The Journey
Chapter 7
We get back to the hotel and Laurel takes me right to our room. She insists on helping me get ready early so I’ll look nice. I don’t understand why I have to get ready 4 hours early, it’s only 2 o’clock.
I don’t object, though, because it won’t work. She drops the bag on her bed and pulls out all of her makeup. She brought a lot more than I did and she knows it. I brace myself for the next hour.
She spreads out her tools and colors and starts to work. She takes at least 10 minutes with concealer alone, making sure she had everything covered. Next, she did my eyes. Eye shadow took nearly 10 minutes and eyeliner about the same. Laurel is a perfectionist and I knew it would take a long time but I’m starting to get restless.
“Wait, I have to do something else,” she says after she finishes putting mascara on me. She turns around and picks something up off the dresser. I back away when I see she’s holding tweezers.
“No,” I say. “You can put makeup on me, you can get me into a dress, you can even get me to wear heels, but there’s no way you’re plucking my eyebrows.”
She smiles and walks towards me. “I have to, Piper, and you know it. You want to look nice for your date, don’t you? Let me pluck them, you’ll be fine. It doesn’t hurt much, only right when I pull the hair out.”
That doesn’t sound even the least bit appealing to me.
“No, Laurel.”
“No guy likes a girl with caterpillars above her eyes,” she teases, kneeling on the floor in front of me.
I sigh. I really don’t want her yanking hair out of my face but I know she’s right.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“I already told you, just a little bit. You’ll get used to it, though,” she assures me.
I close my eyes and clench my fists, waiting for her to begin. When she does, I hold my breath. I feel it but it isn’t really as bad as I thought it would be but I don’t tell her that. She takes 15 minutes or so to do my eyebrows and finishes with putting lip gloss on me. By the time everything is done, it’s quarter after 3.
“Jewelry,” she says, getting up from the floor. She turns around and opens her suitcase. Shuffling through earrings and necklaces, she finds a gold necklace with a little bow on it and earrings to match.
I take them from her and put them on. They’ll look really good with the dress and compliment my skin color very nicely. I don’t want to put the dress on yet so I lay down on my stomach on the bed and turn on the television.
“Be careful not to smudge your makeup,” Laurel warns me.
“I know.” Sometimes she’s more of a mother to me than a best friend.
“I’m so happy for you,” she says.
“Thanks.”
“You two are so cute together,” she adds.
I turn the TV off and sit up.
“Anything else?” I ask sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, I’m just so excited! You’ve been waiting forever to meet him and now you have and you have a fancy date in a few hours and you’re going to fall completely in love with him like me and Nova and you’ll get married and I’ll be the maid of honor and I’ll be there when you have your first child and-”
“Slow down, Laurel!” She really gets way too far ahead of herself sometimes. I don’t even know this guy’s last name yet and she’s already thinking about us having children. Yeah, chances are we’ll work out fine just like we’re supposed to but there’s always that small possibility of something going wrong. We may find out we’re not good for each other and the necklaces were wrong. I’m hoping that’s not the case but it’s always in the back of my mind as a possibility.
“Sorry,” she apologizes again.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m just really happy for you, Piper. It’s not every day that something like this happens.”
“I know. I’m glad you’re happy for me, and I’ll tell you all about it when I get home,” I assure her.
She smiles and looks a little more relaxed. I turn the TV back on. Laurel grabs her hair curler and sits behind me to curl my hair while I watch TV. She’s finished by 5:30 and I turn the TV off. My stomach is tying itself into knots by this time and I have to get dressed.
“Are you ready for the big reveal?” I ask from behind the bathroom door. I’d put the dress on and slipped the black heels onto my feet and stared at myself for a few minutes in the full length mirror in the bathroom. I have to admit, I look beautiful. I never thought I’d say that.
“Absolutely! Come show me what you look like,” Laurel answers.
I take a big breath and pull the bathroom door open. Laurel had her hand over her eyes and she drops it when she hears the door open.
“Wow,” she whispers, her eyes scanning me from top to bottom. “Honey, if this doesn’t make him drool nothing will.”
