Nathan simply nodded and then the three of them began discussing colors and other things that had numbers and letters that sounded like gibberish to me. Hoping to ease some of my anxiety, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and said a little prayer. I then let Nathan do his thing.

While he worked on my hair, he kept my back to the mirror so I couldn’t see his progress. He told me he wanted it to be a big surprise at the end. I took a huge leap of faith and trusted him to work some magic. Nathan asked me all kinds of questions about my life as he worked, questions about my past, the present, and my hopes for the future. I told him about my childhood, my teenage years and lack of a social life, about the fight with my parents, and about how nervous I was to join the rest of “normal” society. He was a great listener, asked thought-provoking questions, and seemed to be truly interested in my story. My time with Nathan ended up being just as much a therapy session as it was a hair appointment.

After about an hour of I’m not sure what he was doing, Nathan said it was time for the big reveal. I could tell by the wide smile on his face that he was extremely pleased with the outcome. I could feel the nerves growing in my stomach seconds before he spun me around to look at myself in the mirror. And when he finally did, I stared at my reflection not sure whether to laugh or cry.

“I… I… I …” I was unable to speak as my eyes filled with tears.

“Don’t cry, Scarlett, sweetheart. I hope you like it. You do like it, don’t you?” he asked in anticipation.

“I love it. It’s incredible,” I whispered, afraid if I said anything else the tears would let loose down my cheeks. I was shocked, stunned, flabbergasted at the image staring back at me in the mirror.

“So you can see that I left quite a bit of length so it wouldn’t be such a drastic change for you,” Nathan explained as he turned the chair around and handed me a small mirror so that I could see the back of my hair in the larger one. “The longest layers hit your back right about your bra strap, and I’ve added some shorter layers to give it a little shape and body. For your color, I added both highlights and lowlights, which really bring out your beautiful tan and those big, beautiful brown eyes. It’s a little lighter here around your face,” he continued. “And this should be very easy for you to style - all you will need is a large round brush and a hair dryer.”

I sat there frozen, afraid if I moved that it would go back to the way it was. I was in awe, I had no idea that my hair could look so good. I loved the lighter highlights that framed my face; they were the perfect shade to compliment the warm rich chestnut brown that was now my base color; a major improvement to the drab, lackluster brown it was before.

“Well now that you are looking absolutely amazing, if I do say so myself, let’s get Becky over here to teach you about makeup application. And then you will be ready to break all the boys hearts at that party tonight,” Nathan said.

“Thank you so much, Nathan. I couldn’t be happier!” I exclaimed and jumped up to give him a hug.

“No worries beautiful. Just come back to see me every six to eight weeks so we can keep you looking fabulous,” he said returning the hug.

I sat and waited for only a few minutes when a middle-aged brunette, who I assumed was Becky, joined me at the chair.

“Now I hear that I have a makeup virgin over here, is that correct?” she asked as she walked up dragging a cart with her full of makeup.

“What you hear is correct,” I replied. “I’m most definitely a ‘makeup virgin.’ I have only worn stage makeup for dance recitals and music performances, and even then someone else applied it for me.”

Much like Nathan, Becky talked through most of my appointment. However, she spent most of the time explaining to me how to apply the makeup, and how to create different looks for daytime, going out, formal events, etc… It was so much information that I’m sure I only retained half of it, but I knew that I’d have Evie around to help me.

Just as Becky was finishing up and putting together a kit for me to take home, Evie entered the room and stopped mid-step when she saw me.

“Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?” she exclaimed. She then ran to me, picked me up, and twirled me around. “You look absolutely stunning. I am so jealous… I knew you were beautiful, but Sam… wow. You are drop dead gorgeous.”

“Thank you, Evie. Thank you so much for bringing me here. I feel amazing. I really don’t believe it yet. I keep looking at myself in the mirror trying to figure out if it’s really me,” I said trying not to cry again so I wouldn’t mess up my makeup.

“It is really you, and I could stand here all day and look at you too, but we need to get going so we still have a few hours to take you shopping,” Evie said as she pulled me towards the front desk to check out.

After we grabbed a bite to eat, we hit the shops to tackle the issue of my clothesless closet. I knew that it would take me awhile to build up a full wardrobe, but for now I needed to get the basics. Several hours and dozens of stores later, we were both exhausted but I felt giddy with the bags and bags of goodies in the backseat, especially the ones from Victoria’s Secret. I had never owned lacy, seductive bras and panties before, my mom only bought me plain white cotton undergarments. However, I had read countless books where the girl would end up in an unplanned sexual encounter only to be embarrassed by her old-lady panties. So to alleviate that possible humiliation, I vowed to only own and wear sexy panties from that point forward. I figured I was going to be awkward enough whenever I did finally find myself in a situation that someone saw me without my clothes on, so hopefully I would look good enough in my lingerie to keep their attention off my ineptness.

