Unlucky Break (6 page)

Cameron had stayed at the back of the funeral home, not talking to Marissa. Not meeting Andie’s eye. At the time, Andie thought he just didn’t know how to deal with it. She knew better now, of course. Guilty bastard.

Taking off the shoes, she pushed the memories away and caught her breath again. She put her Docs back on. Too bad if they made her look like a hobo.
I’d rather be a hobo than remember that day
, she thought, and stomped down the stairs.

Cece and Rene were in the living room. Cece’s face was animated as Rene laughed at her joke.

Andie watched them for a moment. Cece looked so beautiful and untouched. Andie understood why she was so adored by audiences. With her heart-shaped face and dark hair, she was Snow White’s older, sexier sister.
Why doesn’t she have a boyfriend or a husband?
Andie wondered.
She’s only thirty-six.

Mum was forty-five when she died, although she looked about eighty at the end. If she had been the famous one, would she have been spared all the worry, the lines? The tumour, even?

Cece and Rene turned to wave and smile at Andie, who waved back as she left.

Jess opened the door of her house, beaming. She was wearing skintight black jeans, a white halter-neck top that dipped between her boobs, and nude heels. Her eyes were ringed with smoky black eyeliner and her lips sparkled with gloss. She had teased her red curls into a kind of afro. She reminded Andie of the Raggedy Ann doll she’d had as a kid. With bigger boobs.

‘Do you know how much you’re contributing to global warming when you leave lights on all the time?’ Andie blurted, unable to help herself. ‘Don’t you worry about it?’

God, Cameron, get out of my head,
she thought angrily.

‘Hello to you too!’ Jess pouted. ‘And to answer your question, no. What I worry about is your outfit.’ She looked genuinely upset. ‘Those shoes, what the fuck is with those shoes?’

Andie turned and walked back to the front door. ‘I’m going find a new BFF.’

‘I’m sorry! Don’t get all pissy,’ Jess called after her. ‘But come on, you know this isn’t a great look for you.’

‘It’s an original from the sixties. Vintage,’ Andie said indignantly. ‘You may have heard of vintage?’

Jess rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, I’ve heard of vintage. But
you
look like a discount Zooey Deschanel.’

‘Gee, thanks,’ said Andie sullenly.

‘Aw, don’t be pouty.’ Jess clapped her hands. ‘You know what we should do? A makeover! I’ve always wanted to do a makeover scene in a movie. This will be good practice. I’m a method actor,’ she said as she dragged Andie upstairs.

‘No way.’

‘Seriously, let me help you,’ pleaded Jess. ‘You can be
my
cause, like global warming is yours.’

‘Global warming isn’t really my cause. It was my boyfriend’s – I mean, my ex-boyfriend’s. But in any case, it is a massive waste of money having all these lights on.’
Always practical and thrifty
, she thought. She really was her mother’s daughter.

Jess took her hand. ‘But I
hate
the dark,’ she said. ‘Come on, you’ll feel better when you see this.’

Jess opened a door and Andie found herself standing in a dressing room. It was three times the size of Andie’s one at Cece’s, and clothes and shoes filled every rail, shelf and drawer to bursting point.

Andie laughed, shaking her head. ‘You know you represent everything that I hate?’

‘Well, I used to hate olives and now I love them,’ Jess said seriously. ‘Things change. People change.’ She rifled through the wardrobe. ‘So, what’s your favourite movie makeover scene?’

‘Erm, not sure,’ said Andie, feeling panicked as Jess held up a one-shouldered sparkly minidress. ‘Maybe …
Grease
?’ said Andie, thinking of the only one she could remember.

‘That one’s pretty good for an old movie. I find it hard to choose between
Miss Congeniality
and
The Princess Diaries
,’ said Jess. She peered closely at Andie’s face. ‘Sandra and Anne had issues with eyebrows, just like you. You are rockin’ a serious eye-stache there. Can I pluck?’

Andie’s hand shot up and covered her eyebrows. ‘Pluck off.’

Jess laughed and pulled her into a marble bathroom. Andie followed, too tired to argue. Jess switched on an overhead light and pushed Andie into a swivel chair. She adjusted a bright lamp above Andie’s head, saying, ‘I don’t want to do too much at this stage. I’ll get you an appointment with Anastasia tomorrow.’

