Bother Me

Chapter 14: Featuring: My Past Self

Natalie sat in the bedroom sketching. She was working on a drawing that had taken her about a week to do, and it was almost finished. She grabbed her stomp to blend a shade in, when she heard someone open the door. Bailey walked in like a man on a mission.

"Hey, Natalie," she mumbled, picking up a small black bag.

"Hey, Bailey, what's up?" Natalie asked.

"Not much, I'm just looking for my lipstick, it's not in the bathroom like it usually is."

"So it's not in any of the drawers?"

"No, I was seeing if it was in my makeup case but it's not in here either," Bailey whined. She zipped up the makeup bag and tossed it back onto the dresser.

Natalie put her drawing on the bed and got up. She unzipped the bag and looked inside. "Bailey, it's right here," she said, pulling out a deep pink lipstick.

"That's a different one."

Natalie put it back. "Is this is?" she said pulling out another.

"No, that's a darker shade!" Bailey complained.

"So it's like a light red?"

"Not super light, but yeah, it's red."

Natalie continued to search in the bag. When she couldn't find it, she zipped the bag and saw another one on the nightstand. "Maybe it's in this one," she suggested. She opened up the case about two pencil cases big filled to the brim with lipsticks. "Holy crap, Bailey you've got tons of lipsticks."

"Well, yeah, I have to," Bailey said, flipping her hair back. "Half of them don't suit me though."

"Half?!"

"Okay maybe a bit less than half, I don't know. I lost count."

Natalie giggled a bit. "This kind of reminds me of when we first met in grade 9," she said. Both girls looked at the ceiling to remember:

Bailey was sitting at her desk in her grade 9 geography class, smacking her gum in her mouth and texting. She flung her golden hair behind her back and blew a bubble. While chewing, her teacher began saying that they could choose a partner to colour and label the provinces of Canada together. Bailey continued to text.

Natalie came over and brushed some of the loose hair from her braid out of her face. "Hey there!" she started. "Do you want to be partners?"

Bailey looked up at her fellow classmate. "Depends," she said. "Do ya like makeup?" Bailey's priorities were not the greatest, but she already knew some people at the school and to make new friends, they had to have something in common. That was her go-to question.

Natalie looked at her page full of doodles. "I mean, I like it, I just don't wear it," she said, trying to be polite. "But what does that have to do with geography?"

"It doesn't, but I ain't bein' with someone crappy," Bailey said, showing off her hoop earrings as she tucked her hair behind her ears.

Natalie continued to doodle. "I don't think I'm crappy," she said with lack of self-confidence. "I'm Natalie."

"Cool." Bailey continued to smack her gum.

Natalie waited for a bit, then said, "What's your name?"

"Gorgeous."

"Huh, well.. hello 'Gorgeous'," she started.

Bailey cut her off, "Ha- like L-O-L, I have a poster in my room that says that! I'm just kidding, the name's Bailey. B for Beauty, A for Awesome, I for Incredible, uh.."