The Beginning (The Life 1)

His reaction had been more than I could’ve imagined. I can still see the look in his eyes when he first saw me, still feel the wild beating of my heart at the shocked surprise in his voice when he called my name…

“You’re shaking, oh my goodness.” Somehow Anna sounded more excited than worried about that fact. “Come on, you two, we need to get dressed; we’re pushing it already.” Rosa took the forgotten bottle from my hand, ordered me to close my eyes, and spritzed something in my face.

“That’s to keep the makeup in place; we’ll give you a tutorial later; for now, I’ll do it for you. Anna, get dressed. I’ve already got my face on; this will only take a minute.”

“Not too much; Gabe doesn’t like makeup,” Anna warned before walking off to get dressed. I felt a silly warmth fill me at her words. Why should it matter what Gabriel likes when it comes to me?

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The twins have been saying and asking the weirdest things all day. I’m sure it’s just that getting to know you stage, but funnily enough, they barely say anything about themselves; meanwhile, I think I may have told them my whole life story. Something I’m not in the habit of doing because of my lack of friends and acquaintances. But each time I think it’s a little odd, I remind myself that this is probably normal when building friendships.

Ever since we landed, I’ve felt as if I were caught up in a time warp. We haven’t stopped moving once, and there’s always something going on. Mrs. Russo hovered and directed the stylist how to do my hair the same as she did with the twins. She went above and beyond to make sure that I didn’t feel left out, and for that reason, my uneasiness didn’t last.

I’d been so caught up in what happened the night before that I hadn’t had time to think about anything else, and having to hide my embarrassment had been taking everything out of me. But no one even mentioned it, not after his mom came to me with a scarf and the twins threatened to skin Victoria alive.

The way everyone is acting, it’s as if they deal with things like this every day. It’s such a great contrast to my normal that I was too busy taking it all in to be embarrassed. At least I was until about five minutes ago.

While Rosa worked her magic, putting makeup on my face for the first time in my life, I thought back to everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. After Gabriel dropped me off from school with the promise to come back later, I’d been full of excitement. Though I was still not sure how to act around him or what to do with the strange feelings I had every time he was near, the thought of spending a weekend with him filled me with a new sense of adventure.

I know he only sees me as a friend, as someone he saved from being bullied, and I’m trying to keep that in mind and not get carried away. But even though it’s been only a few days since we met, I can’t help feeling drawn to him. What’s not to like? He’s everything and more. Kind, unbelievably breathtaking, and that aloofness of his is hella sexy. But he’s so out of my league.

That didn’t stop the excitement at the prospect of spending time with him away from school, though, and I guess I was too preoccupied these last few days to keep my guard up at home. However, Victoria has never gone this far before. Both she and her mother are always careful not to be too obvious in their devious schemes, can’t have the man of the house catching on after all.

But I guess the same thing that gave me so much pleasure was torture for her. When she didn’t hound me as soon as I walked through the door, I thought I was in the clear. Gabriel had had a talk with dad, who’d already agreed to me leaving for the weekend, and for once, Becky and her spawn were staying out of my way.

The glue in the shampoo bottle is a new low for them; I must admit, and had Gabriel not shown up when he did, I have no idea what more would’ve happened. But when I think about it, Gabriel might have a point; maybe I should thank her for the trick because since then, everything has been like a dream.

Maybe everyone is being extra nice to me because of it, I don’t know, but from the moment Gabriel brought me home last night until now, it’s been the best time I can remember having since forever. “Why are you blushing?” Oops, I forgot she was in my face.