CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER: 09
The morning after was less hectic than the evening before.
Getting done up all over again churned his stomach slightly, but he knew what to expect this time. The girls had explained to him yesterday that it was in his best interest to spend the night, seeing as he could get the makeup off and take another shower for school.
So that’s what he did, and when Frida’s alarm blared through the room the next morning, the three of them had gotten to work on his appearance.
He let himself examine the new look in Cleo’s mirror more than he did yesterday, twisting his body to see how it looked from multiple angles.
“Stop fussing over yourself and come on!”
Topher frowned, looking over towards Frida in the doorway, “This outfit is kind of.. breezy.”
Cleo scoffed from behind her, coming back into her room to pull a jacket from her closet. One that definitely had to also belong to Frida, if anything.
“There, you can wear that if you get cold, now let’s go.”
The three of them made their way downstairs, hopping into Cleo’s car as it rumbled to life. He hated to admit it, but he did have fun. Even if they scrubbed and prodded at him for hours, it was an interesting contrast to his sleepovers with Abe.
With Abe, he usually just stayed on his computer, or the two of them talked about their plans for whatever scheme they were up to at that moment.
With the girls, he actually watched some movies, and played traditional sleepover games. Though he did start craving the internet soon, and managed to sneak onto his phone every so often.
He fiddled with the jacket in his hands, staring out the window. Frida was right yesterday, he has been acting weird.
It was easy to let himself get sucked into the mopey quietness of rejection, but that was over. Joan got to be selfish with Abe, so he can too. He wasn’t going to let his crush get strung along, even if it was for a very understandable and logical reason.
Topher has always been prideful, in everything he’s done. Sure, he’s a little insecure, but other people don’t need to know that.
Joan is competition, and he is nothing but competitive.
As the car slowed to a stop, he let the other two get out first. Okay, so he was going to be more confident, but this outfit was still a drastic change from his usual. He wanted some guard against his appearance.
He stepped out, prepared to somewhat hide himself behind the two of them, before Frida linked her arm with his.
“I know you’re clean now, so touching you is no problem to me.”
He stared blankly at her, “Thanks.” his bland response made her laugh, and soon enough Cleo was standing on his other side.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”
They started walking inside, and it took him a bit to process that he was in full view of anyone who would see him, especially considering they got to school at a much later time than he usually would.
Just the thought of others seeing him made him feel a bit sick, and he tried to bring the jacket in his hands in front of his body, before Cleo also hooked arms with him.
“Try not to worry so much, man.”
“Yeah, you look not as bad as usual.”
Topher let out a huff, before straightening his posture. He knew they were just trying to make him feel better, and Cleo doesn’t lie to people she believes are beneath her, from what he gathered at least.
So he must look at least a little good, right?
It was almost like a movie, one of those cheesy rom-coms from the earlier 2000s. It was easy to forget that a lot of the new students right now were from that time.
When the three had walked inside, it was like a quiet bomb had dropped.
They weren’t late, by any means, just later than his usual time. Students were already at their lockers, some were talking to each other before class, but the hallway was anything but empty.
It had become a somewhat regular occurrence to see the three of them together, but not like this.
He grimaced slightly at the eyes on him, feeling like he was being circled by a bunch of lions. Then Frida elbowed him, and that helped remind him he wasn’t doing this for anyone but Abe.
Everyone else didn’t matter, not to him. He didn’t care who looked at him, who spoke of him, he only cared about getting Abe’s attention.
So he cleared his throat, brought his head up high, and walked with about as much confidence as you could expect him to in platformed sandals.
Joan and Abe were already at their lockers, seemingly deep in conversation. With his added height, he had no need to clear his throat for them to notice he was there. Though, with the other two girls with him it would be obvious anyways.
Opening his locker, he pointedly ignored the gawked squeak of Joan.
“Topher..! What are you..?”
He took a bit of pride in the way her sentence floated off, he still had to look up at her to address her, but it wasn’t that bad all things considered.
“Sorry, I spent the night at Cleo’s.”
Abe finally chimed in, letting out a resounding ‘what?!’.
Topher smirked, turning towards him as Frida leaned against his shoulder, “Doesn’t he look great, Abe? We spent all night on this.”
“Frida — why are you hanging out with him out of school?” Joan spoke up, and the two started talking to each other as Cleo came up behind him. She put her hand on his shoulder, having taken Frida’s place to smile at Abe.
“Aren’t makeovers super fun? It was definitely a challenge, we scrubbed and prodded at him all evening after school.”
Abe let out an odd noise, furrowing his brows at the two of them.
Topher tilted his head, “Is it too much? You’d tell me if I looked bad, right?” he did his best to seem unaware of the issue at hand, trying more-so to push his buttons.
“You look.. well it’s just.. It’s very-”
Suddenly his world view toppled slightly, the hand on his shoulder having been removed and his line of vision blocked by something.. red?
He blinked rapidly, quickly stepping back as he looked up, coming face to face with JFK.
Cleo scoffed, backing into Frida. He faintly noticed the conversation with Joan had died down, and could almost feel eyes staring directly onto him. If he had to guess, the three girls were paying unwanted attention to the situation at hand.
“Who’s uh.. this broad?”