I smile and look at myself a few more times. My hair looks amazing thanks to Laurel and my makeup is perfect.
“Nails!” Laurel screams. I jump at the high pitch. She jumps up and grabs a bottle from her suitcase. “We forgot to do your nails,” she tells me. She shakes up the bottle and motions for me to hold my hands out.
“This nail polish will dry quickly so you’ll be good to go by the time he gets here,” she informs me as she paints on a metallic gold color onto my short nails.
She’s an artist when it comes to stuff like this and finishes within minutes. There’s no nail polish on the skin around my nails and I’m astonished. I could never do my nails so neatly. Then again, I never do my nails.
“There, all done,” she says with a smile. She puts the bottle back and sits on her bed. “You look amazing.”
“Thank you. It’s all because of you.”
“Have fun on your date. Don’t be too nervous, it’ll turn out fine,” she assures me. “Trust me, you’ll be okay. I can tell he likes you.”
I almost cry because of her words and the softness of her voice. She’s always so sweet and nice to me, I promise myself I’ll do something wonderful for her when we get back home.
My cell phone rings on the nightstand between our beds and my stomach knots up even more. I rush to answer it and my heart flutters when I see Harry’s name. I take a deep breath and calm myself before accepting the call.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Hey, lovely. I’m on my way up, are you ready?”
I feel myself blush at the word ‘lovely’ and I smile. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Good. I’m so excited,” he says.
“Me too.”
He hangs up and I wait anxiously for him to knock on the door. Laurel looks as anxious as I feel and she’s pacing the room. Soon, there’s a light knock on the door. Laurel looks at me and a wide smile appears on her face. She runs to the living room and nearly opens the door before she remembers it’s not for her. She steps aside and gives me a thumbs-up before I pull the door open.
Harry is standing there in a tux with a small bouquet of red roses in his hand. I smile and take the roses from him.
“You’re sweet,” I manage to say.
“I know,” he replies with a smile.
“I can’t take this much longer, get out of here you guys,” Laurel says and pushes me towards the door. “Have fun!”
The door closes in my face and we walk toward the elevator. I realize I left my cell phone and door key in the room but I don’t want to go back and get them. I’m sure Laurel wouldn’t open the door for me anyway.
“Your friend is pretty weird,” Harry tells me when we get in the elevator.
“Yeah, I know. She means well, though.”
“I can tell. She’s really excited we found each other.”
“She’s known her boyfriend forever, she’s just happy that she doesn’t have to hear me complain anymore,” I say with a laugh.
We step out of the elevator and walk out to the front of the building. Harry’s car is parked next to the sidewalk and he opens the door for me to get in.
“Thank you,” I say as I get in. He’s so sweet I can hardly even stand it.
“Anything for the most beautiful girl in the world,” he says as he closes the door. My heart does a flip and I find myself smiling like crazy.
We drive a little ways away from the hotel to a really fancy hotel. I had no idea just how fancy it was going to be.
There are white table cloths on every table, the lighting is dim and soft, the waiters and waitresses are all dressed in black and white. When we walked in Harry even had to give a man behind a podium his name because he had made a reservation.
Everyone in here looks so sophisticated and I feel terribly out of place until I remember I dolled myself up for that very reason. We take a seat at our table and pick up some leather menus. A lot of the items are written in French so I go by the pictures mostly.
“Do you know what any of this says?” I ask after a while.
“Not a clue,” he admits with a smile.
When the waiter comes to take our order, Harry orders some seafood dish for both of us and I’m happy I didn’t have to embarrass myself by pronouncing something wrong.
We make small talk for a while as we wait for our food to arrive.
“Where did you say you were from?” He asks.
“Indiana,” I answer.
He nods as he remembers. “That’s right, you’re here on vacation.”
I nod, not knowing how to respond. I’m so awkward.
“You know, you’re really pretty,” he says after a few minutes of silence.
I feel my cheeks grow hot and I know he can see that I’m blushing. “Thanks,” I manage.
“It’s true,” he says with a smile.
