Ten of Me ✓

Thirty-Two

ELEANOR

I didn't even think as I shoved open the door to Mom's salon and walked inside, immediately inhaling the familiar scent of lavender. A blow dryer was running in the back room, and I passed the front desk to find Mom finishing up on a client's hair.

"Nicole!" she said, glancing up at me with a startled expression on her face. I caught a glimpse of myself in the nearest mirror and saw that I looked awful: tear stains covered my face and I had enormous dark circles under both of my eyes. It was a miracle that I'd managed to survive school.

Mom studied me for a few seconds as if she didn't know what to say and then turned back to her customer, running her hands through the lady's hair and fluffing it out. "What are you here for?" she asked me finally. She didn't sound angry at me, just confused.

I stared down at my feet for what felt like forever before I finally lifted my head and said, "I want another makeover."

"Okay." Mom didn't hesitate at all; she just unclipped the black cape from the lady in the chair and tapped her shoulder to indicate that she was finished. "Let me just clean up and then I can work some magic."

I sat in my usual chair by the window and waited as Mom talked her customer through a hair regimen and then sent her up to the front counter to pay. Sitting in silence was bad for me--it gave me too much time to think about everything that had happened these past fews days--and I was relieved when Mom called me up to the chair.

"How about I surprise you today?" she asked, putting one finger another my chin to lift it, as if she were best analyzing how to transform me today. I just nodded and let her do whatever she wanted to do; I couldn't care less what I looked like as long as I didn't look like me.

About an hour and a half later, Mom was putting the finishing touches on my appearance. She'd only dyed my hair one shade darker and advised that I didn't put in any color contacts, but she had put enormous barrel waves into my hair and had turned my skin a few shades lighter with heavy coats of foundation. After various other tweaks involving contouring, coloring, and detailing, she spun me around and snapped off my cape.

"All right," she said, and she didn't sound excited like she usually did--just resigned, as if she were simply completing a day's work. That made me feel a little better, because it meant I wasn't the only one missing Morgan.

Without saying anything to her, I stood, pushing my heavy curls off of my face with one hand and grabbing my purse with the other. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

It was another half an hour before I was seated inside Aroma Mocha, jiggling my leg up and down as I waited for Chloe, Ariana, and Jazmin to arrive. I'd texted them asking if they could meet Audrey at the coffee shop, and so far, they were exactly two minutes late.

I wasn't planning on a big reveal. I wasn't going to tell them who I really was. But I did want them to know that I'd been a fake all along, and that I was sorry for it.

At that exact moment, the door swung open and the three girls walked in, enormous sunglasses covering half of their faces. They pulled them off and scanned the coffee shop for me, and I lifted my hand to draw their attention.

"Audrey?" asked Chloe, squinting her eyes once she'd reached my table. Her dark eyeliner was even more excessive than usual, and it created an enormous circle around both of her eyes. I wondered if she'd gone back and reapplied some after school.

I smiled tightly. "Hey," I said. "Want some coffee?"

"You know I do." Chloe hurried over to join the line by the counter while Ariana and Jazmin took seats on either side of me, their eyes running up and down my face. I stared down at my nails, which were short and chipped, and waited for Chloe to return.