Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I kept hearing furtive whispers. The name ‘Shane’ came up quite a bit. I’d confessed what happened with the aborted kiss to Michelle, and then the rest of them had demanded details while Michelle tried to shush them.
Apparently, there are no secrets among them, I thought as my cheeks got hot with embarrassment.
But none of it mattered. Shane wouldn’t be here to see my makeover. He didn’t want to see me at all.
How did I know that? I made a list.
He wasn’t back from wherever he had gone.
He hadn’t texted or called.
He probably didn’t even know it was my birthday.
He probably didn’t want me to come back home either.
Home. What a joke. But it was true. I’d been there less than six weeks and it still felt more like home than the huge, fancy house I’d left behind.
I should have waited. I should have just finished high school and applied to college. I could have gotten out. John might have tried to stop me, but once I was an adult, he couldn’t have. Maybe I could have gotten financial aid for college. Finished my applications. Gone to art school. Maybe if I worked hard, I could have paid for it myself.
Yeah, that would have been a whole lot smarter.
But the truth was I couldn’t have waited another day. I left early, in fact. The day before my birthday. I reasoned that even if the cops caught up with me, they couldn’t technically drag me back.
Not after midnight.
But there was no point in the what-ifs. What was done was done. And even though it had been hard, there were some bright spots too.
If I had waited for graduation, I wouldn’t have met Shane. And no matter what happened, I could never regret that. I would find a way to go to college someday. And I would be safe. My friends assured me of that.
Maybe someday, I’d even be loved. Not by friends. I already felt like the girls were starting to love me. And I was grateful, starting to love them in return.
But not by Shane. He didn’t want me. I knew the girls could tell I was heartbroken and that’s why they were doing this. In the movies, a makeover always soothed a broken heart.
It was pretty much a rule that you had to get a makeover after getting dumped. Only in this case, my fucked-up history was the problem. Not him.
“I can’t wait to see his face,” Kelly whispered. I looked at her. “Whose face?” I knew they weren’t talking about Shane because he was still out of town.
“Never you mind, sweet thing. Now, how about this dress?”
She held up a pretty green sundress. It looked like springtime personified, with tiny white flowers and an uber-feminine shape. It was way too girly for me, that much was obvious. Cass shook her head and sighed.
“We need a sledgehammer, not a feather duster.” She opened a wardrobe bag and pulled out something . . . small. It was black and made of horizontal panels of what I assumed was extremely stretchy fabric. Otherwise, it was made for a doll.
“Is that for Payton?” I joked. Cass just shook her head and thrust it at me. “Put this on. And don’t forget the black lace bra and panties we got!”
“Why? No one is ever gonna see it.” I sighed as I walked into the bathroom to change. I had just pulled the dress on when there was a knock at the door. Cass stood there, smiling, with a pair of high-heeled boots. If you could even call them boots. They were just point heels and straps. I’d never seen anything like them in my life. It was as if a gladiator had found themselves working the Vegas strip.
“Um.”
“It’s fine.” She shoved them at me. “You won’t have to walk that much.”
I shrugged and sat on the vanity counter and tried to put them on. There were so many buckles that it was hard. Cass knelt down and helped me. Soon, Michelle and Pate were working on the other leg.
Finally, I stood up and turned to glance in the mirror. I gasped. With the red lips, subtle but smoky eye makeup, blown-out waves, and the fitted dress, I looked like someone else.
Someone looking for trouble. On the prowl. Sexed up to the nines.
And I hadn’t even seen the bottom half of the outfit.
I started shaking my head wildly.
“Oh, no, no, no. I can’t.”
Kelly put her hands on my shoulders.
“You can. You want him to see that you aren’t a kid anymore, right?”
I nodded nervously.
“Yes. But I don’t think he would like this.”
“Oh, he’ll like it, all right,” Cass said grimly, looking like a general going into battle.
“How do you know?”
“He’s alive and he’s a man.”
“He’s not even back yet! I never even told him it was my birthday.”