The interior of the shop is modern and sleek, with blacks and metallic everywhere. The back half of the building is a beauty salon, and the rest is filled with designer, vintage, modern, retro, any style of clothes you can think. Even menswear. I Knew You Were Trouble is playing annoyingly in the background. The whole place oozes style, and EXPENSE. I wouldn't be able to afford even a tissue here, let alone cloths for a date.
Silena regards me closely. "Now, Annabeth. Do you know where you're going?"
I laugh. "Nope! He conveniently forgot to tell me!" I wish I knew. I hate surprises. You never know what to expect, and that makes you weak. Silena and Piper exchange looks. "Well," she says after an awkward pause. "We'll just have to find the outfit perfect for any sort of date."
"What would you define your style as, Annabeth?" Piper asks as we walk past the punk section, immediately losing Thalia to a signed Green Day shirt.
"Ummm, I don't know. I'm not punk or girly or arty or anything really. I tend to—well I used to wear jeans and t-shirts all the time. But, yeah…" I trail off.
"Okay then." She says, twisting her gorgeous wedding ring. "We can start up back and figure out what you'd like from there. Silena, do want to do make-up, and I'll go help Thalia? Actually, I think the signed section might need more help than she does." She walks off, and consols Thalia, who has presumably just read the price-tag on the Green Day shirt, and has burst into tears. "Oh god!" Rachel laughs. "I better go as well. I'll get it for her. And Annabeth? Everything's on me." Rachel waves a shiny credit card and disappears.
"It's just you and me!" Silena says dramatically. I'm worried. This girls seems to be the Queen of Beauty, an apprentice to the goddess of beauty herself. What will she do to me?
I take breath. "I don't really wear make-up. The smell of it makes me feel kind of sick." I brace for her reaction. Bu she smiles. "That's okay. Piper's like that as well. We'll just go lightly. And anyway, I'm just going to show you how to do it, and then you can re-do it tomorrow before the date." She takes my hand and leads me to a squishy black chair. "But first, your hair really needs some help!"
Just as she says this, my phone rings. The number's blocked, so I just ignore the call. But just as soon as I put the phone away, it rings again. I ignore the call and go back to Silena, who's asking how I want my hair. "I don't know. God, I must be the worst customer ever, I don't know anything! Um, just a neaten up, you do what you feel is right."
The whole time Silena's snipping off my hair, the phone keeps ringing. After it begins to ring for the seventh time, Thalia walks up and answers it. "Look, whatever you're trying to sell, we don't want it, okay? Go call someone else, you should have realised by now that we don't want your shit!" There's a muffled voice from the other end. "oh," Thalia says. "Look I didn't realise! Maybe you should unblock your number, possibly? Because I bet anyone who receives your calls thinks that your some telemarketer. " She pauses while the voice speaks. "Yeah fine. I'll put her on." She hands the phone to me. "It's for you." I look at her. "No shit, Sherlock!" I say, while the voice on the other end laughs.
I put the phone to my ear. "Hello?"
"Uh, hi Annabeth, it's Percy." Why's he calling? Actually, how did he get my number? I ask him this. "Thalia gave it to me just after I left. But that's not why I'm calling." I glare at Thalia and she runs back her precious t-shirt. "Okay, Percy. What's up." The line crackles a bit and I hear shouting in the background. "Shut up Leo! Sorry Annabeth, my friend is A MASSIVE PAIN!" he shouts. "About the date tomorrow…I have something on tomorrow evening, an interview. Could we possibly go out tonight?" He's not cancelling on me? But tonight, I'm not working or anything. Before I can answer, Silena rips the phone out of my hand. "She'd love to. Pick her up from her place at seven, sharp. Curfew is non-existent, have fun." She squeals, and hangs up.
"SILENA!" I shout, annoyed. "What? Rachel told me that you aren't working, so why not? Now, we need to work! We have three hours, three short hours people!" Is that not enough? I raise my eyebrows. "What are you doing to me that'll take three hours?"
Piper rolls her eyes. "You really need a haircut, Silena has to do your make-up, I've got to go through this entire store and find something for you to wear, which will be hard seeing as you don't even know what your style is, and Thalia is going to try and bribe Rachel into buying as much stuff as possible." She states. I just sit there blinking. Piper goes into commander-mode. "The date is in T minus three hours. Everything must be perfect. GO GO GO!" She shouts, and soon, everyone's doing something except me. I'm sitting in a chair, wishing I had something to read.
After about ten minutes of flicking through depressing magazines, Rachel walks over and plucks a book out her bag. "I thought you might want this. I grabbed it just before we left. Have fun, princess." She laughs, adjusting the bowlers hat that sits on top of her red hair. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov. Oh yes, I've almost finished this one, I think I'll be through with it by the time we're done. I begin reading, my hands gripping the tattered paperback.
