Carter
“What have you guys decided to do for your costumes?” Macey asked as we sat around our living room, surrounded by all the junk food you could want. We had Cheetos, candy bars, cookies, ice cream, cookie dough (more of that than actual cookies), and soda.
Because Macey and I had been so busy with school work and our boyfriends, we hadn’t really seen each other much, so we decided to have a girls’ night on Saturday. Amy sadly couldn’t come, saying she had to go out with the cheer team for some dinner thingy. Lately, I could feel us drifting apart, and I knew it was terrible, but I was too busy and happy with Gage to really care.
We had banished all the guys away so the both of us could have a night to ourselves for once, for the first time in a month. Both Gage and Luke were okay with it, but I had a small little feeling that they would crash our girls’ night.
It had been exactly two weeks since my date with Gage. Two weeks of getting even closer to him and falling even more in love with him. He was literally everything you could really want in a boyfriend. He of course didn’t like to admit it, but he was thoughtful, sweet, and always showed up to the class we shared with coffee for both of us. I was not going to lie and say he hadn’t done anything to piss me off yet, because he had. They had been little things, but nothing that a few kisses wouldn’t fix.
Things between us were moving steadily and I was fine with it going slow. With this only being my second serious relationship and Gage’s first, we didn’t want to rush anything. It was new to the both of us. Just thinking of him made me giddy. Who would have thought the guy that hated me—and I hated him at first, too—would now be dating.
“Earth to Carter.” Macey waved her hand in front of my face. I blinked, getting out of my thoughts about Gage.
“Huh?”
“Have you and Gage decided on your costumes yet?” Looking over at her I had to stop from laughing again. The both of us were sporting gorgeous facemasks that made us look like mummies. Macey pulled these out of somewhere and since it was a girls’ night, we decided we should do masks and our nails, which we had already finished.
Her mask was starting to come off and a piece was attached to her lip. I bet mine didn’t look as great either.
“I haven’t really talked to him about it yet,” I admitted.
“You better soon. The Halloween party is in two weeks, so you guys need to hurry and find a costume before they sell out.” I had kind of forgotten about the Halloween party that was being thrown here on campus. I wasn’t sure if Gage even wanted to go, but if I asked, I knew he would go with me. Our entire group was going, so Macey was going to force us to attend anyway.
“What are you and Luke going as?” I asked, scooping a spoon full of cookie dough into my mouth.
“Not telling you until the night of.”
“Please tell me. It isn’t ‘the slutty nurse and the doctor.’”
“No, we have more class than that,” Macey said, rolling her eyes at me. What? I wouldn’t put it past them to do something like that.
“Sure you do,” I muttered softly.
“How are things going between you two?”
“Good. Really good, actually,” I said, grinning. “How about you and Luke? You guys seem really close for only being together for a few months.”
“I like him a lot. He is a lot sweeter than you would think.”
“He’s my brother. I think I know what you mean.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
“So I take it you are over Ethan then?” In all honesty I hadn’t thought about Ethan since I met Gage. He made me forget about him completely. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing—more of a good thing, I think. My crush on Ethan was nothing like what I felt for Gage. Yes, I loved Ethan and I think I always would just because he had been a major person in my life since I was little.
“I think I am.” I wasn’t all that sad about it either.
“Good. Gage is good for you. I like him.” I pulled her into a side hug. I was glad my best friend liked him because her opinion did matter.
For the next little bit, we ate all of our snacks while watching the Halloween movie marathon on ABC Family. Right now it was Hocus Pocus, but Twitches was coming up, which Macey and I were very excited for. When we were younger, we would pretend to be sister witches. It drove our parents nuts, but it was fun.
The movie was about to end and we were going to get up to take our masks off, when a loud knock came on the door. Both of us jumped and grabbed onto each other. We weren’t expecting anyone. The two of us sent each other looks before we stood up. I grabbed the big bottle of Sprite as my weapon and Mace grabbed the remote. I snorted at our weapons of choice, but the knock came again, making me stop.
Clenching onto Macey’s arm with her gripping mine, we slowly made our way to the door. Silently counting to three, we grabbed the handle and swung the door open, brandishing our so-called weapons. I threw my half-full bottle at the figure in front of us while Mace used the remote as a sword.
“Fuck!”
“Ow!”
“Stop it!” yelled two manly voices. Mace and I stopped, finally seeing that there were two people in front of us and they were very familiar.
“Luke! Gage!” we yelled at the same time.
“What are you guys doing here?” Macey practically yelled at them. They were each holding the parts of their bodies we had hit.
