ღ Finding Cinderella- 33 ღ

-Kylie-

Saturday came in a flash, and I thought my sister was going to have a nervous breakdown. When I peeked in her room, I was shocked to see the mess. Her closet was wide open and her clothes were lying everywhere. In the corner of the room stood Lacey, who was studying herself in the mirror.

"What the heck happened here?" I asked.

"I was looking for my white cardigan," she answered. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she searched through her makeup organizer. "Ugh, this is so annoying."

"What's wrong?"

She whirled around, pointing to her forehead. "This freaking pimple on my forehead is what's wrong."

Whoa. I'd ever seen her so furious like that.

I leaned against the doorframe, smiling amusedly. "That's what you get when you stress yourself out too much."

She grimaced. "This is such a major turn-off. I bet Clark will make fun of me."

"Lacey, I know that looks do matter sometimes, but if that guy truly likes you, he wouldn't care about a little imperfection. Hell, even if you look like a horrifically disfigured person," I said.

Her shoulders relaxed, and she smiled. "That's nice to hear from you, sis." She turned back to her mirror and unscrewed the cap of a small container. "I just hope I'll be able to cover this nasty thing up," she said as she sat down and began smearing some cream on her blemish.

I noticed that her hair was a mess, so I walked to her, tiptoeing over her scattered clothes, picked up a hairbrush, and started to comb her hair until it fell smoothly to her waist. Even though there was still a part of me that opposed her date with Clark, I still had to show her sisterly support in some ways. Her reflection in the mirror offered me an appreciative smile, and she went to put on makeup with an expert hand.

Before long, Lacey put down her little brush. "How does it look? Is it okay or did I put on too much?"

She looked like a Barbie doll with the peach eyeshadow and the on-point eyeliner, but she managed to make her overall appearance look natural. A sweep of rose-colored blush accented her cheeks, and her lipstick was enough to brighten her lips.

"Looks fine," I said. "He won't be able to take his eyes off you."

A shy smile appeared on her lips, and she went to her closet to pull out the blue dress that she'd spent a long time smoothing. Then she took off her robe and stepped into the dress, and I helped her by pulling it up and zipping the back. For the finishing touch, she put on her cardigan, white wedges, and some accessories.

We looked at the mirror again, satisfied with the result.

"Thanks a lot, sis," Lacey said.

"I didn't do anything major," I answered.

"You did. You finally allowed me to go." She turned around, and her smile transformed into one of amusement. "But you're still worried about me, huh?"

I put my hands on her shoulders and wore a serious look. "Listen, Lacey," I said. "If he ever ditches you or makes you cry or breaks your heart, don't ever hesitate to punch him in the guts."

She looked aghast. "Kylie!"

"Seriously, I'm giving you a tip. Just punch him in the guts and get yourself some ice cream."

"That's... cruel, but okay, I guess."

We proceeded to the living room afterward, and Lacey narrowed her eyes as if she was examining the area. The place was perfectly organized; no object was out of place. Mom was tucking the magazines away.

"Well, how about it, sweetheart? Do we pass inspection?" Mom asked, ever the family comedian.

"Mom, please," pleaded Lacey, "just this once, try not to joke too much."

A nagging curiosity came over me again, and I asked her, "So... where are you guys going?"

"He said he had a plan, but I told him I wanted to try the laser tag at the mall," Lacey said with an excited grin.

"You should wear shoes or flats," I suggested.

"Oh, don't underestimate my balance in heels."

At exactly three o'clock, we heard a car pulling up outside and someone climbing the front steps. The doorbell rang. Lacey gripped my hand before she cleared her throat and walked bravely to the door.

She pulled it open, and there stood Clark in his white shirt, denim jacket, and dark jeans.

"Lacey. Hey," he breathed. His manner no longer seemed as relaxed and confident as it always had. Now he appeared serious, even a little nervous, what with the set of his jaw and his faltering smile. Despite this, he didn't fail to ogle my sister up and down. It took him almost a minute to acknowledge our mom, who was standing behind me.

"H-hi, ma'am," Clark stammered.

It was amusing how he was shrinking back like a threatened dog before Mom, and I tried to scare him more by crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. Lacey shot me a disapproving look, and she squeezed his hand to comfort him. When no one was looking, I quickly pointed two fingers at my eyes and then at Clark, signifying that I would watch his moves no matter what.

He swallowed and forced a casual smile at Mom. As they began to have a small talk, I excused myself and rushed to my bedroom.

Now was my time to take action.

I grabbed my phone from my desk and looked for Julianne's number. It rang twice before she picked up.

