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Homecoming

"Hold still!" Esther grabbed my chin and outlined my eyes with her stupid pencil. I sat on the toilet cover, our makeshift vanity chair, as she attempted to make me pretty. Come on, she said, it'll be fun! This feels more like torture than pampering, if you ask me.

"Is this all really necessary?" I asked.

"The more you move, the more I have to start over."

I groaned and sat. She started on foundation next. Why she started with the eyeliner, I don't know, but now that my eyes were open I didn't really have anything to do with them, so I watched her. She got so focused as she did my makeup, and she did this really weird thing with her tongue. She would run her tongue across her teeth then flip it under her lip. It looked really awkward. I giggled.

She pulled the brush away and stared at me. "What's so funny?"

"You do this thing, with your tongue."

She rolled her eyes. "No I don't. Now quit moving."

She went back to work on my face and I kept watching her. And surely enough, a few moments later, she did the tongue thing again. The best part is, she didn't even know she was doing it. I tried to stifle my laughter, but apparently I was still moving too much because Esther took a step back again and gave me the eye.

"You're doing this thing with your tongue like," I tried to imitate it. She just kept staring at me like I was crazy.

"Whatever. Just stop laughing!"

Long story short, what should have taken 20 minutes took an entire hour because I kept pointing out her quirks and she kept getting angry which made me laugh, which made her laugh. 

"Okay, now go get your dress on, crazy." She sent me to my room to finish getting ready. I slipped on that purple dress that I bought the last time we went shopping together, careful not to smudge my face. I turned to look at myself in the full length mirror on the back of my door. My hair was curled and pulled back, also curtesy of Esther. The dress brushed my knees, the thick straps nearly covering my narrow shoulders. The way she did my makeup made my eyes seem bigger than they actually were. I think I almost felt beautiful for the first time ever. 

"Kirstin?" Avi called down the hallway, approaching my door.

"Don't come in!" I called back. "I'm not ready!"

"Come on, it's not like we're getting married or anything." He was right outside my door now.

"I'll meet you in the living room, okay?"

He sighed, and I could totally picture him tapping his foot on the carpet. "Fine, but hurry up. We're gonna be late."

I listened to him leave, then returned my gaze to the mirror. I felt different, good different, but still different. Maybe it was the dress and the makeup. Maybe it was the fact that I'm going to homecoming with my new brother. Maybe it was learning to be loved by a family and embrace it. Maybe it was all of the above.

I sighed and sat on my bed, slipping on my flats. Before I got up, I opened the top drawer of the nightstand and pulled out the picture. It was faded and a little wrinkled, but it was still my favorite picture of all time. It was taken 5 years ago, just a few months before mom died. The sun was beside us, lighting up our faces as she kissed my forehead and I laughed. It was the greatest feeling I ever had, and maybe someday I'll find it again.

"Are you cleaning your room or something? What's taking so long?" Esther said through the door, startling me out of dreamland.

Quickly, I slid the picture back into the drawer and locked it away, pushing it out of my mind too. Then I opened the door and posed for Esther. "You like?"