Tangled Up In You (A Savioe Family Novel) (18 page)

             
             
Chapter Fourteen

Roxy

The rest of the week was really normal. Well after Jess and Marie took care of the
people coughing slut at me as I walked the halls. Bus has not spoken to me since Saturday thankfully. He still gave me those creepy looks though. He and Christie have been hanging out since Monday. Any time I see one in the hall I usually see the other seconds later. I don’t know why, but that unnerves me.

Jess has still been pining over Beau. I mean I know she is into him and they talk and all but if he doesn’t want to be with her then she shouldn’t push for the answer to her why not. Seriously, she might not like the answer she gets. Marie and her are on their way here. Jess’s dad is dropping her off and Eva is dropping Marie off. Apparently, Eva and mom are
going out on the town tonight.

Mom swears that Eva needed some time to just be her and not a mommy. Considering that has been her role since she got out of high school. Mom thinks that it will do her some good to just cut loose and have fun without having the kids tag along. Luke finds it funny that his mom was running around the house trying to get everything cleaned up before she left.

Things have been pretty cool with him. We were able to hang after school a couple times this week though both times were at his house. So we weren’t able to fool around much with the twins running in and out of his room. Which that’s okay, I guess. It has caused us to just talk more and not focus so much energy on the physical part of our relationship. Don’t get me wrong I miss it. Damn, do I miss it. I’m just glad we are more than just a bunch of sex-starved kids.

I already ordered the pizza for tonight one for each of us. I tend to be a bit
fussy when it comes to my pizza, nothing but pineapple and ham for me. Jess usually bitches about it so I decided to be nice and get one with everything and one just pepperoni. That way they can leave mine alone. I also stocked up on soda and the essential sugary goodness that is candy.

“Roxy, Marie is here.” Mom shouted from the hall.

I got up from my laptop and headed into the living room. Marie stood there next to Eva with her hands stuffed in her pockets looking lost. Is this her first sleepover? “Hey, Marie. Come on back here and put your stuff up. Jess should be here any moment. Dad promised that he’d just stay in his study and leave us alone. Have fun Mom, Eva.” I grabbed Marie’s hand and pulled her down the hall to my room.

“Thanks for inviting me.” She said shyly ducking her head and dropped her bag behind the sofa.

“Girl, don’t worry about it. If at any time we get on your nerves please tell us. We tend to get a bit rowdy.” I plopped down on the sofa and propped my feet up on the table. She raised her eyebrows at me. “What? I weigh maybe 105 lbs. soaking wet. My little butt jumping on the sofa isn’t going to break it. Charles though….”

She laughed and sat at the other end grabbing a soda that I had on the table in a big bowl of ice. She noticed the bowl of candy beside it. “Seriously? Mom will not let us have candy at all. Last time I had chocolate was over the summer at my Grandmother’s house.”

“You can’t have candy?”

“Nope. The twins have ADHD and the sugar in it drives them into hyper-drive.” She sighed as she took a big chunk out of a peanut butter cup.

I stared at her in bemusement. No movies that weren’t kid approved, no candy, damn I feel better about being an only child. While she devoured the treat, I took the time to actually look at her. She sat with her shoulders hunched like she was trying to hide into herself. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a loose bun at the base of her neck. I don’t think I had ever seen it down. She never wore any make-up so you could see a small dusting of freckles across her nose. Her clothes were really baggy on her almost like they were two sizes too big. She had long nails but I’d never noticed if she had ever worn nail polish. She was a blank canvas, one that screamed potential. My lips tilted up in glee.
A makeover was definitely in order.

A loud knock sounded on my door before Jess flung open the door. “’Sup bitches? Cool you grabbed three pies. Please tell me you didn’t get that nasty shit you like.”

“I got one for me. The other two are for you guys.” I pointed to the one on the bottom of the pile. Jess nodded and dropped her things beside the door.

“So what’s on the itinerary for tonight?” She sat on the floor in front of the TV.

