“Okay, so I don’t have a foundation that will match your skin tone, but I am pretty sure I have every eyeshadow shade on the face of the planet, so I’m bound to have something that will work for your skin tone.” Bekah arranged the items in neat lines on the table, before turning to scrutinize Charlotte even closer. “Hell, you don’t even need foundation. Your skin is freaking flawless. I bet you don’t even do anything to it do you?”
“What do you mean do anything to it? I wash it, and use the moisturizer my mom gives me for every holiday and birthday. That’s it.” All the attention centered on her made Charlotte squirm, the added compliment just making her want to shrink back and hide in her too big pajamas even more.
“Oh my gosh, to get my skin even half decent, I have a routine that takes forty-five minutes before bed. Not to mention I contour the shit out of myself on air. I’m so tired of people emailing about me needing to lose twenty pounds.” Bekah rolled her eyes again and picked up a large round brush. “Okay, sit on the floor. I’m going to do this awesome braid I saw on a blog the other day, and then I’ll do your makeup.”
Charlotte did as she was told, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. Bekah took the elastic band out from Charlotte’s hair and began gently brushing her long locks out.
A gust of air from Bekah’s deep sigh fluttered some of the soft strands around Charlotte’s face. “I love makeovers. My main thrill in life is a makeover.”
“Clueless. Nice.” The stroking of the brush somehow helped relax her, and Charlotte closed her eyes, enjoying someone else taking care of her, even if it was just for a makeover. At some point in her childhood, her parents must have brushed her hair. She couldn’t have sprung from the womb knowing how to style it in her signature conservative bun. But she had no memory of either of them taking the time to brush her hair out. Charlotte often had to enforce her own bedtime routine since her father was usually busy managing her mother.
“I love that movie.” Bekah’s voice softened while she concentrated on separating the hair into sections and began weaving some magic Charlotte couldn’t see.
“It is a good one, but I still love Heather’s the most.”
“Oh my god yes!” Bekah tugged a little too hard one section of hair in her excitement and apologized quickly before moving on. “There are so many great one-liners in that movie. Plus, Christian Slater was still a total babe.”
Just as the door opened and the scent of Chinese food wafted into the open space, Bekah tied the finished braid in a hair elastic and gasped loudly.
“Yeah, that was my reaction when I saw how much food you ordered. Did you invite more people that I don’t know about?” Mira giggled as she carried two huge shopping bags full of take out containers into the living room.
“Not the food, Charlotte has tattoos!” Bekah practically screeched the words out, and Charlotte immediately stiffened.
No one had ever seen her ink before, other than Kym. Heck, they didn’t even take pictures of the artwork for Kym’s portfolio.
“No way. Let me see.” Mira came around the back of the chair where they sat and leaned over. “Holy shit, that’s not just a little tramp stamp either. How far down does this go, Char?”
Charlotte started a little at the shortening of her name. Kym had been the only friend who’s ever called her that, and so many of their interactions were online. Having someone else use the nickname, and in person, threw her. “Um, pretty far. I have a good friend that is an artist down at Galaxy Ink.”
“Kym Eves is your friend?!” Bekah pulled down the collar of Charlotte’s shirt a little more to get a better view of the top of her back piece. “She is totally famous. I heard they asked her to be on one of those tattoo competition shows as a judge, and she turned them down.”
There was no doubt if that was true, Kym would have turned them down immediately. She barely left her building, let alone the city. “She is great. I’m actually going for my last session on my back tomorrow.”
“Okay, stand up. We need to see this whole puppy.” Bekah stood on the chair bouncing up and down and clapping.
Twisting around to look at Bekah’s antics above her, a fissure of fear shot through Charlotte’s system. “But, I have a shirt on. You can’t see it all without me taking it off.”
“So, we’re all girls here. We all got boobs.” Bekah cupped her own large breasts, heaving them up under her chin. “Some more than others, but they are all basically the same. Nipples. Boobs. That is it.”
