgeted around with the bottom of the crop top trying to pull it down a bit.
"It looks great." Sophie said. "Right, Alex?"
"Yep, suits you." I replied honestly.
"You don't think it's a little too much?" Rosie worried.
"No, you look lovely, and it's a party so you're supposed to dress up which is what I have to keep reminding Alex." Sophie said.
I rolled my eyes and looked back at my nails, blowing on my thumbnail.
"You don't think I look too slutty?" Rosie fidgeted.
"Slutty? Why would it make you look slutty? You look fab." Sophie said.
"I don't know if Tobias will like it." Rosie said.
"I'm sorry but I have to ask because it's been bugging me, was Tobias your teacher or something before?" I blurted out.
"He was my History teacher." Rosie said, biting her lip.
Sophie's mouth dropped open because she had no idea.
"You got it on with your teacher?" Sophie exclaimed with a large smile.
Rosie nodded. "How?" Sophie asked.
"It just sort of happened. I asked for extra help and ended up staying late some days and it just happened."
"Where? In the stationary closet?" Sophie teased.
Rosie went bright red. "Stop it." Rosie laughed.
"Did he ask for your help to sharpen his pencil?" Sophie chuckled.
I just shook my head, trying not to laugh and shoved my hand under Sophie's nose to get her to paint my next nail.
"He used to give me a lift home." Rosie said, looking through the nail polishes.
"Here we go, she's about to spill all her dirty secrets." Sophie said, leaning closer. "I knew she wasn't really a good girl like she made out to be." Sophie whispered even though Rosie could clearly hear her.
"We used to drive to this deserted area under the bridge and..." Rosie went all shy.
"You can't stop now!" Sophie said, grabbing my hand and quickly coating another nail.
"We used to do it in his MINI." Rosie blurted out and we all burst out laughing.
"You dirty little minx." Sophie cackled, snorting like a pig as she tried to control her laughing.
When Sophie had calmed down she picked up my hand again and painted my little finger and then held out her hand for my other hand.
"If Tobias doesn't like your outfit then there is something wrong with him, and it doesn't look slutty. If you think that's slutty you should take a look at Margo. I mean who wears leather in this heat? That skirt she wears looks about two sizes too small as well." Sophie laughed and I couldn't help but join in. "I like dressing up with the face paint and masks, but I still think the tutus and the corsets are taking it a bit far. Sorry, no offense to your sister." Sophie added.
"It's ok, I think they're a bit weird too, maybe they think we're the weird ones because we don't get it." Rosie said, sliding into the seat next to me and picking up the nail file to smooth her nails.
"It feels like forever since I last got to sit down and have a girlie chat with anyone, let alone paint my nails." Rosie said, deciding on Electric Blue to paint her fingernails.
My gaze drifted to the window again and I was about to ask Rosie to move so I could go and look outside again but Sophie gave me a pointed look.
"Don't you dare." Sophie warned.
"He's still not back." I groaned.
"Who's not back?" Rosie asked.
"Drew, he went into town to get something, but Sophie here won't tell me what it is he went to get." I explained.
"I don't know. He just said he needed to get something."
"I think you do know." I glared at her playfully.
"Stop it and pass me your hand."
"Yes, I'll just detach it." I joked, letting her have my hand back so she could finish off my nails.
"I'm sure Drew is all right, he's very good at killing things." Rosie said.
"Wow, that's one way to put it." Sophie laughed.
"No, what I mean is he can take care of himself." Rosie laughed. "Y
ou shouldn't worry, I'm sure he'll be back soon, and it's not like he'd go anywhere without you so you know he'll be back." Rosie said and Sophie nodded her head. "That boy is crazy about you." Rosie added.
"And he's just crazy...but mostly because of you." Sophie said with a smile.
I signed loudly. "He better come back."
I rested my chin on my hand and then realized what I had done and Sophie saw me looking at her with wide eyes.
"You didn't?" Sophie said, reaching out to grab my wrist and yanking my hand away from my face to see my nails that she had just painted were now all smudged.
"Whoops." I smiled.
"I'm gonna have to tie you down at this rate." Sophie joked and started removing the polish again.
