I started to giggle when I felt Vick pause and hesitate. Vick reminded me of a roadrunner on speed when she talked. She couldn’t even keep up with the words that were coming out of her mouth half the time, so she’d shoot off something offensive and catch herself too late.
Katie and I actually loved that about her, but it didn’t mean we wouldn’t give her hell for it. And Katie was never one to pass up a joke about not knowing her mother. She loved making everyone else feel awkward. Growing up with her, I was immune, but Vick still tiptoed.
When Vick realized Katie and I were barely containing laughter, she yanked my hair a little too hard as she wrung out the water and started to towel dry it. I let out a yelp. “Serves you right. Why I keep you two brats in my company is beyond me.”
Katie shrugged her shoulders, still laughing. “Vick, it’s just too easy.”
“Yeah, well, be happy I’m not doing your hair today. Brey, remember I am doing your hair and you have to hang out with the equivalent of America’s royal family.”
That killed the mood. Katie grumbled something along the lines of “who gives a shit” because she’d grown up around them too.
I spoke up with, “Don’t remind me.”
“I know from both of your stories that he’s an ass. I get it, and I’m not even saying he’s worth your time, but don’t you want to look so good that you knock him on his ass when he sees you?”
Katie stopped her. “She’ll already knock him on his ass without all this.” She swung her hands around the room. “I’m telling you, Vick, he could never take his eyes off her. He—”
“That was years ago, Katie. Honestly, I just want to look good enough for Jay’s graduation and for him. He has to be seen with me, and who knows what the paparazzi will come up with this time. Can we get this over with?”
They exchanged looks as if battling with what they wanted to say. I knew how it went. We all had our weaknesses, and they knew mine was the Stonewood family, a specific Stonewood to be exact.
“Well, I’ll reiterate, you should never cover up this dark auburn color. It looks fantastic and it’s really hard to achieve. You could ruin it by continuing with the temporary dye.” She shoved a piece of it in my face as if I didn’t know my real hair color. “Did you know the chemicals in—”
“Vick!” I winced at my own loud voice. “Can you save it for a different day?”
She rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t be hiding this hair or that body of yours.” She continued on as if I hadn’t just asked her to stop. “The fact that you have the greatest ass in the state and work to keep it should be evidence enough that you shouldn’t be wearing clothes that hang to the floor. No one can tell that you even work out.”
I snorted at her ludicrous way of thinking. Vick worked with what God gave her. And boy, did she know how to work it. She looked like a sex kitten everywhere she went, and it got her a lot of attention. She didn’t understand how someone could not want that attention.
I could try to explain to her why I didn’t want to be noticed, that being noticed for the wrong reason and being a local celebrity for my father’s crime wasn’t exactly rainbows and roses. But Vick was different in a brilliant, blinding way. She would have probably taken that tragedy and turned her life into a reality TV show.
For a few more hours, I submitted to Vick’s torture of getting ready.
I submitted to my hair being curled. I submitted to blush and eye makeup being put on. I submitted to Vick complaining about being a hairstylist until she could merge into the legal field. I even submitted to a rub-on tan while Vick whined about getting an A minus on her last exam.
After one hour, I wanted to scream.
After two, I definitely did not want to put on the strapless flowy dress Vick picked out for me with wedge sandals.
Three hours in, I wanted to kill Katie because she was trying to ditch with some excuse about having to go to another pre-commencement gathering. I knew it was a lie. Vick mentioned Rome was coming to get us, and she practically beelined for the door.
“You told me we were walking, Brey!” she accused when Vick informed her.
Vick snapped her head around to bug her eyes out at Katie. “You think I’m walking all the way to the ceremony in these heels?”
I sighed. “Vick, take it down a notch.”
Katie and Vick started to bicker over how walking would be just fine. I smiled at their useless argument as I examined the specimen that stared back at me in the mirror.
She didn’t look like me. She looked happy, light, pretty. Her hair fell below her chest in soft waves, shining a little hint of dark red when the light hit it just right. Her green eyes popped a little more as if trying to win the fight for the most attention against the long hair. The pastel-colored dress she wore clung in all the right places, flowing out just above the knee.
I sighed, realizing Vick had done her job. I would look the part, and I was thankful for that. I wanted to look as though I could hold my own in front of the equivalent of America’s royal family. Today, after gruesome hours of hard labor, I guess I looked it.
“I’m leaving,” Katie chimed from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder through the mirror to meet her eyes.
She must have seen my panic because she wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed the life out of me. “You look hot as fuck, best friend. I promise you’ll get through this and if he makes it difficult for you, you tell me and I’ll gut him like the floppy fish he is.”