"Jules!" I screeched.

"Jeez, Kylie, learn to lower your voice for once," she replied. "What do you want?"

"Are you free? Can you come over right now?" I noticed that it was noisy on her end like she was in the supermarket or something.

"Can't. I'm at the salon with Ronnie."

I frowned. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"She dragged me out of my house, like, two hours ago. Said she was bored and needed someone to go with her to the salon. I needed to have my hair fixed, anyway, so I went along."

I was somewhat upset that she was getting chummy with Ronnie as quickly as that (four years of friendship and we'd never gone to the salon together), and she hadn't informed me about it, but I brushed it off and focused on my current priority.

"Well, Clark is here right now, and I want to go after them and see where he's taking Lacey," I said.

"Oh my God, you're going to spy on them?" A groan came from her. "Kylie! Have you officially gone mad? It's your sister's date! You need to trust that she can handle herself."

"Yeah, but I really don't trust the—" A crackling noise on her end cut me off. "Hello?"

Julianne said something I didn't understand before her connection became clearer. "Ronnie's coming back. I gotta hang up," she whispered.

"Julianne!"

"Look, Kylie, your plan is obviously bad on so many levels, but if you want to"—a sigh—"then I'm not stopping you. Go get Tristan or anyone else because I can't join you right now. Bye."

She hung up. Sighing, I pressed the off button. Maybe I had officially gone mad from all the worrying, and for me to be able to quench this madness was to ensure that Lacey was in good hands. Now, the problem was, should I go on my own or drag Tristan into this? (Sadly, Tristan was the only person I could think of to ask this favor.)

I texted him, anyway. Dude, you there?

While waiting for his reply, I snuck downstairs just in time to see Mom standing by the door and waving goodbye to Lacey. The car screeched, and the couple went off, much to my dread.

"So, what do you think of him, Mom?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"I think he's very polite for his age and very handsome, too," she said, closing the door. "It's such a surprise that your sister is getting a boyfriend before you do. I wonder when it's going to be your turn..."

"Mooom!"

"Oh, I'm just kidding... but I'm partly hoping." She smiled at me.

This conversation was heading to a weird path. I shook my head and looked at my phone. Zero messages. I had no choice but to go over to his house.

"Anyway, I'm going out for a while," I said.

"Where are you going?" Mom inquired.

"Uh... next door."

She crumpled her eyebrows, perhaps wondering why I wanted to visit our neighbor all of a sudden, but I couldn't really think of a better alibi. "Okay. Don't cause any trouble," she said.

As I dashed to Tristan's house, I found his parents shaping the landscape of their front yard. "Hey, Arthur. Hey, Lois," I greeted them with a smile.

Lois turned to me, wiping her forehead with a towel on her shoulder. "Hello, Kylie. What brings you here today?"

"Is Tristan around?"

"Yes. He's asleep."

"Oh, that makes sense," I said to myself. An idea popped into my head, and I grinned. Sorry, Mom, can't help making a little bit of trouble.

"I'll be right back," I told Lois and rushed back to my house.

Quickly, I searched my room and found the thing that I wanted underneath my bed—a rubber mask that I had bought last year for Halloween. I patted the dust bunnies off, thankful that the mask was still in good condition and was as disgusting-looking as ever. The upper and lower eyelids of the mask were pulled so far apart that the eyeballs were almost popping out of their bleeding sockets, and the mouth was pulled wide open, too, showing a gory set of teeth. To complete my inventory, I grabbed a feather pencil from my desk as I hurried out. 

Lois and Arthur only gave me bewildered looks when I returned. Their house was huge, but I was familiar with every corner because I used to come here so often. 

I got upstairs, rounded a corridor, and walked past a few rooms until I reached his. The door had been left slightly ajar, luckily, and I slowly opened it and crept to the side of his bed, feeling as if I were in The Pink Panther show. Sure enough, Tristan was soundly asleep; his hair fell untidily to his eyebrows, and his shoulders were rising and falling in a subtle rhythm.

I stared at his profile for a moment. Gone was the demon prince persona that I used to see in him. Now, he looked angelic. Maybe if I murdered him now, he'd stay this way forever. 

Nah, I needed him.

Kneeling on the floor, I put on the scary mask and fastened the straps behind my head. Then, with the feather, I began to tickle his ear, which was his weakest spot, and I snickered. It took me a few attempts before he finally groaned and scratched his ear.

The moment he opened his eyes, I bellowed, "Boo!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?" His scream could possibly be heard all over the state.