Joan cleared her throat, trying to step between the two, “It’s no one, JFK!”
“Gee, thanks.” Topher frowned, trying to move away from the arm blocking his head. Frida came to stand next to him, shaking her head; “No one says ‘broad’ anymore, dude.”
Topher finally pushed Joan away, scowling slightly before straightening back up, “I’m not one anyways.”
JFK stood there for a moment, staring down at him for longer than he would have liked to be stared at.
“Men can dress like that now?”
“If they want to.”
JFK seemed to take in Frida’s words for a moment, unmoving as Joan and Abe tried to nudge him a bit to go away. Topher continued to frown, looking up at Abe. He didn’t really understand the big deal of him being here, unless..
No, that wouldn’t make sense though.
“I’ve got some, er, thinking to do!” JFK finally spoke, walking away from them.
Joan let out a relieved sigh, and he instantly clocked down on that, squinting up at her. She nervously tried avoiding his gaze, and he only continued to glare harder.
“What was that?”
“Nothing! .. I’ve gotta go!”
He watched her quickly walk away, looking back at Abe.
“Yeah, we’re gonna go too.” Cleo said, starting to walk away. Frida instantly wrapped an arm around her, smiling back at him; “Have fun!”
The expression on Abe’s face was one he could only describe as conflicted, and he had no idea what to do with that information. Most likely it was caused by how weird Joan was acting, certainly.
“So.. they gave you a makeover, huh?”
He nodded, looking back down at himself, he wasn’t as cold as he thought he was going to be.
“Does it look bad?”
“No! I mean.. no, I guess I’m just not used to how open everyone is compared to.. y’know.”
Topher raised a brow, tying the jacket around his waist, “So it looks bad compared to 2003.” he blandly stated, crossing his arms.
Abe shook his head quickly, “That’s not what I meant! You look good, great even!”
The compliment was nice, but.. he could mess around with him a bit more.
“I don’t look great all the time?”
He started smirking as Abe struggled to answer, even though it stung only slightly. Of course he would only like how he looks when he dressed completely opposite to what he’s like, Cleo did say that’s just the kind of person he is.
Then again, Topher wasn’t all that above shallowness either.
“I don’t actually care, Abe. Let’s just go to class.”
As he turned to walk, he felt his hand get taken, instantly jumping away from the contact. He stared at Abe widely, watching the other pause with his hand out before straightening up.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”
He watched the others' face get red from embarrassment, “It was a force of habit..!”
Topher cleared his throat, looking away, “Right..”
They both walked to class, and the only thing that was on his mind was that they hadn’t held hands since Monday.
What force of habit was there?
The rest of the day went on surprisingly normal, all things considered. He would say the makeover was a success, if anything. It managed to get Abe’s attention, and he figured out something interesting about Joan.
She definitely still had a thing for JFK.
It honestly made his blood boil, the fact that she really was stringing Abe along. Though, it also made him somewhat happy. If he could manage to get the two of them together, Abe would be on the market again.
He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to do that though.. maybe Frida could help.
School was almost over, and he felt pretty relaxed as he spoke with his.. friends. Yeah, he guessed he could call Frida and Cleo his friends now. It was weird, but it felt good.
That relaxation didn’t last long though, as JFK once again made another appearance. He was worried he would have to see him at lunch, but he was surprisingly absent during so.
Now he was here, great.
“I’ve thought long — and er, uh — hard! Hah!”
Topher frowned up at him, “About..?”
“You bein’ my girlfriend!”
He blinked, before widening his eyes. Looking around, he noticed there were too many students around than he would have liked having heard that, and he whipped his head back towards him.
“I’m not a girl, JFK.”
“Right.”
JFK just stood there, staring down at him. He was starting to get confused, and looked back at the couple behind him for help. Frida just shrugged and Cleo shook her head, they were of no help.
“So…?”
“So what?”
He slapped a hand to his face, “So I can’t be your ‘girlfriend’!”
JFK nodded, “Exactly- wait, sorry. Yeah! I meant boyfriend!”
There was a collective gasp in the hall, and if this were happening to anyone else he would have laughed.
“What in the world are you saying?!”
He was certain JFK was straight, he was the epitome of it if anything. None of this made sense, and he honestly was starting to feel a bit lightheaded.
“Well, I did some soul searching. If I’m gonna be with a guy, they might as well be a good looking one!”
He stared blankly, “I am not good looking.”
“Tomato, Tomahto!”
Topher glared, leaning in slightly with a hushed whisper, “What about Joan?!”
“What about her?”
He widened his eyes, leaning back as he scoffed, “What about h- no. My answer is no.”
JFK was clearly just confused, and he thinks he knows why. Topher was dressed up inspired by Joan, wearing Cleo’s (alright, Frida’s) clothes. If anything, he just looked like a cheap replica of two girls he’s dated in the past.
There was nothing more to it, and he wasn’t going to let this ridiculous outfit get in the way of his new plan of getting him and Joan back together.
“Okay, I understand..”
Topher sniffed, looking away, “Good.”
His vision was obstructed by JFK once again, bewildered at how quickly he moved, “Please, though?”
“No!” He instantly pushed the others’ face away, scowling as he quickly walked away.
What did he just get himself into..?
CHAPTER END