Subtle Beauty - 1. Chapter 1

“You know what you need, Coop? A makeover.”

Well that was Vern for you. What a friend, huh? Her sole purpose in life seemed to be to try and change me. Every single day. I liked the way I look, thank you very much. Maybe like wasn’t the proper word. I was comfortable with the way I looked. Now if only I could make her believe me. (I had been trying for ages with no success.)

“You would look much better if you get rid of those dorky glasses,” she said, leaning forward on my swing chair toward the bed where I sat.

“And your hair! When was the last time you combed it? Do you even own a comb?” I crossed my legs as I waited for her to continue. It was always the same routine with Vern. I was used to it.

“It wouldn’t hurt either if you have clothes which were made from this decade,” she continued as she looked with horror at my clothes.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

“Just because you dress fashionably doesn’t mean my clothes are out of fashion,” I said, frowning at her.

“What you just said is a contradiction in itself. If you can tell that my clothes are fashionable, why the heck can’t you tell yours aren’t?” For effect, she posed like a model with her soft pink lips slightly pouted. What a drama queen!

Leaning my elbows on my knees, I shirted my weight on the single bed (which was covered in plain white sheet). I glanced behind Vern to my mahogany study table with matching chair. Books were everywhere in the room. I was a geek and though I wasn’t proud of it, I wasn’t ashamed of it either. If it was any consolation, the fact that Veronica (Vern for short) still hung out with me meant that I didn’t look that bad. She was one of the popular girls in school after all.

“I bet you’ll be popular if you just let me work on you a bit,” she said as she grabbed my glasses. My vision became foggy and blurred. “I’m not really sure why you try to hide the fact that you don’t look that bad.”

“Hey give that back. You know I can’t see well without it.”

She handed back my glasses, and I hastily put it on. “Exactly, you can still see. Ever heard of contact lenses? People would then be able to see how beautiful your green eyes are.” She beamed at her own idea. I’d known that glow for years, ever since high school.

My brows creased as a thought came to me. “Ok, what exactly do you want?”

“What do you mean? I just want to improve your image a bit. Continue dressing that way and you’ll be tagged as a geek for sure.” Vern scrunched up her nose, but a smile edged her lips.

“Out with it,” I said sternly.

She managed to frown at me for a second then her face became almost beatific with a smile which could have made half the school’s male population do her every bidding.

“Well since you’re my best friend and I know how kind and understanding you are, I was wondering whether you can do something for me?” She glanced at me through her thick eyelashes.

I was unmoved.

“Did I mention how handsome you look today?” She still had ‘the smile’ on her face which was starting to creep me out.

“Yes you did, after trashing my whole personality.” I hoped that she’d feel guilty for what she did. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but I had to try.

“I didn’t trash your personality, just your image,” she said in a bored voice.

“But my image is my personality.”

She paused for a while, probably thinking of another way to make me do whatever it was she wanted. Finally she spoke, “Look, are you going to help me out or not?”

I sighed. “Why do you even ask?” I laid myself on the bed gently and stared on the ceiling. Vern sat beside me and rested her chin on her hands which she laid on my chest. Propping my head on my right hand, I looked at her.

“As you know, I’m currently dating Mich,” she started. I nodded, Mich was a member of our school’s swim team.

“I want you to tell him that I don’t want to go out with him anymore,” she said without batting an eyelash.

I just looked at her. Time passed and I still looked at her. She just stared back at me. I waited for her to say something, preferably along the lines of an explanation. It didn’t come.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I finally said. I fixed her a look which I hoped would give her the impression that I wasn’t going to do what she asked. She didn’t falter under my gaze. Damn she was good.

“I’m not saying that I’m going to do it, but if you want me to do something like that, you must at least give me an explanation. When you two started dating, you couldn’t shut up about how perfect he was. You were even gross enough to tell me that he was an amazing kisser. What exactly happened?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” she warned. The look that she gave me felt like a dare for me to say ‘yes’.

I thought for a while. “Ok maybe I don’t wanna know. But at least give me an idea.”

“There’s just something about him which I can’t put my finger on and it worries me. Also, a hot football player just asked me out,” she said, beaming as she straightened up. I sat up so I could look at her.

“Mich is hot,” I said with all seriousness. Vern smiled, which surprised me.

“What?” I asked confused.

“Nothing,” she said and her eyes rolled. “Are you going to do it or not?”

Deep down, I knew that I could never say ‘no’ to her, we had been through too much together. In spite of being a bit spoiled, I could always rely on her when I was in trouble.

“Why can’t you do it yourself?” I asked.

“Because I don’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings,” she answered. One look at her and I knew that she was telling the truth.

