Accepted by Coleen Lahr Read Free Book Online

happy.
    Okay, I was a little nervous, but that was just when I started seeing clumps of my hair fall all around me onto the bathroom floor.
    Once Amber was done cutting, we all went back to our room so she could style me. It was then that Randi and Becca pounced. Apparently, hair wasn’t enough, we now had to work on skin.
    Luckily, I have fabulous skin.
    So, yeah, I was feeling a little smug about the fact that the girls had decided that I only needed mascara and lip gloss as far as makeup went. Thankfully, I was still tan from running outside all summer. I was hoping my paler, winter skin wouldn’t change their assessment.
    I honestly did not believe that I could figure out all the other cosmetics they laid out on top of my desk. I had no idea which brush went with which powder or what eye color goes on which part of the eyelid. I’d never even realized that there were, like, four different distinct parts of the eyelid and each part got a different color. I’d always been under the impression that the term eyelid covered the whole area.
    My three stylists laughed hysterically when I admitted that.
    Late that night, when Amber was done cutting and blowing and ironing and styling and Becca had given me a beautiful light pink lip gloss that she insisted she never wore anyway because it didn’t go right with her skin tone and Randi lent me one of her tubes of mascara – she had four — until I could get to the drugstore, I finally caught a glimpse of my reflection in a mirror.
    And, for the second time that night, I was blinking back tears.
    And, for the second time, they were happy tears.
    ****
    By Thursday night, I was getting used to the mascara and lip gloss, but I hadn’t even tried to wear my hair down, let alone in the style Amber had intended.
    She had cut inches off my hair, multiple inches, but somehow she’d done it well. It hung in full layers to my shoulders. It was artfully parted to one side, and Amber had also given me long bangs that swooped to one side. The cut was pretty and flattering. It made me look sophisticated without looking older. She’d done a great job, and she was disgruntled that I wasn’t showing off her handiwork.
    So she decided that it was time to show off my new ‘do. We were going to a party—my first ever—though they didn’t know it and never would.
    After Becca had helped me pick out an appropriate outfit and generously lent me some accessories, Amber announced that since I’d proven incapable, she was doing my hair.
    Who was I to argue?
    Fifteen minutes later, I was transformed.
    ****
    I was so excited. I didn’t fancy myself the party type, but this was a huge first for me. To make things even better, it seemed our entire floor would be attending the party, and that included Colin.
    I hadn’t talked to Colin since our lunch on Tuesday — not even in class this morning. While I wasn’t exactly avoiding him, I wasn’t seeking him out either.
    I did bump into him once, late Tuesday night, on my way back from the ladies' room. He was on his way to what I can only assume was the bathroom, wearing nothing but sweatpants. I’d been half asleep, but the sight woke me right up.
    I remember thinking the day I met Colin that he was the most beautiful man I’d ever met in person. And that was with all his clothes on. Colin without all his clothes on was a totally different story. Beautiful was not the correct word to describe him, or maybe it was, but it wasn’t enough to describe him. Colin was beautiful, but Colin with without clothes was…striking.
    It was like he stepped straight out of a magazine ad…olive skin, dark hair scattered across his muscled chest, abs, and below them that v thing you only see on movie stars, peeking out of the top of his sweatpants. It was almost unfair that he could like that and still be so nice.
    Colin was seriously sexy.
    He’d waved and said hi to me as he walked past, but I could barely return the greeting as I ducked into my room and