“Watch those things, Bekah. You could put someone’s eyes out if one of those girls get loose.” Mira turned her eyes to Charlotte, giving her a sly wink. “Why don’t you take my hoodie, go to the bathroom and put it on backwards, then come out to show us. Everything will be covered, but we’ll still get to see. Because I admit I am really curious. I’ve kinda always wanted a tattoo, but never had the guts.”
Maybe it was Mira saying she didn’t have the guts. Maybe it was the wine. Or maybe it was Charlotte’s deep desire to make these women happy, for them to like her and want to hang out more. But Charlotte found herself nodding and taking the hoodie from Mira before shuffling back to the same bathroom she had changed in before.
This time, instead of avoiding the mirror, she faced it head on. Watching as she unbuttoned her shirt to reveal her pale braless breasts. They were nothing like Bekah’s overflowing ones, or Mira’s small put perky ones. They were too small to even be perky. But there was something there. A roundness that still spoke to femininity that Charlotte often felt she lacked.
Next, she turned her back to the mirror, taking in the tattoo in the wide mirror. She rarely looked at it, which was odd since she was one of two people that knew it was there. And she loved knowing it was there, just under her clothes. Her own little secret that would shock everyone in her life. The colors started just below the nape of her neck, midnight blues, vibrant pinks, deep violets, swirling together with white and grey stars scattered throughout.
Planets and moons peaked out from clouds of space dust, almost seeming to spin in their orbits. Charlotte never understood how Kym had been able to give movement to a still picture of the galaxy, but she did. The further down her back you looked, the less color there was, instead just the black lines of the outline giving a hint of what they had planned. More swirls, stars, a galaxy, and at the bottom a girl in a dress holding a wand with the whole galaxy pouring from the tip.
Charlotte awkwardly put the hoodie on backwards, the zipper gaping open over her back. Her heart pounded as she practically tiptoed back to the living room. Black spots swam before her eyes, and for a minute, she truly thought she might pass out. Before she could, she turned her back to Bekah and Mira, draping the heavy tail of her braid over her shoulder so they could have an unobstructed view of the artwork.
“Holy shit.” The words were more a breath exhaled from Bekah’s lips than an exclamation. “How long has this taken you?”
“About two years, I guess. We try to do a session about every three or four months. But since we do them after hours, sometimes Kym doesn’t have the energy to do much.” Charlotte’s heart slowed slightly, growing more used to being exposed in front of these women she so admired.
“Charlotte, this is amazing. I feel like I have no idea who you are looking at this. Like I always thought you were just this shy, quiet woman who worked hard and didn’t get in anyone’s way. But really, you’re a badass underneath it all.” The reverence in Mira’s voice made Charlotte uncomfortable. It didn’t take much to get tattooed. You just had to be able to lay still for a couple hours, and not scratch at it once it started to heal.
“Trust me, I’m no badass.” Turning back around, she almost didn’t want to show her face now. They had peeled back a layer of her skin, laying bare something they couldn’t understand. The artwork had been all Kym, Charlotte gave very little input into the design. It was more about the experience than anything. It was a few hours that Charlotte escaped her mind. But thankfully Kym had picked a design that she loved.
Mira sighed this long-suffering sigh that Charlotte sometimes heard from her own mother when she became frustrated. “I wish you saw yourself the way others do. But let’s just leave it at a difference of opinion.”
With a pat on her shoulder, Mira turned back to the living room, dishing up some Chinese food onto her plate.
It felt a little silly going back to the bathroom to put her clothes back on, like she should have been able to just turn the hoodie on the right way, zip it up, and move on with their night. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it, even with her back to both women.
After returning from the bathroom, this time in a t-shirt instead of her big pajama top, they settled in, eating good food, watching bad movies, and doing each other’s makeup. Bekah and Mira didn’t allow Charlotte to retreat back into herself. They kept up a lively thread of conversation and included her in everything they did. Before long, it didn’t feel like they were making special allowances to include her. It just felt like she belonged. Something she had never experienced before.
