Chapter 4

Chapter 4


I woke to Marie rummaging through my closet. She was muttering something incomprehensible.

"Marie!" I said. "What are you doing?"

"I, uh, have a date. In an hour."

I glanced at the clock. It was already five o' clock. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes I looked at Marie. I know she was trying, really trying, but she slightly resembled a cat that had been made-over then shoved in the dryer on low. Her very curly hair looked like she had attempted to straighten it, but wound up making it look even more fried and sloppy blue eyeliner (MY blue eyeliner) outlined her eyes. The final product made her resemble Bozo the Clown.

"I'm losing my mind!" Marie said, burying her hands in her frizzier-than-normal hair. "I don't even like the guy."

"Who is it?"

She paused for so long that I thought she might not have heard me. Then she turned towards me with a worried look on her face and said, "Hairy Larry."

I rolled out of the bed and threw on my robe with a flourish. After looking around the room briefly, I grabbed enough beauty products to keep a small nation looking fabulous.

"Well then. We are just going to have to show this boy how lucky he is to go out with my best friend."

*  *  *

Thirty minutes later, Marie was fully transformed. With the aid of three different de-frizzers, I had managed to make her hair pin-straight. Her make-up was light and natural, since she normally wore no make-up.  She wore my favorite distressed jeans, black stiletto ankle boots, and a charcoal-colored faux cashmere sweater. After much debate I had even convinced her to wear the contacts she bought years ago in place of the glasses I claimed looked like they came off of the set of Harry Potter.

After staring in the full-length mirror for at least 10 minutes, Marie burst into tears. I tried to console her but that only made it worse.

"I can't do this!" she wailed. "I've never even been on a date! I'm just not date material!"

"Sure you are!"

Marie let out a sarcastic burst of laughter. "There have only been two guys that were interested in me. Larry, who smells like a mix of rotting fish and lemon Pledge, and that guy at our senior prom that hit on me to get to you. I'm hopeless, Anna. Hopeless..."

"No, you aren't. You are gorgeous. You just needed a little help to bring it out. Now go freshen up before he gets here."

As Marie sulked away to her room, I went into the living room to find Eric. When he wasn't on the couch, I worried that he might have left. A quick glance in the parking lot told me he was still here somewhere. Sounds of conversation came from the direction of the front door. As I went to open the door, Eric and a rather handsome guy in a blue polo and khaki pants walked through the door carrying bags of snack-like items. Hottie-in-the-polo was carrying a white daisy in his right hand, carefully holding it away from the groceries to avoid getting damaged. I suddenly had a hunch.

I walked up behind him and said confidently, "You must be Larry."

He switched the daisy to his left hand and offered me his right. I placed my hand in his expecting a handshake and was shocked when he raised my hand to his lips as if this is something that came natural to him. "And you must be Anna. I have heard loads about you."

"Loads?" I thought. "Marie said they rarely talk. Of course she also said he was hideous with back hair issues. She has quite a bit of explaining to do."

"Oh!" came a surprised voice from the hallway. "Larry! Hi! I thought you were going to wait for me in the parking lot."

Larry edged past me to Marie. Tucking the daisy behind her ear, he raised her hand to his lips and let it linger there longer than he did mine.

"Hello, beautiful. I thought, this being our first date and all, you would rather hang out here.  And since I thought you would prefer this idea, I took the liberty of bringing a few snacks. I hope that's okay?"

"More than okay," Marie said through a broad smile. "Just let me go take off these torture devices disgused as shoes and we can get started."

"And I'll join you. Hanging out in your robe isn't too attractive. My room, Marie?" I said as I was already walking in that direction.

Once we were both inside, Marie ripped off the shoes and proceded to bury her nose in the daisy Larry gave her.

"How did he know?" she cooed. "Daisies are my favorite!"

"Yeah, he seems really sweet and normal. No visible back hair issues. No stench of rotten fish and lemon Pledge. As a matter of fact, he is very good looking. Gorgeous, even!" I threw my robe at her. "Why did you say he was disgusting?"

" 'Cuz... 'cuz... Dang, I dunno. I was scared. He is amazing and he is gorgeous and he likes ME! Frumpy ol' ME! I'm not comfortable with being the object of someone's affection. It seemed at the time that maybe if I went into denial that I wouldn't have to deal with it. But he kept asking, almost begging, to take me on just one date. Just one and if that didn't prove he was worthy of my 'beauty' then he would stop asking completely. So I gave in on the condition that he meet me in the parking lot. I knew you would flip if you saw him."

"Marie, you're crazy. He's hot. He likes you. Go out there and 'hang out' before Eric corrupts him any farther."

As the night went on, we played board games, had tennis tournaments on Wii sports, and even played a little truth and dare. The whole night I couldn't help but think that Cody would never do something like this. It was always just the two of us. Being alone is nice, but sometimes hanging out in a group can be just as enjoyable. I felt bad for thinking negatively about Cody, but it wasn't as if I considered him a horrible person for it. I just thought some things could have been done better.

Before I knew it, it was morning again. Marie and Larry were asleep practically on top of each other on the couch and Eric and I had fallen asleep in the two recliners on opposite sides of the room. I stretched as high as I could, popping my back in the process. From the direction of my room I heard my cell phone blaring "Party Like a Rockstar." I ran to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Anna," said a tearful someone on the other end. "It's Cody's mom. Just wanted to remind you the.... the ceremony is at noon today at All Saints. Hope to see you there. I'm sure Cody would too."

Before I had time to answer, the line went dead. I felt awful. I hadn't even called her to ask if she needed help with any of the preparations. I collapsed on the bed in a wave of guilt, agony, sadness, anger at myself, and a few emotions that I had never even felt before. I layed there for an hour before Marie came in to see what I was doing. As I was telling her about what Mrs. Phillips had said, a small voice in the back of my head said, "Today is going to suck."