Page 30 of Love Bank
Lenora clapped her hands again and practically skipped out of the bathroom. “I’ll go get my stuff out of the car,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“We’ll get started on the makeup.” Amelia’s eyes positively gleamed.
The butterflies beat their wings faster and I regretted not eating more than a piece of toast for breakfast. I needed sustenance to get through this makeover.
“Does she know how to do hair?” I asked, tilting my head in the direction Lenora had gone.
Hazel swiped a hand through the air. “She’s not licensed or anything, but she does all our hair for us. Has for years. Don’t worry.”
I tried to smile, but my facial muscles weren’t going for it. “How old are you ladies, anyway?”
Amelia pulled something out of the back pocket of those jean shorts and grabbed my head. “Hold still and this won’t hurt.”
“Huh—ouch!”
If I could have jumped, I would have, but Amelia had vise grips for hands, holding me in place while she plucked the hairs from my skull. They had to have been rooted that deep based on the pain level with each one she pulled.
“We’re all twenty-eight. Same graduating class. How old are you?” Hazel was quickly becoming my favorite. She wasn’t currently causing me pain or anxiety.
“I’m thirty-six, so I graduated from Auburn Hill High before you all started.” I suddenly felt ancient.
“So how come you aren’t hanging with your friends today?”
A lead weight sat on my chest. “Well, I don’t really have a lot of friends. I had a few in high school, but then I left for college and when I came back home, they’d all moved away.”
“Well, that’s just sad!” Hazel exclaimed, her mouth dropping open like it was a national tragedy.
Amelia tsked as she continued to yank out my eyebrows. I would have shrugged, but I was afraid of moving and having Amelia miss my tiny eyebrow hairs and pluck my skin instead. Could you go blind from a misplaced tweezer jab to the eye? I didn’t normally pluck eyebrows, so I didn’t know.
Hazel kept talking, oblivious to the physical or emotional pain being inflicted on me at the moment. “What kind of life is it if you don’t have your girlfriends around you to keep you sane? Or go shopping with you and tell you your ass looks fat in those jeans? Or cover for you when you sneak off into a sea cave with that hot guy vacationing here for the week?”
Hazel was no longer my favorite.
Despite my best intentions, heat built behind my eyes and my throat closed. Amelia must have noticed an increase in moisture as she took a step back, a look of pity stealing across her face. That expression was worse than the plucking.
“Wow, pulling eyebrows really hurts.” My voice was thick, not at all helping me out with a plausible story for why I was now crying. I swiped at my eyes to try to collect the moisture. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hazel and Amelia dart a look at each other. Not even ten minutes into a hangout with potential friends and I’d already ruined it by crying. See? This was why I didn’t have friends. I was different. Always had been and apparently always would be. People who are different don’t have besties.
With youth on their side, the girls moved faster than a pouncing puma. They both leaned down and wrapped their arms around me, pulling me into a group hug I didn’t expect.
“What’s going on here?” I heard Lenora ask from the doorway.
I couldn’t see her since I was face-first into a bosom. Another body joined the top of the pack with a thud and the air got warm in the middle of the huddle.
“We’re adopting Lucille,” Amelia stated firmly.
“We’re a crew of four now,” Hazel said with a hitch in her voice.
Lenora squealed, sounding just like Hazel. “I’m hella stoked!”
I’d never been stoked in my life, nor had I used the term “hella” that so many of my Northern California peers dropped in conversation, so I guessed from her tone of voice this was a good thing according to everyone currently huddled together.
The weight sitting on my chest lifted and a sense of calm smoothed my ruffled feathers. All my old hurts from not having a friend to call with good news, or a bestie to do things with on a Saturday night, drifted away. Like a gust of fresh ocean air had removed the old stink of loneliness and brought in this new blast of women who had open arms and hearts, ready to love so easily. Could friendship really be this hella easy?
Despite my earlier thinking about being the older, mature one of the group, I let out a watery giggle, followed by another. Each one rocked the group as a whole unit as they held me tight. The giggling spread like a wildfire in summer and pretty soon we broke apart, all cracking up. I didn’t even know why I was laughing, so I surely didn’t know why they were. But it was either laugh or cry from the sheer beauty of new friendship. I chose laughter.
We chatted as Lenora got busy on my hair, swiping all kinds of noxious cremes onto my strands and wrapping my head in a whole roll of aluminum foil. Amelia and Hazel did my makeup, which was far less painful once the tweezers went back in her pocket. The whole time, they caught me up on their lives, their families, their occupations. They asked all about me as well, and I told them everything.
Barring my recent blackmailing.
