The Wooden Mask

10. Hey, I'm Back.

Adani Carter's POV.

I wake up feeling a bit nervous about the photoshoot happeing today. Not wanting any negative feeling today, I push the feeling down and start my day. I briskly walk to the bathroom to freshen up. After my shower, I set my mask on the bathroom sink to do my skincare rountine. I take skincare very seriously because my face is covered in a mask almost 24/7.

Everytime my hand touched my scar as I rubbed it with soap, I felt a familiar roughness and unevenness. I bowed my head to rinse my face and almost immediately after I lifted it, my eyes were caught by the eyes of my reflection. I began to look back at a brown skinned girl with two long scars across her face taking way her beauty. Where people will see fear and ugliness, she saw beauty being imprisoned with scars as its guard refusing to let it out.

I am shoved back into reality by the sound of a door creaking open. My mind worked fast to notice that my face was maskless. With no time to put on my mask, I immediately turn my body away from the sound. One of my hands fists beside me as the fear of someone seeing my face creeps inside of me.I reach my hand behind me towards the sink to try and grab the mask but it seems my hand and the sink keep repelling. My hand just could not grab the mask.

"O I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were in here. I'll come back later. Sorry." Timaika pleaded. With that, the door shuts behind me and I am left alone in Timaika's bathroom once again.

I turn around to face the mirror and grasp the edge of the sink with my hands. I let out of heavy breath I was holding and took in a few deep breaths and dry my face with my towel and put on my mask. I exit the bathroom to meet a pacing Timaika. I stand at the doorway of the bathroom and watch her for a while. She stops as soon as her eyes land on me.

"Hey uh, you didn't see uh anything did you?" I said refering to my unmasked face. My mind begged her to say no but at the sametime prepared itself to defend me if she was to say anything about my face.

"If you are talking about your face then no I didn't see it." She says and shoots me a quick smile before walking past me into the bathroom.

I nod as her figure disappers from my view as I take her answer in. I feel relieved but guilty. Guilty that I keep bombarding her with questions and statements about my face. It is like I am tempting her to see my face. First, I tell to avoid any attempt to see my face, then I sleep with my mask and tell not to be offended by it, lastly, I come of the bathroom and ask if she saw it or not. As guilty as I feel, she must understand that this is all for her own good.

*****

Timaika and I were out of the house thirty minutes later and were heading inside La Vida Photo Studio. We had an indoor photoshoot today. The place was really pretty. It gave off a movie set feel. People were scrambling all around holding clothes, props, or just screaming orders and responses. Many photoshoots were happening at the same time. We walked for a bit until we saw some familiar faces. We were met with hoots and smiles which I am sure were directed to our new hairdos. To my far left, I saw Madison, Adam and Grace having their hair and makeup done.

Marcus met us halfway of the walk to the rest of the group and gave us both a hug. "Hey girls. You look as gorgeous as I remember." I am pretty sure he is refering to Timaika. "Let me see." He started to inspect our hair. "Ok, they look good. Come with me baby girl." He held my hand and led me away from the rest of the group to the hair and makeup station. He sat me down on one of the chairs and quickly made the front of my braids into five knots which elevated the look. I inspected myself in the hollywood mirror infront of me and imagined how I would look without the mask in this hairstyle. I loved the image in my head.

"Yes girl. Work it. I love it. I'm just awesome. I know." Marcus praised himself with a big smile of admiration on his face. I had a huge smile on my face which no one saw courtesy of the white wooden mask shielding my face.