When our nails were finished and bone dry so I couldn't have any more accidents we all got dressed properly and spent a good twenty minutes in Sophie's bedroom as she pulled out bags and bags of shoes from under her bed where she had been storing them. Luckily all three of us were close in size so we all managed to find something to fit. I found a pair of black glitter sandals that I was happy with much to Sophie's disapproval and she was insisting I wear the strappy wedge sandals but I knew I would end up falling on my ass so I outright refused to wear them.
Sophie picked out a pair of black high heels with tassels, and Rosie ended up wearing the wedge sandals Sophie had picked out for me which suited her much better and went with her outfit nicely.
After we had all found shoes, Rosie offered to do our makeup, saying she had wanted to be a makeup artist after she left school. Sophie had a huge collection of makeup to sift through, and Rosie made Sophie's face look all glitzy with gold glitter eyeshadow and shimmery cheeks and bright lips, and the colors went well with her beautiful ebony skin. I would have looked terrible if Rosie had put all that on me but somehow Sophie managed to pull it off. Sophie sorted her hair out into a high ponytail, spritzing and puffing out the tail so it was full of volume, adding large gold hoops to her ears to finish the look off. Rosie quickly swept some blusher on but made it look natural and just added some flicks to her eyes and a little lip gloss.
Next, it was my turn. I refused anything too glitzy but Rosie managed to convince me to have the black glitter eyeshadow, adding flicks to my eyes as well and somehow managing to make my eyes pop even more.
"It's too much, people will freak." I said, concerned.
"Let them." Sophie said, attacking me with some kind of shimmery blush and I swatted her hand away.
"No, they look amazing, and I just spent twenty minutes doing your eyes so you can't take it off." Rosie said firmly.
"Fine, but I want my sunglasses."
"No, no sunglasses. I want everyone to see my handiwork." Rosie said, looking through the lipsticks and picking out a natural color for my lips. I gave up and went with it. If anyone had a problem with the way I looked they would soon let me know, and I'm sure Sophie would give them a mouthful anyway.
Sophie helped plait Rosie's hair, creating a headband with a plait. It was a nice touch, she had wavy short brown hair like me and she didn't know what to do with it but Sophie made it look beautiful, even adding a flower when she had finished.
There wasn't any dinner being served as all the food was going to be laid out in a buffet type display at the party tonight but my tummy was already rumbling.
"Alex, step away from the window." Sophie said with her hand on her hip, waiting for me to take a seat so she could do my hair.
I let the nets fall back down into place and walked over to her and let her push me down into the seat.
"Hair up or down?" Sophie asked, running her hands through my hair.
"Don't care." I muttered.
"Will you please stop moping, he's coming back!" Sophie said, picking up a hairbrush and dragging it through my crazy curls that had dried and gone frizzy already. "This is just making it worse, I think I will dampen it down again, and add some mousse, and then I'm gonna braid a few pieces to keep it off your face." Sophie mused, standing in front and studying my hair.
"Whatever you think is best." I said lazily, picking up a magazine and flicking through it.
I had to admit Sophie did a good job on my hair. I stood in front of the mirror looking at the intricate braids she had added in and the mousse had managed to control my hair and she had managed to give me beach curls that I had never been able to capture. My hair liked to kink up and had a zigzag effect but today it was bouncy and looked gorgeous. I couldn't remember the last time I had put mousse in my hair either. She had even insisted on adding some kind of hair charms, small gold hoops that she had added into the braids. Hutch had returned looking a little worn out from his hard day helping to get things ready for tonight and building some kind of stage. He took himself off to get showered while we chatted in the trailer, and he was back in ten minutes and dressed in five.
"You ladies ready to leave?" Hutch asked, stepping out of the bedroom in a pair of black cargo shorts, flip-flops, and a casual short sleeve white shirt that was unbuttoned at the top.
"Ok, why does Hutch get to go dressed like he's off to the beach and you made me dress up like a pampered flamingo?" I asked.
"Because Hutch is a boy and most of them don't care what they look like...or smell like. I'm lucky if he decides to wear deodorant." Sophie laughed.
