Lost Along The Way

Chapter Three

The last of June passed pretty uneventfully, but I didn't put the days to waste. I spen't every free moment perfecting my plan, and by the time July rolled around, I was almost there. I had bleached my hair, toned it so it wasn't that brassy, dead looking shade of obviously bleached hair. I had managed to drop down to a size eight, already halfway to my diets target weight. I had caught a pretty, natural bronze tan from sitting around the garden, reading. I had further substantiated my new wardrobe whenever I had the chance. The only thing I hadn't even started to work on was my new friends. Strangely enough, it was my grandmother who put my plan on that front in motion for me.

"Delilah, this is my new employee, Pippa" I folded the page of the book I'd been reading while manning the front desk and looked up. Beside my grandmother was a girl around my age. She was petite, with a sweet heart shaped face, and wide, honest brown eyes. Her hair was a waterfall of chocolate waves, with red highlights where it caught the sun. She was dressed simply, denim shorts and a floral vest top, with golden gladiator sandals.She was exactly the kind of person I wanted to be friends with, regardless of my agenda.

"Oh, hey. I'm Delilah, and I work here" I said, holding out my hand and smiling. She smiled back, revealing small, perfectly straight white teeth, and shook my outstretched hand.

"Pippa. And I do too, now" She slid onto the stool next to me, and my grandmother smiled, obviously happy that the introductions went down so well.

"Well girls, I have bridal bouquet and a load of button holes to prepare for the McKinney wedding tomorrow, so Delilah, show Pippa the ropes for me? Just go through using the till, making the shop look nice and doing the displays, okay?"

"Sure, Grams. Don't worry, we'll be totally fine" I reassured her, and she turned and walked to the back room.

I walked Pippa through everything she needed to know, and by the time lunch arrived, we were laughing like best buds. Like me, she was sixteen, and was starting at Catherine Wilde Sixth Form College in September. She hadn't gone to my school, but one nearby, and I was relieved to find she was exactly the kind of person Lies needed to know. She wasn't a wild, outrageous girl, but she was part of the 'in crowd' (in my head I was starting to sound like one of those cheesy American high school movies) and friends with people that I heard the popular girls from my school talk about all the time. I felt horrible, like I was taking advantage, using the girl to meet my own goals, but the truth was I genuinely liked her. She wasn't self absorbed, like I expected girls like that to be, or stuck up. She was lovely.

So that evening, when we were locking up the shop, I was ecstatic when she invited me to her boyfriends party at the weekend. It was his birthday, she informed me, and it was going to be a surprise. Dress to impress, she said.

I had every intention of doing just that.

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The rest of the week was uneventful, but I threw myself into preparing for Pippa's boyfriend's party. I went and bought a new dress, a short, summery floral print, and some beautiful silver sandals I picked up on my shopping trip the month before. It was all Pippa and I spoke about at work, and even my grandmother picked up on our excitement. We were both working on Saturday, but Gran gave us the afternoon off to get ready.

I got to Pippa's a little later than I had planned, but even I had to admit the extra time getting ready had been worth it. I had looked in the mirror to see a stranger looking back. A beautiful alien stranger, with large chocolate eyes expertly outlined with kohl, and cheeks rosy with excitement. Pippa squeeled when she saw me.

"Perfect! Just perfect! I love that dress" She jumped up and hugged me, wrapping her bone thin arms around my neck. "Charlie's gonna be so happy! I just hope he likes the party"