I'm Glad Your House Was Demolished | Kuffy

Eight

Andi and I have sleepovers, but they mostly consist of us doing crafts, or having having late-night dance parties, or watching comedy movies targeted for middle-aged men. They are fun and light-hearted and not near as stereotypical as this right now.

Kira and I both sit on the floor together in our pyjamas. We've begun the part of the night where we're supposed to do each other's makeup, and Kira is currently trying to talk me through how to do a 'sexy smoky eye' on her by reading the instructions from the magazine aloud.

"Okay, start with, like, a silver colour, and put that in the middle."

I hold the eyeshadow palette in my lap while I lean forward to brush the pigment onto Kira's right eyelid. It would probably be turning out a lot better if my hand weren't shaking so much. I really don't know why I can't keep still. I'm completely fine whenever I'm looking down to dab more colour onto the makeup brush, but then I look back up at Kira and my whole body seems to think I'm about to ride a motorcycle or something.

When I finish with the one colour, Kira guides me through the rest, and at the end, I sit back to get a glimpse at the whole look.

"How does it look?" Kira asks, giggling as she flips her hair like a model for a really bad makeup company.

"Not gonna lie," I reply. "It definitely looks like you have two black eyes."

She laughs and takes sets the magazine aside before taking the makeup tools from me.

"Your turn," she says.

Now I'm really questioning my sanity, because when her hand raises and gets close to me, I feel my heart rate speed up. While she brushes my eyes with the eyeshadow, I keep my hands on the floor beside me to steady myself, but I still feel a little disoriented, so I talk to try to get my mind off that.

"What exactly makes a smoky eye sexy?" I question with a laugh.

"I don't know," she says. "You're about to have a smoky eye, and your eyes are pretty thick."

"I don't know how to feel about that," I respond as I laugh.

"Hey, hey, hold still," she says. "You're gonna end up with a smoky forehead if you keep moving."

When she's done with the eyeshadow, I open my eyes, and she studies me for a moment.

"A couple more things," she says.

Then she picks up her own liquid liner and outlines my eyes. After applying mascara, she twists the brush back inside the tube, and my eyes flutter open again to see my reflection in the hand mirror that we stole from my mom's bathroom.

"I'm getting major Avril Lavigne vibes from this," I say.

Kira puts down the mirror, saying, "I'll take that as a compliment."

We both laugh for a few seconds before settling down into a comfortable quiet where neither of us are saying anything. Instead, we just keep our eyes on each other. It doesn't take long before I feel my pulse getting too fast for my liking, and I break the silence.

"Um, thanks for this. The sleepover. It was fun."

"Well, we're not done yet," she says. "There are still many magazine quizzes for us to take."

"Awesome," I say with a chuckle. "I'm just gonna wipe this makeup off my face first so that I can lie in bed without dirtying my pillow."

I head off to the bathroom to clean up, and when I return, Kira is lying on her air mattress, skimming through one of the magazines. I trade the big light for the dim lamp at my beside then jump onto my quilt, sitting cross-legged there and gazing down at the girl on the floor.