The Search For Shattered Pieces *Complete*

Chapter Twenty Nine: Quads and Miracle Mirage

Lyra:

God, oh God.  How am I covering this?  I sit at my vanity and despair.  My entire cheek is bruised, and I have handprints on my chin.  I fish though my makeup and find my foundation.  I hate it.  But it's the only hope I have right now.  I'd done this a million times before I can do it once again.  Expertly I apply the foundation and then the loose powder paying close attention to the worst of the bruising.  Once I'm convinced I've covered is properly, I apply a little light blush and mix the blushes so they don't draw attention to the bruising underneath the foundation and powder.  I decide since I've done this to finish the entire look.  I apply eyeshadow and liner and find a pretty pink lipgloss and add some.  I stare at myself and blush.  I look like I'm ready to competition.  I never wear makeup except for competition and here I am wearing it to school.  I hurry and put on my uniform and rush down the stairs.
   "Hey, hey where you going in such a hurry." Trent asks.
   "Oh, I'm, I'm going to have someone else drive me to school today..."
   "Like hell you are." Trenton looks at me and frowns.  "What did you do to your face?"
   I blush.  "What do you mean?"
   "I mean you're wearing makeup.  A lot of makeup."
   "So what?" I try for nonchalance.  "Girls wear makeup all the time." Trenton grabs my arm and and flinch.  He instantly lets go and looks horrified.
   "I didn't mean...Lyra, did I scare you?"
   Now I'm embarrassed.  "No, I'm sorry, I was just startled."
   "Lyra, you look beautiful, with or without makeup.  I was just surprised that's all.  I'm not used to seeing you wearing makeup unless you're competing."
   "Well, I had a change of heart," I murmur.  And my stomach sinks with the lie.
   "Well, Tal and I are still taking you to school."
   "But..."
   "No buts.  Come on." He holds out his hand this time and I timidly take it.  He leads me the garage where Tal is already waiting,
   "Wow!" Tal says and whistles.  "You look beautiful Lyra.  But what's with the makeup."
   "Just drop it, Tal," Trent says and gives his brother a look I don't fully understand.  But I'm happy when Tal doesn't say anything else about it.  I slide into the backseat of their car and we're off.

                              *****

Tallis:

   "Your stepsister is smokin' hot, man.  Does she have a date for the dance yet? Think you could put a good word in for me?" Wilson asks.  He's only like the tenth guy to approach me about Lyra this morning.
   "She's taken." I snap and push past him.  You will not punch them.  You will not punch them. I repeat the mantra in my head.  Of course it's getting harder to do.  I really want to pummel their faces in, especially some of the cruder comments I'd overheard in locker room.  The sooner we made Lyra ours, the better.  I was going to lose my shit soon.
   "Darling!" Arianna comes rushing up to me and wraps her arms around me.
   I push her off, disgusted.  "Get your skanky hands off of me."  She has the nerve to look hurt.
   "But...but...I thought, after last week....we..."
   "We nothing.  I came over, because you said you needed me.  You'd just lost someone dear to you.  And you spent the entire evening trying to get into my pants.  yeah, some grieving you did." I say in disgust.
   "How can you say such hateful things to me."
   "Because they're true.  I want nothing to do with you, ever again.  Stay away from me Arianna, or I'll sic my brother on you, or. better yet, I'll sic Lyra on you!"
   "LYRA!" She shrieks.  "That whore! She's the reason you won't come back to me,  I'll destroy her!"
   I grab her arm and push her against the locker.  I narrow my eyes and let her see ever bit of loathing of I have for her in my eyes.  "You will do nothing to Lyra.  You will not look at her.  You will not speak to her.  You will not approach her.  If you so much as blink in her direction I'll make you wish you were dead, do you understand?" I'd never spoken to her this way before and her face goes completely ashen.  Her mouth gapes open and I leave her there standing with her mouth opening and closing like she could catch flies in it. 
No one threatened my girl.  No one.

