Drama
Chapter 13: Looking Good
Leila's P.O.V.
For the rest of the night, I’m having a hard time focusing on memorizing my lines. I pretty much have them down, but this one section in one scene keeps tripping me up. I’m able to get them down, but I’m giving up. I get ready for bed earlier than usual, but I haven’t been sleeping very well the past few days. So much has happened and I’m not ready to find out what’s next.
This morning I wake up and get ready without any major problems. I guess the weatherman was incorrect about today’s weather, since I have to take the bus again. He predicted that it would be sunny today. Nope, it’s raining, hard.
I get on the bus and ride it to the studio, actually ready for today. I head in there and we begin working. My cast isn’t as bad as they have been the past few days, which takes a lot of pressure off of me. Niall is standing in his usual spot as we work and actually watches us this time instead of on his phone.
The 4 of us go out to lunch like any other day, but since it’s raining, we stay in one of the restaurants. Niall and I are holding hands the entire bus ride downtown and Alexa and Max are suspicious. We enter the restaurant and Niall and I tell them that it’s official.
“I knew you liked someone!” Alexa exclaims.
“Yeah, Max,” I reveal. Alexa laughs.
“I’m offended,” Max pouts, playfully frowning.
“Sorry,” I apologize, shrugging. “You’re a great friend, Max, but…”
“Ooohh, you just got friendzoned!” Alexa laughs.
“Anyways,” Niall begins, changing the subject. “There’s this party tonight that I got invited to and I was wondering if you wanted to come.”
“Me?” I ask, pointing at myself.
“Yeah, you. Who else?” Niall says.
“Them,” I respond, pointing at Alexa and Max.
“Well, they can come to, but I want you to be my guest,” Niall explains.
“I’m not able to go, I’m seeing my parents this weekend,” Alexa says.
“I’ve never been to a party before,” I admit.
“It’ll be fun, I promise,” Niall begs.
“What do I wear?” I ask.
“I don’t know, I’m not a girl!” Niall exclaims.
“Hey, hasn’t Madison gone to a few parties?” Alexa questions. I nod.
“Well, maybe she could help you out. We could all go shopping after we’re done at the studio,” Alexa answers.
“Then it’s all settled. Max, are you going?” Niall asks.
“Nah, man, I gotta do some stuff this weekend and it wouldn’t be good to wake up tomorrow morning with a hangover,” Max replies.
“Alright, then I guess it’s just us two,” Niall says, smiling at me. I fake a slight smile but really I’m nervous as all hell. Oh boy…
Time goes by and we walk back to the studio to finish up for today. We wrap up the second episode to the first season very smoothly and soon we’re dismissed from set. Time to go pick out an outfit.
I ride with Alexa back to my apartment, texting Madison on the way to ask her if she’d like to go with us. She didn’t have any plans, so yes, she’d love to come with. We stop at my apartment and grab something to eat, then we head out to go shop for something to wear.
Madison suggests Forever 21, so we drive there first. We park on the side of the road down the street and walk to the store. The minute I step in the store I know I’m in heaven. I don’t have anything like this back at home, so this is my shopping dream. The only problem is, it’s so expensive.
Madison leads us over to the dresses and we look up and down the racks for something cute.
“You want me to wear a dress?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“Oh, not a fluffy prom dress. A sexy, tight dress that will get boys looking at you,” Madison replies, eyeing some plain, black dresses on a rack.
“But I already have a boyfriend,” I interrupt.
“What? Who?!” Madison responds, snapping her head up and looking at me.
“Niall,” I answer, smiling sheepishly.
“Wait, you two are a thing now? Since when?” Madison asks.
“Since last night,” I reveal. Madison nods.
“I knew it was going to happen,” she replies, smiling and looking back down at the dresses. “Well, we’ll just have to get you one that Niall wouldn’t mind seeing you in.”
“Hey, what about this one?” Alexa questions, holding up a bright pink dress. It’s short, strapless, low-cut, and has a sparkly pink strap across the waist. Sheer ruffles pop out from the bottom of the dress.
“No, absolutely not,” Madison says.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s okay, but I’m not all that into pink,” I admit.
“Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion,” Alexa responds. She puts the dress back on the rack and keeps searching.
“Hey, Lei, what about this?” Madison asks, waving me over to her. I obey and look at the dress she’s showing.
It’s a tight, black dress with one shoulder strap, the back open with straps crisscrossing. It’s a bit short in my opinion.
“That’s a little revealing,” I say.
“Oh, come on, you’d look so good in it,” Madison pleads.
“Alexa!” I call. She hears me and runs over. “What about this one?”
“Wouldn’t she look amazing in this?” Madison begs.
“I like it,” Alexa agrees, nodding.
