Bras and Makeup
I was always a little envious of people who had fun things to do during breaks. There were Fall Break trips off campus I could have signed up for, but thanks to everything that had happened over the last week, I was just too exhausted to care about doing anything, no matter how fun it might be. All I really wanted this year was to go home, sleep and avoid any and all boys with the last name Hanson.
Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly pleasant and by Saturday night my parents almost seemed to have gotten the message. Almost.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come down for dinner?” My mom asked, rapping gently on my bedroom door.
“I’m sure,” I replied. I had sneaked downstairs and grabbed a giant bag of Chex Mix and a Coke Zero, so I was pretty much set to feel sorry for myself, eat my feelings and watch Doctor Who all night. I didn’t really care that I was being antisocial; of all people, my family should have been used to that by now.
Several minutes later, there was another knock at the door. This time it was my brother Daniel, who had apparently come home for dinner. Even though he was supposedly a grown up with a real name job teaching Spanish and coaching soccer at Nathan Hale, he spent more time at our parents house than he did at his apartment—either because he needed laundry done or because he had burned whatever he tried cook.
“Georgina, you know that band you like is playing a show downtown tonight,” he said.
“Which band?” I replied skeptically.
Daniel poked his head in the door. “I don’t know; I took a chance. There’s always somebody playing at the Vanguard or the Hunt Club. And you skipped dinner, so…”
“So mom sent you up here to check on me.”
“Bingo.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tell her I think I caught a bug on campus or something. She’ll worry, but she’ll believe it.”
“But it’s not true?”
“No offense, but I don’t really wanna have girl talk with my older brother,” I replied.
He help his hands up and backed away from my door. “Say no more. I will gladly lie to mom if it means I don’t have to hear your problems with bras and makeup or whatever.”
I rolled my eyes, but Daniel was already gone. If there was one way to get my brother to leave me alone, it was to mention girl stuff. I learned that lesson when he decided to start badgering me about my crush on Zac—yes, even Daniel knew—while I was trying to get ready for school one morning. An un-used, still wrapped tampon flicked at his face shut him up even faster than I could have hoped.
At least I didn’t have to take such drastic measures this time. I even had a full twenty minutes of privacy before someone else knocked on my door. I assumed it was Mom again, because I really didn’t think she would send Dad up to try to reason with me. When the door swung open and revealed Zac, I realized there was an even worse option than an awkward heart to heart with my Dad.
“Of course my mom let you in,” I said, glaring at him. “She likes you better than she likes me, I think.”
“Well, I actually ate a plate of leftovers, even though I had dinner at my own house, but you won’t even show your face in the kitchen.”
Another glare. “Why are you here?”
He stepped into my room, letting the door shut behind him, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. With a sigh, he said, “Well, I haven’t talked to you for a few days. And I know a lot of that is my fault, because I got really pissed about you and Taylor. Still not really over that, by the way. But I figure I kinda owe you an apology, so… if I can humble myself enough to do that, I figure we can work through the Tay thing, too.”
“You’re not gonna quit bringing up the Taylor thing, are you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Not until that image stops being seared into my brain. I mean, really. Lying to me about it—and yes, hiding it is the same as lying—is bad enough. But I had to see it, George. How would you feel if you had walked in and seen—“
I held my hand up to shut him up. “Don’t even say it. I don’t want to think about it. But what’s this apology of which you speak?”
“Well,” he said, looking down but stepping in a little closer to my bed. “You know, the whole kissing booth thing. I talked to Bella about it. At least, I tried to. But she didn’t seem to see any reason at all why I would be upset—not even the fact that she promised me she wasn’t going to be one of the kissers. So, you know, she lied to me, too. Only I was actually dating her. And you being my best friend means more to me in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t mean that I can expect you not to have sex with whoever you want to have sex with. Even my STD-riddled brother, although god knows what you see in him.”
“It’s not like that,” I replied. “I mean, I’m not dating him or anything. I just wanted to stop being the weird girl who’s still a virgin, okay? And who better to help me solve that problem? It’s not like I planed it that way, but… well, it happened. I can’t undo it. But I am sorry you found out that way.”
Zac sat down on the edge of my bed. “And I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you about Bella. You were right, okay? I should have known.”
“Yes,” I said, a smile spreading across my face. “You should have. When am I ever wrong, especially when it comes to the bitches you date?”
“I wouldn’t really put it that way, but… I guess you were right this time,” Zac replied. He turned his head to the tv and saw that it was on BBCA. Scooting closer to me and sitting back against the headboard, he said, “Ooh, there’s a Doctor Who marathon on, isn’t there?”
