Grey Testament ✓

Thirty-Three | Eating Makeup

SOTC: Ribs by Lorde

One Month Later

"Kaboom!"

Lee, or Ares I should say, banged his fists against the table. Hallie, Rosalina, and Killian gripped the table for dear life as they and passerbys died of laughter.

"Pretty funny, huh?" Cody asked me upon catching his breath.

"Yeah," I said in response for the joke I was half-listening to, putting a smile on my face.

A month later, I was at Lunch. Cody, Ares, and Killian had joined Rosalina, Hallie, and I like we now did every Friday as a new tradition. Cody had been with me for most of the Friday like he had for the other days since our scene.

Oh, and we earned the award of biggest gossip in Ivy High. Boys high-fived Cody, girls clasped my hands and professed a ballad about how I blessed them with inspiration to find a love just like mine, and Ms. Zigenhorn stared at Cody and I like a VSCO girl to her scrunchies. Everyone who passed by us swooned, calling us couple goals, some going as far to take pictures of us. Vaughn and Garrett smacked Cody on the back every time they passed by us, and they gave me more embraces than ever.

We were bigger than the gossip on why he dropped out of Ivy.

"Did you like the joke, my love?"

I snapped out of my trance on the table to those movie theatre eyes. "Yeah," I said.

"Good." Cody leaned over, whispering in a joking confidence, "Though I know I please you more."

"Get a room!" Ares exclaimed into cupped hands.

Cody pulled away and baseball-pitched a grape at him. He was rewarded with another echo of laughter from the table. I made sure to join the amusement.

"Nobody loves me!" Killian whined.

"I threw a grape at Ares, pick me boy," Cody retorted.

Killian turned to Ares. "Daddy, do you love me?"

"Of course, son!"

He closed his eyes and puckered his lips. Ares put a carrot between his teeth, turning to him. Killian's eyes popped open and he gasped with illuminating joy as he chopped half of the carrot.

"WOAH!" the table exclaimed.

"Now it's time to feed you." Ares took the carrot out his mouth and locked lips with Hallie.

Killian squawked and Rosalina choked on her tea.

Cody rose from the table. "I'm getting a chicken salad. Ironically the ones the cafeteria puts out at the end are always better." He looked at me. "Wanna come?"

I nodded, and we started walking to the salad bar.

"You excited for tonight?" he asked me when we were out of the table's earshot.

"Very." I remembered when Cody announced the Barons were hosting their once a year party, which was basically their largest party of whatever year. The theme this year, for the first time ever, was Masquerade. I performed my cheer that took practice after practice to sell that I was surprised in a highness so loud I could drown out my thoughts of who told me about it.

"Just imagine it, Daphne. Under the lights of the event my parents put their blood, sweat, and tears into being Baron relatives, your family, my father's colleagues, and a third of Ivy High. They see you and I come up in front of everyone, and we announce it with a kiss: us."

Us.

"Us. The best friends who found each other," I tugged up my brightest look when I said it, ruffling up his blonde hair.

Cody snaked his hands around my waist, ending at my lower back.

I faced him, and I carried out my own event that I put blood, sweat, and tears into for a month. Sapphire eyes I possessed in my sockets burned into my boyfriend's movie theatre brown, the one that played the kids in the Tuscan City summertime through their glimmer. I looked into them with the highest level of love I could force gradually.

Trying to make them pastel green.

———

"Daphne, look!" Sabrina gasped yet again.

A smile went across my face as I tore my gaze away from the bathroom mirror to the effortlessly-made swaddle in her arms. Cecelia made a small cough as a glimpse of her dark eyes brightened through small slits her eyelids allowed.

That evening, Sabrina and I were in her bathroom getting ready. Well, more or less. My little sister got ready in her Elizabeth Swann style gown paired with a burgundy mask at the speed of light so she could hold Cecilia again to alert my every time she graced us with her beautiful, yet rarely shown awakening.

I could see the traits of her parents in her already. Cecelia's sure fire blonde hair was wavy, which was a combination of her curly and I guess Tray's hair texture and her bright, euphoric smile resembling my sister's curve as her eyes gleamed of love.

"Ugh, I don't want to put you to bed!" Sabrina then whined, leaning into her face.

"Can't she stay a little longer?"

She shook her head. "No. She can't be fussy tonight, I actually have to be alive tomorrow," Sabrina sighed. "Let's go, Milkshake."

I giggled lightly. Milkshake was declared as Cecelia's official nickname during Sabrina's first trimester after binging the whole first season of Jane The Virgin.

Sabrina closed the door upon coming back from her room, typing into her phone until Lorde played. Thank god her bathroom was sound-proof because when we played music we played it loud.

"Oh, your face!"

Both my hands clasped on her marble vanity in front of the mirror. Shimmering with gold jewels and glitter was a pattern starting from the inner corners of my eyes to my cheekbones. So I could take of my red and gold mask and I'd still match my best dress yet: an off-the-shoulder rose ballgown.

"It's gorgeous. I wish I had your talent with makeup."

I wish I could eat makeup.

I wished I could ingest the powder I spent a half an hour mindlessly putting on for breakfast. Scrape my fork against my bronzer. Lick the mascara off my eyelashes as if it were on my fingers. I wish I could ingest every brand painted on my face that could make you alive in a second. Deceive armies of plastic surgeons.

Because maybe it could trick my brain for good, too.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, my ears absorbing the song blasting out Sabrina's phone like a sponge.

You're the only friend I need, you're the only friend I need
Sharing beds like little kids, sharing beds like little kids
And laughing 'til our ribs get tough, laughing 'til our ribs get tough
But that will never be enough

Because we'll never be in love.

"Are you ok?"

I opened my eyes to a concerned expression on Sabrina's face.

"Yeah," came out my mouth in a whisper. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I dunno. You seemed to zone out for a second." Her eyes flitted to the marble counter then back at me. "Hey, Daphne?"

"Yeah?"

"Before we get to the party, I need to tell—"

Knock! Knock!

Sabrina cut herself off and opened the door. Behind it was Dad with a beaming face under a turquoise face disguise.

"Ready to party, my darlings?" he asked.