CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER: 08
Abe had been dating Joan for almost a week, now.
Okay, so they weren’t dating, but they were dating!
Topher had gotten a rundown on the situation the day after he left the scene of the confession, despite having repeatedly ignored all of his texts from the other.
Joan wasn’t ready for a relationship with him, not yet. She told him it’s because of how close his confession was to the boys’ breakup, or lack of one if she knew anything.
He had tried ignoring the growing bitterness inside him, as Abe continued on with his agreement with her. Apparently, she was just as selfish as Topher wanted to be, because despite her rejecting him; she agreed to go on dates.
So yeah, they weren’t together, but they were in the ways that mattered.
That made him sick.
It didn’t help that Abe complained sometimes to him, about how he wants to be official with her ‘already’. As if going on dates and getting to hold her hand wasn’t enough, as if he needed to let the whole world know he was her boyfriend.
To make matters worse, Abe continuously tried talking to him about JFK.
Apparently what Cleo had said stuck, because the other never forgot about it. It was almost all he talked about, if not Joan.
Every day was another question, another suggestion; confess to JFK.
That also made him sick.
JFK wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but he wasn’t the kind of person Topher particularly enjoyed. He knows the girls told him to try and use the mans’ existence to make Abe jealous, but he couldn’t imagine himself even pretending to like him.
Which was ironic, because he had managed to pretend to like Abe at first.
The two of them had just never really spoken before, and he didn’t know how to explain that away. He could just say it was in an aesthetically pleasing way, but then that would make Abe think that JFK was his type.
Which, gross.
Saying he didn’t want to talk about it simply wasn’t cutting it anymore, because Abe wasn’t anything but stubborn.
The only thing that managed to get his mind off it was by mentioning Joan, which pained Topher in ways he knew the other would never begin to understand.
It hurt, more than he knew how to express.
When Frida had found out from Joan, he had immediately gotten a message from her account. He had no idea what to even say, and neither did she. He had already known, but Frida found out only a day after he had.
She tried comforting him, but it all was just empty words to him.
Over the past few days, others had noticed something was up as well. Not with Joan and Abe though, but with Topher.
He had spent more of his time with Frida, and in consequence Cleo as well.
It wasn’t a normal sight, to see the two hang out with Topher Bus of all people. No one liked him much, and those who did could be counted on one hand; or one finger.
So everyone was curious as to why the two would spend so much time with him lately, and he had no real answer. None that he could say openly.
Abe had speculated to him on many occasions throughout the day that it was about JFK, as the two of them had been there when Topher told Abe that’s who he liked.
He had no real answer to that either.
Today was particularly difficult, as it was nearing the end of the school week.
It was only a Thursday, but he desperately wished for the weekend for a release from the agonizing annoyance of having to hear about Joan or JFK.
“Really, him and I are cool now! If you need me to put in a word for you, I’ll do it.”
Abe’s voice was all he heard for the thousandth time that time, and he could barely contain himself from screaming.
“Like I’ve said all week, I’m good.”
The other hummed, getting closer into his space, “Really though, it’d be no probl-”
“Abe!” The interruption was a yell, one of frustration, as he glared up at him.
They stared at each other, and he could slowly feel the eyes of those in the hallway on them. He sighed, running a hand down his face, “Please, just drop it.”
“I just want to help you.”
“I don’t want your help.”
He watched a look of betrayal cross his face, “You let Frida and Cleo help though!”
“I don’t! Is it really such a confusing idea that I don’t want to date someone just because I like them?” Topher did his best to keep his angered words hushed, continuing to walk again to avoid everyone's gaze.
“Yes!” Abe quickly walked after him, matching their paces again, “I could never do that with Joan.”
Topher scoffed, rolling his eyes, “You’re doing that right now, you two aren’t together.”
“I know.. it sucks.” His tone reminded him of a kicked puppy, and he let out a huff of a laugh.
Abe wasn’t weird, about the prospect of Topher liking men. At first, he was confused, and had hurled a bunch of questions at him. After processing it though, he didn’t treat him all too differently.
Topher appreciated that, it just was too bad that Abe was the reason he felt that way in the first place. Not like he’ll ever know that.
“No need to worry, Joan will soon realize you harbor no feelings for me.”
The other just grumbled to himself, and soon enough they were at their lockers. It was nearing the end of the day, so they had just come to get their things before heading home.
“Abe!”
Joan’s voice rang out, and with that any good mood he hoped to have dwindled away.
He watched as she rushed over, all smiles and positive emotion, and he resisted the urge to shrink away in disgust.
“Joan! Hey, you still up for tonight?”
Okay, now he grimaced just slightly.
“Yep, I really thought with how much everyone uses the internet these days that theaters wouldn’t be popular,” She fished out two tickets from her pockets, and smiled brightly while showing them off, “but surprisingly that’s not the case!”