“You’re still going to hurt his feelings,” I pointed out to her, “it’s just that you won’t be able to witness it because you’re not there.”

“Coop, do it for me please?” She looked at me, her eyes pleading.

I sighed. “You win.”

For no apparent reason, I suddenly felt sad. It couldn’t be because of Mich, I didn’t even know the guy that well, although I had seen him around school.

Vern broke into my thoughts. “You’re awesome. You’ll probably see him at the gym around 4. I got to go, I have a date later tonight and I haven’t even planned what to wear.” She leaned forward and placed a kiss on my cheek.

After she left, I just sat dazedly on my bed. What had I gotten myself into?

********************

I sat on a bench outside the gym waiting for Mich to come out. For obvious reasons, I wasn’t into sports so I stayed away from the gym as much as I could. It was sunny outside, but the weather wasn’t that warm to make it unpleasant. Not wanting to miss Mich, I rooted my gaze to the door.

People started pouring out and I began to panic, afraid that I might miss him. The gym housed not only a pool but basketball and volleyball courts as well, so the crowd was probably a mixture of all teams. I must have looked silly as I looked from one face to another. People still frowned when they noticed me looking at them though I tried to be as discreet as possible. When I finally spotted Mich among the crowd, I didn’t know what to do at first. He had already walked a few feet past me when I finally got up.

“Michael,” I called after him.

He turned around, and tentatively smiled at me. I grew more self-conscious as he studied my face, probably deciding how he knew me.

“Hi, I’m Cooper, Vern’s friend,” I said when I was an arm’s length away from him.

His face broke into a big smile, flashing his white teeth.

“Yeah, I remember. We met before, right? Sorry, I didn’t recognize you at first.” Mich stood with his right hand on his hip, a gym bag slung on his left shoulder. As we stood facing each other, I couldn’t help but notice we were almost the same height although he was stockier.

“So what’s up?” he added as he looked at me questioningly.

My heart began beating fast. I looked around and immediately decided that this was not the proper place to do this. I groaned inwardly.

“Um, is there somewhere we can talk privately?” I asked. The look on my face, whatever it was, probably conveyed to him this was about something important.

“Yeah, sure. Come with me.” He turned and started walking while I followed behind. I’d practiced what I was going to tell him in my room earlier, and I repeated the words over and over in my head as we walked. I was so distracted that I didn’t notice him stop and bumped into him.

“Sorry,” I said, stepping away from him. We were in the school parking lot and the isolated blue Toyota Corolla was probably his. He turned to me while looking around.

“I think we can talk privately here,” he said, placing his bag on the hood of the car and leaning sideways against it. “What’s on your mind?”

I looked at him, and then averted my eyes when he stared back. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to say.

“Vern told me to look for you,” I started. Perspiration formed on my forehead despite of the weather.

“Yes?” I heard him say. I still averted his gaze.

“She asked me to tell you that...” My heart was beating so fast. “She asked me to tell you that she doesn’t want to go out with you anymore,” I blurted out.

We had both been silent for some time. After more silence, I looked at him and was surprised at how blue his eyes were. Our gaze met and as I looked into his eyes, I felt how sad he was.

“I’m sorry.” Part of me wanted to comfort him, but I was afraid he would find it weird. Heck, I found it weird myself. But there was this something about him which was tempting me to give him a hug or something.

This time, he was the one who averted his eyes.

He sighed before speaking. “I kinda knew actually. I got this feeling that she wasn’t into me as much as I was into her. Still, I hoped that she’d have learnt to like me. Your friend’s quite a catch, after all.” A smile appeared on his lips, but it felt bittersweet to me.

I didn’t quite know how to respond to what he said so I remained silent. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him though. I hadn’t dated anyone which meant that I hadn’t been dumped yet, so I couldn’t relate to how he was feeling at all. Still, the few times that I’d seen Mich in school, he always had a smile on his face, which seemed like a whole different person to the one in front of me now.

“I’m sorry, man. I really can’t understand Vern sometimes, so I’m apologizing on her behalf too. If it makes you feel better, she did say you were an amazing kisser.” Damn, what the heck did I say that for?

Slowly and to my horror, Mich started smiling to the point that he was positively glowing. I felt my cheeks go warm.

“Anyway, I gotta go,” I said hurriedly.

“Wait,” he said. “Why don’t I give you a ride?”

“Nah, it’s ok. I’ll just grab a bus. I don’t wanna get beaten up in case you decide to direct your angst at me,” I teased.

“Don’t worry about that. Besides,” he said with a wink, “I don’t usually beat up guys wearing glasses.”

“That makes me feel a whole lot better,” I replied and climbed inside his car.