Spotlight |h.s|

Sixty Seven

Aubrey Hart

It's Valentine's Day.

A holiday I never in a million years would've predicted spending with Harry Styles of all people. One I've only celebrated a handful of times, and never particularly liked. One that's all about a certain feeling that makes your heart race and your knees weak. A feeling I'm terrified of confronting and constantly pushing to the back of my mind. Not allowing myself to think or speak it.

Still, here I am getting ready to have dinner with the cause of it.

Since we don't want to go out more than we already have to with the New York trip, we're staying in for this. We're basically going to do what we did during our first "one night stand", get food and post about it for PR. This time, though, we aren't being told to do it. It isn't fake anymore. We're just posting on social media to keep up this deal with Max like we have been for months.

I'm sitting with my legs crossed on the bathroom counter so I can get close to the mirror, trying to perfect my subtle winged eyeliner. Harry is standing close by, eyes trained on me to observe my work since he's so fascinated by the fact that I can do this on my own face.

"How haven't you poked your eye out by now?" He asks another question, adding to the bunch he's already asked in the past twenty minutes that I've been getting ready.

I draw the thin brush down from my eye, glancing over at him with only one wing fully done with a very fine black line running along my lash line. I squint a little at his question, not knowing how he doesn't have at least a bit of background with these things after growing up with a sister and getting his makeup done professionally on a regular basis.

I let go of my right arm, my left hand previously holding it steady. I attempt to scare him with my answer to the question, "I actually did the first time I did this. There was a big black spot in my eye for a little while."

His eyes widen, then he audibly cringes. He shakes his body with the exaggerated reaction, eyes squinting shut at the thought of the black makeup getting into them. I laugh at his dramatics, watching as he slowly forces his eyes back open to look at me.

"I just don't know how you can focus enough to do it on your own eye." He shakes his head in disbelief.

"Doesn't Ruby wear eyeliner sometimes?" I ask, knowing even I've seen her wear it before over her short visit back in December.

"Yes, but I've never sat here and watched her do it." He explains his surprise.

"It's really not that hard once you get used to it. I find it easier to do on other people, but with practice, doing it on myself is just as easy." I explain as I finish up my left eye, a thin black line coming to a pointed stop past the corner of the lid.

"I feel like my hands would be too shaky. How aren't yours?" He asks, knowing my anxious self has a tendency to shake a bit more than the average person.

"That's why I'm holding my arm." I touch up the wings to make them even as I speak, it being hard to talk due to how focused I am.

"Ohh." He nods in understanding, his eyes still burning into my face as he watches intently.

I put the cap back on the liner once they're even, a bit of concealer being used to touch up a spot where I accidentally slipped early on in the process. The wings are very thin, nothing bold at all. They look dainty, my eyes now having a frame to their round shape. I then quickly curl my eyelashes and apply some mascara, turning to him once I'm finished with it all.

His gaze observes my face in its entirety now that I'm all done up, my usual makeup and then some being on since it's a holiday. I know we aren't going anywhere, but this is enough of a reason to get fully ready considering how often I'm bare-faced in one of his shirts.