‘Who’s Anastasia? Ow.’

Jess was attacking the space between Andie’s eyebrows with a pair of tweezers. ‘A brow artist. She’s a genius.’

Andie was secretly amazed that being a ‘brow artist’ was actually someone’s job, but she kept her incredulity to herself.

Jess finished and stood back to survey her work. ‘It’ll have to do,’ she sighed. ‘Now for make-up.’

Andie put up her hands. ‘Not like yours, please.’

‘What do you mean?’ Jess frowned at herself in the mirror.

‘You look like a kabuki artist.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Japanese musical theatre,’ said Andie.

‘Is that a good thing?’ asked Jess, looking worried.

‘Depends if you are about to launch into the
Tale of the 47 Loyal Assassins
or not.’

‘I haven’t seen that show,’ said Jess. ‘Was it off-Broadway?’

Andie laughed. ‘I just mean you don’t need so much make-up. Your face is one of the most naturally beautiful I have ever seen,’ she said honestly.

Jess looked in the mirror at herself, and then at Andie. ‘Thanks,’ she said, smiling. Her face became serious. ‘Can I be honest with you now?’

Andie nodded, trying not to smile. Jess had been nothing but honest with her since the moment they met.

‘We need to do something about your hair.’

‘What’s wrong with my hair?’ asked Andie, touching her long black hair. She hadn’t cut it since she was twelve.

‘The ends are, like, epically split. You need a cut
desperately
,’ said Jess. ‘But we can’t really do anything about it for tonight, so … ’ She opened a cupboard. Racks of wigs sat on stands.

‘You’re joking!’ said Andie, feeling her jaw drop.

‘Wanna be a redhead like me? Two redheads – now that would cause a stir.’ She paused, eyeing Andie critically. ‘I don’t know if you can quite pull off this red with your skintone, though. How about a blonde?’ She took down a long blonde wig and put it in front of Andie.

‘Um, I –’ Andie began, but Jess had already started pulling Andie’s hair into a bun. She fastened it at the back of her head and pulled the wig on over it. Pinning the wig in place, Jess teased the hair out into a golden halo around Andie’s head.

Andie looked at herself in the mirror. A stranger stared back.

Jess smiled. ‘Sexy.’

Andie laughed. ‘What?’

‘You look really sexy. Come on – lemme fix your make-up.’

Andie threw up her hands in resignation. She sat back as Jess went to work on her face.

Twenty minutes of smoothing, blotting and powdering later, Andie looked in the mirror at the final result. Smoky eyes, a slight glitter on her cheekbones and nude lipstick. She looked so different that she laughed long and hard at the ridiculousness of it all.

Who the hell is this girl?
she wondered.
I look like someone named Britney or Jenna.

‘Now the pay-off. You can choose something for me to wear if you let me choose something for you,’ Jess said slyly.

Andie laughed again. ‘Aren’t you scared I might make you look like a hobo?’

‘I trust you,’ said Jess sweetly.

‘Okay. First, tell me where we’re going,’ said Andie, crossing her arms.

‘Skyhigh Bar,’ said Jess ‘Super cool crowd.’

‘Isn’t the drinking age twenty-one here? How will we get in?

Jess gestured to herself. ‘Um … hello? I know you grew up in some podunk Australian town, but here I’m a big deal – so you better make me look amazeballs.’

What the hell was she going to dress Jess in? Andie’s experience of bars and nightclubs was zero. Sometimes she had gone to pubs with Marissa and Cameron but Cameron hated dancing, so Andie had hated it as well.

So what
did
she know about? The only thing she could think of was books, and unless Jess was prepared to go to the Skyhigh Bar as Mowgli, that wasn’t going to help her.

And then it came to her. Andie flicked through the dresses, knowing what she wanted. Would Jess have it, though?

And then there it was: unworn, with a Nina Ricci tag swinging from the delicate fabric.

Andie pulled it out and held it up. ‘This.’

‘That?’ Jess’s voice went up an octave. ‘What’s that even doing in my closet?’

‘Yep. Or I walk.’ Andie was firm. ‘In my Doc Martens.’

