Feather After // Chapter 40 // Makeup And Mom Talks

Aria's POV

After walking five hours straight, and changing thousands of dresses, night gowns, evening gowns, dresses, whatever there was to wear my mother realized that she had a dress at home. When she said that, I wanted to burst out crying: tears of happiness, anger and hurt. After drinking the chai tea suggested by Mariam, my mother and Nanna got so energized that even if you would have told them to run to California, they would have done it. When my mother announced the great news, the bodyguards who were following us around, wanted to shoot her with the guns they were carrying for our protection.

"I want you to look the best there!" Mother exclaimed and my smile dropped. When she saw my reaction, she frowned and narrowed her eyes at me. My legs were killing me and my head was pounding. I really wanted to faint then. I wanted to just lay somewhere and sleep.

"We have to get your hair and makeup done," she said and held my hand. She started pulling me towards a salon and I wanted to run in the opposite direction don't get me wrong, I had nothing against makeup, I could wear some eyeliner myself but with my legs that were hurting as ten tractors had driven over them, I wanted to cut them off and offer them to someone in the name of charity.

"Mom, if I take another step, I'll die," I tried to mumble but all in vain. It was as if, her ears were immune to my voice. She continued dragging me until we were standing in front of a salon. Before I could launch another protest she pulled me inside along with her.

"It's so nice to finally have you back! Look who we have here, baby Arial is a big girl now!" A guy said and ran towards us. He stood up from his seat and smiled. He wore a purple shirt and a black pair of trousers with red suspenders. He looked so cool. I mean I couldn't pull off a red and purple combination without looking like a giant eggplant with blisters.

He came towards my mother and pulled her for a hug, my mother did not protest. "It's so good to see you too," she said and rubbed his back. That was a big surprise for me. She was not much of a 'give me a hug,' kind of person, she was more like 'touch me not'. She repelled touch and stuck to a handshake along with the word 'pleasure' when she met someone.

"How have you been? You have not changed a bit. Just the same old handsome young man," she smiled and patted his chest. "No, bulging tummy, I see," he smiled and looked at her with the same adoring eyes that any girl would receive from her father.

"You're still the same, I wouldn't be surprised if there are still people falling for you," she smiled at his comment. I wouldn't be surprised either. She was everything that I dreamt of being. She was beautiful. She was poise and most of all she was successful in what she did.

"Well, I would like you to meet my daughter Aria," she put a gentle hand on my back and pushed me forward towards him. When his eyes fell on me, his smile broadened. He was shocked. His eyes twinkled with happiness. He put his hand on his mouth and mumbled a quick, "come here," and pulled me in a hug.

"You know, she is as beautiful as you. When your mom with 16, she had loads of guys asking her out," he smiled and looked at me. "I bet you face the same problem."

"Well, I need your help. Aria is going to make a public appearance today. Today she'll be introduced to the Royal Society, and you know how complicated that can be, I just don't want something to happen today, you know how this works," she messaged her left shoulder.

"I know you're stressed, but your mom trusted me with you, and you should trust me with your daughter, history repeats itself yeh?" He moved his fingers and looked at me. "Come on," he wiggled his eyebrows and then clapped his hands, "we have to do a lot in a very short time."

He pulled me onto a chair and wrapped a purple cloth around my neck. That was the first time; I tried to spare a glance at the things around me. The salon was antique; it looked like he hadn't renovated it on purpose. The walls were lavender in color, and everything else, including the sofa, the mirror, the brushes hairdryer and almost everything else in the room where the combination of maroon, dark red, and purple. It was beautiful because, it didn't look odd, or weird or anything like that. It looked really pretty.

He cut my hair tie and before I could say anything he threw it in the Maroon colored dustbin. I wanted to protest because that was the only hair tie which understood my hair and it wasn't either very tight or loose on my hair.

I guess, it was time for some good-bye. I shut my mouth and looked at his expressions over the mirror. My hair was not short anymore, they were long enough to reach my bum. He looked at my hair with sympathy and sadness.

"When was the last time you washed them, your hair is wonderful just like your mom's but you don't take care of it." He tossed my hair up and then with one pity look started chopping them of, he turned here and there measuring my hair with his two fingers. What the hell was happening to me?

