"You act like Vera doesn't feed you chicken and sneak muffins - pffft, like I don't know about that." Sliding the glasses up the bridge of her nose and over her hair to hold some strands back, she went to her vanity and took a seat. A looming chest of make up sat to the right, to the left were three curling irons, a flat iron, and a set of rollers. She felt oddly perplexed looking at all of the hair-styling tools, being that she so often just let it go. Sometimes it was just too much to manage and she was too lazy to battle it out. She had nearly forty inches of hair and putting anything through it aside from a brush was hell. And sometimes the brush itself was a strength-draining crusade.
In her hand she held the plain, black suspenders. She wasn't quite sure how she acquired the accessory but she was guessing that she probably picked it up with some outfit she never wore.
Day turned to night rapidly; crickets warbled and trilled behind her agape windows. The breeze leisurely welcomed itself in, only vaguely chilling Jaylene. It was enjoyable rather than discomforting and annoying. She loved fresh air and had a habit of dressing too cold for the weather. While she ached for summer, the frigid gale was sometimes solicitous… For reasons even Jaylene couldn't put her finger on.
Scrabbling across the vanity's surface, she plucked some Plink! by MAC away to apply to her curvaceous lips. Along her cheekbones she trailed a fan brush lightly dusted with a soft, rosy blush. The make up was enough to embellish her natural features without looking like she tried too hard. Yesterday, she'd gone through hell sticking on her false eyelashes and perfecting the shadows on her lids. After the non-fulfillment of her evening with her friends, she didn't have the ambition or enthusiasm to devote that much effort to her appearance. Besides, what did she have to prove to any of them? Who would really pay attention if she did dedicate hard work to her appearance? She wasn't gunning or swooning - at least - not anymore. That's what she kept telling herself, anyway.
She had to grapple with the images from Mordicai's bedroom, the look in Kaleb's eyes when Jaylene mentioned him caring for Summer, and Brik's apology as he grasped the window of her car… Sputtering, she shook her head to find herself staring blankly into the mirror with a mascara wand centimeters from her glassy jade eyes. Instantaneously, and she had no reason why, she got this pang of homesickness. No. We're not doing this over again, she reassured herself and looked to the incense container.
After generously applying dark adornment to her lashes to frame her doe-like virescent eyes she took a long, hard look into the reflective glass before her. What was she, really? She was slightly indifferent and frigid - bitchy, definitely. Yet when she extended a hand, shoulder, couple hundred dollars, whatever - people turned her away. Kaleb and Summer had undoubtedly been the ones she was closest to, possibly for the sheer fact that they accepted her gratuities and didn't nod off in a high daze when she talked or turn a deaf ear to her. They were all interconnected with this uncontaminated, sublime relativity yet it was so incredibly fucked up at the same time. Avery was good too - but she seemed so fragile that Jaylene found herself straying from the young girl in fear of damaging her in some way. Lizzie was sweet enough and Mads was just great with her willingness to party and be free. Mordi was always so friendly, but he was gone. And Brik was…
A mirrored image of who Jaylene candidly existed as in the dark, in her own reality where indignity, inhumanity and practicality was bounteous. She hated the hideous realization. And at the cognizance, she decided to stay away from him.
When she got to her feet again, she faltered as the friendly, kaleidoscopic fairy-like ghouls returned to keep her company and stimulate her brain. "Don't fall now," one of the florid, rubicund intangible imps cooed. Laughing to herself, Jaylene nodded and guided herself to the closet and fought away hangers and blouses to get to the shoe rack. "You still need to tell someone what happened," a lemon colored one insisted. Again the pink one riposted, "No one will ever know, it's our little secret. No need to discuss it with anyone." Equable as Jaylene acted, she couldn't deny that they were in fact there and they were talking to her. She was aware they weren't visible to anyone else because well - she was tripped.
Grabbing a pair of knee-length boots she crumpled to the floor in a heap, attempting to put them on. But she only ended up lying there on the carpet, smiling in a dazed way until Mitzie cavorted to her tan-skinned, two-legged mama to smother her in puppy kisses.