That Was Then

30-Then

"I dunno Ky, I don't want to lie to my parents," I chewed on my lip while she changed her outfit again.

"It's not lying if they don't ask. And they're not going to ask!" She pulled her thick blond hair up and examined herself in the mirror, turning left and then right. She let her hair fall, cascading down her shoulders. "Up or down?"

"Down."

She flashed me a megawatt grin and pulled out her tiny makeup case. I watched as she applied a bit of color to her eyelids followed by mascara and shimmery lipgloss. "Aren't you going to get dressed?"

"I am dressed." I looked down at my clothes. Kya was wearing a black skirt with tiny pink flowers and a silky pink top. She was the one with the date, not me.

"Don't you want to look nice?" She eyed my old Broncos t-shirt and faded jeans with a disdainful look. "He's probably going to have some friends with him..." This did nothing in the way of persuading me to change my clothes. Despite Kya's insistence that we should have boyfriends before we start middle school, I just wasn't worried about boys yet. My face must have shown my complete indifference because Kya let out an exasperated sigh and disappeared into my closet. I liked clothes, liked dressing up sometimes even but I just wanted to go see this movie with my friend and not have to try to impress some random boy that Kya met at the pool and his buddies. She came out with an armful of clothes that she deemed suitable for her first quasi date. He hadn't even exactly asked her to the movie, rather told her she was cute and then mentioned going to this movie and said he hoped he would see her there. She conveniently left that part out when she invited me to go with her until after Mama said she would take us.

Kya convinced me to change into a pair of black capris and a pale green top, the least dressy outfit she had pulled from my closet. "They're just boys Kya, they don't pay attention to what you wear!"

"If you really liked a guy you'd want to dress nice for him!" She insisted, handing me my brush. I set it down on the counter and she picked it back up and thrust it into my hand. It wasn't that I didn't like to look nice or be presentable, it was just the principle of the matter.

"How do you 'really' like this guy? You hung out with him for like half an hour!" I tugged the brush through my hair a few times and then tossed it into my drawer. Kya rolled her eyes and came at me with her makeup bag. "Woah, nope, no way," I raised my arms to fend her off.

"Please Blakely," she batted her mascara coated eyelashes at me. "It will be fun!" Kya's mom had given her the little bag filled with makeup at the beginning of summer and she'd been obsessed since then. I had let her put some on me a few times at sleepovers when we weren't even leaving my bedroom, let alone the house. After some begging, bribing and even some minor black mailing, Kya talked me into letting her put just a tiny bit of makeup on me. I sat still for about two minutes while she swiped brushes over my eyelids and gloss across my lips before telling her that her time was up. "Perfect," she grinned at her handy work and gestured toward the mirror. Even though I'd only given her a very short window of time, she was heavy handed with the makeup and I felt a little clownish.

"Maybe I should wipe some of it off..."

"No! You look great!" She assured me and I slid on my glasses. Thankfully they concealed a little of the eye makeup. Kya frowned, "maybe you shouldn't wear those."

"We're going to a movie, I want to be able to actually see it," I said dryly. We went downstairs and waited for Mama to drive us. Caleb was sitting on the bottom of the stairs waiting for Abuela to take him to baseball practice. He gave me a funny look. 

"Doesn't Blakely look pretty?!" Kya prompted.

"You look..." he examined me from head to toe, "different." I glared at Kya.

Mama didn't say anything about the makeup or the clothes but she was no idiot. Before we got out of the car at the theater she gave us both the mom look, "no holding hands or kissing any boys..." her voice was teasing but her face was serious. Kya ended up doing both by the end of the movie.