Chapter Eight: Pucker up-
I was sprawled out on Melissa's bed upside-down with my head hanging off the edge, a process I was told helped your thinking brain-waves functions better. I wasn't feeling any smarter or experiencing any intellectual epiphanies. In fact all I could fee was all the blood rushing down into my neck and through my cheeks, making my entire face burn hotly. I wondered how long it would take before my head exploded.
“What about Naomi? That's a blondish kinda name, right?” I asked Melissa as my vision began to blur and I started to feel a weeny bit dizzy.
Quickly stealing a glance to my left over to where Liss was sat at her desk with her laptop, I caught the moment when my question eventually registered inside her head.
“Yeah. Naomi sounds cool.”
“Which one's Naomi for?” I quizzed her.
A minute later was her answer of, “The red-head?”
I sighed and rolled sideways onto my stomach, the room spinning with me until I caught my wits.
“No, Liss. Naomi is the blonde. What are you doing that's more important than our mission to find your perfect boyfriend?”
“No-nothing.” She stuttered, slamming the laptop closed before I could see for myself. She swivelled around in her chair and sent me a smile that oozed guilt and sadness.
I softened my glare sympathetically. Melissa was probably checking out Liam's profile again, the guy right at the opposite end of the perfect-boyfriend scale, and going through his pictures of him and his newest trophy girlfriend. That boy needed throwing into a trash can wit h the lid nailed shut and then sent rolling down a hill into the nearest river. I'm betting nobody will miss him, and a helluva lot more girl wont be left just as distraught as Melissa had been when he dumped her. Instead of ranting and raving I steered clear of the subject knowing that if I so much as whispered his name we'd have a waterfall of tears on our hands, and right now I just didn't have the patience to mop that mess up.
So, I thought it best to try and distract her. What better way than to leap from the bed to her dresser, slapping make-up across my face. A little black eye shadows under the brows, a smear of purple lip stick across the lips and two big blotches of bright pink blusher across my cheeks. I saw the eyeliner pencil and just couldn't help myself by drawing a curly moustache under my nose. Pulling the blonde wig I'd left on the dresser with the others I dramatically spun around and pouted.
Melissa's eyes widened, like the times when we'd watch a horror movie together and the monster had just leapt out of the closet to claim its next kill. I dropped dramatically to my knee, my hand held out towards her.
“Oh, Darren!” I cried. “Handsome Darren! I am a lonely princess looking for her prince. Marry me!”
When she didn't say anything I shuffled closer towards her. Melissa began giggling to herself and lifted her legs from the floor just in case I'd make a grab for them and she stood on her chair, trying to find her balance as she fended me off.
“Shay, go away! You look insane. Get away from me, you creep!”
“You cannot escape me, my prince! I will follow you to the ends of the earth. My love is boundless!”
Melissa batted my arm away as I made a leap for her, she slipped out of my grasp and dived onto her bed, only just catching herself before she toppled off backwards. She was still laughing like a mad woman, so much so that she didn't have the energy to run away from me or even speak. I chased after her, clambering up onto the bed.
“Shay stop it, I can't breathe. Seriously!” Melissa squealed.
She then staggered off the bed and made a run for the door. She was too slow. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged as if she was the last person in the world. I pursed my lips together and pushed my face closer to hers as she pushed against me.
“Don't you dare!” She warned.
“Pucker up!”
All her laughing had rendered her defence weak and I smothered a kiss on her cheek, wiping the lipstick everywhere. When I was satisfied that she looked should as wacky as I did, I released her and sat back down on the bed. The smile never removed itself from my face as she scowled at me, swiping a hand furiously across her cheek.
“I can't believe you did that. That was gross.”
“Oh, you loved it.”
The door swung open, and Melissa moved out of the way before she was hit. A head poked around the door and instantly fought the urge to laugh at the sight of both Liss and I plastered in cosmetics like clowns. It was Liss's mother.
“Do I even wanna ask?” Mrs M said. Melissa shook her head moodily and I just gave her mum a grin, which explained it all.
Mrs M pushed the door opened wider and came in, revealing a lovely black cocktail dress that came just up above her knees, but showing way too much of her chest. Then again, with boobs that size there was no way you could hide those bad girls. I tried not to stare.