“We came by to make sure you guys were okay. Terrible idea.” Luke groaned. “You got my face, Macey!” Seeing as he was hurt, Mace dropped the remote and gently grabbed his arm to pull him inside, checking his face.
I looked at Gage who was holding onto his family jewels. This time I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at his red face. Apparently, my aim wasn’t that great…or was it?
“Y-you okay?” I asked between giggles.
“No. That fucking hurt.” He wheezed, still clenching himself. I sobered up a little, enough to grab his arm and help him inside. Shutting the door behind me, I led him to the couch where he collapsed. On the other end Macey was looking over Luke’s face, which now had a bright red bump on the cheek. I think it was safe to say us girls would be fine defending ourselves.
“Terrible idea, Luke,” Gage said, slowly getting his voice back.
“How was I supposed to know they would go all ninja on our asses?” Luke said defensively. “And look like weird mummies.”
“Mummies?” I echoed, not sure what he was talking about.
“You have something weird on your face,” Gage pointed out. I had completely forgotten about our masks, and I bet we did look pretty funny with them on.
“I think we look really sexy,” I said, making a face at Gage. He was slowly letting go of himself and breathing normally now.
“Seriously, what are you guys wearing?” Luke asked.
“A mask, you dumbass. You guys interrupted our girls’ night,” Macey said with her hands on her hips.
“Why do you even need a girls’ night? We can come over and hang out too.”
“Because I am always hanging out with you. I do need a break from my boyfriend at times.” While they argued, I turned to Gage.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Gage’s face was now back to its normal color.
“I’m sorry for hitting you…there.” I blushed a little at that.
“Good to know you have no problem defending yourself. Although we need to work on your aim.”
“I think my aim is pretty good.” I grinned. If any guy got near me, I knew where to hit. We looked at one another for a minute before his hands snaked out and grabbed my waist, pulling me to him. I stood between his legs with my hands now on his shoulders.
“I missed you,” he said softly so only I could hear.
“You saw me like four hours ago.”
“I can’t miss my girlfriend?” I was still not used to him referring to me as his girlfriend. Every time the word left his lips, I still got shivers and my heart would thump in my chest. “By the way your pajamas are very sexy,” he whispered, looking me up and down.
I glanced down at what I was wearing and blushed even harder. Of course tonight I had to wear my most embarrassing pair. Macey and I thought it would be fun to wear onesies tonight. We had gotten ours a few years ago for a pajama party they had at school. Mine was a cheetah, while Macey had bright pink unicorns on hers. We of course put them on after doing our toe nails. I also had my hair in a messy bun on top of my head, a few pieces coming free, as well as my mask slowly slipping off. Yup, I looked beautiful.
“Well, you are just jealous because you have to wear that.” I gestured to his own clothing which was the same as always…drool-worthy. The guy could wear a bright pink onesie and still look hot as hell. It wasn’t really fair if you asked me.
“I am jealous. How about we both get rid of these clothes so I’m not jealous anymore.” Gage’s voice went even deeper as he spoke. My breathing hitched but I didn’t want him to know what he did to me. It would just boost his ego.
“So are you two staying then?” Macey’s voice interrupted us. I tried to pull away from Gage, but his hands stayed locked around my waist. Instead of leaving his embrace I twisted around so I was facing Macey, who was sitting on top of her boyfriend.
“Yup! I’ve always wanted to know what girls do on girls’ night,” Luke said. At his words Mace and I looked at one another, our eyebrows raising. A smirk appeared on both of our faces. We were going to make them regret barging in on our girls’ night.
***
“Thanks a lot, Luke,” Gage muttered as he sat at the kitchen bar alongside my brother.
“Shh, don’t talk,” I muttered, concentrating on what I was doing. Next to me Macey was doing the same thing. I was so focused on the matter at hand that I was even sticking my tongue out in concentration.
When Macey and I decided to make the guys regret ruining our girls’ night, we weren’t joking. Right now, they both wanted to leave, but since they chose this, we were not letting them off the hook so easily.
It had been about an hour since they barged in and made themselves at home. Since they arrived, we had made them watch Twitches with us, and they both complained about how stupid, cheesy, girly, and not even realistic it was. Although neither of them had any problems eating the junk food we had out. I even learned that Gage also liked cookie dough. We were a match made in Heaven I tell you.
Currently we were giving the boys makeovers. Yup, you heard right, Makeovers. And we were going all out on them. We made them sit at the bar on the stools while we stood in front of them. They of course tried to protest, but we threw Luke’s words back at him. He wanted to know what we did, so we were going to show them.