“Typical stuff. Talking, makeup, finding clothes, shit load of more talking.” I shrugged and took a drink of the cherry cola.

Marie chewed on her lip. “What do y’all normally talk about?”

Jess smiled. “Everything. Sex, though until recently that was just me talking about it. The book the jocks have. Guys, who we think are hot, who we think might be good in bed. Who isn’t. Again, that was usually me doing most of the talking. While I know Luke is your brother and you don’t want to hear about it. I am still going to ask her for the details.”

I groaned. “Seriously? I’ve already told you all about it.”

“Uh… no you didn’t. You gave me the generic shit you told your mom and grandmother. ‘It was great. Blah blah blah.’ I need details here. I’m in a slump and need to live vicariously through you.” Jess gave me a look that meant she was serious.

“You told your mom about it?” Marie stared at me incredulously.

“She already knew before she woke me up the next day. How? I have no clue.” I shrugged a shoulder.

“Knowing you, you were probably talking in your sleep. ‘Oh Luke. Right there baby. Oh yeah that’s it.’” Jess cackled as I tossed a decorative pillow at her.

“She calls him Lucien when they do anything.” Marie interjected.

“How do you know?” Jess asked sitting up
suddenly curious.

“We heard them.” Marie giggled.

Do what now?
I thought in horror. My cheeks turned fifty shades of red as I buried my head in my hands. We couldn’t have been that loud. Could we? “Are you serious?” I hesitantly asked.

“Yup. Your bed squeaks too by the way. We had to turn up the TV to drown out that and the little gasps and moans.” Marie explained pulling her feet up under her on the sofa. My mouth dropped open in shock. “No I’m just kidding about turning up the TV. We did hear you say his name once though. That’s it nothing else.”

I jerked the pillow back from Jess and smacked Marie with it. “So mean. Totally not funny.”

Jess rolled around on the floor laughing. “Yes, it was. So Marie do you have a special someone in your life?”

Marie’s smile faded into a look of complete sorrow. “No. The guy I like has no clue I’m alive. Well if he does then he has no clue that I’m female. If he does know I’m female then he probably thinks I’m a lesbian or something.”

I gave Jess the look that said we have to help her. “So who is it?”

Marie shook her head pathetically. “I don’t want to say.”

“Please, you already know that Roxy is practically in love with Luke and I’m kinda hung up on Beau.” Jess shrugged plucking a piece of lint off her jeans.

Marie ducked her head as she admitted. “Marcus Dresden.”

“Who?” I asked in confusion.

“The Marcus Dresden? The one that supposedly got Trina knocked up last year and convinced her to get an abortion Marcus Dresden. Mr. I don’t give a shit give me detention. The dude that when he walks down the halls even the security guards cringe in fear. That Marcus Dresden?” Jess exclaimed jumping up to pace the room.

“Yeah that’s the one.” Marie sighed dejectedly. “He is so far out of my league. I know I shouldn’t like him but… Gawd when I see
him my heart races.”

“I’m clueless fill me in here. I have not kept up to date on all the latest bad boys in school.” I asked staring at Jess.

Jess sighed went into my room and came out with my laptop. She pulled up Facebook and scrolled down her friends list to his name. “Him.” I grabbed it and looked at the picture. A lean shirtless guy was leaning under the hood of an old Dodge Charger. Tattoos flared up and down his arm. His dark dirty blond hair framed a boyish face. He had that beauty that could only be found in magazines or on a sculpture from the Renaissance depicting the fall of Lucifer.

“Oh. I can see why you like him, but what makes you think he’s out of your league?”

“Look at me. I’m not the typical dainty little thing he goes for. I am just some beefy backwater bayou bumpkin. I don’t know the first thing about being girlie let alone trying to act like one.” She groaned resting her head back on the sofa.

“Um… Marie. If you want we can help you.” I offered reaching out a hand to touch her arm.

