I turn my head. “I’m not going.”
“You have to go.” He nudges my elbow. “I came back so that I could take you, remember?”
I can’t meet his eyes. “I look stupid.”
“Hey. No,” he says softly. “You look beautiful.”
“You’re lying.” I lift my gaze, but I have to bite my lip for a moment to keep it from quivering. “I have mascara clown face. My hair screams child-eating storybook witch.”
Cricket looks amused. “I’m not lying. But . . . we should clean you up,” he adds.
He takes my arms and begins to help me stand. Nathan steps forward, but Andy grabs one of his shoulders. My parents watch Cricket rearrange the skirt of my dress to get me safely to my feet. He leads me to the bathroom attached to my bedroom. Nathan and Andy follow at a careful distance. Cricket turns on the sink’s tap and searches the bottles and tubes on my countertop until he finds what he’s looking for. “Aha!”
It’s makeup remover.
“Calliope uses the same kind,” he explains. “She’s been known to need this after particularly brutal performances. For the, uh,”—he gestures in a general way toward my face—“same reason.”
“Oh God.” I blink at the mirror. “It looks like I’ve been vomited on by an inkwell.”
He grins. “A little bit. Come on, the water is warm.”
We scoot around awkwardly until I’m positioned in front of the sink, and then he drapes a towel over the front of my dress. I—very difficultly—lean over. His fingers slide through my hair and hold it back while I scrub. His physical presence against me is soothing. The face powder, mascara, false eyelashes, and blush disappear. I dry my face, and my eyes find his in the mirror. My skin is bare and pink.
He stares back with unguarded desire.
Nathan clears his throat from the doorway, and we startle. “So what are we going to do about your hair?” he asks.
My heart falls. “I guess I’ll wear a different wig. Something simple.”
“Maybe . . . maybe I can help,” Cricket says. “I do have some experience. With hair.”
I frown. “Cricket. You’ve had that same hair your entire life. Don’t tell me you style it that way yourself.”
“No, but . . .” He rubs the back of his neck. “Sometimes I help Cal with hers before competitions.”
My eyebrows raise.
“If you’d asked me yesterday, I would have said it was a seriously embarrassing skill for a straight guy.”
“You’re the best,” I say.
“Only you would think that.” But he looks pleased.
It’s in this moment that I finally register what he’s wearing. It’s a handsome skinny black suit with a shiny sheen. The pants are too short—on purpose, of course—exposing his usual pointy shoes and a pair of pale blue socks that match my dress exactly.
And I totally want to jump him.
“Tick tock,” Nathan says.
I scooch past Cricket, back into my bedroom. He gestures to my desk chair, so I lift my skirts up and around the back, and I find a way to sit down. And then he finger-combs my hair. His hands are gentle and quick, the movements smooth and assured. I close my eyes. The room is silent as his fingertips untangle the strands from roots to tips and run loose throughout my hair. I lean back into him. It feels like my entire body is blossoming.
He leans over and whispers in my ear, “They’ve gone.”
I look up, and, sure enough, my parents have left the door ajar. But they’re gone. We smile. Cricket resumes his work, and I nestle into his hands. My eyes close again. After a few minutes, he clears his throat. “I, um, have something to tell you.”
My eyes remain shut, but my eyebrows lift in curiosity. “What kind of something?”
“A story,” he says.