As It Was (COMPLETED) (wattys2023)

Dancing In The Dark

"Turn just a little to the left." Angie ordered, gently grasping my chin and applying the last of my makeup. Unfortunately for her, no amount of makeup was going to make me look alive. My eyes were too red and puffy, my cheeks too sunken in. It'd be a miracle if she could get me to look halfway decent without a filter.

I let out a very audible gasp when she spun me around in Garrett's computer chair so I was facing a mirror. She had very much livened me up. The blue dress had already brought out the different hues of blue in my eyes, but the accents of colors she'd used for eyeshadow and her perfect application of eyeliner made my eyes pop even more. So much so that it drew the eye away from my face-which was just as perfectly made up, but my cheeks still made me look sickly. She'd managed to tame my mess of dark blonde waves into an updo that allowed a few loose hairs around my temple and ears so the permanent scar across my left temple wasn't as visible. Even Angie's incredible makeup skills couldn't completely mask it.

"You look gorgeous." She touched her hands over her chest. "I did such a great job."

I nodded and stood, grabbing Miles' Letterman from the back of the chair, and allowed Angie to loop her arm through mine and lead me down the stairs.

"You idiots better be ready!" Angie shouted down, and not even a second later Javi was stepping into the hallway, tie askew, hair slightly disheveled, and what looked like chocolate on the outer edges of his mouth.

"Wow, Ev." Javi said as soon as we reached him, looking me up and down, "You look incredible."

"Thanks." I whispered, shifting awkwardly. I'd managed to have one thing my way tonight-flats. There was no way in hell I was wearing the hell shoes that were heels when I didn't even have the desire to go tonight. "You clean up pretty nice too."

Angie huffed out angrily and swiped her thumb across Javi's lips and fixed his tie. "He would, if he actually managed to not get into everything like a five-year-old."

Javi mocked her and winked at me over her head. "She's just jealous I look better than she does even when I'm a mess."

Angie flipped him her favorite finger and pulled her phone from her small white clutch, running a hand over her black dress to smooth out any wrinkles and thrusted it into her friend's hands. "Take photos, bozo."

"Yes, Ma'am." he saluted her and took a few steps back before getting into various positions to get us from every angle. Something I was sure Angie must have insisted on sometime before they'd gotten here. As soon as the phone was back in her hands, she looked my way and raised a brow.

"Do you mind if I post them?"

"I don't mind." I whispered, but added quietly, "But I don't want you to be harassed for being my friend."

She stared at me for a moment before a smile inched its way across her face. "Everly, girl, do I look like someone that's easy to harass? I'll destroy those keyboard warriors."

Javi snorted at the comment. "Yeah, because people are so scared of a five foot nothing hundred- and ten-pound girl."

"That's the power I harness being hidden behind a phone screen, Jav. They'll never know."

They continued their banter as she handed the phone back over and headed across the room so he could get pictures of her alone. He sent me an irritated eye roll but trudged along behind her like a puppy into the dining room. But with their entrance came Garrett's exit and I understood in that moment why Angie was so insistent that all men were secretly children.