ELLA

The Ride

I didn't sleep well last night. I was colder than usual and I had to get up twice to get more clothes and blankets to cover me. December was not my favorite time of year.
And now I feel like something is biting my face.
My eye brows hurt what ?
I wake up to...pinching ?
I open my eyes to my mom hovering over me with a tiny, silver contraption.
"OW! Mom what are you doing !" I sit up hugging the covers to my chest.
"I'm plucking your eyebrows!" she almost looks offended that I didn't know.
I glance over to the clock on my night stand, 5:00am.
"They're coming at 7! And you're waking me up to dis form my face ?!"
I'm getting pissed now. I rip the covers off of me and stomp to the bathroom.
"I know you'd never agree , I'm sorry !" I hear her voice fade behind me.
I'm standing in front of the mirror now, my eyes locking onto my eyebrows.

What did she do. It's like my eyebrows are still there and thick but they look...clean ?
It looks like she had been there a while because there is absolutely no hair around the shaped caterpillars on my face. I feel bad maybe I shouldn't have over reacted like that.
I open the door shyly and she's leaning against the wall with a smug look on her face.
"You like it don't you?" she so immature.
I look away and stick my nose up, "I don't not like it."
Maybe I should give her a chance. She's so girly and classy and I'm her only daughter. Now that I think about it I've never given her the opportunity to do my hair or makeup or anything else moms are supposed to do with their daughters.
"Mom?" She looks surprised that I'm speaking to her.
"Can you do my hair?"

Her mouth gapes open for a solid 3 seconds until she snaps out of it and stutters, "ye-yes absolutely! "
She looks at me like I'm an alien as I follow her to her bathroom.
"Sit here." She directs me to the silver chair in front of her mirror.
The cold metal spills through the microscopic holes in my pajama pants.
"How do you sit in this it's freezing." I shiver.
"Give it 30 minutes all the heat and smoke will start kicking into the room."
She sounds like an older sister more than a mom. She's having way to much fun with this, she's plugging in lights and hair straighteners (she has more than one). She roles out a long black case with all the makeup brushes you can imagine. I honestly don't understand why she has all the crap, I know she barley uses them.
"So I'm going to straighten your hair, you can wash it tomorrow but if you don't, leave it after you wake up it'll have a cute messy look and that'd look so rocking with your thin face." her smiles is contagious and I can't help but grin from cheek to cheek. Seeing someone happy is a great feeling, especially when you know you're the cause.
"I'll let you do your thing then. Thanks mom."
Thanking her seems a bit much because I know I'm not doing this for me but for her. I gotta play the part, I want to see what the hype is about getting dressed up and cake faced.
She hugs me and kisses the top of my head. An hour goes by and I'm half asleep but I look like a new person. My wavy hair has disappeared and is now pin straight. Mom put some stuff under my eyes and on my cheeks that makes it look lifted I think she said its base or something, I don't know I'm too tired to think right now but I do know I didn't say I wanted makeup.
I usually put my hair up and behind my ears but now it's parted down the middle and falls down my back to my waist. God it's long I gotta cut it.
"I'm almost done just don't move." She's very focused on my face right now, her tongue slightly sticking out on one side of her mouth. She brings a small thin brush to my eye and orders me to look up. She takes dabs of skin colored eyeshadow and a little brown for under my waterline.
"And done. Perfect. I knew my daughter was in there somewhere."
She moves aside and there I am. Wow. Me?
I look... decent.
"Mom I don't know what to say." I run my fingers through my hair and poke at my face.
"My eyes look bigger, my cheeks look higher, mom I didn't know you could do stuff like this it's beautiful." I had a knot in my throat now.
"That's because you are beautiful honey. There's no such thing as an ugly woman, only a woman who doesn't know how to pamper herself." her pink lips making its way to my forehead once again.
Mom's forehead kisses are what people call home. When I was little and scrapped my knee or fought with Andrew over dolls (he always played dolls with me), after hours of crying because I was tired or upset, mom would always kiss my forehead and I would fall asleep. That was my comfort, my safety blanket.
The doorbell echoed through the walls of our large house.
"That's odd, they're an hour early." mom check the time.
"Go get ready, I left your clothes on top of the suitcase in your room."
I must have missed it when I ran to the bathroom this morning.
And how could I ? The suitcase is huge !
Black leather decorates the side of a tan fabric top.
I don't have time to look what she packed me but I throw on what she laid out. A long sleeve black shirt with a blue and white scarf to compliment it. (But then again everything goes with black)
The pants look like mine but ripped... hold on ... are these... these ARE my jeans ! Seriously?!
I unfold them angrily and something lace falls out. Tights ? Why would there be tights in here. They probably got caught on them in the dryer.
Or maybe that's why she ripped my pants?
Yeah! I've seen people wear it like that.
I slip into the lace black tights and then the jeans. Surprisingly I'm warm and it doesn't look terrible. Apparently my hoodies and sneakers won't do good with mom cause she also laid out a black winter jacket with black boots.
I'm not going to lie to you or myself, I look awesome.
Seeing everything tied together, the hair, the makeup, the clothes, it makes you feel incredible.
I drag the massive suitcase downstairs and I see mom talking with Dawn and Andrew, when they spot me Andrew runs up half way to help me.
He stops when we get to the bottom to take a look at me, his eyes widen like he's never seen me before.
"I'm trying out something new." I look down to break the silence and drag the bag towards the doors. My face is hot and I know for a fact that it's red too.
"Well you can keep it up." I felt his eyes scan my body.
Dawn almost laughs when we make eye contact,
"I knew it. I knew you wanted to be a model! It was in there. I called it, did I not call it?"
"I'm definitely not going to model, I'm just trying out something new." I lower my head again like a shunned animal.
I'm so embarrassed they're all looking at me. I walk out towards the car and I hear quick steps behind me getting closer.
"Sorry we came a bit earlier by the way, mom wanted to take us out to breakfast before we left."
"It's alright. I'm hungry anyways." I open the trunk to the big white Cadillac parked in my freakishly large driveway.
"Aren't you always ? " Andrew pokes at my shoulder playfully and I mess up his shaggy blonde hair back.
He lifts my bag because he knows that I can't do it myself. I'm surprised I even managed to pull it out of my room, even though it did take me like 10 minutes.
I walk back to the front to say my goodbyes to mom, dad is already at work, when Andrew closes the trunk and yells "Hey Ella?"
"Yeah ?" I turn around startled because his voice mixed in with the sound of the loud closing trunk door.
"You look beautiful & I don't tell you that enough."
I blush and say thank you. Andrew has never looked at me like that. It felt warm and pleasing to hear those words leave his mouth.
"Well here you are, my beautiful daughter." Mom hugs me so tight I have to remind her that she may puncture a lung.
"Thanks again mom, I'll see you Monday night."
I personally don't like the idea of missing school so thankfully it's now the start of winter break. And thankfully we're only up in that cold for a few days.
We pile into the car, Andrew holding the door open for me as usual. Ever since we were kids he's done that cause we used to play prince and princess all the time and it was the 'gentleman' thing to do.
Behind the wheel is a 42 year old, with short dark hair and reflective green eyes, Dawn's alleged future fiancée, Ryan. Of course she doesn't know that yet. I think models only date models, it's like a code or something because Ryan is a great looking guy.
"How you doing, Ella?" he smiles at me through the rearview mirror and I wave hello.
I can't stop thinking about the party. I don't even know what my mom expects me to do makeup wise. Whatever you know ? I'll probably never see any of those people again anyways.

