Becoming Beautiful (Wattys2014)

| Chapter 5 |

Chapter 5

I planned on going au natural to lunch but when Marissa held up the makeup bag, I knew she wouldn’t let that happen. She promised me she’d give me a natural look, though, but I wasn’t sure she knew what natural looked like. She curled my hair, to my dismay, and pulled it into a high ponytail. The curls were loose and light, falling to my upper back. My hair was always long; when it’s natural, it goes to my mid-back.

Surprisingly, she managed to keep the makeup to a minimum; the lipstick was a close shade to my natural lip color, it make them look plumper and shinier though- which I can appreciate. My skin was moisturized and felt smooth. Rather than putting eye shadow on me, Marissa stuck to the basics- mascara and a thin layer of eyeliner. It only took ten minutes, mostly because she had to wait until my face was fully dry from the moisturizer before she could start applying things.  

“You look perfect!” she squealed once I was changed. We walked downstairs and I grabbed my thin jacket, flinging it over my shoulders. It was supposed to be a little windy today, and a bit chilly- as chilly as it gets here: 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but windy so it might feel like 50.

Expecting her to open the door and leave, I was shocked when she called her brother’s name. He’s going shoe shopping with us? And out to lunch? I wanted to grab her arm and request that she leave him here. Although I try and find the best in people, and trust me- I do try, it doesn’t mean that I can deal with someone who doesn’t disguise their hatred for me. “We’re taking my car!”

“Like I’d want her in my car.” My eyebrows were on the verge of shooting up at what he’d said. He walked right past us as he grabbed his jacket. We scooted past him, Marissa whispering for me to ignore her ‘idiot brother’ as we did so. I quickly got into the passenger’s seat, not trying to sit in the back and look like a kid. When Noah got into the car, he quickly placed his headphones in, efficiently tuning us out.

Rolling my eyes at his childish antics, I turned to Marissa with a smile on my face. “Where to first?”

“The shoe store," she replied, starting the car and exiting the driveway.

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We walked down the street, heading towards another shoe store that was close enough to walk. It would be pointless to drive when it’d take us only three minutes to walk. Nobody was complaining, which was a good thing. Noah didn’t have his earbuds in but wasn’t saying anything. Marissa’s phone rang the moment I giggled. She excused herself for a moment, demanding that Noah stay put.

He didn’t even acknowledge her statement and plopped down onto a bench. Once I realized what we were doing, I giggled again. He furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced at me. I began whistling the tune to ‘A Thousand Miles’ by Vanessa Carlton.

“Really?” he asked me, his voice full of disbelief at my childishness. My whistling slowly faded as I stood in the middle of the sidewalk staring at my feet.

“No need to get all grumpy there, Mr. I-like-to-soak-other-people’s-clothes,” I stated under my breath.

He rolled his eyes. “I could have ripped them to shreds if I wanted to. You should be grateful that I didn’t do that.”

“Thank you, Noah, thank you so much for sparing my clothes,” I replied sarcastically. He was about to snap at me as Marissa walked into the conversation’s hearing range.

“Watch what you say to me," he retorted, his voice low and dangerous.

I knew that backing down would give him satisfaction; so I mustered up the last morsels of confidence I could find and plastered them onto my face in the form of a smirk. “You can’t watch words, silly.”