Becoming Beautiful (Wattys2014)

| Chapter 9 |

Green Day began playing and I couldn’t complain. My father used to listen to this music, so it would always be playing when I entered the house after school. I sat back, deciding not to change the station.

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“You have to get the gold ones," Marissa tried to convince me. I stared at each shoe on my feet. On my left foot was a golden high heel and on my right was a gray wedge.

“I can’t walk in heels,” I told her, biting my lip.

She yanked the gray wedge off of my foot before grabbing my ankle in a death grip. She shoved the other golden heel on my foot before forcing me to stand up. I gripped her arm tightly, my ankles wobbling. “Now walk.”

I struggled to walk, my ankles threatening to give out at any moment. After a few moments, I managed to walk better, but not well enough. “Can we find gold wedges? Or something shorter? And preferably less lethal?”

Marissa groaned. “But those are so cute.”

“I know, and I’m going to be so cute lying in a coffin because I will die wearing these,” I replied, plopping down onto the small ottoman and taking the deathtraps off my feet. I was putting them away in the box, already planning to soak my feet in ice when I get back home.

“How about these?” my eyes looked up to a pair of heels, not as high, but still a bit too high for my liking. But the design was beautiful. They had multiple metallic gold straps running across the foot and around the ankles. The ankle was encased, though, and had a small zipper in the back.

“Yeah,” I replied, not even bothering to try them on. They were sixty dollars, which was a bit pricy for a pair of heels- especially because I’m only going to wear them once and stuff them in the back of my closet. No matter how pretty they are, I have no other occasions to wear them to, so why keep them? Because they’re pretty? Good enough for me. I waited for Marissa to purchase her shoes.

Marissa already decided on her shoes, which were cute white stilettos, which I would have died in the moment I stepped into them. I didn’t comment about their height, mainly because I didn’t want to discourage her from buying them. The girl is already around 5’9” or so, and the heels boosted her until she was about 6’0.” She said that her date is 6’4,” so it doesn’t matter much. I just nodded in agreement.

Marissa dragged me towards the bookstore, where Noah told us he was going to be waiting. He was easy to spot the moment we stepped into the store, mainly because his tall figure was hunched over as his elbows rested on the bookshelf and he held a book in his hand. His nose was wrinkled slightly and I’m guessing the book wasn’t good, or worth his time. He quickly closed it and put it back on the shelf. “Noah!”

He looked up, mumbling something under his breath before walking over towards us, his hands tucked into his sweater pocket; even though it was seventy degrees out, he wore a sweater to school and didn’t bother to take it off. We all walked out towards the car, my thoughts clouding my head. Tomorrow is the gala. I’m going with Noah.

We got into the car and drove out of the parking lot. “Are you spending the night?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I’m going to go home and clean up a bit. I’ve been avoiding that job for the last few weeks. I might have to go grocery shopping, too.”

Marissa nodded. “But you’re coming over to get ready tomorrow, right?”

I bobbed my head. “What time should I go?”

“Be at my house by four, shower at yours so I can get to work immediately,” she told me.

“I didn’t realize I was a project,” I snorted.