Dedicating Every Day to You

Chapter Fifty-Six

"Come on!" My eyeliner pencil has snapped as I try, for the third time, to not make myself look like a raccoon. So far it hasn't been going well, and I've wasted about half of Theo's makeup remover wipes.

"Maybe you should just give up and let me do it." Theo looks up at me from her bed, where she's reading a large volume of Poe stories and chewing her favorite Cinnamint gum. As always, her eyeliner is flawless, just like the rest of her makeup. Her dress, too, is absolutely perfect- light grey, with the edges patterned with purple paint splotches. Meanwhile, I'm honestly a bit of a mess.

I shake my head, my wild ponytail spinning around to smack me in the face. My outfit is pretty cute, but doesn't look nearly as sophisticated. I have black shorts that look vaguely like suit pants, tights with cat faces on them, a white collared shirt, suit jacket, bow tie, and my beloved Converse. I look pretty cute, if I do say so myself, a bit like a penguin but altogether the effect is very nice.

"Darling, Theo is very skilled with a makeup brush." Avery is flopped in Theo's purple velour beanbag chair, scrolling through her phone with her ankles crossed daintily. Her red hair is swooped up in an elaborate French twist, which I would have no idea how to start on, and she has a navy blue lacy dress that makes her look like she's about to walk down the red carpet instead of into an Olive Garden. "She did mine."

I finally give up, tossing the broken pencil into the wastebasket. "Well, you look beautiful, but I quit. Makeup has never impressed Philip much before, why should it now?"

There's a sharp knock, intentional and clean, and Aaron pokes his head in. "Almost ready, ladies?"

"Yeah, all except Kathryn. She's almost finished, though." Theo doesn't even bother to look up from The Tell-Tale Heart. Her perfectly painted fingernails flash as she turns the pages.

This is my first ever double date- Avery and Theodosia, me and Philip. We're using our scavenger hunt gift cards and going to Olive Garden for carbohydrates and good times. Aaron and Zia are chaperoning us, my curfew got extended by an hour, and we're all excited.

I grab my hair bow off of the floor, slide it into my hair, and bounce out of Theo's room. The others laugh and follow me downstairs, out the door, and into the Burr's SUV. Instead of spreading out and being sensible, Avery, Theo, and I all cram into the very back row. Surprisingly, there's classical music blasting at easily thirty-five, Mozart or Bach or someone thundering like hard rock.

When we arrive at the Olive Garden, Sam and Philip are waiting just inside the front door, along with a pretty blue-haired young woman. She can't be Philip's mom, as she's far too young, so I assume this is his cousin Lucy whom he's mentioned before. We walk over to join them, and Lucy grins at us.

"Hey there! Let's see...you must be Avery, with the red hair. The really tall one is Theodosia, the artist. So that leaves...Kathryn. My little cousin's girlfriend." She points at each of us in turn. She's right, of course. Something about the way she smiled as she said each fact tells me that Lucy is not often wrong.

Philip rolls forward and takes my hand. "You look lovely as always, milady." He's wearing a bow tie of his own, and his eyes are sparkling. His dad behind him waves at us, then falls to talking with Aaron. Philip hands me a flower, a daisy with full, silky petals and a sunny yellow center. I'm not sure how or where he procured it, since it's November and almost all of the flowers are dead, but it's absolutely beautiful. When I show it to Theo, she tucks it into my buttonhole.

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Avery spins her fettuccine with a fork, grinning as she lifts it. "This is the coolest place ever. Do they ever stop bringing you breadsticks?"