First, we started off with masks, because let’s be honest, they felt great. Since Mace and I already did ours, we thought it was only fitting the boys did theirs right away. I knew they both would deny it, but I think they actually liked it. After that we started on makeup. All of our makeup products were spread out on the counter behind the boys so we could grab whatever we wanted to use. We made them shut their eyes so they couldn’t laugh at each other or do something to ruin our masterpieces.
“Are you almost done?” Luke whined, moving a little in his chair.
“Yes, now hold still, you little baby,” Macey muttered. I grinned as I grabbed some lipstick to finish off Gage’s look. I opted for a more…daring look just because Gage was daring. I gave him some dark smoked-out eyes, with a sharp wing. I also added a little bronze in the middle to hopefully make his hazel eyes pop little more. His cheeks were already sculpted, so I didn’t need to do much, but I did add some blush and a slight contour. Because he was sporting a five o’clock shadow, it did show but I thought it looked fine.
Going along with Macey, I even added a bunch of highlighter to his face. This was totally not a look I would do myself, but yes, even Gage could pull it off. Now for lipstick. I decided to stay with the theme of dark and went for a dark red.
“Put your lips out,” I instructed.
“Huh?”
“Do the duck face.”
“What the fuck is a ‘duck face’?”
“Just push them out like a fish.” I tried not to laugh at his expression. He was literally confused about the duck face.
“Dude, how do you not know what the duck face is?” Luke asked incredulously.
“I will come over there and beat the shit out of you, Luke,” Gage gritted out. The entire time we had been doing this, Gage had been cursing Luke out for even mentioning anything. We learned, though, that both boys were on their way to our place before running into each other. Gage said he didn’t want to interrupt us—I didn’t believe that—so Luke convinced him to knock on the door and hang out with us. I didn’t believe either of them. I think they both just wanted to be with us.
After a few more minutes I was finally done with my masterpiece. I took a step back and grinned at what I saw. It was actually kind of sad how Gage could even pull this look off, and he was a guy. Not even a second later Macey stepped back as well, looking at her job on Luke. I glanced at him and my grin got wider. For Luke, she went a little less intense but more sparkly. He had way more highlighter on, sparkles on his cheeks, eyes, and even his lips.
Stifling a giggle between us, we both nodded at each other’s work. Macey nodded at our phones on the counter then back at the boys. Grinning at her idea, I quietly grabbed both of them, ready to take a picture without them noticing. Smiling like an idiot, I snapped multiple pictures of both Gage and Luke. This was perfect blackmail material. Once we were done, we grabbed two handheld mirrors.
“Okay, open your eyes now,” Macey said. Keeping the mirror cast down, they grabbed it. Biting my cheek, I waited for their reactions. Macey still had her phone out, secretly recording them.
The moment they caught a glimpse of themselves in the mirrors, a girlish scream escaped Luke’s lips and a loud curse came from Gage. Both brought their hands up to touch their faces obviously almost thinking, or well wishing, what they were seeing wasn’t true. As I looked at the both of them, though, I realized they didn’t make terrible-looking girls. Sure, they were pretty manly with their strong jaws, wide shoulders, and thick eyebrows.
“What did you do to me?” Luke asked, touching his face while looking like he may pass out.
“I made you look even better. Are you saying my makeup skills aren’t good?” Mace asked, faking being mad.
“Uh…” Luke had no clue what to say which just made this even funnier. I looked over at Gage, who hadn’t said a word. He was staring wordlessly at himself in the mirror, his brown eyes wide.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I look…” He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
“Amazing? Beautiful? Like Carter-the goddess-made-me-so-pretty?” Gage glared at me, not finding my words funny.
“I can’t. I just can’t.” He jerked the mirror away. My dam finally broke as I started laughing loudly. I hunched over with my hands on my knees, giggling. I stopped for a second, but every time I looked up at either Luke or Gage, I started laughing again.
“It is not funny, Princess,” Gage bit out.
“Yes, it is.” Finally, I was able to calm down enough that looking at the guys didn’t cause me to break out into laughter.
“You know what?” Luke said after some time. “I actually look pretty good.” He even went so far as to do the duck face at his reflection.
“You are so weird,” I commented. I went around the bar to the kitchen to grab some waters.
“Now what?” Mace asked leaning against Luke, who finally put the mirror down.
“I think it is only fair that Gage and I do your makeup now,” Luke said, sending Gage a look.
“Gage doing makeup? Yeah, right.” I shook my head at that. Gage would never do that; hell, I was surprised he even let me do his own makeup.
