Super

6 - Make Up Is My Mask

"Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'

'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him."

― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

From the moment I swung my legs out of bed, things started going wrong. Big things. Not only did Gold Thrush and Bat Boy get the privilege of watching – and commenting on – me doing my make up, but the plan unravelled as soon as Lila discovered we couldn't close off one of the roads that we would need closed off in order to ensure my complete safety.

We decided to go ahead with the plan anyway.

As for getting ready, the two teenage boys were particularly antsy that morning, stretching their sore backs and hopping back and forth while I did my make up. Gold was busy tying and retying his mask, carefully holding it in place so that it never slipped down and revealed his secret identity, but it was always too tight or too loose for his liking, and so he tied it and then retied it and then retied it again.

Meanwhile, Bat Boy was staring dumbly at the array of brushes, powders, lip-gloss, eyelash curler, mascaras, and eye shadows that were spread out on my bathroom counter.

"What's this?"

"Foundation."

"and this?"

"After veil."

"What's that for?"

"To stop the foundation coming off."

"Isn't that what the primer's for?"

"Yeah, but it's like you put stuff on before and after to keep it there for as long as possible. It also makes it look more natural, I think."

"So why do you need cover up if you've got foundation?"

"Because... I don't know. You just do, okay?" 

Bay Boy bit his lip and watched me as I applied cover up, eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss to my face. By the time I was done, I felt like a cake, but a pretty cake.

"Why do you have foundation and bronzer and all that if you don't use it?"

"Well I don't really need it," I admitted, looking back at myself in the mirror. "I just have it for special occasions, I guess."

He paused and looked down at the make up I had just applied.

"You do this every day?" He raised an eyebrow, turning to Gold for support. Gold ignored him, still struggling with his mask.

"Only when i'm bothered," I shrugged, which wasn't a complete lie. 

"And you had to pick today to be bothered?" Bat Boy's eyes bulged. I rolled my eyes. I really only put on mascara and maybe a little lip gloss for school and I didn't use any on the weekends unless I was going out. Lately, though, what with exams coming up, I had stopped bothering to put any on for school. I guess the boys weren't really used to seeing me with make up. "You don't even need make up anyway," Bat Boy grumbled, pouting.

"Translation, he thinks you're pretty," Gold said distractedly from his spot by the counter. I hadn't even noticed he was paying attention until his eyes flickered to mine and we made eye contact in the mirror. Meanwhile, Bat Boy bit his lip and flushed an adorable shade of red very similar to Lodestone's suit. Bat Boy may have been twenty-two, but he was a child trapped in an adult's body.

"Look guys," I breathed and cleared my throat to keep from doing something stupid like choking up, "I wear make up for the same reason you wear a mask." That caught their attention. "Okay, yeah, you do it to hide your secret identity, but what else? You do it because behind a mask, you can be anything. Nobody knows who you are so you don't have to be afraid of messing up. Where you hide your fears, I hide my flaws. It's not that different, you know. Make up is just my mask."