Jess nodded and gave her a once over. “Yeah, we can so do that. Come on look at me. I know I’m not the best-looking thing around but I get who I want. Well… most of the time. And Roxy is a freaking genius when it comes to makeup and clothes. Between the two of us we can turn the beast into a beauty.”

Marie popped her head up with a look of hope. “You really think so.”

Jess and I looked at each other and grinned. “Oh yeah.”

             
                                          *****

After a few hours of tweezing, hunting through my mother’s old clothes and a ton of hairspray, Marie was finally allowed to look into the mirror. When we undid that bun on her
head, we found out that her hair tumbled down her back in a natural curl. I thought it was just a light brown. So it was a bit of a shock when we saw that it held many strands of gold, caramel and a hint of red streaked in it giving it the perfect mix of low and highlights. We decided to leave it down so it flowed around her shoulders.

Jess painted her nails a cotton candy pink and decorated it with tiny black stars to give it more of an edge. We thought the clothes would be the biggest problem given we had no clue what she had under those baggy clothes, but it turned out that she was athletically built. I immediately went to the guest bedroom
closet and grabbed mom’s clothes that she was going to give away and found a few outfits that would look good on Marie.

Turned out that she wasn’t as tall as I had originally thought she was 5’11 instead of six foot. Like that mattered to me I still felt like a child standing beside her. So when she put on my mom’s size 8 jeans and form fitted button up shirt everything seemed to fit beautifully. Probably the only time I was thankful to have a tall mother.

Jess and I stood back and looked at our handiwork. Marie just gaped at the mirror completely in shock. She was blessed with the same Savioe good looks her brothers possessed. She had naturally long eyelashes that swept over her sparkling topaz eyes. Her full lips were enhanced by the plum lip liner and sheer gloss. The clothes hugged her slight curves and seemed to elongate her lengthy legs.

“Wow. You are gorgeous. So not fair.” Jess chuckled standing behind Marie in the mirror.

“Oh pictures! We have to get some good ones.” I squealed in glee and ran in my studio to grab my digital camera. As soon as I walked out, I started snapping pictures of Marie and Jess, laughing as Jess tried to do her best runway model look. Marie began to laugh and flashed a few really good poses that enhanced her classic beauty.

“Give me the camera, Rox. We need to get a few of you.” Jess demande
d snatching the camera from me.

I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue at her. “I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, it’s only fair.” Marie insisted pushing me toward the sofa. “Just pretend the camera is Luke.”

“Fine.” I relented and stretched across the arm of the couch giving the camera my best come hither look. Jess let out a whistle of approval and took a few pictures of me goofing off.
I grabbed the camera back from her. “Alright that’s enough. Now we post these online. Except this one. This one I’m sending to your brother.”

“You are so bad.” Jess laughed a
s I uploaded a few really hot pictures of us on her Facebook page with the description ‘
Goofing round with the girls’
and tagged all of us in the photo.

Marie nudged me. “What was it she dared you last time?”

“To run around the house naked. I got as far as the garage before I freaked out and ran back to my room.” I admitted my cheeks flushing.

“Yeah, I’d have passed on that one.” She cringed and took a slice of pizza out of the box.

                                                        *****

Sometime after
midnight, Jess had already passed out. Marie and I were sitting on the floor in front of the couch watching Magic Mike. She yawned and asked. “So what’s with that book thing you mentioned earlier? I didn’t know the jocks knew how to read let alone what one of was.”

“You really don’t know?
” I popped a piece of candy corn in my mouth and almost choked on it when Mr. Tatum danced his little pony dance.

“No. I don’t.” She pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side in appreciation.

“Last year the football team started a book to list their conquests in. Each person listed in it is worth a certain number of points for purity, freakiness, performance, and looks. The guy with the highest score at the end of senior year gets the cash reward of a thousand bucks. Jess happened to swipe a copy from one of her boy toys a few weeks ago. I think she brought it with her tonight.” I jumped up and rummaged through her things until I found the ratty looking composition book. “Ha. Here it is.”