Page 61 of Pucking Grey

By the time she’s done, I feel refreshed and ready for the weekend. She hands me a mirror and immediately my gut twists.

“Oh.” I’m mortified by what I see. I have thick dark sharpie brows. They look horrible.

“So cute, right?” She smiles, not making eye contact with me.

“Yeah,” I mutter and force a horrendous smile. “Thank you. How can I pay?”

She’s hovering over my shoulder as I tap my debit card. I leave a 20% tip out of guilt.

“Thank you,” she says as I leave the salon, trying hard not to catch my reflection. I need to act cool. Cool as cucumber that was just on my eyes as I laid blindly while she sharpied my brows.

As soon as I’m in my car, I look at myself in the mirror and almost cry at how horrible I look.

“Shit,” I scoff, checking them out in every angle. She did not miss a single spot. They’re black as midnight. Immediately I’m sending a picture of myself to Sydney because I can’t bear this alone, and then I’m googling ways to get rid of a dark eyebrow tint.

Sydney Facetimes me. “Oh, my God. What did she do to you?”

She is on the verge of laughter.

“It’s so bad! It’s so bad, Sydney.” I look in the mirror again, sighing.

She chuckles. “What’re you going to do?”

“I think I’m going to cancel the party this weekend.”

She laughs at that.

“Right now, I need to get to Grey’s because I need to grab my books.”

“She did you dirty,” Sydney says with the phone close to her face. “It looks like you let a kindergartener sharpie your eyebrows.”

“I know!” I gasp, starting my car. “She made it thicker, closer together, and very long. What the hell?”

She laughs. “You need to undo whatever she did. I would help you right now, but I need to go, so I’ll help later.”

“No problem,” I muster. “I’ll be dying in a field somewhere, plunging my head into the ground.”

She already ended the call, so I say to myself, “You look scary.”

On the way to Greyson’s house, I am considering running away and finding that field to bury my head in. I am praying that he’s not home because I really need my books for class. And I really don’t want him to see me like this. I think I’m going to stay at my house until I figure out this eyebrow situation. But then the party! Shit.

Sydney: I think I have something that will help. Come by tonight

Maddie: Omg thank god. I will be at the house right after class

When I pull up to Grey’s, I’m utterly relieved that the house is completely empty of Grey and his roommates. Before I grab my books, I race into the bathroom to get a better look at these warlocks. I cover my mouth as I get closer to the mirror because… these brows are showstopping. These brows are a statement. She managed to make them closer together and a centimeter thicker than they normally are. I run a finger over them to see if I can wipe them off. Toilet paper? No. Wet washcloth? Nope. No such thing.

I whine, “They are horrible.” Now I make eye contact with myself and can’t help the laughter eroding from my chest. “I am ugly. Like ugly, ugly.TheGreyson Cress cannot see you like this.” I shake my head and leave the mirror. I gather my books, and a few other things, and then leave the house for class.

“You’re my savior,” I say to Sydney when she sits me at her vanity and puts a cotton pad in her makeup remover.

She sits next to me and says, “I can’t promise it’s going to work. They’re really dark.”

I plead, “Stop laughing, please, and help me!”

She nods, trying to keep it together.

Once the cotton pad is soaked in the makeup remover, I close my eyes as she scrubs my brows. The left and the right. I open my eyes when she removes the pad. I look down at it and see no black on it, so my eyes dart in the mirror. They’re not coming off.

---