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When Biana came to her dorm at eleven at night with two stuffed backpacks, Sophie knew better than to question her.
It’s not like she’d been woken up. In fact, Sophie was glad that she wasn’t alone with her thoughts anymore. She’d been obsessing for far too long. She needed a distraction anyway.
“So…” she started, trying to figure out the exact purpose of this visit. “Any reason why you showed up with two bags when your room is right down the hall?”
Biana gestured to herself, “Can’t sleep,” then, gesturing to Sophie, “Doesn’t sleep,” and finally waving a hand around the room, she added, “Perfect night for a sleepover!”
“As long as you don’t make us do truth or dare, I’m set,” Sophie said, only half joking. Sleepovers with Biana often ended with at least a few secrets spilled, and there was always someone who regretted their life choices. That was the last thing Sophie needed right now.
“Don’t worry, that’s not on the Sleepover Fun Menu,” Biana promised, pulling out a list. “Hm, let’s see. Pillow fight is on here… makeovers are on here…”
Sophie smiled. “Aren’t makeovers always included?”
“Well, yes,” Biana conceded, “but I rarely get to actually do them on you. This time I brought supplies!”
“Oh joy,” Sophie said with a groan. “There’s no fighting it this time, is there?”
“Not a chance,” Biana confirmed.
Sophie could tell from the glint in her eye that there was no point in arguing. Besides, she did need a distraction, and complaining about the feeling of foundation on her face would keep her from the other, obsessive, annoying thoughts that kept invading her mind. Thoughts regarding a certain boy who may or may not have asked her on a date. And whether or not he asked her on a date may have been the very thing she was obsessing over. Aaaaand yeah, she definitely needed to let Biana put makeup on her. She needed a distraction, now more than ever.
“You know what? Let’s start with makeovers,” Biana declared, digging out a few organized bags of makeup supplies. “How about I do your makeup, and then I do my makeup, because I know you will never in a million years do my makeup?”
“Sounds good,” Sophie laughed. She needed a girls’ night so bad that she almost forgot why she dreaded letting Biana do her makeup.
“And,” Biana added, “while I’m at it, you can start telling me all about what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“What makes you think something’s going on in my head?” Sophie asked quickly.
“Well,” Biana said slowly, “I was just talking about in general, since you usually have a lot going on in your head, but now I am very curious to know what you’ve been thinking about.” She smirked as she plopped down next to Sophie, searching for the right shade of foundation in one of her pouches.
“Nothing,” Sophie said, careful to leave a normal length pause between Biana’s statement and her own. “Nothing interesting.”
Oh no. Did she say it too nonchalantly? Biana was smirking. She might have said it a little too nonchalantly.
“I’ll give you my special permission to bore me, then,” Biana said slyly. “Come on. Tell me all about this ‘nothing’ that’s taking up so much space in your head.”
Sophie sighed. “Chances you’ll let this go?”
Biana shrugged. “Slim to none.”
“Truth is, it’s about…” she couldn’t even finish the sentence. It was so stupid.
“It’s about?” Biana prompted.
“It’saboutaboy!” Sophie rushed, immediately turning to bury her head in her pillow.
Biana squealed predictably. “The boy is Keefe, isn’t it? The boy is Keefe. Oh my goodness. You’re thinking about Keefe! What happened? Tell me everything. Did he ask you on a date?”
Ugh, the one question she didn’t know the answer to. “I don’t know,” Sophie replied miserably. “That’s the stupid thing I’ve been thinking about all night.”
“You don’t know?!” Biana demanded. “How can you not know? What did he say?”
“Uh, he said, ‘do you want to have dinner with me this Friday?’” she quoted. “Like, a platonic fast food and then eat in a park kind of dinner, or a romantic candlelit kind of dinner?”
“Fast food?” Biana questioned, before shaking her head. “Never mind. Look, I hate it when guys do that, so Keefe is losing major smoothness points right now, but that’s totally a date. He wouldn’t ask you that if it wasn’t a date.”
“I mean, a guy can ask a girl out for a platonic dinner!” Sophie pointed out.
“I didn’t say a guy wouldn’t ask a girl that if it wasn’t a date. I said he wouldn’t ask you. Do you have any idea how in love with you that boy is?” Biana scoffed. “I’m pretty sure he wears these secret contact lenses where when you’re in the room, he literally can’t see anyone but you. It’s the only reason he could possibly always be staring at you.”
“He’s not always staring at me,” Sophie mumbled.
Biana snorted, clearly not convinced.
“I mean,” Sophie started, hesitant to put the thought into words, “what if we just… don’t work out?”
