Fall ❈ Benny Rodriguez

ii. new map

　Ivy stood behind me in the mirror, obviously pleased. "You seem a lot more confident than you used to be. I love that. Hey—can I do your makeup, too?"

　I looked at Ivy's reflection and smiled. "Do you even have makeup light enough for me? I'm so pale."

　"As a matter of fact," Ivy said, "I do. Leah got as pale as you in the winter, and that was around the time she started letting me practice on her regularly. I still have it."

　Ivy was right: I had become more confident. Well, not precisely confident, but I had learned to appreciate myself. In Tennessee, I'd worked to achieve a fitter body, and now I was comfortable with myself. I'd come to like the features I'd previously viewed as flaws.

　She disappeared into my bedroom, and when she returned bearing her makeup bag, a grin grew on her face. "I'm going to have so much fun with this."

　"Nothing too wild, please," I begged. "I don't think I'll look right with a lot of it."

　Ivy waved a hand at me, and pushed me to sit on the floor. "Oh, you'll like what I have in mind. Don't complain until you've seen it."

　In moments, Ivy went to work. It seemed to pass much quicker than I'd believed it would, and when she finished, she stood me up and smiled at the mirror like a proud mother. And, to my surprise, I did like it.

　Thanks to the makeup, my skin looked airbrushed and creamy. The gray in my eyes stood out with the black and silvery eye makeup. And my lips looked much fuller, sharper than usual, painted with a deep red. I almost looked...seductive.

　"Do you like it?" Ivy winked. "I know you do. How's Benny ever going to resist you now?"

　"Oh, my— Ivy," I sighed, shaking my head. "I am not trying to win him back or anything. If he's happy, then he deserves to be. I wouldn't want to hurt him."

　Ivy rolled her eyes. "He'd be happier with you. Don't fight me on this. Just be yourself. And, using your thought process, if he wants you anyway, he'll come to you. And I think he will. So deal with it."

　I couldn't help but to laugh.

　

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IVY prepared herself, somehow making a black tank top, camouflage pants, and a pink fur jacket extremely cute. Then we gathered with the others—Kenny and Leah, Benny and Brandy—and luckily, I got the passenger's seat of Ivy's car.

　The two couples fit themselves in the back; Brandy ended up in Benny's lap, and so I kept my gaze anywhere but there. Just knowing that she was close to him like I used to be...it hurt deep in my soul.

　Due mostly to the fact that Benny was in the backseat of the car, directly behind Ivy, the ride to Hollywood, though short, was a bit tense. I tried to play it off, however, by speaking in a casual manner to Ivy and Leah and Kenny.

　Ivy parked a couple of blocks away from the cemetery, because getting in and out would be a pain. Before everyone could gather up the bags containing blankets and snacks and such, Ivy insisted that Kenny take a picture of her with me and Leah.