“But-”
“Lei, this is what people wear at parties. You’re supposed to look drop-dead sexy, and this is gonna do it,” Madison says.
“I don’t know,” I reply.
“Just please try it on,” Madison pleads again.
“Okay,” I agree, taking the dress and heading for the dressing room. I enter in a stall and slip it on. My reflection in the mirror inside the stall actually looks good. I feel just a little bit out of my comfort zone but this whole party is going to be, so might as well take Madison’s advice and get this dress.
“Let us see!” Madison shouts from outside the stall. I unlock the door, turn the knob, and step out to see my best friends standing there.
“Woah,” Alexa says.
“Damn,” Madison replies.
“Get the dress,” Alexa responds, smiling and nodding.
“You think?” I ask one more time.
“Yes!” both girls scream out.
“Alright,” I sigh, smiling and heading back in the stall to change. I carefully take the dress off and put my normal clothes on and exit the stall, meeting my friends on the other side.
“Dude, Niall’s going to have a heart attack when he sees you in that,” Alexa comments. I roll my eyes at her and chuckle.
“Do you have any shoes to wear with it?” Madison asks.
“What kind of shoes?” I question.
“High heels, pumps, something cute!”
“Not really,” I respond.
“To the shoes!” Madison shouts, and struts off to the shoes section. We enter the aisle with all of the heels and Madison points out a set of black open-toed high heels with little bows on the toes.
“These are perfect,” she admits, holding them up to the dress. I slip on the shoe and it fits, so we grab the box.
“We’re all set,” Madison says, and leads us to the check out. The dress and the shoes are a little more expensive than I thought, but there was no way I’m going to that party looking like a fool. Plus, sometimes you have to splurge on yourself.
We climb back in Alexa’s car and head to our apartment to get me ready. It’s about 6 o’ clock and Niall said he’d pick me up about 8:30, so we have plenty of time to get ready.
The first thing we do is get my hair done. While Madison curls my hair, Alexa paints my nails black. I feel like I’m at a spa or something even if it is just my friends.
Madison curls my hair into loose, wavy strands and pulls half of it up, holding it back into a black bow clip she had. My bangs sweep my forehead while the curls hang down in the front and back.
Next order of business is makeup. I’m not a complete makeup artist myself, so I can’t really do extravagant colors or stuff. My usual makeup is pretty simple, so I don’t have much. Madison uses her makeup kit and brushes it over my face. After she’s done, my eyes are not too dark, but dark with gray and black eye shadow meeting the black eyeliner curving into wings at the corner of my eyes. Madison added a touch of blush to my pale face and colored my lips with a light pink lipstick. I told her I wasn’t too daring tonight to go with a bright red lipstick, so she compromised with pink instead.
Alexa enters my room and picks out a few pieces of jewelry for me to wear. She comes back out and puts on my black rose necklace and lets me put in matching black flower earrings. I feel goth, to be honest. At least I’m not wearing black lipstick.
“Ok, the final touch is your dress and heels!” Madison instructs. I close myself in my bedroom and put on the dress and shoes. After doing so, I glimpse at myself in the mirror. I look totally different that it somewhat scares me. But I look good. I didn’t even know I could look this good, especially with what good makeup skills Madison has. I take a deep breath and exit my room, ready for my friends to see the final product.
“Eeep!” Madison squeals as soon as she sees me.
“Lei, you look amazing!” Alexa compliments, hugging me.
“Thanks, you guys!” I shakily say.
“By the way, Niall texted you saying he’ll be here in a few minutes,” Alexa notifies.
“What?” I exclaim, widening my eyes. Alexa hands me my phone and according to the time he texted me and now, he’ll be here any minute. My insides turn to goo and my legs start shaking. Never had I imagined myself in this position. But I kind of like it.
Alexa and Madison get a few pictures of me before Niall comes. A few minutes before 8:30, there’s a knock on the door and we all know it’s Niall. I try and put on a smile through all of this nervousness I’m experiencing as Alexa opens the door.
Niall walks in with his usual red hoodie and a pair of sunglasses drooping from his shirt. My nerves go on edge as I expected him to be dressed up a little bit, too.
“Wow, Lei, you didn’t have to get this dressed up!” he exclaims, taking me in. I give Madison a look and she shrugs at me.
“Wait, why aren’t you dressed up?” Alexa asks.
“I’m only meeting a few friends there that I haven’t seen in a year, and I really don’t want too many people knowing I’m at this party. If more people know about me coming, the paps could eventually find me and there’s no way I’m letting that happen,” Niall explains. Oh.
I can’t contain my nerves as Madison hands me her black purse I can use to stuff my phone inside. Niall takes my hand and we say goodbye to my friends as we exit my apartment, ready or not to go to this party.
