Hidden Away

Thirty-One: Birthday Surprises

This is almost a 7k word chapter. You have been fed well, my friends. 

*View the A/N at the end of the chapter*

Enjoy!!!

Standing in front of the vanity mirror in my room, I smooth out the light-blue fabric of the dress I'm wearing. It goes down to just above my knees.

"You ready?" My cousin's voice asks as she opens the door. I turn to her and smile, seeing that she's wearing a bright yellow dress that looks similar to mine.

"Almost," I say, slipping on the gold bracelet that Evan gave me around an hour ago to match with the rest of my outfit. The moon pendant that was given to my brother and I this morning sits peacefully around my neck. I put it on as soon as I got to my room after being in Evan's. "Give me a second to finish my makeup."

"I'll help you," she says, entering the room all the way and closing the door. She examines my face briefly, which at the moment only consists of my base, and picks up an eyeshadow brush. "Sit down." She puts both hands on either one of my shoulders and pushes me down into the seat, making me laugh. She spins me around so I'm facing her before she gets to work.

"You know," she starts. I can feel the brush gliding over my eyelid as she speaks. "I've been practicing how to do makeup since I was ten. I practiced on myself and sometimes when they weren't busy, our moms would let me practice on them." I can't see what her face looks like because both my eyes are closed, but I can hear the smile playing on her words as she remembers. "That was a rare instance, though. They were busy pretty much all of the time. I always wanted someone around my age to practice on, and now that you're here, I have that."

My heart warms for her, but at the same time, I can't imagine how lonely she felt all her childhood with no one her age to be around. She had Rowan, who she's told me is like an older brother to him, but I doubt he was ever interested in the things she liked. As he grew older, he spent all of his time looking for me.

"You can practice on me anytime you'd like," I offer, slightly opening the eye that she isn't working on and catching a slight nod from her.

"Close your eye!" she snaps playfully and I close it, causing us both to laugh at me being caught.

Lily doesn't let me look at what she has done until she's finished. She turns me back around to face the mirror and tells me to open my eyes. When I do, I'm completely impressed. I turn my head in all different directions, admiring her handiwork. "This looks great," I compliment. "Thank you. All your practicing has really paid off." All I get from her is a proud smile.

She lets me up from the seat and we put everything away from where I had gotten it out from. "Alright," I say once I check for anything that we could have accidentally left out. "I think we're good to go downstairs and meet up with Rowan."

I'm curious as to what my twin is up to right now. I haven't seen him all day besides briefly this morning when we were lured downstairs. We haven't been able to sit down and talk about today; what this means for us moving forward.

I follow Lily out of my room and we walk side by side all the way downstairs where the others are waiting for us. People have already begun filling up the ground floor of the packhouse, and once I come within their line of sight, they begin clapping and cheering. I take a glance behind me and notice that Rowan is right behind us. I smile at him and he returns the gesture.

We hit the first floor and the crowd parts for us. They make a path from the base of the stairs to the back door that leads to the backyard where the party is taking place. Rowan comes up to the side that Lily isn't on and he wraps his arm around my shoulder in a tight side-hug as we walk.