“Here,” the woman said, handing off a small black eyeliner. “Try this and see what your friends think. I’ll be back.”
She said the wordfriendswith just enough emphasis that when I glanced in the mirror, I felt that charge shoot between the three of us. We’d all heard her, and now we all knew that we’d heard her, and all of a sudden, I definitely wasn’t the only one thinking about how nice it would be to drag my red lips up and down their cocks.
I uncapped the eyeliner and leaned forward, my heart pumping as I dragged it beneath my eye. When I finished and studied my reflection, Casey stepped up close, joining me. “Looks good on you,” he said. “I don’t know shit about makeup, but I did used to rock a little eyeliner sometimes.” He laid out his hand. “Can I?”
I handed it over, and my memory of college Casey came back. He had the same long hair, but without the sides shaved so short, and he always wore this black leather necklace and a tiny bit of black eyeliner, too.
Casey leaned forward and smudged it on with a couple of quick swoops, then turned back to Blake, offering it with an arched eye.
“Uh, no,” Blake laughed. “I mean, I’ve never really done that, you know?”
Casey frowned. “Just one toke? No one has to know.”
Blake snorted and furrowed his brow at Casey; then Blake and I both laughed. He sighed and reached out to take the eyeliner, then hunched over awkwardly to look in the mirror. While Casey grinned, Blake pushed the pencil against his eye, making a dark and uneven line.
“Here,” I laughed, reaching out to take the pencil. “Let me finish for you.”
Blake frowned. “I knew I’d suck at this.” He didn’t move, though, so I quickly added a thin dark line on his other lid.
All three of us looked in the mirror. I had ruby red lips and striking eyeliner, and Casey pulled off some serious rocker attitude with eyes darkly rimmed. Beside us, though, Blake frowned, a dark smudge of black under one of his eyes and then a smooth line under the other.
I laughed, which made all of us laugh. There were people looking at us, people seeing me just like this, but I didn’t care. I was having fun, and I knew there was nothing to feel embarrassed about in reality.
It felt fucking great.
Years ago, I’d buried down all these bad feelings. Growing up with a bunch of brothers and a father figure like my dad, I’d internalized a lot of shame about who I was. No one ever told me, exactly, that I couldn’t wear makeup, but I knew deep within myself that it was against the way my father expected things to be and that it made me different than all my brothers.
Sitting there in the boutique, I couldn’t imagine a better way to work through those feelings than by doing it with Casey and Blake.
“Here you go,” I said to Blake, handing him a makeup remover. “You’re relieved.”
Blake wiped at his eyes. “Don’t know how you make it look so good,” he grunted.
“You do make it look good,” Casey agreed. He studied himself in the mirror for a second, and I was surprised how nicely his black beard and thick, dark eyebrows worked with the heavy eyeliner. “Makeup and home repairs. You’re really schooling us.”
“I guess,” I laughed. I knew Casey could only say that because the two of them didn’t know the first thing about makeup, or home repairs for that matter, but I was still flattered they both saw me that way. “At least I’ll look good when I’m getting my hands dirty.”
Blake shot air out of his nose. “Yeah you will,” he said, his voice deep and even. “Maybe I’ll even pick up a thing or two while you’re around.”
My cheeks felt warm, and I placed the eyeliner back in its sample slot. “If you really mean that,” I said, “I’ve been meaning to take River to the studio to show him some carpentry basics.”
Casey’s eyebrows popped up. “Really?”
“Are you interested?” I asked, kind of surprised.
Casey gestured to Blake. “You remember his parents. They weren’t the fix-it types. And my mom…” He trailed off, and something flashed through his eyes while he frowned. “We got the damn tools in the garage. We might as well know how to use them,” he said, shaking off the other thought.
My heart hurt for a second. I still didn’t know the full story with Casey’s mom, except that whenever I saw her around town after she kicked him out, she’d ignore me. But I remembered how unhappy he was when we were younger and how his family life unsettled him, and I wished I could do something to make it better for him.
“Yes,” I said, jumping back in. “Absolutely. And I could introduce you both to my friend River!” I shot my eyes back to Blake. “Would you want to do that?”
Blake gave me a quick nod. “Sure. Sounds great.”
Casey turned back to the counter. “What about a couple lipsticks and an eyeliner? That seems like a pretty good haul, right?” he asked me. “On me?”
“And me,” Blake added.
I nodded eagerly. “Definitely. Thank you both so, so much.”