If he doesn’t stop I swear my face is going to light on fire from all this blushing. “You’re not so bad looking yourself,” I say and instantly regret it. What a stupid thing to say on a first date.
He chuckles and gets a weird look on his face. He digs something out of his back pocket and I see him look at it. It’s his cell phone.
“I’m sorry, I have to take this,” he tells me. He stands from the table and walks over towards the door. I feel awkward sitting all by myself but I keep replaying what Harry just said to me over in my head. He said I’m pretty.
I look around the restaurant and observe how the other people are acting. I adjust my posture to match theirs and watch how they eat and cover their mouths when they chew. I feel extremely out of place in such an elegant setting.
Harry comes back, tearing me from my thoughts.
“Where were we?” He asks.
“You were just about to tell me a little bit about yourself,” I say.
“Alright. Well, my full name is Harry Edward Styles. I was born in Cheshire but my mum and I moved here right before I started high school so she could get away from home for a while. I have an older sister named Gemma, she stayed in England.” He fiddles with his hands as he talks, something I do as well. It’s sort of like a nervous tick.
He continues to tell me about his childhood and his best friends and a band he used to be in with a few of his buddies until he had to move here with his mom. I find myself drawn to his accent and not paying attention to what he’s saying at times.
Our food arrives and Harry keeps talking. He tells me about the bakery he used to work in and how much he misses certain parts of England.
A few times during his story, though, he has to pull his phone out and silence it. Someone he doesn’t want to talk to keeps calling him for some reason. I don’t ask him about it, I don’t feel like I have the right to know just yet.
When he finishes telling me about himself, we eat in silence for a while. The food is really good and I can’t help but wonder how much he’s going to have to pay for it.
Near the end of our meal, Harry’s phone goes off again. He looks really mad this time and answers it right at the table.
“I told you, I’m busy. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?” Anger is evident in his voice and it’s really intimidating. The person on the other end of the conversation says something that causes Harry’s face to fall. He looks surprised and angry at the same time. His eyes dart behind me to the door and his mouth drops open.
I turn around to see what he’s staring at and my heart stops when I see her. The girl from the clothing store.
I don’t object, though, because it won’t work. She drops the bag on her bed and pulls out all of her makeup. She brought a lot more than I did and she knows it. I brace myself for the next hour.
She spreads out her tools and colors and starts to work. She takes at least 10 minutes with concealer alone, making sure she had everything covered. Next, she did my eyes. Eye shadow took nearly 10 minutes and eyeliner about the same. Laurel is a perfectionist and I knew it would take a long time but I’m starting to get restless.
“Wait, I have to do something else,” she says after she finishes putting mascara on me. She turns around and picks something up off the dresser. I back away when I see she’s holding tweezers.
“No,” I say. “You can put makeup on me, you can get me into a dress, you can even get me to wear heels, but there’s no way you’re plucking my eyebrows.”
She smiles and walks towards me. “I have to, Piper, and you know it. You want to look nice for your date, don’t you? Let me pluck them, you’ll be fine. It doesn’t hurt much, only right when I pull the hair out.”
That doesn’t sound even the least bit appealing to me.
“No, Laurel.”
“No guy likes a girl with caterpillars above her eyes,” she teases, kneeling on the floor in front of me.
I sigh. I really don’t want her yanking hair out of my face but I know she’s right.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“I already told you, just a little bit. You’ll get used to it, though,” she assures me.
I close my eyes and clench my fists, waiting for her to begin. When she does, I hold my breath. I feel it but it isn’t really as bad as I thought it would be but I don’t tell her that. She takes 15 minutes or so to do my eyebrows and finishes with putting lip gloss on me. By the time everything is done, it’s quarter after 3.
“Jewelry,” she says, getting up from the floor. She turns around and opens her suitcase. Shuffling through earrings and necklaces, she finds a gold necklace with a little bow on it and earrings to match.
I take them from her and put them on. They’ll look really good with the dress and compliment my skin color very nicely. I don’t want to put the dress on yet so I lay down on my stomach on the bed and turn on the television.
