Chapter 2. The following morning came way too soon, and before I had even opened my eyes, I felt the throbbing in my head

The following morning came way too soon, and before I had even opened my eyes, I felt the throbbing in my head. Before the previous night, my alcohol consumption had been limited to a glass of wine on two separate occasions; both times I had stayed the night at Evie’s house. My parents would have never allowed me to drink, not for any reason. When I finally managed to roll out of bed to turn off the screaming alarm clock, I headed straight for the kitchen to grab a glass of water and some aspirin from my purse. I heard the shower running in Evie’s room so I knew that she was up and getting ready and that I needed to get moving. Our spa appointments began at 8:00AM and it was already 7:15.

After showering and throwing on some of Evie’s clothes she loaned me, since I literally left my parent’s house with the clothes on my back, I found her waiting for me in the living room. Luckily the medicine had kicked in and I was feeling a little more human.

“You ready for your makeover? To find out how beautiful you truly are when you aren’t hiding behind all of that hair and those frumpy ass clothes?” she asked with a huge grin on her face. I knew she was just as excited about this as me, maybe even more so.

“Absolutely. Let the fun begin.” I responded, returning the smile.

Even though I had grown up in San Antonio, which was far from a small rural town, it was nothing compared to the large metropolis of Houston. My only visit there had been when I had come with my parents for a day tour of the Rice campus. I was so glad that Evie would be the one driving us around. She had visited family here often and even though she didn’t know exactly where everything was, her memory paired with a trusty navigation system was sure to not get us too lost. So we jumped in her car and headed out.

Upon arrival at the spa, we were quickly checked in for our “A Whole New Me” package, which I thought was an especially fitting name for my current situation, and were whisked away to strip and change into plush white bath robes. I had never been to a day spa before, so I had asked Evie all kinds of questions on the way over about what to expect. I was most nervous about the waxing and the massage. The waxing scared me for a couple of reasons ~ first, I had read about how painful it was and I knew that my threshold for pain was at like a -2 on a scale of 1 to 10; and second, I couldn’t believe that I was going to allow a complete stranger to not only look at, but touch my private area. Evie tried to calm my nerves by telling me that the aesthetician sees women’s pussies and asses all day long, much like a gynecologist. For her, it would be like looking at any other body part-an arm or a leg. This didn’t make me feel much better, but I really didn’t have a logical argument. The massage scared me for similar reasons. I knew it wouldn’t be painful, but I wasn’t quite sure I was comfortable with a stranger rubbing their hands all over my body. I know this seems a little prudish but let’s face it, I was a prude whether it was my choice to be or not. Evie finally told me to shut up, everything would be fine. I needed to just enjoy the day, so I did exactly that.

The first service I was scheduled for was the waxing. I thought I might as well get the toughest part over first, right? I soon found out that tough wasn’t quite the right word to describe exactly what happened to me on that table. Awful, dreadful, agonizing, excruciating, unbearable… was the terminology that needed to be used when people described having their hair ripped out by the root on the most sensitive parts of one’s body. I truly felt bad for the technician that was trying her hardest to keep me quiet and still. I was pretty sure that the pain associated with waxing had to be up there close to childbirth with no drugs. At one point, I’m pretty sure everyone in the building heard my pleas for her to stop, but she ignored my requests and just kept on manhandling my vagina and ass. What seemed like hours later, she announced she was finished and that I should come back every two to four weeks for maintenance. Did she not remember that only moments earlier I was frantically trying to escape her grasp and screaming obscenities that would make a sailor blush? Words that I was pretty sure had never passed through my lips before. I just replied with an “okay,” put my robe back on, and allowed her to me lead me down the hall to another room where an elderly woman was waiting for me.

“Hi Scarlett, I’m Joan and I’m going to be your massage therapist today,” she said as I sheepishly entered the room.

“Hi Joan, please tell me you aren’t going to hurt me,” I replied.

