Dire {h.s.}

25

Ava Manakova

Red is not my color, I think it only suits brunettes. Of course, my hair isn't as light to be considered blonde, but it isn't as dark to be a part of the brunettes. My hair color is referred to as dirty blonde, not such a pretty name for something I can't control. But this dress, it's everything I didn't expect. I thought the color I'd be wearing tonight would be black, to mask my presence as much as possible in order to blend in. But no, the short tight fitting dress is bright red, making me stick out like a sore thumb... literally.

The drive from the private airport wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be, in fact, the second we got to the hotel, we were greeted by the staff as if we were rich. I really did feel like a celebrity in the moment as they guided us up the marble stairs to the glass doors.

We arrived at our hotel rooms, two rooms right next to each other with a connecting door between them. Our sleeping arrangements are... different. Each room has two small beds that I find it hard to believe they are queen sized, and considering there are five of us, one person had to take the couch... Thankfully, I don't mind at all. To me, it sounded better than to sleep uncomfortably next to one of them, but the night did run quiet. It was peaceful for just a moment between all of this chaos they are so used to living by. Of course, I chose to sleep in the room that Louis and Niall decided to sleep in. It wasn't awkward, in fact, I was the first to fall asleep.

This morning was different though, a knock at the door caught me off guard and when Louis went to answer it, a team of makeup artists and a wardrobe team stormed through. Which leads me to where I am now, standing in front of a long mirror, staring at my new look for tonight's task. From what I read in those files, I do play a pretty important role in this. I still can't believe I'm doing this, but it's what I need to do in order to stay alive.

I smooth my hands down my sides over the dress' bright material, trying to regain my thoughts by how distracting the color is. I look good, but I'm just not used to seeing something like this on me. In fact, the whole look is new. My hair is curled in big fluffy curls, and my makeup is far from neutral. My eyes hold a bold smokey eyeshadow look, but the colors aren't gray, they're more on the dark brown side of the palette. My cheeks are heavily contoured, along with my jawline to the point where it looks like I can cut someone with it. My lips present a bright fire red shade of matte lipstick, matching my dress that seems to be struggling to hold in my boobs as they're starting to spill out.

"Let me fix that," the women who brought the dress in the first place says, stepping up in front of me to pull the material a bit over my chest but trying to tuck them in a way where I still reveal cleavage, but they won't completely fall out to give everyone a show. The thin straps aren't really helping with this situation either. She steps out of the way to let me see the look for myself again.

I look good and I'm pretty satisfied with my appearance as I take it in one last time through the mirror in front of me.

The door between the two rooms opens, Louis walks in and looks around the room until his eyes land on me. He pauses, his mouth slightly drops at the sight in front of him. He probably had never seen me look so different, so I don't blame the shock that hits him a little on my appearance. His eyes trail up and down my body, taking it all in, before a smirk pulls at his lips. "Kova, you look––"

"Hot." Niall suddenly interrupts from behind him, making me laugh.

I turn to face them, "Thank you," I say, "It's definitely something I'm not used to."

"She'll definitely get him to come up with her, this will be a piece of cake!" Niall says excitedly, walking over to one of the beds and sitting down on the end of it. "Hell, we might even end it early and have time to get a few drinks."