“Be careful not to smudge your makeup,” Laurel warns me.
“I know.” Sometimes she’s more of a mother to me than a best friend.
“I’m so happy for you,” she says.
“Thanks.”
“You two are so cute together,” she adds.
I turn the TV off and sit up.
“Anything else?” I ask sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, I’m just so excited! You’ve been waiting forever to meet him and now you have and you have a fancy date in a few hours and you’re going to fall completely in love with him like me and Nova and you’ll get married and I’ll be the maid of honor and I’ll be there when you have your first child and-”
“Slow down, Laurel!” She really gets way too far ahead of herself sometimes. I don’t even know this guy’s last name yet and she’s already thinking about us having children. Yeah, chances are we’ll work out fine just like we’re supposed to but there’s always that small possibility of something going wrong. We may find out we’re not good for each other and the necklaces were wrong. I’m hoping that’s not the case but it’s always in the back of my mind as a possibility.
“Sorry,” she apologizes again.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m just really happy for you, Piper. It’s not every day that something like this happens.”
“I know. I’m glad you’re happy for me, and I’ll tell you all about it when I get home,” I assure her.
She smiles and looks a little more relaxed. I turn the TV back on. Laurel grabs her hair curler and sits behind me to curl my hair while I watch TV. She’s finished by 5:30 and I turn the TV off. My stomach is tying itself into knots by this time and I have to get dressed.
“Are you ready for the big reveal?” I ask from behind the bathroom door. I’d put the dress on and slipped the black heels onto my feet and stared at myself for a few minutes in the full length mirror in the bathroom. I have to admit, I look beautiful. I never thought I’d say that.
“Absolutely! Come show me what you look like,” Laurel answers.
I take a big breath and pull the bathroom door open. Laurel had her hand over her eyes and she drops it when she hears the door open.
“Wow,” she whispers, her eyes scanning me from top to bottom. “Honey, if this doesn’t make him drool nothing will.”
I smile and look at myself a few more times. My hair looks amazing thanks to Laurel and my makeup is perfect.
“Nails!” Laurel screams. I jump at the high pitch. She jumps up and grabs a bottle from her suitcase. “We forgot to do your nails,” she tells me. She shakes up the bottle and motions for me to hold my hands out.
“This nail polish will dry quickly so you’ll be good to go by the time he gets here,” she informs me as she paints on a metallic gold color onto my short nails.
She’s an artist when it comes to stuff like this and finishes within minutes. There’s no nail polish on the skin around my nails and I’m astonished. I could never do my nails so neatly. Then again, I never do my nails.
“There, all done,” she says with a smile. She puts the bottle back and sits on her bed. “You look amazing.”
“Thank you. It’s all because of you.”
“Have fun on your date. Don’t be too nervous, it’ll turn out fine,” she assures me. “Trust me, you’ll be okay. I can tell he likes you.”
I almost cry because of her words and the softness of her voice. She’s always so sweet and nice to me, I promise myself I’ll do something wonderful for her when we get back home.
My cell phone rings on the nightstand between our beds and my stomach knots up even more. I rush to answer it and my heart flutters when I see Harry’s name. I take a deep breath and calm myself before accepting the call.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Hey, lovely. I’m on my way up, are you ready?”
I feel myself blush at the word ‘lovely’ and I smile. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Good. I’m so excited,” he says.
“Me too.”
He hangs up and I wait anxiously for him to knock on the door. Laurel looks as anxious as I feel and she’s pacing the room. Soon, there’s a light knock on the door. Laurel looks at me and a wide smile appears on her face. She runs to the living room and nearly opens the door before she remembers it’s not for her. She steps aside and gives me a thumbs-up before I pull the door open.
Harry is standing there in a tux with a small bouquet of red roses in his hand. I smile and take the roses from him.
“You’re sweet,” I manage to say.
“I know,” he replies with a smile.
“I can’t take this much longer, get out of here you guys,” Laurel says and pushes me towards the door. “Have fun!”