"Just relax," he ordered while he pulled me by my shoulders, I got scared first but then as soon as my back collided with the chair's backrest, I relaxed. I could finally get some sleep. There was some soft music playing behind the back of the salon, and it helped me with my sleep. Usually, when I heard songs like those, I would imagine myself in different situations and then how I would react and I would think of different lines to roast people's ass, with my sass.

He whistled and then I heard a lady approaching me, her heels clicked so loudly that people in Japan could also hear her approaching them. She gently placed two cucumbers on my eyes and then started applying something cold on the face. Her touch was light; I drifted into a deep slumber.

When I opened my eyes again, I felt more relaxed and I knew my dark circles were not under my eyes anymore. I yawned and opened my eyes. As soon as I did, my eyes met a girl in the mirror. The guy had cut my hair and there was some hair falling on my face, and I guessed it was a combination of flicks and fringes. My skin was white almost pale and the tiredness was evaporated from my face. Damn, this guy did wonders.

"Well, it's time for some makeup," he raised his hand up in the air and smiled. There was something that I had realized about him, he was more excited than my mother. "We'll keep it very very very natural by just applying some eyeliner that to winked or maybe cat eye and some lipstick, I think I'll like the light pink shade or maybe the red one!" He clapped his hands once again and put his left hand on his chin as if he was thinking about something.

"I'll get the dress," I heard my mom mumble and soon she was back with a dress. I think the dress in my mom's hand was everything that she had envisioned to see in the shops in Seattle. The dress had everything that the dresses in Seattle lacked. It was a high neckline dress and the upper part was embroidered with pastel color beads and the lower kart was white and flow-y. It was beautiful. She looked at me and said, "well, Aria, this is one of the pieces of the new collection I'll be launching very soon," she didn't know what to say neither did I. My mother could even make a frog look like a princess, a gorgeous princess. That's why she was famous. No matter what kind of a mother she was, she was a good designer and somewhere in my heart I thanked her because if she hadn't chosen her career over me, so many girls and women would have never felt beautiful.

"This is a Beaded High Neck Sky Blue Long Gown and I hope you wouldn't mind wearing one of the nude heels I have. If you don't like it-"

"Mom, I love it! I think it's a beautiful design. Thank you for this, I don't think so there is anything else that would look better than this."

She smiled and for the first time, she looked proud of it. She looked proud of her work and she looked happy, really happy.

In no time, we were sitting in the car leaving for the gala which was supposed to take place in the posh area of the new Seattle. After promising a dinner with my mom's long lost family friend and after forcing him to take the money for his services, my mom looked more nervous than me. She held on to the door of the car as if her life depended on it.

"Well, I have something to ask you, Aria-" she said and paused to look at my reaction and expression and continued, "I should have asked this a long time ago, but I didn't know how to. Do you like Zachariah?"

"He doesn't seem bad-"

"We can cancel the whole thing if you want, I'm sure we'll manage something. We'll have to sell the cars and the house but if you're unhappy with this, and you don't have to do this anymore. I now Aria, this is not how you imagined things would be and I know that you feel that your life was easier without your father and I. We're so sorry you have to go through this just because things are out of our hands now. I'm sorry. But we can stop this, just say you don't want this anymore and we'll. We can start from the bottom again."

"I get it. But I'm not selfish, I can't see my parents suffer, it is okay. We might get a divorce later on. It's not like we'll fall in love and have kids," I reassured myself more than I reassured her.

"Strange thing happens at strange time, darling. But promise me that when love comes to you, you won't hold back and you'll give Zachariah a chance. He has suffered a lot too. Maybe you'll get to know that once you see the real him. He is not a bad guy Aria, just give him a chance, he is misunderstood," she grabbed my hand and squeezed it and she continued, "you know he might be just eighteen years old but he is his father's right hand, we are the only reason why their company is where it is at the moment. Even when the odds were against him, he did it and he didn't give up."

That was something I didn't know about him. I rarely had one proper conversation with him because I was too busy with Ignatius. I thought things about Ignatius which I knew somewhere in my heart would never be true. But I just hoped that I was wrong. Maybe I had to give my self another chance at love. Not for myself, not for Ignatius, not for Zachariah but for my parents.

"We're here," the Chauffeur announced. My mother got out and I followed her carefully trying not to ruin the dress she gave me, she turned around and said, "you look beautiful tonight."

Before I could say anything the flashlight of the camera blinded me.

MTTBB was ranked #6 in teen fiction. We even reached 200,000+ reads. WTF.