Inciting Investigations

Chapter 12

Julian Rodriguez

Pero es que en realidad,
Me estoy enamorando.
Y tal vez me estaba sospechando,
Siento que igual te está pasando.

Juli heard the song ‘En Realidad’ by Angela Aguilar playing in his ears when he woke up. His mother was singing along to the lyrics that she had memorized at that point, and he knew she was making breakfast by the signature sizzling of meat. He smiled while he hopped out of bed. Even after last night's little sleep, he still loved waking up in his room in his house.

The smells, sounds, and just overall atmosphere were something that he had always loved since he was incredibly young. He felt lucky to have the life that he did, and he tried to send some more luck out into the world every day. He felt as though it was the least he could do. He thought of it a bit as thanks to the Lord for smiling on and giving him such a good life.

Sure, nothing was perfect, but he didn’t think that it was ever meant to be that way. So, even if things could be perfect, he liked that he could at least try to make them as good as they possibly could be. That included his outfits. He was definitely one to believe that people did their best work when they thought they looked their best, or that was how it was for him, at least.

Juli ushered over to his closet and saw the outfit that he had miraculously remembered to pick out after going to Birdy’s house the night prior. He buttoned up the white shirt and slid the tan sweater vest over the top of it. He quickly shoved his legs into the tan pants that he had picked out and looked in the mirror to make sure everything was smooth enough.

He then moved onto jewelry. He thought that an outfit was like a crime. It was never complete without accessories. Some studs were slid into his ears, then some bracelets were pushed onto his wrist, and he finished it off with a cross necklace that his mama had gotten him the previous year for his birthday. The outfit was finished, now for the next step.

He grabbed out the small bag of cosmetic items that he had either stolen from his sisters over the years or that Cyrus had helped him buy. He loved makeup. He usually didn’t have time to do anything but simple stuff most days, but when he got the time then he loved going crazy and just putting tons of fun colors on his face. It was one of his favorite points of expression. Fashion and clothes were still his absolute number one, though.

He made sure to do some simple skincare before applying any makeup, though healthy skin was the best base. Sunscreen and moisturizer, all that, and he was ready to actually apply.

He started with some lightweight skintint and fluffed up his brows. Then, he moved on to contouring his face because he still had some baby fat in his slightly chubby cheeks. Then, blush and highlight, especially on the nose. His nose was always practically blinding, and he liked it that way. He curled his lashes before applying a couple of layers of mascara and a small wing to the outside of his eye. Lastly, he made sure to put on some lip balm and then a pinkish-cherry lip gloss. He looked at the finished result with satisfaction.

Next was the final step, hair. Admittedly, he already loved his hair. His papa had had really fun curly hair. His mama’s was mostly wavey. Sofi and Jorge had gotten their papa’s hair. Him, Vara, and Cali had all gotten their mom’s. He still had some curly strands that stuck out from the rest of his hair, but he thought that those looked good on him.

He added a little bit of product into his hair and parted it just slightly off to the side of his head before shaking it out a bit and smiling at himself in the mirror with a thumbs up. He opened up his door and ran over to the kitchen to see what his mama had cooking up that day.

“Buenas días, mamá. ¿Qué es cocer?” He kissed his mother on the side of her head as he began setting the table. He spotted Cali working on some math in the living room while Vara read a book.