The door closes in my face and we walk toward the elevator. I realize I left my cell phone and door key in the room but I don’t want to go back and get them. I’m sure Laurel wouldn’t open the door for me anyway.
“Your friend is pretty weird,” Harry tells me when we get in the elevator.
“Yeah, I know. She means well, though.”
“I can tell. She’s really excited we found each other.”
“She’s known her boyfriend forever, she’s just happy that she doesn’t have to hear me complain anymore,” I say with a laugh.
We step out of the elevator and walk out to the front of the building. Harry’s car is parked next to the sidewalk and he opens the door for me to get in.
“Thank you,” I say as I get in. He’s so sweet I can hardly even stand it.
“Anything for the most beautiful girl in the world,” he says as he closes the door. My heart does a flip and I find myself smiling like crazy.
We drive a little ways away from the hotel to a really fancy hotel. I had no idea just how fancy it was going to be.
There are white table cloths on every table, the lighting is dim and soft, the waiters and waitresses are all dressed in black and white. When we walked in Harry even had to give a man behind a podium his name because he had made a reservation.
Everyone in here looks so sophisticated and I feel terribly out of place until I remember I dolled myself up for that very reason. We take a seat at our table and pick up some leather menus. A lot of the items are written in French so I go by the pictures mostly.
“Do you know what any of this says?” I ask after a while.
“Not a clue,” he admits with a smile.
When the waiter comes to take our order, Harry orders some seafood dish for both of us and I’m happy I didn’t have to embarrass myself by pronouncing something wrong.
We make small talk for a while as we wait for our food to arrive.
“Where did you say you were from?” He asks.
“Indiana,” I answer.
He nods as he remembers. “That’s right, you’re here on vacation.”
I nod, not knowing how to respond. I’m so awkward.
“You know, you’re really pretty,” he says after a few minutes of silence.
I feel my cheeks grow hot and I know he can see that I’m blushing. “Thanks,” I manage.
“It’s true,” he says with a smile.
If he doesn’t stop I swear my face is going to light on fire from all this blushing. “You’re not so bad looking yourself,” I say and instantly regret it. What a stupid thing to say on a first date.
He chuckles and gets a weird look on his face. He digs something out of his back pocket and I see him look at it. It’s his cell phone.
“I’m sorry, I have to take this,” he tells me. He stands from the table and walks over towards the door. I feel awkward sitting all by myself but I keep replaying what Harry just said to me over in my head. He said I’m pretty.
I look around the restaurant and observe how the other people are acting. I adjust my posture to match theirs and watch how they eat and cover their mouths when they chew. I feel extremely out of place in such an elegant setting.
Harry comes back, tearing me from my thoughts.
“Where were we?” He asks.
“You were just about to tell me a little bit about yourself,” I say.
“Alright. Well, my full name is Harry Edward Styles. I was born in Cheshire but my mum and I moved here right before I started high school so she could get away from home for a while. I have an older sister named Gemma, she stayed in England.” He fiddles with his hands as he talks, something I do as well. It’s sort of like a nervous tick.
He continues to tell me about his childhood and his best friends and a band he used to be in with a few of his buddies until he had to move here with his mom. I find myself drawn to his accent and not paying attention to what he’s saying at times.
Our food arrives and Harry keeps talking. He tells me about the bakery he used to work in and how much he misses certain parts of England.
A few times during his story, though, he has to pull his phone out and silence it. Someone he doesn’t want to talk to keeps calling him for some reason. I don’t ask him about it, I don’t feel like I have the right to know just yet.
When he finishes telling me about himself, we eat in silence for a while. The food is really good and I can’t help but wonder how much he’s going to have to pay for it.
Near the end of our meal, Harry’s phone goes off again. He looks really mad this time and answers it right at the table.
“I told you, I’m busy. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?” Anger is evident in his voice and it’s really intimidating. The person on the other end of the conversation says something that causes Harry’s face to fall. He looks surprised and angry at the same time. His eyes dart behind me to the door and his mouth drops open.
I turn around to see what he’s staring at and my heart stops when I see her. The girl from the clothing store.
Update please!!!!
2/6/14