Her hearty laugh filled the room and helped relax me a bit. I also noticed this room was much different than the first one I had been in. Instead of bright, cold, and sterile, Joan’s room was dimly lit with instrumental music lightly playing in the background and an aroma of lavender and eucalyptus teased my nostrils. It was serene and tranquil, and I found it very soothing.

“No sweetie, I’m not going to hurt you. I hope to do just the opposite of that. Let’s get you out of that robe and help you forget the torture that Tina just put you through,” she chuckled.

“Tina? That’s her name? I was convinced her name was Olga and her second job was a Dom at the local BDSM club.”

“I’ll be sure to let her know that she has options in case her job here ever falls through,” Joan snickered. “Now hop up on the table on your belly, face in that donut looking pillow, and arms by your side.”

The hour long massage with Joan was pure bliss. I’m pretty sure at one point I had fallen asleep and started drooling on myself. After explaining to Joan that it was my first time, she did an excellent job of making me feel at ease and relaxed. I was amazed at the way her hands made my body feel ~ it was incredible, like nothing I’d ever experienced before, not sexual in any way but oh so satisfying. Now that was something I would willingly come back for every two to four weeks. Before I knew it, she was patting my arm, telling me the hour was up, and I was due for my manicure and pedicure. I reluctantly got up off the table, put my robe back on, and followed her to my next appointment still in a sated haze.

The manicure and pedicure were very much what I had imagined they would be, not as soothing as the massage but relaxing nonetheless. I chose a light pink color with a hint of glitter for both my hands and feet; I had never had color on my nails before so I was a little apprehensive to go with blood red or something wild like blue or green. From the nail room, I ventured to the hair and makeup area of the salon and knew this is where the true makeover would occur. I had always worn my medium brown hair the exact same way since I was a kid - long, straight, all one length, and normally in a bun. I was worried sick about what they were going to do with my hair, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a drastic change quite yet. As I sat in the chair and waited for my stylist, I was startled when a young Asian man walked up behind me.

“Hi there, Scarlett. How are you enjoying your day so far?” he asked.

“Well it started off a little rough, but it’s been wonderful ever since. Thank you for asking,” I replied.

“Good. I’m Nathan and I’m going to be doing your hair today.”

What? A male hair stylist? I mean I knew there were male hair stylists, I just didn’t think I’d have one working on me. It took me a minute to process the information and I guess I did little to hide the shock on my face.

“Its okay, hun, I’m not going to bite you. Hell, I won’t even hit on ya… girls really aren’t my thing,” he sniggered.

“No, it’s okay. I’ve never had anyone except my mom cut my hair before so this is all really new for me,” I answered.

“You’ve never been to a professional hair stylist before? Are you serious? How old are you?” he asked.

“I’m eighteen, and no, everything I’m having done to me today is a first. My parents were a little strict when I was growing up.”

“OMG, you have no idea what you’ve been missing sweet girl. What kind of crazy parents do you have anyways?”

“Well crazy would be an understatement, but none of that matters any more. As of yesterday, I am free, I moved out… so here I am. You think you can assist me with my mini-makeover? I’m going to my very first party tonight, then starting college on Tuesday and I need more than a little help,” I said.

“Of course I can. Just you wait until you see what Uncle Nathan can do for you… just you wait,” he said with a comforting smile on his face. “Now, lets see what we have to work with. Take that bun out while I grab some things over here.”

He walked across the room to another station and grabbed a couple of bottles and combs only to come back behind me and stare at me in the mirror with his mouth wide open. I had taken my hair down and let it fall down the back of the chair and I guess he wasn’t prepared for how much hair he was going to be working with. Without saying another word, he walked away again and came back with two other women.

The three of them inspected me like I was an animal on exhibit at the zoo, occasionally picking up sections of my hair and then dropping it so it draped over the back of the chair.

“Ummm… is there a problem?” I asked, feeling more than a little uneasy at their gawking.

“No, I just had to show them how beautiful your hair is. It’s so long and healthy-it’s unbelievable really,” Nathan responded with his warm smile and cocked his head to the side. “Did you have any ideas about what you would like to do with it? Color? Cut? Style?”