Jess narrowed her green eyes. ‘You drive a hard bargain. My turn, then,’ she said, walking thoughtfully along the racks. She ran her finger over the clothes as she went. She stopped and nodded, smiling.

‘This.’ She held up the dress.

‘
That
?’ Andie’s eyes bulged at the dress, if you could call the small amount of black fabric on the hanger a dress at all.

‘Yep, or I … ’ Jess paused. ‘I don’t have a threat like you, but you know what I mean.’

Andie laughed. ‘It’s too sexy. I don’t do sexy.’ She reddened.

Jess pulled out some ankle boots with six-inch heels. They had straps and buckles all up the sides. She handed them to Andie. ‘You can do sexy, girl. I mean, you’d be more gorgeous if you got your hair cut and your eyebrows waxed. Maybe a spray tan too, but the foundations are definitely there.’

‘Then I’ll settle with what I have,’ said Andie. She brandished the shoes. ‘There’s no way I can walk in these.’

Jess raised her perfectly arched eyebrows. ‘Fine. Choose something you can walk in, gimp. But I get veto rights.’

Andie snorted and looked at the endless racks of Jess’s shoes.

‘Your foot is half a size smaller than mine,’ Andie complained, shoving her foot into a red ballet flat.

‘Suffer for fashion like the rest of us,’ said Jess, undoing her jeans and sliding out of them. She pulled her top over her head. She wore a tiny pink G-string and no bra.

Andie looked away from Jess as she strutted about. Her breasts really did look stupid, thought Andie. The rest of her was so tiny that she looked as though she may topple over at any time.

Jess slipped into the dress and did up the zip on the side.

Andie clapped. ‘It looks amazing.’

Jess made a face as she looked in the mirror. ‘It doesn’t show anything,’ she complained.

‘That’s why it looks amazing. It’s a preview rather than the whole movie.’

‘I don’t want to be amazing. I want to be
amazeballs
,’ said Jess.

‘Is there a difference?’

‘Yeah, totally. Amazeballs is, well … amazeballs. It’s the best.’

Andie took off the green dress, blushing at her plain white briefs and black bra.

‘You’ll have to lose those granny pants,’ said Jess, her hands on her hips. She opened a drawer and threw over what looked like a headband.

Andie held it up and saw it was a G-string. ‘I can’t wear this.’

‘You have to, otherwise it ruins the line of the dress,’ said Jess, leaving the room.

Andie sighed and took off her white underwear, slipping the G-string on. ‘It feels weird,’ she yelled.

‘Just make sure you don’t have it on backwards,’ yelled Jess from the bathroom. ‘I did that once. Wasn’t pretty.’

Andie smirked, and then reluctantly pulled the black dress on. She tugged what little fabric there was down over her butt. It was a simple tank dress with cutouts up the side and a very low back.

Jess walked back in. ‘Lose the bra.’

‘What? I can’t.’

‘For reals. Lose the bra.’ Jess snapped the back of it. Andie slipped the straps off her arms and pulled the offending bra out from underneath the dress. She looked in the mirror.

‘You have a slammin’ bod,’ said Jess, shaking her head, ‘when you don’t dress like one of the Brady Bunch. Why does that dress look so good on you? It makes me look like one of Hugh’s bunnies.’

‘Do you really want me to answer that question?’ asked Andie.

‘Nope,’ said Jess. ‘Okay, so what else am I wearing? This boring dress and what?’

‘Got any scarves?’

Jess looked concerned, but opened a cupboard. Scarves of all different colours and patterns hung there.

Andie looked at her critically. ‘Go and take off half your make-up and brush out your hair,’ she ordered. She was shocked at how much she sounded like her mum.

Jess sighed dramatically, but went to do as Andie asked.

When Andie walked into the bathroom, she smiled. ‘Perfect,’ she said.

She tied a silver scarf around Jess’s head, like she used to do for her mum when she lost her hair from the chemo. Andie took a deep breath to stop herself from crying, and concentrated on doing an intricate knot with the scarf.

She took the large leaf earrings out of Jess’s ears and wiped the heavy gloss off her lips. She rummaged through Jess’s extensive make-up case until she found a pale pink lipstick and applied it carefully to Jess’s lips.

‘Okay, you’re done,’ Andie said to Jess. She turned Jess to the mirror on the swivel make-up chair.