the hating game ; lrh

thirty-four

ANNA SWEEPS ONE LAST clump of eyeshadow across my lid in a fashion that I never could quite master before stepping back with an accomplished smile on her face.

"Voila!" She exclaims, gesturing for me to check the results for myself in the mirror.

I turn to my vanity and am slightly taken aback by my reflection. I am already adorning the dress that Anna carefully selected for me at the store, but the girl wearing it seems to be a slightly more beautiful version of me. Her hair is perfectly curled, her cheekbones sharper and more defined, and her lips glossy and plump. I touch my hair, letting the curls bounce as I let them go, and move to touch my face when Anna reaches over and swats my hand aggressively.

"Don't touch!" She scolds me, a scarily serious expression on her face. She drops the eyeshadow brush she had been using back into the makeup bag she brought and begins to pack it up. "I just spent an hour on that masterpiece."

I roll my eyes, but obey her orders and instead stand up from my vanity. I walk to my wardrobe and pull on a pair of plain black strappy heels that I only ever wore for formal occasions due to my complete inability to walk in heels, and pluck my clutch from another shelf in wardrobe.

Anna claps her hands together in excitement as I emerge, her face filled with delight. "Let me take some pictures!"

I glance at my phone, noticing that it is almost six-thirty and begin shaking my head instantly. "Jaden's going to be here any minute!"

Anna rolls her eyes but starts toward my bedroom door regardless. "Fine — but you are not leaving this house without a photo, missy."

We both start downstairs, which takes far longer than usual due to the care I am taking not to topple down the stairs and hence ruin my night before it even starts. Anna waits at the bottom of the stairs, tapping her foot against the floor as if to tell me to hurry up, but I know better than to risk it.

"God, you really need to learn how to walk in heels," she rolls her eyes, gripping my arm the moment I hit the final step and dragging me into the kitchen.

I take a seat at the counter, watching in confusion as Anna opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of apple juice and drops it on the table. She then reaches into my mother's cabinet of fancy glasses and selects a wine glass, then proceeding to fill it halfway with the apple juice. Anna then looks up to pass the glass to me, but she stops almost instantly and her face contorts to one of complete horror

"What are you doing? Get up!" I do as she asks without question due to her tone and readily accept the wine glass that she shoves into my hands. "I want a good photo before Jaden gets here!"

Anna huddles me toward a wall near my front door that she had probably pre-chosen as an adequate photo spot and quickly begins snapping pictures on her phone. I smile as she does so, feeling more awkward with every second that goes by.

"Why the wine glass?" I ask through gritted teeth, trying my best to pose in a way that won't turn out looking horrible, and by the fact that Anna hasn't instructed me otherwise I assume I'm doing well so far.

"So you have something to hold so that your hands aren't just... there," she explains, her face of complete concentration not faltering as she continues taking pictures.

Behind Anna, I see Calum slowly making his way down the stairs. I try my best to send him a twin-telepathy help signal, but he either doesn't hear it or doesn't care because he approaches our photo shoot with an expression of nothing other than his typical confusion and cluelessness.