Tristan scrambled out of his bed, kicking the blanket off and throwing pillows at me in the process before landing on the floor on the other side with a loud thud.

"Ow," he grunted, rubbing his injured elbow.

I clapped my hands as I howled with laughter.

"What the hell, Kylie?" he snarled. He was gasping for air, and his face had gone vampire-pale all over. "You still have that—that thing?"

"Sorry, I can't—I can't help it," I choked out through my wheezing. "Your face is priceless!"

"Jeez." Pulling himself up to his feet, he rubbed his eyes and narrowed them at me. "What did you wake me up for? Do you need something?"

"Yes." I yanked the mask off and took a lungful of air to compose myself. "Go out with me."

The words had tumbled out of my mouth quickly before I had the chance to think through them. Both of us were visibly stunned, and Tristan blinked several times before he managed to say, "Uh, wow, Kyles. This is an unorthodox way of asking someone out, but sure—"

"Wait, no, no, no. That's not what I meant!" I interrupted him, wildly waving my hands. "What I meant was, I need you to come with me and do some undercover work! Yeah, yeah, that's it. N-nothing more."

"Oh." The surprise in his eyes disappeared in a flash. Tristan ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the floor. "So... what is this about exactly? Undercover work? What do you mean by that?"

I suddenly remembered his indirect confession to me, and it made the situation more awkward to the point that it physically hurt. But I couldn't back out now.

"I need to spy on my sister's date, and you have to come with me," I said.

His chuckle came out in a huff. "Evil and impulsive. That's what you are."

I gave him a humorless smile. "Thanks."

"Clark can be trusted, believe me. The guy knows how to take good care of her."

"And I need to see it with my own eyes." I pressed my hands together and begged, "Come on. It'll just be quick, swear!"

"Okay, okay." He sighed. "Not like I have a choice. I have to go with you to make sure you won't do anything stupid and ruin their date."

I clicked my tongue. "Nice."

He shook his head, grabbing a hoodie from a chair and slipping it on. When he took his car keys, I motioned him to stop.

"Forget it. We're not using your car."

"Why not?"

"It always sticks out like a sore thumb, and I don't want them to see us. I think it's better if we use our bicycles."

"What?" He attempted to disagree, but I gave him a serious look. "Fine. You know what, I wouldn't have agreed to do this ridiculous plan of yours if I wasn't in lo—" He prolonged the word until he rolled his tongue in his cheek.

"You're not what?"

"Never mind. Go grab your bike while I look for my shoes. I'll meet you outside."

I wanted to know what he had meant to say, but I dismissed it and rushed to my garage to get my bike. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, and my face was almost hurting from all the smiling... until I checked my bike and noticed that it had a flat tire and a broken handbrake.

"Oh, goddammit," I groaned. I had completely forgotten to fix this thing.

"What? It's broken?" Tristan said behind me. I turned around to see him with his mountain bike. "We can share mine."

"But..." I recalled some of the chick-flick movies I'd watched in which the guy and the girl would ride a bike together across a field and then some dramatic love song would start to play, and I mentally cringed. Our lives weren't like the movies at all, but still... sharing a bike with him would be embarrassing. And would be too dangerous for my heart.

"No? Change of plans?" Tristan put a hand over his mouth as he yawned. "Okay then, I'm going back to sleep."

"Waiiit!" I ran up to him to grab his sleeve. "Fine, we're sharing."

A lopsided grin dominated his face. He swung his leg over the bicycle, settling on the saddle, and waited for me to join. Grumbling, I sat on the top tube and occupied my mind with some sneaky strategies to catch Lacey and Clark, but my thoughts stopped when Tristan's arms wrapped around me to hold the handlebars.

"All set?" he asked. His warm breath brushed my nape, sending tingles down my spine.

I bit my tongue hard as I nodded, and he started to propel the bike smoothly.

My body was as hot as an overheated sauna, and I felt like passing out, but I pulled myself together. Damn it, he smelled so good. Something like spice. Or citrus. Or baby powder. I couldn't tell exactly, but I liked it.

Focus!

"Hurry up, Tristan! We're gonna be late!" I slammed my hands on the stem and yanked it forcefully, making the bike move in zigzags.

"Will you calm down, please?" Tristan exclaimed over the noise of the car that had just passed by. He tightened his grip on the handlebars, trying to regain control of the bike. "Jesus. You're making us cross the highway. Do you want us to die?"

I ignored his question and shouted, "Onward to the battlefield, soldier!"

Let the spying operation begin.

author's note:

buckle up.