Around 30 minutes into the trip we pull into a wooden cottage looking place that read in big purple letters "Siena Café." White smoke dances out of the top chimney and the second we park a wave of cinnamon greets us through the car vents.
It's too beautiful, and the scenery around it even more. I bet this place looks spectacular during the spring when everything is blooming.
"Well let's take our time, no rush. The party is tonight anyways and we have a full day ahead of us." Ryan says while turning off the car and wiping down the steering wheel (he's a bit of a germ freak.)
When we get inside we're greeted by an older woman with white hair and blue eye shadow that did not match her maroon polo.
"Hiya darlins' what can I help you with today ?" her pearly white teeth did not match her aging complexion either.
"Table for 4 please." Andrew (always polite) smiles.
"Right this way," she leads us through a lobby of what seems to be old news articles and trophies. Its adorned with big yellow couches and purple fluffy pillows; my mother would probably die here due to the mis-match. 
"Jennifer will be right with you." she flashes her pearly whites again and hands us our menus.
Seconds later a tall blond with short hair and blue eyes appears from behind the booth.
"Hey ya'll my names Jenny, what can I get you to drink today ?" 

We all ordered right away and after 15 minutes our table is filled with pastries and sweets and eggs and bacon. 

I am way too full right now. 

I excuse myself to the bathroom because knowing me I'll have to go right when we pull out of the lot. I look for a sign to direct me towards the bathroom and spot yellow letters on the wall that read "Wash Room."
When I turn the corner I bump into what seems to be a brick wall. But it's not, it's a tall guy with tattoos on his arms and a ring on his left hand.

"Sorry about that, beautiful." A thick British accent fills my ears.

Whenever I bump into someone I can never look at their face. I just keep walking and mumble under my breath. 

This one is taller than 6 ft so I can't even see his face in my side vision and the fact that he just called me beautiful made me want to run to the bathroom even faster.

"Sorry." I blurt out when I'm almost to the bathroom door but I'm sure he's long gone by then.
His tattoo on his wrist I remember; such a poorly drawn anchor. It was a slight glance but it's enough to know that it was really lame. Why would anyone get such a hideous tattoo ? How unfortunate.
When I get to the table everything is cleared and only Andrew is sitting there alone. I thought there was no rush ?
"All good ?" Andrew slides out of the booth leaving a tip on the table.
"Did I take that long ? I'm so sorry."
"No worries. Ryan had to take a call and mom just went with him, so they told me to wait for you." his fingers brush my hand when he passes me to open the door for me.
"I want to talk to you about something by the way. Later though, now isn't the time." he gives me an curious smile. 
It's was kinda sexy in all honestly.
I'll admit that Andrew is a great looking kid. The typical jock look if you must. Tall, big muscles but tiny waist, defined thick jawline, long blonde hair, he looks so much like his dad. Model look of course. And with the sweetest attitude ever. He associates with everyone; nerds, emos, cheerleaders, football players. But he never gets close. I'm practically his only friend.
But I would never date him, he's almost blood to me. That'd be just plain wrong.
This car ride is taking forever. It's a 5 hour long trip and we're 4 and a half hours in. Almost there but I can't help but fall asleep on Andrew's shoulder.
I can faintly hear a bad rap song playing, I never fall asleep fully in the car. I can make out Ryan and Dawn discussing our plans to go snow boarding tomorrow. Andrew and I are extremely competitive when it comes to boarding together, so I expect an intense race tomorrow.
I'm good at boarding because I hate falling. I absolutely despise it, so I caught on quick when I was little.
I feel the car pull to a break and I know we're in the drive way of the cabin our families share.
Mom, dad,Dawn and Andrew's dad bought this place when they were in their early 20's.
I zip my jacket all the way and stuff my hands in my pockets.
The first few snows have fallen and the ground is covered with powder up to our ankles.
Andrew grabs my waist and hugs me "Thanks for coming."
As if it's a favor, I love it here, we practically live here ourselves. Why does everything feel so different , like if he's about to admit his love for me or something.
Wait...