Family Friend Makeover Part1

Chapter 1

“Ouch!” I exclaim as Steph pulls knots in my hair with her brush.

“James, If you brushed your hair regularly, you wouldn’t have so many knots! Don’t blame me if it hurts when I brush your bird's nest that you call hair!” Steph replies as she continues grooming.

Annoyingly, I knew she was right, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of me admitting that. To be completely honest, I had let my hair get really long and messy over these last few months. In my defense, breakups are never easy, especially when they cheat on you! Ashleigh, my ex, was the love of my life! Now she’s shacked up with some jock called Dylan. What a prick!

I ask myself daily, what does he have that I don’t!? Unfortunately for me, it's an easy answer. The rugged good looks, the Hercules-type body, and the popularity to match the good looks. Me, on the other hand, Short, skinny, and rather feminine looking. My shoulder-length brown hair really doesn’t help.

“I can’t believe how long your hair has gotten,” Steph says, almost giving me an impressed look. “Some girls would be jealous. I mean, your hair is so glossy and shiny!”

“Woopie!” I reply as I sarcastically throw my hands up in the air like I’m doing a Mexican wave.

“Hey now!” Steph says while giving me a dirty look through the mirror. “I’m paying you a compliment. No need to be a jerk!”

Steph is like the sister I never had. We’ve known each other since we were very little. Our families are friends, so we’ve basically grown up together. When she found out that I was feeling rather down about myself, she invited me over. Little did I know that it would lead me to be sitting in front of her vanity mirror, getting my hair brushed like a schoolgirl.

“Remind me, why we are doing this again?” I ask as she struggles to brush through another load of knots in my hair.

“I want you to feel good about yourself!” She answers while focussing hard on working through my awful hair. “You know, it's now down past your shoulders. We should totally style it!”

“Will that keep you from trying to get me to talk about how I feel about my Ex?” I ask with a sour tone.

“Yes,” She says gleefully. “Do you mind if I choose the style?”

“Steph, knock yourself out. My hair is all yours,” I reply as I roll my eyes at her.

Minutes of her circling around me and brushing like mad, she places both her hands on my shoulders and smiles. During that time, I had been scrolling through my phone, not taking notice of anything she was doing. I look up to see what she’d chosen for my hair.

“What do you think,” Steph asks, her smile reaching ear to ear.

“I look like a girl!” I complain as touch the fringe she’d styled in. It covered most of my forehead and some of my left eye. The rest of my hair was dead straight and cascading down to my shoulders. I shake my head from side to side and my feminine hair cut sways with the movement.

“Really?” I question, as I have to flick my fringe out of my eye.

“Yeah, you look cute,” She giggles. “You know…. You kinda look like your mum!”

“Right, I think I’m done!” I moan as I try to move from the chair, only to find myself Impeded by her pushing down on my shoulders. Steph shakes her head at me as I give her a disapproving look through the mirror.

“I’ve had an idea!” She says as she moves her lips close to my ears. Feeling the warmth of her breath, she whispers in my ear. “James, can I put some make-up on you?”

“Certainly not!” I exclaim as I brush the hair from my eyes one more.

“Please!” She pleads softly into my ear.

The smell of her sweet perfume now filling my nose as she leans in close. “I will do your math homework for a week.”

Turning my face towards her, our faces are inches apart. I look into her big sparkling beautiful blue eyes and find myself caving in. She looked genuinely happy to be spending time with me.

We hadn’t had much time for each other in recent months, so I guess it is nice to be spending time together with Steph. My Ex-girlfriend didn’t really like me hanging around her too much as she didn’t like how close we are. Having a female best mate is difficult when you're trying to date, that’s for sure!

“Ok, ok,” I say as I slump into the chair. “You better do a good job!”

“Oh, I’m going to make you look so pretty!” She says with a little jump for joy.

“I meant on my homework,” I reply with a sigh.

Steph hands me a wipe and directs me to wipe my face. I oblige her and once I had finished, I look at the wipe and view the grime removed from my face.

“Gross!” I say as I discarded it haphazardly to one side.

“Yeah, you dirty boy!” Steph laughs. “Let's do something about that, shall we?”

Looking in the mirror, I see her pull out a large soft-looking brush and a glass jar of some sort. The glass jar had a skin color liquid inside. Taking the cap off of the jar, Steph pumps a couple of squirts of the stuff onto the back of her hand.

“What's that stuff?” I ask with genuine curiosity.

“Foundation,” She replies as she loads the soft brush with it, just like an artist with paints on a palette.

Moving in close to me, she starts softly brushing my cheeks. I feel the liquid attach to my face, almost like the feeling of sunscreen being rubbed all over me. I close my eyes as she starts brushing near them. The smell of foundation wasn’t overly pleasant and the heavy feeling it gave me on my skin was a little strange, but before I knew it, she’d finished.