                                           *****

Lyra:

"I don't dance," And I return to my salad. Effectively dismissing the guy who had just come up to our table and interrupted our lunch to ask me to some dance that I didn't even realize we were having. I look across the table and Cami is smiling at me, more like smirking. "Why do guys keep coming up and asking me to a dance?"
"Have you looked in a mirror lately, Lyra?" Cami says smiling.
I scrunch up my nose. "What does that have to do with anything."
"Lyra, sometimes you can be dense."
"I'm not dense."
"No, you just don't see yourself the way others see you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're beautiful. You're seriously beautiful."
"No I'm not. I'm totally ordinary."
Cami spit out the water she was drinking and coughs. "Excuse me, sorry, sorry. Oh my God, Lyra, you're the furthest think from ordinary that there is. And you come to school looking like," She gestures to me, "Looking like that, and you don't think guys are going to ask you to the dance."
"Well how do I get them to NOT ask me?"
"You don't, we do?"
I swing my head back, and Trent and Tal are standing there. "Guys?"
"Don't worry, we've got your back, on this, Lyra."
"Thanks." I say slowly. I guess....
"What are friends for?" Tal says smiling brightly.
Cami clears her throat. "And how do you exactly expect to get guys to stop asking our girl here to the formal? It's kinda a big deal."
"Well, first off we've told her she's taken."
I gasp. "You've said what?" I drop my fork. "I'm taken? I'm taken where?"
Both Tal and Trent laugh. "We said you're unavailable, and you are."
"Oh," I guess that's okay. I was unavailable.
"We're taking you."
I shake my head. Had I dropped into an alternative universe. "I'm sorry, what? I thought I heard you say you're taking me to this dance thing."
Trent laughs. "Dance thing. It's the the formal. It's a big deal Lyra."
"I don't dance."
Trent's laughs harder and slaps his knee and shakes his head. "Lyra I've see you skate. There is no way that you don't dance."
"I don't. I dance on ice. I don't dance at dance thingies. In fact I've never been to a dance." At that statement there is total silence.
"Lyra, you've never been to a dance before?" Tal asks quietly.
I shrug. "When did I have time to go to a dance? I've always gone to school and skated. And well, I never had this issue back home before."
"You are home," Trent says with a bite in his voice and I remain quiet.
"Well that settles it, we're taking you to the dance, Lyra." Tal says.
"But...but...I don't have time."
"You damn well do have time to go to the dance." Trent snaps. Why is he so annoyed?
"But...I don't I don't even know what to do at a dance."
"You have fun, Lyra. You mingle, you dance, you let yourself go and just have fun."
"I don't know if I can do that."
"Then we'll show you how," Trent says, his voice lightening.
"Coach won't let me go to a dance."
"Fuck that!" Trent snaps. "This is the formal, and you have time to go to one fucking dance, Lyra. Not to mention, if you don't go with us, you'll break our hearts."
I swallow—hard. Could I? I really hadn't ever been to a dance before. Could I really do this? I look into their earnest faces and decide then and there that I will. I will go to this dance with them. And I will tell Coach I'm going, and accept whatever consequences come with it. I'd never been to a dance before, and Trenton and Tallis seem to want me to go so much. Yes. I'd go to the dance.
Just then Arianna sidles up to Tal's side.  I stiffen.
   "Tal, baby, I know you're not really angry with me," she says, voice sugar sweet.  "And, I know that we're still going to the formal together..."
   Oh no, no way was this bitch getting her hooks into Tal again.  "No, I'm afraid he's unavailable, you see he's going with me." I love the look of utter and complete shock on her face.
   Arianna narrows her eyes and leans over me.  "You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig."
   I smile sweetly at her.  "And you can put a smile on a bitch and she's still a bitch." Arianna sputter and gasps and flounces away and the table breaks out into laughter.  My heart lightens.  So there you wicked witch.  Take that.
And so with that. It seemed I was going to a dance.