𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 ~ ✰☽ 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐜

~ twenty ~

"Are you sure I look okay?" I ask Jess, who FaceTimed me while I was getting ready to go to Louis' trailer.
"Yes yes yes now why are you so worried? He's a dick anyways!" She shrugs, biting her nails and watching me straighten my hair.

"Well- I mean yeah but he's not... that bad?" I mumble, confused on why I'm defending him.

Jess pauses, and stares directly at her camera with a confused look on her face.
"Hold up... do you like him?"

"What? Are you kidding? Why does everyone think I like him?" I say, immediately getting defensive and realizing how I sound.

"Well first of all, you keep asking me if you look okay, when it shouldn't matter. Second of all, you defend him when I call him a dick or something- which speaking of... why are you defending him?"

I pause for a moment, setting my straightener down on the small sink to think. Why am I defending him?

"Well... I mean he's nice sometimes..." I say, resisting the urge to allow more butterflies to sneak under the skin of my stomach.
"Explain," he pushed.

I bite my tongue and look at the mirror in front of me for a second, then reach down to grab my straightener again.

But as I wrap my hand around it, an extreme burning sensation pricks at the fibers of my skin and I quickly let go.
"Shit!" I yell, shaking my hand like crazy.

"What happened?"

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-"

"What happened!" She yells again through the phone, as I lift my hand and stare at the forming red burn.
"I grabbed the wrong end of my straightener!" I yell, blowing on the area and feeling tears burn up in my eyes.

Jess was sitting behind her screen, trying her hardest not to laugh at me. But she couldn't do it. She let her laughter fly, quickly slamming a hand on her mouth after realizing that I was actually hurt.
"Wait shit actually?"

"Yes actually!" I yell again, quickly sitting on the closed toilet and watching my burn grow just a little bit more red.

"Oh damn... sorry..." she mumbles, still looking like she's trying not to laugh.

I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths.
"Son of a bitch," I whine, taking the straightener out of the sink and standing up to run the burn under cool water. It was mild, and probably would go away fast but it still hurt like hell.

"I'm gonna go and let you take care of that," she chuckles nervously.

"Yeah I'll call you later!" I fret, as the girl nods and smiles a bit.

"We'll have fun with Louis... if you know what I me-"

"Oh shut up Jess," I groan, letting out a little laugh through the burning pain in my hand.

She throws me a wink, and then ends the FaceTime call. I continue to run my palm under the cold water, staring at the time on my phone.

Five o' three.

"Shit," I whisper, sighing and then turning off the water, before gently patting down the infected area with a towel.

Now I have to go to Louis' and I'm sure he'll laugh when I tell him what happened... or I could just hide it... yeah.

Yeah I'll just hide it.

And that's what I do. I unplug the straightener from the wall and then hurry out of the bathroom to my closet, grabbing out a sweatshirt instead of my tee, and throwing it on. If I tug of the sleeves enough, it covers the burn.