friday knights

25 ... a star !s born

  friday
knights
25

☊ | track twenty-one—i can't be myself

MAKEUP ARTIST TALIA tilted Lola's chin upward with a pinky, dusting her cheeks with white blush so her skin would look paler like all of Wonderland. Lola looked at the beautiful dark-skinned woman in awe, her makeup crazy colorfully and creative. Her hair was in beautifully colored dreads, and the curve of her eyeliner was shaped into a heart. Her eyeshadow was an ombré of two different shades of blue. Ultramarine and Cornflower blended beautifully with glittered drawn-on butterflies over the shades. Her lipstick was the same shade as her nails, blue purple, and royal purple.

Her long smooth tied-up dreads were lilac with chopsticks creating an X. Blue 3D butterflies were plastered on them, giving them a creative look.

Lola stared at Talia like she were a Disney princess.

"Yow're prwetty," She said aloud as Talia worked on her red and white eyeshadow. She paused and looked at Lola with a soft smile. "Why thank you little miss future pageant winner. I can definitely say the same about you," Lola found her slight country accent quite funny. They smiled at each other and Lola thought of an idea.

"Can I get heart too? Like you?" She pointed to her creativity curved eyeliner. Talia looked at herself in the mirror in front of them. "Hm, I think we can arrange a small last-minute detail," She turned to the vanity, wiggling her fingers at two of the single-colored eyeliners she was supposed to use. "How about a mixture of black and white?" Lola beamed.

"Can they go together like yours?"

"Well let's see," She opened both taps of the eyeliner, holding Lola's chin in her hand like a thin feather. Taika connected the two cosmetics and lined her eyelid horizontally, then as she got to the curve of her eye, switched the tips vertically to carefully draw the blended overlapped hearts that ended with a drip effect.

"As a woman of wonderland, it's important to look as crazy yet still beautiful. Queen of hearts inspo, I like it," Talia winked as she did the other eye. Lola smiled.

Victoria came to stand beside Lola's chair and watched Talia draw smoothly. The woman was truly amazing in her line of work. Victoria smiled at her daughter through the mirror solely to notice how saddened she looked.

She then added a few red ruby rhinestones at the ends of the drip effect before eying her work, "And...voila!"

After Talia was done, she lastly sprayed her face with a scented setting spray that she made on her own—FDA-approved, of course, she took her job seriously.

"She looks beautiful, Talia. Thank you," Victoria looked at Talia as she double-checked her work of art. "Could I just have a second alone with my daughter for a moment, please?" Talia nodded respectfully and smiled at the two before heading toward other makeup artists who were working on other girls. Victoria grabbed an open seat and placed it beside Lola to face her. "Why the sad pout, Il mio bambino?"

"Are you nervous?" She grabbed her small hand and rubbed comfortingly, her other stroking her chin. Lola stared at herself in the mirror and then at the other girls, noticing how each of them had a family member beside them. Most of them had their big sisters or sister figures as support and that made her bottom lip quiver.