The Makeover

21

"Don't spread with your mouth, what your eyes didn't see."

Unknown

21|Spread like wildfire

"So, you got to school okay?" Joshua asked as he walked with me towards the cafeteria. His eyebrows were knitted together in concern as he ran a hand through his blonde waves.

Today, he wore a blue knitted jersey. The colour made his own eyes stand out more than they usually did, and I didn't miss the fact that countless girls stopped to give my brother appreciative stares. I simply rolled my eyes at their actions and continued walking side by side with Joshua who was oblivious to all the attention he was receiving.

"Of course I did," I replied to his previous question. "It is only a three minute walk. You shouldn't worry so much." I said before shoving him playfully on the shoulder. He turned and smiled at me.

It was the type of smile that reminded me of the days when we were still young; when he'd do anything to make me smile.

On impulse, I smiled back at him. I could picture the clear glint in my eyes, as I watched him.

As we came closer to the center of the school, the bustle of voices from the cafeteria, became louder and louder and started closing in on us. I moved closer, confidently, knowing that Joshua wouldn't leave my side.

When we came to the doors of the cafeteria, I hesitated before entering, and watched silently as everyone inside chatted happily to each other. Joshua looked over at me sceptically and raised his eyebrows when he noticed that I had stopped walking.

Honestly, I felt bad that I hadn't told Joshua about the night before, but I felt like it was something that he would surely overreact over.

What normal girl would willingly tell her overprotective brother that she had slept in the same bed as her guy "friend"? A guy friend who had previously hurt her feelings at some party - which, by the way, Joshua hadn't been all too happy about either - and happened to have quite the reputation, after almost being bullied into skinnydipping at some girl's house?

Well, let me tell you, that girl was definitely not me.

Before Joshua could suspect anything, I continued walking and soon after, he followed my lead. Even though I was now walking faster than I had before, Joshua must have noticed the slight discomfort in my step.

I was taking my usual route around the cafeteria and Joshua followed right behind me. I only realised halfway to my destination where I was actually headed.

To the Populars.

I stopped walking, midstep and finally turned my eyes from the floor to the room around me.

What I hadn't noticed before was the sudden silence that had enveloped the entire room. As my eyes scanned the faces staring at me blankly, Joshua came to a stop beside me and did the same, his expression much more scornful than mine.

After a brief moment of hesitation, I heard Joshua's words echo as they bounced off the walls.

"What do you all think you're looking at?" I jumped at hearing his voice and turned to see that his eyes were still trained on the students crowded around the tables. It looked as if he was sending out individual daggers to each person in the cafeteria. If looks could kill, we'd be surrounded by dead corpses by now.

When some of the people's senses returned, they went back to their initial conversations, most likely out of fear of Joshua. Some kind of normality returned to the room, but there was still a noticeably eery feel to everything, like the way people forced themselves not to stare at us.