“Have a seat. Let’s watch it together,” I deadpanned.
Zac wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Aww, come on, George. Do you have any better plans than hanging out with me? Because I can’t think of anything better than hanging out with my BFF.”
I sighed. “Well, when you put it that way…”
He knew I would give in. He knew it. Zac was my weak spot, and whether he fully understood why or not, he knew it and he took advantage of it. And I would let him. As he made himself comfortable on my bed, I handed him the Chex Mix. He smiled, and I melted.
I was hopeless. I was completely and totally hopeless.
After our apologies, Zac and I were mostly back to normal. We drove back to campus together—at least, in a very short caravan–the next day, stopping at the same gas station for lunch. We took our time going back, because it occurred to us over lunch just how awkward it would be to see Bella again. When we realized that, we decided to stay in the gas station McDonalds for as long as possible. At some point, the workers started to give us strange looks, and so we went on.
It still ended up being just after dinner time when we got back to campus. At Zac’s suggestion, we left our stuff in our cars to unpack later, and just took his truck to Taco Bueno to get something for dinner instead of going into the food court on campus. Once our arms were loaded down with bags of food and drink holders, we didn’t really have much of an excuse to stay away.
It was something of a peace offering, really. We had bought far more than just the two of us could eat, but we knew my roommates couldn’t resist whatever was left over. Our fighting had created a huge rift in the group that probably wouldn’t be easy to repair, but queso could certainly go a long way toward fixing it.
Sure enough, as soon as we walked into the suite with the food, Molly and Peyton’s doors swung open. It was the perfect sitcom moment, and we were both laughing too loudly at it to even explain to them what we found so funny.
“Nevermind,” Zac said, waving a hand in the air dismissively. “Help yourselves. And, umm, I guess we—or at least I—wanted to apologize. I’ve been an idiot lately, and I know it really screwed up our whole group thing. Hard to have our normal game nights when George and I aren’t even speaking.”
“But we’re good now,” I said, although I did doubt just how good we were. “And I’m sorry I hid the whole Taylor thing from everyone.”
It wasn’t like I had promised to stop sleeping with Taylor or anything. I hadn’t really thought about it and Zac hadn’t asked. Obviously he didn’t want me to, and I wasn’t sure if it was even a good idea to keep up the friends with benefits thing. But would I stop just because Zac didn’t like it? I didn’t have an answer for that. I supposed I should have, but I wasn’t sure if that was enough to really stop me.
I cleared my throat. “Anyway, where’s the bitch? Not a Taco Bueno fan? What a shame.”
“I dunno,” Molly replied, shrugging. “We haven’t seen her all day. I don’t think she’s been around at all. And I am not complaining.”
“Me either,” Zac said, pulling a few nachos out of a bag and crunching on them. “I, umm, I broke up with her. If that wasn’t obvious.”
Peyton clasped her hands together as if in prayer, glanced up at the ceiling and mouthed the words thank you.
“You don’t even believe in God,” I pointed out.
She shrugged. “Zac finally seeing the light and leaving her just might be enough to convince me.”
“As much as I think you having a religious conversion is a big deal, I don’t think it’s worth dating someone like her again,” Zac said.
We all laughed at that, and with the mood sufficiently lightened, we gathered up the food and headed to the living room. Things might not have been totally normal between us four, and I supposed they never really would be again, but we were a lot closer to the happy group we had been. While we ate, we talked about anything and everything but Bella—from our classes to potential plans for Zac’s birthday later in the week.
Things were going really well…until the door opened.
It was Bella, of course, and she seemed to be glowing. I certainly wouldn’t have looked so happy if I had just lost Zac; I had a hard enough time losing him as a friend temporarily. But Bella was beaming. I glanced at Zac, and to my relief, he ddn’t scoot self-consciously away from me the way he had every other time Bella had seen us together. At least that was a step in the right direction.
“Guys,” Bella said, then waved her hands around. “Well, girls. And guy. Whatever. I have some big, big news.”
We all stared at her. I, for one, was wondering what news she could possibly have that she thought we would care about and share in her happiness. When none of us responded at all, she just carried on, practically bouncing up and down as she made her announcement.
“I’m officially a Tri Delta!”
If Zac’s announcement was enough for Peyton to have a religious conversion, this was a religious moment for me. Bella being an official member of the sorority meant she would have to move into their house. We were free. We were finally free.