“Wow, mum. You clean up nice.” Melissa complimented her, and Mrs M curtsied, flushing slightly. It was true. I had only ever seen Liss's mother in jeans and jumpers, she was a real comfort-over-style kind of mum, it was just as much as a shock for me.
“Yeah, Mrs M. You're looking hot.” I said.
“Why thank you, girls. Not that I can say the same for you two.” She wore a smile so wide she could light up the darkest of nights. “Anyways, Melissa, your dad and I have that dinner tonight, remember? We wont be back until late, so don't wait up. Charlie is in his cot asleep, I'm not sure how long he'll be out for but when he wakes up he'll need feeding.”
“Okay, mum. Got it. You know I'll still wait up for you though.”
“Yeah, I know. You're a good girl.” Mrs M leaned close to her daughter and gave her hug, kissing her lightly on her forehead. Somewhere deep inside of me there was a twang of jealousy, like the snap of an elastic band. I had always admired Melissa's relationship with her mother, even more so at the fact that she was adopted. Their relationship was something I often wished I had with my own mother.
Mrs M then pulled me in for a hug and said, “There's twenty quid in it for you if you help Melissa babysit.”
When she pulled back I stood straight and put my hand up to my forehead as if I was a solider being commanded. She had me at twenty quid.
“Sir, yes sir!” I said, then caught myself. “Er, I mean...ma'am.”
“What are you like.” Mrs M muttered as she shook her head and making her way back out the room. “The emergency numbers are on the fridge, and I've rang for a few pizzas to be delivered so listen out for the door. The money's on the kitchen counter and I shall be back as soon as I can. Don't get in too much trouble while I'm gone!”
“We wont!” Melissa and I called after her in unison as Mrs M closed the door shut behind her. Melissa reached over and shoved my arm causing me to fall onto the bed.
“Hey, what was that for?”
“You're such an idiot, Shay.”
“You say that with such love and admiration!” I joked as I tugged the blonde wig from my head before I stained it with the make-up and ruined it. “Do you think Darren will fall for me if chase him and call him my prince?”
“Yeah, he'll definitely fall for you, Shay. But not in the way you're thinking, probably off some cliff somewhere.”
I laughed and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “Yeah, maybe that's not the best way to go about it. So what kind of a girl is Naomi going to be? She needs to be smart, which means I might have to even look some stuff up on Google to say that'll make me sound all witty and nerdy. And she need to be confident.”
“Well, you don't need to worry about the confidence.” Melissa murmured rolling her eyes, and re-arranging everything on her dresser back to way she liked it. She picked up the two remaining wigs in each hand and lifted the short, choppy red one up at me.
“Who's this one for?” She asked with a frown.
“Dunno. Ki or Nate?”
“Hmm.” She debated with herself. “I say Ki. Shake him up a little bit, he can have the luxury of meeting the unleashed crazy side of you.”
“Thanks.” I gave her a deadpan look. “So Nate gets the black wig?”
“Yep. Only problem with choosing him, he knows your face and everything. How you gonna fool him?”
“He doesn't know me that well. I've only met him a few times down at the skate-park. But you have a point. He might recognise my face, I can always put on an accent to hide my voice. Mind you, Adam didn't recognise me straight away when I used it on him at the mall.”
Something lit up Melissa's face and she began to usher off the bed. Rolling her desk chair across the room, only just missing my feet, she stood it in front of the dresser and motioned for me to sit down. I did as I was told, albeit a little confused.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you a make-over...well, actually a make-under.”
Melissa proceeded to pull a number of baby wipes from a packet and scrubbed my face clean of any and all powder and paint I'd previously smudged on myself, taking a few moments to clean her own skin. She then clipped my hair up at the back of my head with grips before putting the sleek black wig on, using even more hair grips to secure it in place.
“Ta-dah!” She finished, moving out of my way so I could look at the mirror hung on the wall above the dresser. I gazed at the familiar reflection of myself. The wig was dead straight, like curtains falling down either side of a window, and this window was sparkling clean. Spotless. As in there was no make-up on my face. Liss wasn't kidding when she said it was a make-under. It looked like I had just woken up, I didn't like it. I felt vulnerable and exposed with no make-up on. Usually I framed my eyes with some mascara and eyeliner, maybe even eyeshadow if I was in the creative mood.
