Pocket Full of Posies

Chapter Nine

"I don't know, Liss. I really think I should just stay home...."

"No!" my cousin cried. "All my hard work will go to waste. Just...think of it as showcasing my talent; as you so lovingly refer to my fashion sense."

I looked at myself in the mirror dubiously. Sure, I guess I looked cute. Liss was a miracle worker, after all. She could do things with my choppy hair that I never could fathom to accomplish. She did the arraignment of browns and bronzes on my eyes again, making the color of my irises more almondy than dull brown. She'd even managed to get me into a dress. Granted, it was a simple and casual dress, but a dress, nonetheless. She insisted that, with this brown and white floral dress, I wear her cute leather jacket and my scuffy brown cowboy boots.

The outcome was beautiful....but a little too beautiful. It was like I was Hollywood's version of a Tennessean. No one really dressed in sundresses and cowboy boots in Lewisburg. The boots they did wear were not amazing and traditional cowboy boots but what we call fat-babies. They were regular working boots, basically. Granted, the boots I had on were traditional square toe my uncle had bought me for my birthday one year. He'd bought all of us traditional cowboy boots.

"I look like a poser...." I whined, turning this way and that.

"Don't slouch your shoulders," Liss instructed, even going so far as to yank my shoulders back.

I shook her off in annoyance. "Why do you get to look so casual?"

Liss was in simple skinny jeans, a brown leather jacket, and a flowy white blouse. Her hair was even pulled up in what was meant to appear a careless bun but what really took her fifteen minutes to perfect-I know because I timed her.

"Because I already have a boyfriend," she stated with a wink.

I rolled my eyes at her. "I ain't lookin', nor am I 'on the market'. Look, I don't even wanna go anymore. You and Brady go without me."

Liss, plopping down on my bed, sighed dramatically. "We've all dreamed about going in this house for years, Marley. You're really gonna just stay home?"

I bit my lip.

Smiling, she prompted, "Think of how much fun it'll be! We'll take a ton of pictures and show them off to all the people who didn't get to go. C'mon; I'll be by your side the entire time! I pinky promise!"

I laughed a little at that. "I believe you." Sighing, I took a good look at myself again. It really would be a waste to have used up all of Liss's time and energy getting me all dolled up-albeit unnecessarily.

"Fine," I growled in surrender.

Liss jumped off the bed in a squeal of excitement. She nearly choked the life out of me with her tight hug. "Yay!" she screamed directly into my eardrum. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

Right. Fun.