The two excitedly continued talking to each other, and he took that as his sign to get going.
As he was about to close his locker, pointedly ignoring the ‘couple’ beside him, it slammed shut by itself. He looked up and instantly noticed Cleo leaning over him.
“Hey, Gopher.”
He noticed Joan and Abe silenced themselves, and he felt a short sense of pride.
“Cleo, always a pleasure.”
“Don’t forget me!” Frida popped out from behind her, smiling lazily at him.
Topher just nodded, and cautiously cast a glance behind him. Frida immediately understood, and cleared her throat.
“We should get going, for that uh..” She glanced up at Abe, and smirked when she noticed his gaze was already on her, “that thing, to help with.. you know.”
She winked as Abe’s face contorted, and took Topher by the arm.
“What thing?”
He knew he made a mistake asking once Cleo piped in, “You know exactly what we mean.” and despite not actually knowing, he felt a sense of fear.
Letting himself get escorted out of the school by the two, he looked back watching as Abe stared at him. Something about the look made his stomach flip, and he had to turn away.
After they all got situated in Cleos’ car, Frida started laughing with her.
“Did you see his face? You saw it, right?”
“Oh I definitely did, I think you’re onto something, Fri.”
He just stared between the two of them from the backseat, frowning in confusion, “Saw what?”
That just caused the girls to laugh harder, and soon enough they were on the road. He just sighed to himself and looked out the window, watching the buildings go by.
“Do you remember what Cleo suggested, a few days ago?”
“She often suggests a lot of things, those of which are idiotic,” He just barely manages to avoid Frida’s hand coming back to whack him, “so no, I don’t.”
Groaning, she looked up at the roof of the car, “The makeover, Topher!”
Topher frowned, tilting his head, “You’re still on about that?”
“Full offense Gopher, but look at you.”
He instantly scoffed, but looked down at his clothes anyways, picking at the hem of his shirt.
“You need to stand out, and that style is doing you no favors.”
The car slowed to a stop, and he glanced around at his surroundings, “Where are we?”
Frida jumped out the car, yanking his door open as Cleo got out a moment after, “My house, of course.”
Topher grimaced as he stared at Cleo, before looking back at the house, “Why are we here..?”
He let himself be dragged inside, ignoring their chattering as he got thrown on the floor of Cleo’s bedroom. Before he could speak again, a bunch of clothes got thrown on him, and he flinched when a hanger hit his head, “Watch it!”
“Sorry, little dude.”
“You’re going to try all of these on,” Cleo spoke as she walked up to him, picking some articles of clothing off him as she inspected them closely.
He huffed, “That’s interesting, one thing though; these are women's clothes.”
“Clothes don’t have no gender, man!” Frida spoke up, frowning at him.
To that, he lifted up one of Cleo’s black skirts, raising a brow.
She blinked, before looking away, “Well, some guys look good in skirts.”
“Definitely not me, though.”
The three went back and forth with one another, before Cleo sighed, “Look, I have some of Frida’s clothes here too, so stop complaining.”
With that, the girls got to work.
Topher had scowled when his hat was taken off, and recoiled when they both went to touch his hair.
“Chill man, we’re just getting a feel of what to do here.”
“From the looks of it, definitely a wash if anything.” Cleo blanched, picking up a strand.
He huffed, “I wash it plenty.”
It was obvious they didn’t believe him, and then flat out stated to be true, as Cleo took a closer inspection of his face; “I don’t think I want you wearing my clothes until you shower..”
“Shower?!”
Frida barked out a laugh, and went to speak before looking at him, and then laughing again. He could only scowl, staring at himself in Cleo’s mirror, he didn’t look that bad did he?
Apparently the answer was yes, because he was rushed off into the bathroom, all of Cleos hygiene supplies being explained to him in great detail, with the intention of being used. He tried to understand everything being told to him, but it was a bit overwhelming.
“Do I really have t-”
“Yes!”
Being yelled at by the two caused him to shut up, and he did his best to follow.
As much as he hated to admit it, he did feel better after using all of the products in the bathroom. It was disgusting, but his skin felt like it could actually breathe now, and he was starting to believe that he actually was that gross.
Soon enough he was finished, and was quickly whisked away in his towel by Frida.
“Okay, now for your hair I brought some stuff.”
“My hair?” He frowned at his reflection, confused. The shower took care of that, didn’t it?
She started emptying her backpack, placing down bottle after bottle, “Yes your hair, it’s curly but looks so dry all the time.”
With the sound of a pop, he watched as she started pouring something white in her hand. He instantly recoiled as her hand went to his head, and yelped as Cleo came to hold him still.
He grimaced at the coldness, watching her fingers run through his hair in the mirror.