I've just reached chapter seventeen in part two of the book when Silena asks me to put the book down so she can do make-up. "You've got such lovely skin, so I won't do anything to that. Which do you prefer, your lips or your eyes?" I think about it. My eyes: grey. Nothing fancy, except for the fact that they are grey. Lips: average lips. So eyes, definitely. "My eyes." I reply. Silena smirks. "Good choice, I was going to do your eyes either way. Close them, would you?" I do as she says, and after almost an hour and a half, I'm apparently done. Half our time spent on hair and make-up, it's ridiculous.
Silena drags me over to the dressing rooms, where the others are sitting down on fluffy couches. Piper stands up. "Oh, you look great! Well done, Silena. Annabeth, we each picked out an outfit, they're waiting in the room for you to try on." She pushes me in and I begin to get changed.
Outfit number one: black ripped jeans, studded converse, white shirt with black stripes, studded leather jacket and a black bag. No doubt, Thalia chose this. Grudgingly, I put the clothes on and walk out. I'm met with looks of disgust, even from Thalia. "Take those off!" she says. "I wanna try them on!" I go back in and toss the clothes out. Silena gasps. "That jacket is vintage, don't hurt the poor baby!"
I turn to outfit number two: red skinny jeans, a grey shirt, green plaid jacket and plum Oxfords with yellow linings. Only Rachel would wear something as weird as this. "Hurry up! I want to try that stuff on!" I sigh, I thought this was about me! I slip the clothes on and walk out. I get winces and even a "YUCK!" from Thalia. I wakl back in get changed, and slip the clothes our gently to Rachel.
Outfit number three: pink high-waisted mini shorts, a cropped white blouse, pink wedges, a clutch, black bow for my hair and a pendant. I wince at all the pink, it's disgusting. But I put it on, and as walk out, Silena coos, "Awww, you look so pretty!" I try to pull my shorts down. "I don't like it. It's too short."
"That's okay," Piper says, holding out a garment bag. "I think you'll like this." I take it and go to get changed. As I open the bag, I look at the clothes. It's nothing fancy, but it's perfect. I'm just worried about the shirt. Faded jeans, a long black blouse that slightly sheer with sleeves but no shoulders, and a pair of flats. It's so sheer! Piper's added a long red necklace, and I put the clothes on and walk out.
"Now, that Annabeth!" Rachel says, thrilled. Silena pulls out a full length mirror and I look at myself for the first time. I've got soft grey eye-shadow and light mascara highlighting my eyes, and my lips are covered in a soft balm. The shirt's sheerness isn't as bad as I thought, you can't see anything. The jeans reach my ankle and the flats are super comfy. My hair looks gorgeous. The front parts are pulled back in some sort of twisted roll and act as a hairband for the rest of my hair, which has been trimmed up and straightened only slightly, to remove what I call the Frizz-Factor.
"Oh." Is all I can say. Thankfully, it's enough, and Thalia saves me. "Holy shit! We're gonna be late if we don't leave NOW!" She shouts. Rachel pulls out a wad of cash, but Piper shakes her head. "Keep it. Consider it payback from when you helped me get Silena to the Twilight premiere." She smiles, pointing us out the door, and handing Thalia some bags. "That's our best stuff Thalia. I wouldn't attempt to wear it in and make holes in it if I were you, understand?" Thals nods and barely contains her excitement, squealing and jumping up and down.
"GO!" Silena shouts, thrusting my book out at me. "You'll be late for Prince Charming! Have fun, girly!" We shout goodbye and race to the limo, which is still here, surprisingly. As we get in, I notice Robert watching Up. He quickly turns it off and asks Rachel where we are headed. I give him my address and we arrive there just as Percy pulls up in his old blue truck.
"Byebye, Annie!" Rachel and Thalia call. I wave goodbye and walk over to Percy. "Uhh…Um, hi Annabeth. You look great. No, not great, you look beautiful." He opens the door for me and I slide in. "Sorry about changing the plans."
I smile awkwardly. "That's fine." We sit there for a few minutes in dead silence, and I know Rachel and Thalia will be watching from our apartment. "So, uh, are we going to go?" I ask and he starts the engine.
Woohoo! The date's next chapter, unless I feel mean and do something horrible! MWAHAHA! I don't own the song (I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift.)
Please have a look at my new-ish story, Silent!The links on my profile! Basic outline: Annabeth's mute, and tried to commit suicide. Now's she's in a mental hospital with other PJ&O/HoO characters, trying to trick everyone into think that she's healthy so that she can finally leave and end her life. I'm enjoying writing that, because she's so messed up and emotional.
Because I'm back at school in two days, and I'll be juggling my work, music, writing two stories and photography, updates might be a bit slower, but please stick with me!
I'd love to get more reviews, evem if it's as simple as "I liked this chapter" or "YAY new chapter". You all know how it feels to get reviews, it feels good! But I'm not forcing you to do that. I will (hopefully) never say that unless I get a certain amount of reviews I won't update, I don't think that's fair. But reviews do encourage me to write, because they let me know that there are people out there who are reading and enjoying this.
Love always, AwkwardGems.