“Not really, I was hoping that I could just leave it in your hands, since you are the professional. I just need to keep it long enough to pull it back in a ponytail for days I don’t feel like fixing it or for when I dance.”

Nathan simply nodded and then the three of them began discussing colors and other things that had numbers and letters that sounded like gibberish to me. Hoping to ease some of my anxiety, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and said a little prayer. I then let Nathan do his thing.

While he worked on my hair, he kept my back to the mirror so I couldn’t see his progress. He told me he wanted it to be a big surprise at the end. I took a huge leap of faith and trusted him to work some magic. Nathan asked me all kinds of questions about my life as he worked, questions about my past, the present, and my hopes for the future. I told him about my childhood, my teenage years and lack of a social life, about the fight with my parents, and about how nervous I was to join the rest of “normal” society. He was a great listener, asked thought-provoking questions, and seemed to be truly interested in my story. My time with Nathan ended up being just as much a therapy session as it was a hair appointment.

After about an hour of I’m not sure what he was doing, Nathan said it was time for the big reveal. I could tell by the wide smile on his face that he was extremely pleased with the outcome. I could feel the nerves growing in my stomach seconds before he spun me around to look at myself in the mirror. And when he finally did, I stared at my reflection not sure whether to laugh or cry.

“I… I… I …” I was unable to speak as my eyes filled with tears.

“Don’t cry, Scarlett, sweetheart. I hope you like it. You do like it, don’t you?” he asked in anticipation.

“I love it. It’s incredible,” I whispered, afraid if I said anything else the tears would let loose down my cheeks. I was shocked, stunned, flabbergasted at the image staring back at me in the mirror.

“So you can see that I left quite a bit of length so it wouldn’t be such a drastic change for you,” Nathan explained as he turned the chair around and handed me a small mirror so that I could see the back of my hair in the larger one. “The longest layers hit your back right about your bra strap, and I’ve added some shorter layers to give it a little shape and body. For your color, I added both highlights and lowlights, which really bring out your beautiful tan and those big, beautiful brown eyes. It’s a little lighter here around your face,” he continued. “And this should be very easy for you to style - all you will need is a large round brush and a hair dryer.”

I sat there frozen, afraid if I moved that it would go back to the way it was. I was in awe, I had no idea that my hair could look so good. I loved the lighter highlights that framed my face; they were the perfect shade to compliment the warm rich chestnut brown that was now my base color; a major improvement to the drab, lackluster brown it was before.

“Well now that you are looking absolutely amazing, if I do say so myself, let’s get Becky over here to teach you about makeup application. And then you will be ready to break all the boys hearts at that party tonight,” Nathan said.

“Thank you so much, Nathan. I couldn’t be happier!” I exclaimed and jumped up to give him a hug.

“No worries beautiful. Just come back to see me every six to eight weeks so we can keep you looking fabulous,” he said returning the hug.

I sat and waited for only a few minutes when a middle-aged brunette, who I assumed was Becky, joined me at the chair.

“Now I hear that I have a makeup virgin over here, is that correct?” she asked as she walked up dragging a cart with her full of makeup.

“What you hear is correct,” I replied. “I’m most definitely a ‘makeup virgin.’ I have only worn stage makeup for dance recitals and music performances, and even then someone else applied it for me.”

Much like Nathan, Becky talked through most of my appointment. However, she spent most of the time explaining to me how to apply the makeup, and how to create different looks for daytime, going out, formal events, etc… It was so much information that I’m sure I only retained half of it, but I knew that I’d have Evie around to help me.

Just as Becky was finishing up and putting together a kit for me to take home, Evie entered the room and stopped mid-step when she saw me.

“Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?” she exclaimed. She then ran to me, picked me up, and twirled me around. “You look absolutely stunning. I am so jealous… I knew you were beautiful, but Sam… wow. You are drop dead gorgeous.”