"It's true." Hutch said, hooking an arm around Sophie's waist and reeling her in for a kiss while Rosie helped herself to a glass of water.
"Well, I must say you ladies look lovely tonight." Hutch said.
Rosie smiled and I just looked away and peeked out the nets again. I couldn't believe it had got so late so quickly. Where had the time gone? Getting all dressed up to go out takes too much effort and time. It was getting dark already and I was starting to get anxious over Drew.
"Alex, enough!" Sophie snapped. "Come on, it's time to go!" She smiled and held out her hand to me.
I stopped by the counter and picked up my sunglasses about to slide them onto my face.
"Don't even think about it!" Sophie scolded.
"But-" I started.
"No. You don't need to hide your eyes." Sophie said firmly.
"She's right, you shouldn't hide them behind a pair of glasses. And it is getting dark and no one really wears sunglasses at night, it would draw more attention. And you'll probably bump into stuff with them on." Rosie said.
"Yeah but everyone is going to freak out."
"So? Let them. Alice and the main people in charge already know you're not a threat, so who cares what everyone else thinks? They might be a little wary of you at first but when they see you having fun like any other normal person they'll soon forget about your eyes, right?" Sophie said, looking at Hutch.
"She's right. You don't need to wear them, and if anyone gives you any trouble you've got a lot of supporters." Hutch said.
"Supporters? What is this a fan club?" I laughed.
"Sure, it's the 'Alex is awesome fanclub'." Sophie smiled.
"Ok, but if anyone starts throwing tomatoes at me I'm leaving." I said.
"It will be alright 'cause if anyone throws a tomato at you I'll throw a potato back at them." Sophie put her hand on her hip.
"Like a baked potato?" Rosie asked with a smile.
"No, like a solid one out of the ground that will knock them off their feet." Sophie explained and we all laughed.
"So are we good to go?" Hutch asked and the two girls looked at me and I nodded, feeling nervous though. I was worried about what reaction I was going to get from everyone when I turned up without my sunglasses on. Earlier everyone had been looking and pointing at me and I had just ignored it but I'd had my sunglasses on earlier.
I let out a breath and let Sophie pull me out the trailer and all four of us made our way to the party.
I had been pampered and preened and was all set to go to some party I didn't really want to go to, all I wanted to do was find Drew.
Chapter 7
We wandered through the
trailers, and the closer we got to the area where the party was being held the more nervous I felt.
Sophie frowned at me and let go of my hand and wiped it down her outfit.
"You have got to calm down, you're sweating all of the place." Sophie said.
"It's hot outside tonight." I replied, looking for Drew as we passed a group of people. "If he's not back in ten minutes I'm leaving." I said.
"Who's this?" Hutch asked, looking over his shoulder at us girls.
"Drew!" I said hastily.
"He's already back. He was helping me with a few last minute fixes on the stage."
"He's already back?" I said, coming to a stop.
"See, I told you he'd come back." Sophie said, linking her arm through mine and getting me to walk with her.
"Where is he?" I asked, walking a little faster to get closer to Hutch so I could hear him as the music in the distance was getting louder. "Hutch! Where is he?" I asked louder.
"He went to get showered." Hutch threw over his shoulder as we walked into the main area and came to a stop.
The whole place looked amazing, lit up with torches dotted around the grass, candles on the picnic tables, and the fairy lights were all switched on. A large white marquee had been added and there were tables and a dancing area inside. The stage had been finished and there were sheets covering the backdrops, I wasn't sure but it looked like they were going to put on a show of some kind. A few smaller gazebos were randomly placed around with food and drink tables inside, and there was a large sound system set up pumping out, Justin Bieber, Sorry.
"Is it safe to have the music on so loud?" I asked dubiously.
"Probably not, but they've got people up the watchtowers around the inside of the perimeter guarding them with guns, taking it in shifts and they've been ordered to take down anything that moves on the other side." Hutch explained and I just nodded and glanced around, searching for Drew.
He had been out for the whole day and he hadn't even bothered to tell me he was leaving, and he didn't come and find me straight away when he got back, and instead, he helped Hutch fix the stage. I mean, what was he thinking, doesn't he know how worried I have been about him all day?