For the rest of the night, I’m having a hard time focusing on memorizing my lines. I pretty much have them down, but this one section in one scene keeps tripping me up. I’m able to get them down, but I’m giving up. I get ready for bed earlier than usual, but I haven’t been sleeping very well the past few days. So much has happened and I’m not ready to find out what’s next.
This morning I wake up and get ready without any major problems. I guess the weatherman was incorrect about today’s weather, since I have to take the bus again. He predicted that it would be sunny today. Nope, it’s raining, hard.
I get on the bus and ride it to the studio, actually ready for today. I head in there and we begin working. My cast isn’t as bad as they have been the past few days, which takes a lot of pressure off of me. Niall is standing in his usual spot as we work and actually watches us this time instead of on his phone.
The 4 of us go out to lunch like any other day, but since it’s raining, we stay in one of the restaurants. Niall and I are holding hands the entire bus ride downtown and Alexa and Max are suspicious. We enter the restaurant and Niall and I tell them that it’s official.
“I knew you liked someone!” Alexa exclaims.
“Yeah, Max,” I reveal. Alexa laughs.
“I’m offended,” Max pouts, playfully frowning.
“Sorry,” I apologize, shrugging. “You’re a great friend, Max, but…”
“Ooohh, you just got friendzoned!” Alexa laughs.
“Anyways,” Niall begins, changing the subject. “There’s this party tonight that I got invited to and I was wondering if you wanted to come.”
“Me?” I ask, pointing at myself.
“Yeah, you. Who else?” Niall says.
“Them,” I respond, pointing at Alexa and Max.
“Well, they can come to, but I want you to be my guest,” Niall explains.
“I’m not able to go, I’m seeing my parents this weekend,” Alexa says.
“I’ve never been to a party before,” I admit.
“It’ll be fun, I promise,” Niall begs.
“What do I wear?” I ask.
“I don’t know, I’m not a girl!” Niall exclaims.
“Hey, hasn’t Madison gone to a few parties?” Alexa questions. I nod.
“Well, maybe she could help you out. We could all go shopping after we’re done at the studio,” Alexa answers.
“Then it’s all settled. Max, are you going?” Niall asks.
“Nah, man, I gotta do some stuff this weekend and it wouldn’t be good to wake up tomorrow morning with a hangover,” Max replies.
“Alright, then I guess it’s just us two,” Niall says, smiling at me. I fake a slight smile but really I’m nervous as all hell. Oh boy…
Time goes by and we walk back to the studio to finish up for today. We wrap up the second episode to the first season very smoothly and soon we’re dismissed from set. Time to go pick out an outfit.
I ride with Alexa back to my apartment, texting Madison on the way to ask her if she’d like to go with us. She didn’t have any plans, so yes, she’d love to come with. We stop at my apartment and grab something to eat, then we head out to go shop for something to wear.
Madison suggests Forever 21, so we drive there first. We park on the side of the road down the street and walk to the store. The minute I step in the store I know I’m in heaven. I don’t have anything like this back at home, so this is my shopping dream. The only problem is, it’s so expensive.
Madison leads us over to the dresses and we look up and down the racks for something cute.
“You want me to wear a dress?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“Oh, not a fluffy prom dress. A sexy, tight dress that will get boys looking at you,” Madison replies, eyeing some plain, black dresses on a rack.
“But I already have a boyfriend,” I interrupt.
“What? Who?!” Madison responds, snapping her head up and looking at me.
“Niall,” I answer, smiling sheepishly.
“Wait, you two are a thing now? Since when?” Madison asks.
“Since last night,” I reveal. Madison nods.
“I knew it was going to happen,” she replies, smiling and looking back down at the dresses. “Well, we’ll just have to get you one that Niall wouldn’t mind seeing you in.”
“Hey, what about this one?” Alexa questions, holding up a bright pink dress. It’s short, strapless, low-cut, and has a sparkly pink strap across the waist. Sheer ruffles pop out from the bottom of the dress.
“No, absolutely not,” Madison says.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s okay, but I’m not all that into pink,” I admit.
“Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion,” Alexa responds. She puts the dress back on the rack and keeps searching.
“Hey, Lei, what about this?” Madison asks, waving me over to her. I obey and look at the dress she’s showing.
It’s a tight, black dress with one shoulder strap, the back open with straps crisscrossing. It’s a bit short in my opinion.
“That’s a little revealing,” I say.
“Oh, come on, you’d look so good in it,” Madison pleads.
“Alexa!” I call. She hears me and runs over. “What about this one?”
“Wouldn’t she look amazing in this?” Madison begs.
“I like it,” Alexa agrees, nodding.
“But-”
“Lei, this is what people wear at parties. You’re supposed to look drop-dead sexy, and this is gonna do it,” Madison says.