“Are we done?” I ask as I open my eyes. Not knowing what to expect, I’m happy that I don’t look much different. If anything my skin looks a lot more…uniform in color.

“Not even close!” Steph says as she reaches for a new brush. “What color eye shadow would you like?”

“Black, like my soul?” I joke.

Steph doesn’t smile or laugh at my joke, much to my annoyance, she just nods and pulls out a small plastic box from her makeup bag. Opening it up, she starts dabbing it with the new brush she’d picked up.

“Stay as still as you can, ok!” She asserts as she points the brush in the direction of my eyes.

I flinch a little in my chair as she makes contact with my face, just below my right eye. This brush was not soft as the one before. It felt firm and rather sharp. I feel my face go bright red, as Steph grabs hold of the top of my head with one hand, to stop me from moving. If this was a prison, I’d one hundred percent be her bitch right now. Not sure how I felt about that!

After a few strokes of the brush below and above both my eyes, I can feel a powdery substance on my skin around my eyes. She’d put a lot of attention on my eyelids, which now kinda felt a little sore from the brush she was using.

“James, I need you to keep your eyes closed but not too tight, ok?” She asks me as I hear the pop of a lid come off of something.

“Why?” I question as I keep my eyes closed.

“I need to do your eyeliner, so keep still!” Steph demands as her voice gets closer to my face.

I try my best to keep my eyes closed, but not too tight. I feel her brush my top eyelid with a streak of a cold feeling liquid. With one swift, continuous movement she draws a line from the one edge of my eye to the other. With a flick, she finishes off the line just past my eye.

“That’s one!” She remarks. “Once I’ve done the other eye you can open them!”

Steph repeats the process on my other eye, holding my newly styled fringe out of the way as she does. Feeling a little bit of relief, that I could now open my eyes, I do so. My eyelids feel a little heavier than normal, with an almost sticky feeling to them. I resist the urge to wipe around my eyes as my face in the mirror slowly comes into view.

“Whoa!” I exclaim as I see myself for the first time wearing eye makeup. “Is that me? I look like a prostitute!”

“You said you wanted the color black, so I did a smokey eye makeup look!” Steph chuckles. “I think I’ve done a good job!”

“Sure, if a prostitute is a look you wanted to give me, then yeah!” I moan as I turn my face from side to side, checking myself out in the mirror.

“Well least you’d be getting some action if you were!” Steph retorts with a wide grin.

“Not funny!” I complain with a pout.

“Aww.. don’t frown!” She says as she grabs another item from her makeup bag. “Ok, this time I want you to blink a few times when I ask.”

I nod in agreement as she holds a tiny brush very close to my eyeballs. It was a mascara brush. It was about the only thing I recognized so far. She tells me to blink and as I do, I feel my eyelashes run through the mascara brush. I feel the resistance as they get coated in it. The sticky, weight covering both my upper and lower lashes by the time she had finished.

“Pretty,” Steph comments as she puts the lid back on the mascara. “I almost don’t recognize you!” She laughs.

“Shit!” I exclaim. “I didn’t realize my eyelashes were so long!”

Steph pouts at me through the mirror. “Yeah, you boys always get such lovely long lashes! It's annoying! I bet you’ve got stunning legs as well!

Turning back in my chair to face her, I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t think me having long eyelashes is going to help me get my next girlfriend… do you?” I question.

Steph gently raises her hand to my chin. I feel the warmth of her delicate fingers, as she holds my chin with her dainty fingertips.

“Honey, you might attract a special sort of girl looking like this!” She comments as she inspects her handy work.

Having nothing to say, I swipe away her hand and turn back around in the chair to look at myself in the mirror. I honestly couldn’t believe what I looked like. It was totally mad! With the hair and the makeup, a pretty young girl stared back at me. The sort of young pretty girl I’d like to take out on a date.

“This is really weird!” I say as I stare down my own reflection. “I see a feminine face looking back at me, but when I talk, hearing a male voice come out is totally off-putting.

“It's your voice James,” Steph says as she gives me a raised eyebrow. “Why don’t you try talking a little more high-pitched and feminine?”

“What like this darling!” I blurt out as posh and high-pitched as I can. Trying my utmost to sound like an uptight old lady.

I feel a warmth of happiness wash over me as my joke makes Steph start giggling like an idiot. I wasn’t going to tell her, but I was starting to have a really nice time. I’d been so wrapped up with my feelings, I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have fun.

“Just like that Mrs lady of the manor!” Steph laughs. “Does the lady of the manor want me to do her lipstick?” She asks, trying to keep a straight face.

“Yes, please!” I answer back in the same high-pitched posh voice. “Also, please refer to me as Lady Bamforth Monitgue in future, ok peasant girl!” I continue joking.