“This helps hydrate your curls, man.”
“Hydrate..?”
After a while, he had to admit his hair did look shinier than before. Somewhat better, if he had to be completely honest.
Then Cleo had to ruin his marveling by grabbing his chin out of nowhere, “Now for your makeup!”
He instantly leaned back, staring widely at her.
“Makeup?!”
She just scoffed, grabbing him again, “Yes makeup. It won't be much, trust me.”
Frida came up beside her, squinting at his face, “If we want to make him like Joan, we should use eyeliner.”
“I don’t want to be like Joan!”
The two groaned, rolling their eyes as they looked around her makeup box.
“You’re not going to be like her, just.. similar!”
Frida’s words did nothing to comfort him, and he continued to grimace as Cleo found what she needed and came towards him with the black pencil.
“Is it going to hurt?”
“Not if you hold still.”
As much as he hated to admit it, he was a bit scared when she held his eye open. Especially when she started to do his ‘waterline’, whatever that meant. It took longer than he would have hoped for, and when he expressed that he was told it was his fault for moving.
Once she was finished, he subtly tried looking at himself in the mirror in front of him, his eyes immediately widening at the black that surrounded them.
“That accentuates your eyes much better now.”
“Let’s do eyeshadow too!”
“Eyeshadow?!”
Frida was now the one in front of him, smiling in a way he could only deem as utterly crazy. She examined his face, moving it from side to side as she hummed to herself, “Cle-Cle, let’s use your purple one.”
Eventually, the two were finally done poking and prodding at his face, and he was surprisingly not that hateful of the end result.
He never wore makeup before, but it didn’t look that bad on him; not this kind anyways.
There wasn’t much time to stare at himself though, because almost instantly he was thrown onto his feet and trying on multiple pieces of clothing.
“We need something that screams Joan, or maybe Cleo..” Frida mumbled to herself, rummaging through the piles of clothes.
That would make sense, he supposed. If the two of them were trying to make Abe notice him, then it would make sense if he looked like the person he currently had eyes for.
“We could use this black top?” Cleo suggested, holding it up in front of him.
“That’s good but maybe.. we can make some adjustments to it.”
Soon enough they had him in a cut up black muscle shirt, one that coincidentally showed off way too much of his stomach. He could only raise a brow at the girls, frowning as they giggled to themselves.
“It looks good, it matches your makeup.”
Frida’s words weren’t that comforting.
“It does resemble Joan slightly, she wears that stupid black shirt all the time too.” Cleo mentioned, as she held the hem of the shirt on him inspecting it.
The harder part was the pants.
Cleo was significantly taller than him, so the majority of the bottoms were ruled out. Thankfully, as mentioned earlier, Frida did have some clothes already there.
Unfortunately, one of those pants was bright pink. He didn’t like it, which of course meant they did.
“These are flared out, so we’ll need to get him some taller shoes.” Frida said, looking over at Cleo. Luckily, her girlfriend always wore thick shoes, and easily was able to find some black sandals for him to try on.
After some bickering on whether he was really going to wear pink pants, they convinced him to just try. He struggled to get into them, and struggled walking in the sandals, but as soon as he told them he was done they instantly squealed after looking at him.
“Oh this is perfect Gopher, you look just as horrible as Joan!”
“Abe is totally going to notice you.”
Topher looked down at himself, grimacing. He felt too exposed, and way taller than usual.
“Do I want Abe to notice me? I feel so..” He made a noise, shaking his hand from side to side.
Frida frowned, staring at his outfit more closely, “You seem different.”
He raised an eyebrow, signaling her to continue, “It’s just.. you never used to be this insecure before.”
She went to stand behind him along with Cleo, letting the mirror be unobscured in front of him, “You have always been so loud, and honestly not that great of a person. You have never restrained yourself before, from what I’ve seen.”
Topher just shrugged, staring down at his feet.
“I think what Frida is trying to say is stop being a baby, grow up and get your horrible man.”
Cleo lifted his chin up, letting him look in the mirror at himself, “Don’t let Joan get with both of my exes, that’d be embarrassing.”
He stared at his reflection, a little bit shocked at how well the colors went together. Then again, black did go with everything. His hair was his favorite part, which he usually hated the most, so he had to admit that Frida had a point.
“You look so glamorous, dude.”
“I guess I.. do.”
“Hell yeah you do! Very glam metal.” Frida swung an arm around his shoulder, and he just shook his head, “I don’t think that’s right.”
As he continued looking at himself, he paused before frowning, “Uh, doesn’t makeup smudge? How do I look like this tomorrow?”
The two girls stopped along with him, staring at each other as they started to smile, and he suddenly didn’t like the chill that fell over him as they both turned to look at him.
“Sleepover!”
CHAPTER END (you can see the makeover