“Thank you, Evie. Thank you so much for bringing me here. I feel amazing. I really don’t believe it yet. I keep looking at myself in the mirror trying to figure out if it’s really me,” I said trying not to cry again so I wouldn’t mess up my makeup.

“It is really you, and I could stand here all day and look at you too, but we need to get going so we still have a few hours to take you shopping,” Evie said as she pulled me towards the front desk to check out.

After we grabbed a bite to eat, we hit the shops to tackle the issue of my clothesless closet. I knew that it would take me awhile to build up a full wardrobe, but for now I needed to get the basics. Several hours and dozens of stores later, we were both exhausted but I felt giddy with the bags and bags of goodies in the backseat, especially the ones from Victoria’s Secret. I had never owned lacy, seductive bras and panties before, my mom only bought me plain white cotton undergarments. However, I had read countless books where the girl would end up in an unplanned sexual encounter only to be embarrassed by her old-lady panties. So to alleviate that possible humiliation, I vowed to only own and wear sexy panties from that point forward. I figured I was going to be awkward enough whenever I did finally find myself in a situation that someone saw me without my clothes on, so hopefully I would look good enough in my lingerie to keep their attention off my ineptness.

We finally returned to our dorm room a little after seven which gave us a couple of hours to recharge before the party. As I was putting away my purchases, Evie came into my room and sat on my bed.

“So for tonight… are we still going to do our book boyfriend challenge?” she asked trying to hide the hopefulness in her voice.

“Of course, why wouldn’t we?” I asked.

“I was just making sure you weren’t haven’t second thoughts… that you just didn’t agree last night because you had been drinking,” she said. “But yay, I’m glad you still want to do this… I think it’s going to be a fun way for us to meet new people. Since this is our first time, I want you to pick the “type” we are hunting tonight… whatever you will be most comfortable with.”

“Hunting, Evie? Really?” I exclaimed.

“Yes, hunting, Sam. Guys are prey that you hunt, capture, and slaughter. If you don’t have this mindset, you will become the prey… I’ve been the prey once, and I’ll be damned if I let it happen again,” she retorted a little too seriously.

“Okay, whatever, a little dramatic don’t you think?” I didn’t want to argue with her. The day had been too perfect to ruin it with something so silly, so I decided to drop it and move on. “Okay, then to make it easy tonight let’s do the ‘Mr. All-American,’ the college frat boy, since we are going to be at a college party. There should be plenty of those to choose from, right?” I asked.

“Sounds perfect, now let’s get dressed to kill,” she grinned as she walked out of my room.

“Sure thing… just let me get out my sexy camouflage dress,” I called after her shaking my head.

Choosing my outfit for the evening was more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew I was overthinking the whole thing, but this was a big deal…well, at least to me it was. I didn’t want to look like I tried too hard, or like I was too fixed up, I just wanted to blend in... Okay, maybe I wanted to do a little more than blend in. Evie said the party was going to be casual, to wear something cute and flirty but comfortable. Cute and flirty but comfortable, huh? Yoga pants were my idea of comfortable, but I guessed that wasn’t what she had in mind. After trying on everything I had bought earlier in the day, I finally opted for a denim mini skirt, layered chocolate brown and light pink tank tops that snugly hugged my C-cup breasts, and my distressed brown cowboy boots. Unless I was wearing sneakers for a physical activity, my shoe selection consisted of flip flops and one pair of boots. I owned at least twenty different pairs of flip flops in every possible color which I usually wore during the day and with jeans and shorts. My boots were my “dress-up” shoe, usually paired with skirts and dresses. I quickly touched up my hair and makeup, and then stared at my reflection in the mirror. It was show time. For so many years, I had dreamed what it would be like to get to do this… to do things that most teenagers did, and the time had finally come. I said a short prayer asking God to keep us safe and requesting he not let me make a complete ass of myself. I was pretty sure he chuckled at this one, we both knew that was bound to happen at some point in the night. Minutes later, Evie and I were in her car on our way to the beginning of the rest of my life.