WHERE ARE YOU CHARLIE?

NOW - CHAPTER 20

"Stop moving, Zozo!" Tasha chided me. She was doing my makeup while Lea was curling my long brown hair. They'd also chosen the dress I'd be wearing at Jonah's New Year's Eve party, a dark blue satin dress with a semi-sweetheart neckline fitted around my chest but loose from the waist down to my mid-thigh where it stopped making my stick legs look even longer than usual.

I'd tried to tell them that I thought I looked like a giraffe but they'd just rolled their eyes at me dramatically with a "You don't have any idea, do you?" that I was still trying to make sense of.

"Tilt your head back with your eyes closed." Tasha said in a tone that didn't leave room to argue so I did as I was told.

Pshitt, pshitt... The delicious smell that reached my nose told me that she'd just sprayed some yummy perfume on me.

"I could have done it myself, you know?" I mumbled, feeling awkward after the hour they'd spent making sure Cole's jaw would unhinge and fall to the floor when he saw me. That had been Lucy's words when the three of them had invaded my room a couple of hours after Cole and I had come back from the Police Station.

I doubted his jaw would fall. Heck, I actually hoped it wouldn't. I was kind of looking forward to the party. After everything that had happened I needed to let myself loose a bit and the couple of drinks I'd have that night would blur my mind just enough for me to be able to forget about the mess I called my life.

"Don't pretend you don't like being pampered, Zoe..." Lucy pointed out with a cocked eyebrow.

I guessed that was why they were my friends. They knew me better than I knew myself.

"I'm being a bitch, aren't I?" I asked with my nose crinkled.

"I wouldn't say a bitch, no..." She answered with a grimace.

"I'm just not used to having people fuss about me... I feel ill at ease..." I explained, my nose permanently crinkled, it seemed. I lowered my gaze and added, "But thank you for... helping me..."

"Ouch!" I yelped when Tasha punched my arm a second later.

"Don't you dare make me cry, Zoe Doe!" She shouted. "I don't want to ruin my make-up!"

"That wasn't extreme at all..." Lea murmured rolling her eyes. "Ok, Zoe, I think I'm done." She then added calmly.

My three friends led me to a mirror and I started arguing that I couldn't but I remembered that I lived with the Fields now and that I was in fact, allowed to look at myself in the mirror.

I actually gasped when I saw myself.

"I...I look like one of those Disney princesses..." I stuttered having a hard time accepting that the beautiful girl looking back at me in the mirror was in fact me.

"Don't you dare cry, Zoe..." Tasha growled next to me and I burst into laughter at that. I knew she'd done it on purpose.

"Thanks for sticking with me for all those years, girls..." I murmured, silently begging the tears that were prickling at the back of my eyes to remain there. "I love you..." I added barely above a whisper. I was suddenly smoldered by three pairs of muscular arms.

"We love you too, Zozo..." Tasha said before sniffling loudly.

A knock on my bedroom door interrupted what would have quickly become a crying-feast otherwise.

I went to open it and came face to face with Sam and Cole whose eyes widened when they saw me. Cole's jaw may not have unhinged but he gaped at me for a good minute before his eyes darkened dangerously making me squeeze my legs together to stop the wave of heat that took residence in my core.