Gabriel had me by the hand as he practically dragged me through the backyard and through the woods toward the diner. He was a man on a mission and would not let me slow him down.
Luke was already at the Jeep unlocking the doors by the time we got there. I crawled into the front passenger seat. Gabriel clamored in behind me.
"So, what are we doing?" Luke had to ask before pulling out of the parking lot.
"Get to a drugstore. We need to get Sang some makeup."
"Sang doesn't need makeup."
"I know she doesn't need makeup! She's god damned perfect! We still need to get her makeup!"
"Gabe? Did you take pills you weren't supposed to or something? You're not making much sense."
I giggled as Gabriel huffed. "He thinks we need to practice putting some on for the more formal events I may have to attend," I explained to help try and connect the dots.
"Oh. That makes sense."
Gabriel huffed again.
We got to the nearest drug store and Luke grabbed a shopping cart. I raised an eyebrow. I thought we would only need one or two of the four-color palettes and maybe a simple eyeliner pencil. The three of us ought to be able to carry those by hand to the register, a hand basket at the most. Why was Luke wheeling a full sized cart in?
He must have caught my look because he leaned toward my ear and answered my unspoken question, "We're going to need it."
"Oy! Stop talking about me behind my back!" he bellowed, gaining the attention of the clerk and a handful of other shoppers already there. He reached for my hand and pulled me to the wall of cosmetics, wrinkling his nose as we passed the perfume counter. Luke followed with the cart.
"I already have what we need for you complexion, so we are going to straight up skip the concealers and foundations." He grabbed me by the shoulders and made me stand facing him just like when he was browsing through racks of clothing at the mall. Instead of pressing hangers to my body, he held up compacts of eye shadows to the side of my face. When he found one he approved, he handed it to Luke, who put it in the cart. "Your green eyes are gorgeous, so I want colors to compliment them, not detract. That means the whole purple spectrum, some dark emerald, copper, taupe…"
I had no idea what taupe was, but I wasn't going to admit it.
The pile in the cart steadily grew. Luke wandered off to another part of the store, and I was looking at the selections of foundation Gabriel skipped over, wondering why they came in so many different types other than color.
"We need brushes too," Gabriel said. "There isn't a big selection here, but it will get the job done for now." He tossed what looked to be fine bristled painting brushes into the cart with the eye shadows. "This will do until we get to one of those specialty stores. Remind me to bring nose plugs when we do go, Trouble. I don't like the way those stores smell."
"How do they smell?" I asked.
"You'll see," Gabriel replied as he threw more brushes into the basket. I was starting to wonder where Luke was and whether he was getting himself into trouble.
"Now," Gabriel said as he stepped to a new section of the cosmetics display, "eyeliners. Of course we need the standard black." He reached for three different types of eyeliner. I caught them before they disappeared into the mountain in the cart and inspected the labels. Why would I need liquid, gel, and a pencil? Shouldn't one be enough? "Ooh. Espresso. This will look good with those green peepers of yours. Heather grey too. I can already see which outfit to pair with this. You're going to be ready for a runway when I'm done with you." The pile in the cart grew with more kinds of mascara than I could ever justify for myself.
Gabriel paused when he got to what was left in the lip color section. "I think we might clear the shelf."
Luke managed to materialize by that point. "Just get her a few key colors. We can make the whole rainbow of lip color ourselves, then mix them until we get shades we like."
Gabriel's brows furrowed. "How do you know how to make lipstick?" He asked while pointing a finger at Luke's nose.
Luke swatted away Gabriel's finger and shrugged. "I was bored and got lost on YouTube."
Gabriel blinked a couple times at him. "We need to tell Kota to re-do the schedule. You have too much free time."
"Don't you dare!"
"Hey, guys?" I interrupted. "Why do these have rhinestones on them?" I held up a little package of fake eyelashes.
They both looked at me before Gabriel snatched them away from me and put them back on the shelf in the wrong spot. "No. Those are for attention grabbing bimbos. Those aren't for you."
We walked out of the store nearly an hour later, each of us holding at least two very full bags. I desperately tried not to think about the total the register rang up as I pulled cash out of my bra to contribute. I was proud of myself for remembering to have some with me.