Bleeding Sunset

Chapter 6

I was in no way, shape or form, the kind of girl where things revolved around her. I rarely had “main character” moments and I was always the side character who got to say one line every four or five episodes. I didn’t mind it though. I didn’t like attention being on me or being in the limelight. The life of the shadows was enough for me. Even at school, I wasn’t popular. I sat with the nerdy kids and we had our own inside jokes about certain popular students. I preferred to rush home immediately after school, and spent all of my free time watching TV or being on social media, liking funny videos and pretty pictures instead of being the girl in the pictures. 

My mother was always the centre of attention, always the one that everyone’s energy gravitated towards. She could walk into a dental office and make every one laugh and become friends with whoever was there, she was the kind of woman whose smile literally lit up a room because she had the most beautiful pearly whites and her grin was contagious. She could never just smile, she always grinned from ear to ear, displaying rows of perfect white teeth with a gap in between her two front teeth. Her African woman features sat in such a perfect way on her face that it was so painfully obvious why men would fall at her feet. 

I sat at Gabriela’s dressing table, peering into my own eyes and tearing apart my reflection, trying to find traces of my mother. My mother’s lips were full and wide, while my lips were bottom-heavy. She had a broad nose, while mine was small. Her eyes were wide and doe-like while mine were upturned. Her cheeks had been full and that seems to be the only thing of hers that I have. She had a chestnut complexion while my skin was a honey tone. The end of my cheeks had a light blush to them, and my mother and grandmother loved to tease me about it. But the most beautiful of all, was the litter of dark freckles that covered my nose and spread across the top of my cheeks. I have been insecure about them my whole life because when I was in Primary school, kids would tease me and say that I had spots of dirt on me. I have come to love them, but some days, I do cover them up with makeup. 

I placed my hands around my face, delicately cradling my face as I imagined it to be my mother. There were so many moments when my mother would just cradle my face in her hands and her eyes would glance over every inch. Her warm brown eyes seemed to be filled with so much wisdom and carefree nonchalance that adults rarely had. That’s another thing I got from her; her eyes. My eyes were a warm brown and when I stood in the light they almost looked hazel even though they weren’t. 

I had makeup on, of course I did- I had a date with the kind of man that you’re supposed to stay away from. Carlo let me go home earlier than usual, which is a big deal because he loves to work us to the bone, until there’s not a dollar more that he can make from diners. When I arrived home, I should have been suspicious to find the house empty since Gabriela doesn’t work and is always home. But that was the last thing on my mind because when I arrived home, there was a brown box with a red bow placed on the counter with a letter from the man himself. 

Inside the box was a dress, a fur coat, and another smaller box inside that contained all the makeup products that I could use. There was no other place to get ready other than Gabriela’s dressing room and I hoped that she wouldn’t mind. I made sure to clean up any mess that I had made. 

I knew how to apply makeup. That was one of the many things that I had picked up from YouTube and the years of watching YouTube makeup artists. I would experiment with my mother’s makeup and by the age of 17, I was so good I could have went pro but my grandmother didn’t think that was a real job and told me to forget about it. Applying makeup felt therapeutic to me; the routine, and the end result and creating magic with your face. It just soothed me and put me at such peace because I always did my makeup in silence, never saying a word and making sure that nobody else was around.