Lucas And The Time-Traveling Fog Party Animals
Chapter 14 One Step at a Time

Words cannot describe how great it felt waking up the next day. Her bed felt like I was sleeping on a fluffy marshmallow, and guess what? No one was there to wake me up! Sunday morning, I woke up of my own free will. The rest of that morning had to be one of the greatest mornings of my entire life, and I seriously want to go back and relive it all over again despite how weird it got later.

Anyway, when I heard her mother calling all the kiddos for breakfast, I rushed down the steps so fast that I beat all of her siblings, and I even had the honors of, if I might add, eating breakfast second, the first being her father of course, and I enjoyed every second of it. Also, I didn’t mind rubbing it in all her siblings’ faces either because, after all, “I am the oldest.”

After eating breakfast, I decided to take a nice long shower. I earned it. Maybe I got too comfortable being by myself in college because I totally forgot that with a family of five, the little thing called privacy doesn’t exist, and being timed on how long I need to be in a shower does. I should’ve known better. I have two siblings of my own, and this was far from being over. Like, there would always be someone knocking at the door, whether it was asking me if they could come in to brush their teeth and comb their hair or tell me how much time I had left before someone else had to use the shower almost every single minute.

Let’s just say I had to cut my shower time shorter than I wanted to, and my smile was no longer present; instead, a frown had taken its place. Soon as I dried myself, I headed straight for my room to get dressed. While there, I had my first encounter with that big closet of hers, where I was confronted with a decent number of outfits. As I’m scrolling through her clothes, I found her flowery pattern prom dress along with a few other girly outfits. Go figure.

Sooner or later, I found a dress that I liked how it looked on her as i held it in front of her mirror. It was a rainbow-type dress with poofy shoulders. I even found a matching rainbow necklace while scavenging in her room for some sort of jewelry box to go with the look, not to mention some big white pearly clips on earrings too. Then came the fun part of my morning, and that was the hair. Yeah, I don’t want to talk about how that went. After I was done with that mess, I knew it was finally time to get started on my makeup that I was procrastinating on, but I couldn’t replace any that looked good on her in my purse.

The only person who I know who has more options is her own mother. But I really don’t want to bother her because I don’t want this to end up being whatever that was yesterday. I’m still not over that, and if only there were some way I could avoid her, I would do it in a heartbeat. But judging by what I saw yesterday with Tom my chances were slim and I am in desperate need to have some makeup on this face or else, I’m sure I won’t hear the end of it from her mother for the rest of the day.

So, I tiptoed over to her parents’ closed door and knocked. I heard her ask, “Who is it?” I looked down at the floor and answered while trying not to bite my lip. “It’s Liz. Can I come in?” The door opened immediately, and she pulled me inside. I was shocked because, usually, when I try knocking on my parents’ door, my mom doesn’t let me in until she’s done getting ready. I guess it’s different for girls.

I looked up and saw her with her green dress with yellow flowers along with no makeup, earrings, and a bunch of curl rolls in her hair. Seeing that is going to give me nightmares for a while. Anyway, she kindly asked me, “What do you need sweetie?”

I froze out of fear and stammered, “Do you...have…any... uhh--”

She interrupted me and said, “Spit it out.”

“Makeup, that’s it. Do you have any Mom? Tom told me the other day that you could let me borrow some of yours,” I replied.

“I do remember him asking that, and it’s right here where it’s always been. Take what you like,” as she pointed to this box near her jewelry case on her desk. She then asked, “But before you do, do you mind if I do your makeup for you? It will save us both time to get ready for church.” GULP! Just when I thought I knew everything about being a girl...this happens.

Now, I’m really going to regret saying this, but she does make a point: it will make this day go a whole lot faster for me. I sighed and answered, “No, not at all. Let’s get it over with.”

“Great. But before I start, do you want the usual or want to try something different for a change?”

“The usual,” I replied, even though I had no idea what the usual was.

“In...that case sit here and don’t move a muscle; this will only take a moment,” she said, then planted me on some stool, grabbed her makeup kit, and got super close to my face where she proceeded to beautify me ... oh, man.

Coming to her room was a mistake because I’ve done this routine countless times myself, and it’s more like muscle memory than it is saying every single step out loud like Liz’s mother was doing. I don’t even know why I said yes in the first place, and she is making this seem like a big deal because she told me that “This is just like old times, huh, Lizzie.” “Yeah, just like old times,” I replied, looking straight at the desk mirror while trying not to sound sarcastic. I want to be like the Wicked Witch of the West right now by simply melting away and forgetting this ever happened, but I can’t do that when she has me hostage by holding my head up as she puts the simplest blush on my cheeks.