We finally returned to our dorm room a little after seven which gave us a couple of hours to recharge before the party. As I was putting away my purchases, Evie came into my room and sat on my bed.

“So for tonight… are we still going to do our book boyfriend challenge?” she asked trying to hide the hopefulness in her voice.

“Of course, why wouldn’t we?” I asked.

“I was just making sure you weren’t haven’t second thoughts… that you just didn’t agree last night because you had been drinking,” she said. “But yay, I’m glad you still want to do this… I think it’s going to be a fun way for us to meet new people. Since this is our first time, I want you to pick the “type” we are hunting tonight… whatever you will be most comfortable with.”

“Hunting, Evie? Really?” I exclaimed.

“Yes, hunting, Sam. Guys are prey that you hunt, capture, and slaughter. If you don’t have this mindset, you will become the prey… I’ve been the prey once, and I’ll be damned if I let it happen again,” she retorted a little too seriously.

“Okay, whatever, a little dramatic don’t you think?” I didn’t want to argue with her. The day had been too perfect to ruin it with something so silly, so I decided to drop it and move on. “Okay, then to make it easy tonight let’s do the ‘Mr. All-American,’ the college frat boy, since we are going to be at a college party. There should be plenty of those to choose from, right?” I asked.

“Sounds perfect, now let’s get dressed to kill,” she grinned as she walked out of my room.

“Sure thing… just let me get out my sexy camouflage dress,” I called after her shaking my head.

Choosing my outfit for the evening was more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew I was overthinking the whole thing, but this was a big deal…well, at least to me it was. I didn’t want to look like I tried too hard, or like I was too fixed up, I just wanted to blend in... Okay, maybe I wanted to do a little more than blend in. Evie said the party was going to be casual, to wear something cute and flirty but comfortable. Cute and flirty but comfortable, huh? Yoga pants were my idea of comfortable, but I guessed that wasn’t what she had in mind. After trying on everything I had bought earlier in the day, I finally opted for a denim mini skirt, layered chocolate brown and light pink tank tops that snugly hugged my C-cup breasts, and my distressed brown cowboy boots. Unless I was wearing sneakers for a physical activity, my shoe selection consisted of flip flops and one pair of boots. I owned at least twenty different pairs of flip flops in every possible color which I usually wore during the day and with jeans and shorts. My boots were my “dress-up” shoe, usually paired with skirts and dresses. I quickly touched up my hair and makeup, and then stared at my reflection in the mirror. It was show time. For so many years, I had dreamed what it would be like to get to do this… to do things that most teenagers did, and the time had finally come. I said a short prayer asking God to keep us safe and requesting he not let me make a complete ass of myself. I was pretty sure he chuckled at this one, we both knew that was bound to happen at some point in the night. Minutes later, Evie and I were in her car on our way to the beginning of the rest of my life.

Chapter 3

The drive to Evie’s cousin Jess’ house was quick, only fifteen minutes from our dorm. Unlike Evie and I, Jess attended the University of St. Thomas, another college in the Houston area. I had met Jess many times before. She had spent a week each summer at Evie’s for as long as I could remember, and her and her parents were frequent guests there for holidays, as well. I had always liked Jess, she could be a little loud and obnoxious at times, but for the most part I thought she was hilarious. She used to tell us stories about the mischievous things her and her friends would do without getting caught. Both Evie and I had always looked up to her a bit being two years older than us. She knew about my parents’ issues and had always told me if I ran away, I could stay with her and her family in Houston. Of course I never did, but it was so sweet of her to even offer.

The plan for the night was to leave Evie’s car at Jess’ house, an off-campus rental where she lived with two other roommates. All five of us were going to walk to the party together which supposedly was just a block or two away from their house. Afterwards, Evie and I were going to crash in Jess’ room for the night. That way we wouldn’t have to drive late and no one would have to pass on the festivities to be the designated driver. I also felt better about going as a large group so I would have several people to stay close to in case I freaked out or something.

We pulled into the driveway of a cute one-story red brick home. You could tell that it was an older home, but it had been well maintained and there was definite curb appeal. Before we even made it out of the car, Jess had flung open the front door and was bouncing down the front steps to greet us in a hug.

“Evie! Scarlett! I’m so excited y’all are here!” she squealed.

“Did you have any problems finding the place? How do you like Houston? Did y’all get settled in?” she continued without taking a breath. She then turned to face me and said, “Wow! You look… different… incredible actually.”

“Thank you,” I said sheepishly, still unsure about the “new” me. She was looking me over like she was trying to figure out everything that was different.