“No, I think that is a good idea,” Gage said, his eyes flashing. His look made me pause. I had a feeling he had something planned for me.
“I don’t think—”
“Sounds fun,” Mace interrupted.
“Macey, you know they will do something stupid, right?” I said to her while the guys talked quietly. I was happy to see my brother and boyfriend finally getting along. I guess Luke accepted the fact that Gage was sticking around and he had to deal with it.
“Yeah, but who cares? It will be funny.” She shrugged. Sighing, I nodded, knowing my face was going to end up a mess.
Switching places with the guys, I took Gage’s seat as Mace took Luke’s. I silently prayed to Gage not to make me look stupid, but I knew I wouldn’t get my wish, not if the glint in Gage’s eyes meant anything.
The next half an hour was interesting to say the least. I couldn’t count how many times Gage poked my eyes with the eyeshadow brush, or how many times he used his fingers to roughly rub away unwanted makeup. Bless his heart, he did try to be gentle though. He just slapped on the foundation, used his fingers to spread it all over my face. I did have to help him a little on what was used for what, as I didn’t want lipstick used as blush.
I did let him do what he wanted though. I felt him using way too much makeup, but seeing as he was quiet when I was putting it on him, I stayed silent as well. Next to me I could hear Luke making noises every so often, some of confusion and some of triumph for finding the right product or something.
I wish I could have had my eyes open to see Gage’s face, but every time I went to open them Gage would make a noise at me. It felt like an eternity had passed until Gage and Dylan finally stopped putting stuff on our faces. When it became very quiet, I had a sneaking feeling that they were taking pictures like we had.
A minute later we were told to open our eyes. When I did, I bit back a gasp at what my face looked like. While it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would look, it wasn’t the greatest. I looked like a clown. Bright pink blush was in big circles on my cheeks, not blended out. My foundation was thick in some spots and there was nothing in others. My eyes looked like a raccoon’s. Eyeshadow was everywhere around my eyes, but he had some good smudging going on at least. The eyeliner looked like a five-year-old drew it on, but it didn’t look terrible. Small little black smudges could be seen from where Gage tried to wipe it away with his fingers. My lipstick was probably the worst. Gage didn’t stay in the lines and way overdrew my lips. The pale pink going up past my lips made me look like the Joker or something.
“So?” Gage asked, looking at me with a smirk on his face.
“I look…pretty,” I said slowly. I didn’t want to offend him.
“I know. I am amazing,” he boasted. I grinned and shook my head at him. Glancing at Macey, I saw she looked a little worse than I did. For someone who had never really been around makeup, Gage did better than Luke. Macey had blush drawn in circles like Luke had been coloring. Turning away from Luke’s proud smile and Macey’s glare, I looked back at Gage.
“Thank you for doing my makeup.” Gage leaned forward so both of his arms were caging me in between the counter and him. His head dipped toward mine, a smile upon his lips.
“Thank you for making me look terrible.”
“I think you look pretty.” I smiled, bringing my hands up to wrap them around his neck, pulling him closer. “I mean, the bronze eyeshadow brings out your eyes, and that contour for your cheeks.”
“Just shut up and kiss me,” Gage grumbled. Not even waiting for my reply, he brought his lips to mine. Not fighting it I kissed him back, molding my lips with his.
“Ew, quit kissing my sister, Harper,” my brother said in a disgusted tone. Gage just flipped him off and kept kissing me, making me against his lips.
“Hey, tonsil buddies!” Macey yelled, a little too close to us. We pulled apart and sent her a look. “You two need to decide on your Halloween costumes.” I rolled my eyes at that. She was still on it.
“So while you think of it, let’s watch another movie.” As the two of them went back over to the couch, still covered in makeup, I slowly slid off my stool.
“Costumes?” Gage asked, grabbing my hand to hold me back.
“Apparently there is a Halloween party soon that Macey wants to go to, which means we are going. You have to dress up too.”
“So, couple costumes then? That means we need to come up with something badass.” I raised an eyebrow at how he was already thinking of ideas for us. I was sure I was going to have to convince him to go.
“I am only going if you are dressed in something sexy,” he added. Yup, should have seen that coming.
“Maybe I’ll wear a tight black short leather skirt and top,” I whispered, trying to make my voice low and husky like his got sometimes. I got the reaction I wanted. Gage’s eyes darkened and widened.
“I’ll let you think about that,” I said smirking as I moved away from him and sat down on the couch. It took him a good minute before he sat down right next to me, and he had a dark look on his face. Ignoring me, he only looked at the TV. Still smirking, I leaned back against the couch.
Gage: 100
Carter: 50