If that wasn’t enough for ya, she got the eyeliner and eyeshadow out and told me to close my eyes. Soon as I closed them, I could feel every single eyelash stroke. I’ll never forget what she said next. She said to me, “You can open your eyes now and pucker up those lips like you’re about to kiss your Prince Charming.” I cringed when she said that and puckered my lips. When she was done beautifying me, she turned me to the makeup desk, where I nearly screamed bloody murder because I swear, I saw myself in the mirror wearing Liz’s makeup and everything. It was horrible, like staring into the eyes of a monster.

I envisioned myself getting up from that bench mirror, running away, and never looking back, but that never happened. What really happened was far from it. Instead, I shook my head to forget what I had just seen to take a second glance, where I was so happy to see her face again that I turned to her and said, “It looks...f-f-fantastic...thanks, mom.”

“You like it? Just so you know, I did change the color of the eyeshadow to match your dress better, and no problem, anything for my little girl,” she replied.

Can this woman go one day without calling me a stupid pet name? That’s all I ask. Slowly, I got up from the stool that I was planted in and backed away towards the door, smiling when I turned around and ran straight for my room before she said any more embarrassing stuff to my face. In my room, I just sat in Liz’s little makeup chair, admiring myself or herself in the mirror.

I had nothing better to do, ok. I couldn’t go on my phone and scroll around on the internet because that wasn’t invented yet, and neither was the internet. What else was a guy trapped in a girl’s body supposed to do anyway? Read a book? Anyway, I just sat and waited till we were called to go stand by the front door.

Once we all made it, I stood by the front door with a purse in hand and wearing heels. Did I tell you how much I really hate heels? Before we went anywhere, Liz’s father reminded all of us that after we go to church, we were going straight to grandparent’s house in Naperville to have lunch and dinner with them along with a few of their aunts, uncles and not to mention her adorable yet annoying little cousins that I met at Tom’s birthday party yesterday. Luckily for me, their house, if my memory serves me right, is only a 45-minute drive from there to Chicago.

I didn’t want to stay there long and embarrass myself in front of all her family members anyway, so I tried to ask Liz’s dad to let me drive there. He was a little persistent, but I don’t know if it was my puppy eyes or the constant begging that did the trick, but I was able to drive there on my own, but of course, there was a catch. The catch was that it had to be on the condition that I have to go to church with them and be at my grandparent’s house every other Sunday. I guess that’s a small price to pay for a little bit of freedom around here.

If that wasn’t bad enough, my “mom” wanted to speak to me in private when we were at the grandparent’s house. She was making me take my precious time out of my day and call her two or three times a week starting now because she’s starting to really worry about me and my well-being, especially when she doesn’t hear from me until the end of the week almost, and she can’t take it anymore. Thank you for caring...mom, but I can take care of myself, and I’ve been doing just fine on my own. Also, I don’t need someone breathing down my neck 24/7. But if it will help her have a clear conscience, I’ll do it.

Not for her sake but for mine.

So, I promised her that starting tomorrow, I’d call her twice a week and let her know everything that’s happening to me from now on. Satisfied, she left me alone. Thank goodness. One problem now solved, but if only this can help solve my other one that is being on this date that I’m still forced to go to with my real mom, Margaret, then we’re golden. Anyway, after having lunch/supper with the grandparents and the rest of her family, I had to spend the rest of that Sunday night alone working on stupid science homework. Ugh, times like this make me wish I could be working on anything else but homework. Gosh, I don’t know how people can live like this.

Besides that, the only thing I feel like I’ve done so far in hopes of getting back home was channeling my inner girl to still keep Lizzie’s friends and family together, but other than that, I feel like I did absolutely nothing. I was certain that the rest of this new week was going to be a new start for me, and things were starting to perk up. I talked to Liz's mother on Monday, like I had promised but my perky attitude changed one Wednesday afternoon.

That Wednesday on September 11th, 1985, we were both in our dorm working on school work where Margaret just happened to randomly bring up the fact that she can’t wait for the double date to happen, and why can’t Saturday be here any sooner? She then asked me, “Are you excited as I am right now?”

To tell you the truth, I’m not. Kinda regretting it, really, and tried to forget about it. I mean, I’m supposed to go on a date with a younger version of my own father soon. How would you feel if you were in my shoes?