“No make-up?” I asked her, my voice shaking a little.
“Yeah. You always wear make-up, so I figured Nate is less likely to discover its you if you're o'natural. And also tone down the crazy confidence, okay? Girl-in-the-black-wig needs to be quieter, maybe even shy. If you can manage that.”
“Oh please, I can act however I wanna act. I'm so good I should join the acting class, maybe even become some big-time actress. But Liss, no make-up? Do I have too?”
I really, really didn't like the idea of someone seeing me with no make-up, and for some reason because it was Nate that made it all the worse. I didn't know why so don't even ask.
“If you think he wont recognise you with it, then be my guest but you know he will. Unless you're gonna find someone else to be your third candidate. Or you know, you could scrap this crazy idea altogether.”
I ignored her last jab and looked at myself in the mirror. I really did look different, and that necessarily wasn't a bad thing, was it? Nate would never know it was me and so he's never know that was what I looked like without any make-up. Right? So where was the harm. After a few moments I shrugged and gave Liss a pat on the back.
“I knew there was a reason I was friends with you.” I said, making her smile.
I then decided to try this new character out and I batted my eyelashes up at Liss. “My name's Ally Monsoon. I'm new here. Will you please be my friend?”
“Are you trying to do a Irish accent?” Melissa squinted both her eyes in concentration.
“Yeah, why is it bad?”
“Considerably. But hey, you don't sound like you so whatever accent it is, it's working.”
“Next make-over! Time to design Naomi's face.”
“You're gonna make me do all three?”
“Sure am!”
“Great.” Melissa cursed, but secretly I knew she loved it. Although by the way she was tugging the grips from my head I was sure I would have no real hair left when she'd finally worked through her frustrations.
Naomi turned out to be some kind of sixties wannabe. With the dark shadowed crease on both my eye lids that flicked out, pale blusher, big thick lashes and blood red lipstick. She fluffed up the wig, going for a big hair-do and had to trim the fringe a little bit since it kept jabbing me in the eyes, which would make them water and smudge the mascara, forcing Melissa to go over it once again. I was happy with this look, it felt like I was wearing a mask and that made me all the more confident with my act.
Before I could command Liss into designing the third and final character there was a knock on the door. Even if we both somehow missed the loud bangs, the fact that Ears, the springer spaniel downstairs, starting barking like mad was warning enough. The howls echoed through the house and just to kick things up a notch the baby started crying.
Melissa groaned and pressed a hand to her head. “That'll be the pizza guy. I'll get the door, you sort Charlie out.”
I followed Melissa out of the room and as she broke off to go downstairs I carried on down the landing, being lured by the cries of what sounded like a tortured cat, to the end bedroom. I flicked the light on walked over towards his cot.
“Hey there, Charlie-Bear. Now what's all this crying for?”
Reaching in I picked him up and rested him on my hip. Regardless of the wig and all the make-up Charlie still knew exactly who I was and hugged my waist, falling silent in an instant.
“Did the silly, old dog wake you up? Remind me to tie its ears together so it doesn't bark at another noise again.” I cooed as I rocked him from side to side, leaving the bedroom. His big blue eyes were staring straight at me, wet tears stained his cheeks yet he was the personification of pure innocence. I couldn't help but move him round from my waist to cuddle him closer, his arms latching around my neck. He was just too adorable! I wanted one!
I peered down from the banister to see Melissa glaring up at me, waving her hand to get my attention. I went down the stairs.
“What are you doing? Where's the pizza guy?”
“He's out there.” She pointed to the door.
“Okay? Why aren't you answering the door? I'm hungry you know.”
“No! Don't open it! It's him!” That when I noticed that Melissa was panicking slightly, but she was giggling at the same time. I frowned, remembering to keep calm for Charlie's sake.
“Who's him?”
“Look through the peep-hole.”
Curiosity had gotten the better of me and I shuffled forward slowly and reached up onto my tip-toes to take a look through, patting Charlie's back to keep him quiet. I had numerous guesses as to who it could have been on the other side of that door, who had the possibility of being the pizza guy that had freaked Melissa out to the point where she was willing to give up the pizza just for the sake of not facing him, and not one of them were right.