Together We Fall

Chapter 26 | Should've Seen That Coming

"Wear this," Sara threw an elegant grey high-low A-line V-neck asymmetrical tulle evening dress with ruffle beading sequins at me, right in the face as she dug her way through my closet.

"I don't remember I have a dress like this," I frowned at it.

"I gave you that dress like five months ago and you kept it in a box...," she showed me a white box which I remembered keeping it right at the top of my wardrobe in my walk-in closet. "...where it shouldn't be."

It seemed like I had to explore my closet more often.

"Now, I know Max is going to be here in two hours because I saw your invitation card and his text messages in your phone when you were in your bathroom," Ben's fiancée stated bluntly. "So, let's get to work."

I'd already got used to her invading my privacy—especially my closet.

Since Cece invited me and Max to her sister's quinceañera which I was very certain that she wanted to make Max felt very jealous of how wonderful her life was, so I called Sara for help because she'd always been the one who came to the rescue when it came to dressing up for formal events or some crazy costume parties.

Whilst Sara was preparing her cosmetics and the implements specifically for hairs on my dressing table, I sat on my bed with my phone in my hands as I was texting with Max.

Me : Max, wear something grey. That'll match my dress with your suit.

Max : Len. It's just a party. Not a prom. Matching my suit colour with your dress is totally unnecessary.

Me : We're fake dating, Max. It's totally necessary when you want to make someone to feel extremely jealous.

Max : Sheesh, fine. You're lucky I still have my grey suit.

"Okay," Sara suddenly clapped her hands. "It is all done. Now, c'mere my lady!"

I rolled my eyes at her before I got to my feet and made my way to sit myself down in front of my dressing table.

"I'll make you look gorgeous," she said as she held my shoulders and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

"But please, don't go way too crazy with the makeup," I warned her.

"Don't you worry about that," Ben's fiancée replied before she held my hair and lifted it up. "Now, let's do something with your hair—"

I twisted in my seat swiftly to face her, "No! Stay away from my hair!"

"Calm down, Lennox," Sara put her hands away from my locks. "It's okay. I know what you've been trying to hide but there's no point of doing that anymore because soon enough, I'll be your foster mom. And all of your secrets will always be safe with me."

Well, she had her points. But I never had the guts to show people what I'd been hiding at the nape of my neck. Not even Ben or Oliver, despite they knew about it. It was just the most vulnerable thing I'd ever kept from anyone's sights and I didn't want anyone to see how horrible the scars were. Because that would allow them to think how bad my life must had been in the past.

I just didn't want that.

"No worries, sweetheart," Ben's fiancée tried to persuade me. "I'm not going to sweep your hair up and reveal what's behind your neck. I'll just make your hair even wavier and do the half-up crown. Is that okay with you?"

"I guess," I shrugged in hesitation.

"Now," she turned me back around then grabbed a blindfold from the dressing table in front of me and put it on me. "I'll take this off once I'm done with your hair."

"Just promise me you won't take a picture of it or even touch it," I alerted her about the scars.

"Promise is my thing, so don't be so anxious about it," Sara stated confidently.

"Okay, I trust you," I gulped.

With my approval, Sara began to do her job on my hair and go crazy with it for almost twenty minutes. I literally didn't know what she was doing back there but I was certain that the consequence would be good enough to make me smile sincerely for once.

"Now, it's time for you to see..." my future foster mother took the blindfold off my eyes. "...your beautiful hair."

I gawked at my own reflection in the mirror ahead of me and just touched my hair, hardly could believe that it was my hair and not a wig since Sara had done a pretty good job.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"Nice," I arched my lips and nodded. "For the very first time, half of my hair is tied up."

"I know, right?" Sara squealed in excitement as she received my comments. "Now, it's time for some makeup application."

Ben's fiancée turned my chair around, not wanting me to take a peek at my look with makeup, not until she was done. She applied a natural coloured lipstick on my lips, used a black eyeliner around my eyes and a mascara on my eyelashes. She surely did put a lot of cosmetics on my face and I was hoping that I didn't look like a crazy clown who went to the wrong party to entertain.

Fifteen minutes later, Sara told me to close my eyes as she turned me around back towards the mirror and I opened them when she informed me to. I didn't show her how stunned I was to look at myself with this amount of makeup on my face.

She made me look like I was going to attend my own wedding. I'd told her not to go crazy with the makeup, yet she went for it anyway.

Before I could complain to her concerning how much cosmetics she'd applied on my face, Ben called her out from downstairs and she instantly reacted towards that voice. She made her way out of my room in haste to get to where her future husband was.

I sighed and gazed at myself again, wondering what would Max think if he saw me like this. No one had ever got the chance to see me in a formal dress, wearing makeup with my hair was tied up elegantly—I usually skipped school dances. I was sure Max would laugh at me.

As well as Luke.

Speaking of that moron, I almost forgot that we had an agreement to meet at Max's house tonight at eight. And I willingly wanted to do it because I really wanted to know the answers to all of the questions concerning his inexplicable life. I couldn't afford to miss the chance of solving his riddles and waiting for another chance to come certainly felt like waiting for Beyoncé to bump into me—in which, I knew that event was absolutely impossible.

Good thing, the quinceañera commenced at six and I didn't plan to waste most of my time at that party anyway. The longer we stayed, the shorter my life would be. Because Ned would definitely be there, making everyone to give me their bad impressions and I bet he'd been waiting for this day to come after plotting his revenge on me perfectly for a very long time.

And I had to be fully aware of him.

Unexpectedly my phone rang in my hands in the mid of my swimming-in-my-thoughts session. I frowned as I looked at the unknown number flashing in my  phone screen.

Who could it be?

"Who the hell is this?" I answered the phone call after a brief moment of thinking who in the world owned this number.

"Be well prepared, pleb," Ned's voice came through my speaker made me speechless. "Nothing will ever be perfectly fine in your life, not when I'm still breathing."

Speak of the devil.