“I don’t know,” I reply.
“Just please try it on,” Madison pleads again.
“Okay,” I agree, taking the dress and heading for the dressing room. I enter in a stall and slip it on. My reflection in the mirror inside the stall actually looks good. I feel just a little bit out of my comfort zone but this whole party is going to be, so might as well take Madison’s advice and get this dress.
“Let us see!” Madison shouts from outside the stall. I unlock the door, turn the knob, and step out to see my best friends standing there.
“Woah,” Alexa says.
“Damn,” Madison replies.
“Get the dress,” Alexa responds, smiling and nodding.
“You think?” I ask one more time.
“Yes!” both girls scream out.
“Alright,” I sigh, smiling and heading back in the stall to change. I carefully take the dress off and put my normal clothes on and exit the stall, meeting my friends on the other side.
“Dude, Niall’s going to have a heart attack when he sees you in that,” Alexa comments. I roll my eyes at her and chuckle.
“Do you have any shoes to wear with it?” Madison asks.
“What kind of shoes?” I question.
“High heels, pumps, something cute!”
“Not really,” I respond.
“To the shoes!” Madison shouts, and struts off to the shoes section. We enter the aisle with all of the heels and Madison points out a set of black open-toed high heels with little bows on the toes.
“These are perfect,” she admits, holding them up to the dress. I slip on the shoe and it fits, so we grab the box.
“We’re all set,” Madison says, and leads us to the check out. The dress and the shoes are a little more expensive than I thought, but there was no way I’m going to that party looking like a fool. Plus, sometimes you have to splurge on yourself.
We climb back in Alexa’s car and head to our apartment to get me ready. It’s about 6 o’ clock and Niall said he’d pick me up about 8:30, so we have plenty of time to get ready.
The first thing we do is get my hair done. While Madison curls my hair, Alexa paints my nails black. I feel like I’m at a spa or something even if it is just my friends.
Madison curls my hair into loose, wavy strands and pulls half of it up, holding it back into a black bow clip she had. My bangs sweep my forehead while the curls hang down in the front and back.
Next order of business is makeup. I’m not a complete makeup artist myself, so I can’t really do extravagant colors or stuff. My usual makeup is pretty simple, so I don’t have much. Madison uses her makeup kit and brushes it over my face. After she’s done, my eyes are not too dark, but dark with gray and black eye shadow meeting the black eyeliner curving into wings at the corner of my eyes. Madison added a touch of blush to my pale face and colored my lips with a light pink lipstick. I told her I wasn’t too daring tonight to go with a bright red lipstick, so she compromised with pink instead.
Alexa enters my room and picks out a few pieces of jewelry for me to wear. She comes back out and puts on my black rose necklace and lets me put in matching black flower earrings. I feel goth, to be honest. At least I’m not wearing black lipstick.
“Ok, the final touch is your dress and heels!” Madison instructs. I close myself in my bedroom and put on the dress and shoes. After doing so, I glimpse at myself in the mirror. I look totally different that it somewhat scares me. But I look good. I didn’t even know I could look this good, especially with what good makeup skills Madison has. I take a deep breath and exit my room, ready for my friends to see the final product.
“Eeep!” Madison squeals as soon as she sees me.
“Lei, you look amazing!” Alexa compliments, hugging me.
“Thanks, you guys!” I shakily say.
“By the way, Niall texted you saying he’ll be here in a few minutes,” Alexa notifies.
“What?” I exclaim, widening my eyes. Alexa hands me my phone and according to the time he texted me and now, he’ll be here any minute. My insides turn to goo and my legs start shaking. Never had I imagined myself in this position. But I kind of like it.
Alexa and Madison get a few pictures of me before Niall comes. A few minutes before 8:30, there’s a knock on the door and we all know it’s Niall. I try and put on a smile through all of this nervousness I’m experiencing as Alexa opens the door.
Niall walks in with his usual red hoodie and a pair of sunglasses drooping from his shirt. My nerves go on edge as I expected him to be dressed up a little bit, too.
“Wow, Lei, you didn’t have to get this dressed up!” he exclaims, taking me in. I give Madison a look and she shrugs at me.
“Wait, why aren’t you dressed up?” Alexa asks.
“I’m only meeting a few friends there that I haven’t seen in a year, and I really don’t want too many people knowing I’m at this party. If more people know about me coming, the paps could eventually find me and there’s no way I’m letting that happen,” Niall explains. Oh.
I can’t contain my nerves as Madison hands me her black purse I can use to stuff my phone inside. Niall takes my hand and we say goodbye to my friends as we exit my apartment, ready or not to go to this party.
Notes
Please, please, please, PLEASE share this story! I love you!Rachel :)
Make a Sequel please.
9/13/14