Biana stared at her for a moment. “Oh.”
“‘Oh’ what?”
“ Oh ,” Biana emphasized, as if that made her point clearer. “You’re scared.”
Sophie felt her stomach churn at the blunt way Biana declared it. “Yeah, maybe. Any miracle advice you can give me that’ll cure this?”
“Cure your fear?” Biana raised an eyebrow. “Well, I can give you the thing that works for me.”
“What works for you?”
“Feeling really, really hot,” Biana said bluntly. “Before your date—”
“We don’t know that it’s a date!”
“—I’m helping you get dressed, and we’re doing exactly whatever amount of makeup you feel both pretty and comfortable in, and then you’re going to say some affirmations in the mirror until you feel hot as hell. Then you’re going to go on your date and knock Keefe’s socks off as soon as he takes one look at you, do you hear me?”
Sophie averted her eyes. “I don’t know that it’ll work, Biana.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If you’re feeling amazing, you’ll look amazing, and if you look amazing, even in the impossible scenario where he didn’t mean for this to be a date, it will instantly be a date,” Biana informed her. “Trust me. He already thinks you’re the prettiest girl alive. And nothing feels more powerful than having a guy wrapped around your finger, especially a guy like Keefe Sencen. He’ll be hanging on your every word and you won’t be even a little bit scared.”
Sophie must’ve still seemed a little unsure, because Biana sighed and added, “Look, I understand what you’re feeling. When you really, really like a guy, it can feel impossible that he feels just as strongly. But trust me,” Biana said, waiting for Sophie to make eye contact and then holding her gaze. “That boy is head over heels for you and it is never changing. So unless you don’t want it to be a date…”
Sophie bit her lip.
Biana switched gears. “Wait. Do you want it to be a date, or no? Because even if you like him, it’s okay if you don’t think you’re ready—”
“It’s not that,” Sophie assured her. “I really, really want this to be a date. But I’m also terrified. Not just of the scenario where it isn’t a date—”
“—preposterous thought—”
“—but of just how strong my feelings are. And even if his are just as strong… it’s just a lot, you know?” Sophie flopped back on the bed, staring at her ceiling. “It’s just so much and I’m worried I’m going to screw it all up. Or he could screw it all up. He can be a bit of a screwup sometimes.”
“I like that you’re very honest about your crush,” Biana praised.
“Like, what if it is a date and he asks me to be his… his girlfriend, and then three weeks later it turns out his whole running-away-scared thing translates over to relationships too?” Sophie vented.
“Then I’ll slap him in the face,” Biana told her. “After you slap him in the face, of course. You get the first slap. But then I’ll give him another slap. It will take literally less than thirty minutes before he’s groveling at your feet. He’ll probably even bring you a bunch of sweets and flowers and write you an apology letter that’s a little too beautifully worded and makes you wonder if he used some kind of human AI system. But that’s also in the impossible scenario where he runs away from this, okay?”
“He runs away from everything else,” Sophie pointed out.
“This is true. But I think he’s been waiting for you so long that he’s going to stick to you like glue,” Biana assured her. “And if he does run, well, we’ve got a plan for that, remember?”
Sophie giggled as she imagined her and Biana going back and forth slapping Keefe in the face.
“So this Friday, you’re going to go get your man. Okay? And you’re gonna feel super hot, and then you’ll look super hot, and then Keefe will look at you and you’ll get to watch him melt and then you’ll feel even hotter. Downward spiral for him, upward spiral for you.”
“He’s probably also going to look really hot,” Sophie reminded her, blushing as she pictured him in her mind. The amount of thinking about him that she did was not even fair. She hated how she could picture almost every single detail about him, her photographic memory supplying a mental image of the most attractive guy on the planet on demand. “So I’ll have my own downward spiral.”
“Oh please, don’t feed his ego,” Biana groaned.
Her cheeks heated. “It’s true!” she defended.
“Fine, then you’ll both be weak in the knees and somewhere out there I’ll be picturing you two looking pathetic and weak and so, so in love. You’ll be adorable.”
Sophie cracked a smile. She should have known Biana was going to make her feel better about this.
Her worries still lingered, but Biana had a cure for that too. “Alright, now close your eyes,” she instructed, reminding Sophie to have a whole other set of worries.
“Nothing that’s going to be too hard to wash off,” Sophie begged.
“You’re getting a full makeover and you’re going to like it.”
And if it managed to get her mind off of all her obsessive worrying, well… maybe she would like it.
Thank goodness for the wonderful creation that was Keefe Sencen.
And thank goodness for Biana Vacker and her ability to get Sophie through the experience of having a crush.