Bring Me To 1D (One Direction fan fiction)

Behind A Painted Smile

BEHIND A PAINTED SMILE

Mackenzie

It was the morning of the 'Bring Me To 1D' Beauty pageant grand final and I'd spent the last four hours in my bedroom with an entourage to rival Mariah Carey's. The place was full of hairdressers, manicurists, make-up artists and dress fitters, all paid for with my Dad's credit card.

"It's not dark enough," I barked at the beautician. She fidgeted with the spray tan nozzle and looked nervously over my shoulder as I scrutinised myself in the mirror. "Do another coat. And hurry up! We have to be at the pageant registration in an hour." The girl adjusted the nozzle and began spraying manically, sticking her tongue out in concentration. "And don't overdo it. I don't want to look like an Oompah Loompah."

Angelina, who had been carefully packaging up my hand sequinned 'Gucci' dress that I was wearing for the 'Evening wear' section of the pageant, suddenly let out a squeal and ran over to my huge bay window, peering out excitedly. "There's Daniel! He's just getting into his car. Oh my God! He looks so hot today!"

My face flushed with anger. "CLOSE THE GOD DAMN CURTAINS YOU STUPID BITCH!" Everyone in the room jumped and Angelina drew the curtains together in a panic, turning to me with a pathetic apologetic face.

"I'm standing here naked and you're at the frickin' window gawping at my step brother and drawing his attention up here. What the hell is wrong with you? And I told you to keep the hell away from him." I shivered outwardly at the thought of Daniel, causing the girl who was tanning my legs to look up at me and mouth a timid "Sorry," assuming I had shivered because of the cold spray.

A cold chill ran down my span as thoughts of last night came flooding back. I rubbed my wrists that were still hurting from where he'd held me down. I'd taken the longest shower I could last night, like I always did whenever he'd been near me. I needed to wash him off me but no matter how long I stayed under the piping hot water, scrubbing myself clean, I couldn't get rid of the smell of him, the sweat and the stench of stale whiskey on his drunken breath. I hated him so much.

The cold spray against my thighs jolted my mind back into the room and I quickly put Daniel out of my thoughts, replacing him with happy scenes of me winning the pageant, seducing Harry Styles and the two of us announcing our engagement in a TV interview with Oprah. This Go1Den ticket was more than just a 1D gig and a 'meet and greet' with the boys, it was my ticket out of this hell hole house.

As my hair was teased into an intricate style, pinned up at the back with delicate blonde strands framing my face at the front, I started to get annoyed that my Dad hadn't called. He'd better come up with the goods. I made it clear to him just how much I needed to win this. I looked at my watch and felt my anger rising . "Don't just stand there like a gormless idiot!" I yelled at Leah, taking out my frustration on her like a punch bag, "Go and pack up my make up box, we're leaving in a minute."

My step mother was at the bottom of the stairs as I traipsed down with my army of followers. I held my head up high. She didn't scare me when I was with people, there was nothing she could do to me.

She had a sarcastic smile on her face and for a second as I looked her in the eye, I thought I saw a flash of something else. Bitterness? Jealousy? I was suddenly very aware of how stunning I looked as I swept down the staircase and as I came closer to her and saw the inflated trout pout that was her lips and the frozen forehead from the botox, I smiled inwardly. It was my weapon, the one thing I could use against her.

She had been very beautiful when she was younger and although she was still in good shape, it was only because she spent every waking hour obsessing over ways to stay young looking. She went through endless procedures, nips, tucks, botox, fillers. It gave me immense satisfaction knowing that she hated me because I still had the one thing she wanted more than anything, my youth.