Story of Our Life

Eliza

~Ten years Ago~

"Is there a reason why you look like you're just wrapping a big sheet around you?"

Tatum's voice comes from behind, startling me as I jerk towards the door. There she stands, looking gorgeous as always, dressed as the bombshell Daphne from Scooby Doo, one hand behind her back.

I fling the white material onto my bed, nearly knocking off the lamp on the bedside table. "Forget it," I tell her. "I was trying to make something work for the stupid Halloween party with you, but I can't, so I'm not going."

She steps further into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Yes you are. And, wait for it," she pauses, pulling her hand from her back to reveal a flimsy garment bag, with a flourish she pulls down the zipper, "you're going to be Thelma!"

My own excitement is miles away from hers as I stand there blinking back at her. She begins pulling the pieces off the hanger. There's a little red skirt, knee high socks and an orange turtle neck sweater. But then something brown catches my eye.

"Is that?"

She interrupts me by slipping a wig over top my hair. "I'm gonna dress you to the nines! We'll make the perfect duo, at least until we get to the house. A couple of the guys are dressing up as Fred and Shaggy and bringing their dog as Scooby."

There is no way that I will turn any heads in the way I'd prefer if I go to this charade as the nerdy Thelma. No, I'd garner attention, but it wouldn't be more than pointed fingers and laughs.

I'm really not in the mood to be the butt of a joke.

I don't believe my best friend would purposely want to make me look ridiculous, even if that's what everyone would think if I stood next to her bombshell Daphne.

"I appreciate the offer," I assure her, whipping the wig off the top of my head real quick, "but I had something else in mind." I gesture towards the white cloth that apparently I couldn't make work to fit my vision if my life depended on it.

Tatum's eyes flit to the material and back to me. "Were you wanting to go as a ghost?"

"No," I huff, dropping to the edge of my bed in frustration. "I was trying to turn it into something resembling an angel."

My friend's brow arches, lips pursing as she looks around my room with narrowed eyes. I'm unsure what it is that she's looking for considering she's been in here more often than not and nothing has really changed.

Suddenly, her duo costume is thrown to the side of the room. "Up," she waves her hands for me to stand. She moves me in front of the mirror on the back of my door. With her eyes on mine she asks me a question that I answer in complete fear. "Do you trust me?"

I swivel on my heels, holding up one finger at a time. "Don't make me look like a clown. Don't make me look like a slut." Her shoulders drop. "You know that's not who I am, and I will not be someone I'm not, even for Halloween."

"Even to attract a hot guy?" Her lip tips up, knowing all too well that there have been no guys gracing the threshold of my dorm door since I got here a year ago.

"Especially not to attract a guy, hot or otherwise. I am who I am, they can take it or leave it."

Most of the time they leave it because I don't play around with the standards I have for them or myself. Which would be the main reason there has been zero testosterone in this room since I moved in.

With her hands on my shoulders, Tatum twists me around once more. "Let me work my magic, Eliza. You're gonna turn heads, I can guarantee."