In My Shoes (6 page)

“No, the bra and underwear is good enough for
now. You put on your outfit last so you stay cooler while you are
doing your hair and makeup. The last thing you want is to be hot
putting on makeup. Now, come sit down.”

It didn’t seem to take long for her to finish
putting on my makeup. I was in awe watching how methodical she was.
“You seem so relaxed doing all of this. Isn’t it strange putting
makeup on another person, who just happens to be you?”

“Yeah,” she said, “I mean, I’ve put makeup on
my girlfriends before, but this is quite different. I’m mildly
freaking out inside.”

“You don’t look like it on the outside,” I
responded.

“I pride myself on keeping my emotions under
control. My dad has always taught me that you can’t solve any
problem being overly emotional. There is a time for emotion and
there is a time for rationale. He’s always telling me to think
about a problem in terms of how it can be resolved.”

“That’s good advice. I just don’t see a whole
lot of people who are able to handle it as well as you do.”

“Thank you. I think it is something that
anyone can do. But it takes practice. It doesn’t happen overnight.
A lot of it is just choosing to make good decisions. Some people
seem to thrive on chaos. I’m not one of them. I like things to be
organized. Let’s do your hair.

“I’m going to teach you how to put your hair
in a ponytail. It’s fairly easy, so you can do it tomorrow.
Normally, I wouldn’t put my hair in a ponytail two days in a row,
but we are making an exception. Go ahead and take the towel off of
your head.”

I took the towel off of my head and threw it
in the towel laundry basket. “Don’t I just pull it back and put one
of those band things around it?” I asked.

“Not quite. First, you need to blow-dry it.
You don’t want to walk around with a wet head. Plus, it will frizz
as it dries. Use the medium heat setting. It takes a little longer,
but it is better for your hair. Brush it as you blow it dry.”

I dried the hair like she directed, and she
continued walking me through the rest of the steps. I would never
have guessed there could be so many steps just to put my hair in a
ponytail. She was very thorough.

I did as she said. “Like this?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty good. Just make sure the
hair elastic is pushed to the base of your head before you let go
of the ponytail. Depending on how you brush it, you can make the
tail higher or lower on your head. I prefer to have it lay in the
middle of the back of my head. Not too high. I’ll show you more
styles later, if necessary.” Yay.

“Something to keep in mind,” she continued,
“I usually shower at night, but I don’t do my hair and makeup at
night. I blow-dry and brush my hair straight out. In the morning, I
will wash my face and get my hair a little wet so it is manageable
when I style it.”

“Got it,” I said.

She walked back into the bathroom, and I
followed her. She showed me where the deodorant and perfume was,
and I put them on as she directed.

She went over to the bed where the shorts and
shirt were and picked them up. “Now you put these on.”

I put them on and looked at her. “Now
what?”

“Now, you are all ready to go. It’s my turn.
Whooh! I don’t smell very good. Do you usually shower in the
morning, because I didn’t?”

“Yeah, I shower in the morning because it
helps wake me up.”

“Okay, shoot!” she said. “What is your
routine?”

“I wish I could say that my routine was as
thought out as yours, but it’s pretty simple. After seeing what you
go through, this should be a piece of cake. Go ahead and shower.
You can use whatever stuff you have in your shower. I don’t really
care.”

“Let’s get some replacement clothes so I
don’t have to get back into these,” she said. “My brother is a
little bigger than you, but we can probably make do until we get to
your house.”

She went into her brother’s room and grabbed
some socks, underwear, shorts and a t-shirt. Then she headed back
to her room and started to undress. It is weird enough looking at
myself walking around, but it is that much stranger watching me get
undressed.

“Okay,” she said as she was turning red. “I
see what you mean. It’s not really logical, but it feels strange
undressing in front of you.” She headed to the bathroom, where she
finished undressing.

“I usually wash my hair, then clean my body
and shave. “

“You shave in the shower?” she said.

“Yeah. I tried the shaving cream thing, and I
don’t see the benefit. I just use the shampoo to shave. Don’t worry
about shaving today, though. My hair is pretty fine, also. If you
use that razor you shave your legs with on my face, you are going
to cut me more than usual.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“I’ve used my mother’s razor before. Bad
things. Just wait until you have my razor.”

“No problem. So,” she said, “I’ve washed
everything, and rinsed off. What next?”

“Now, get out and dry off. Next, I clean my
ears with Q-tips, if you have them.”

“I do,” Nicole said.

“Good,” I said. “I don’t know about you, but
I have to clean my ears every day. I actually enjoy how it
feels.”

“Not me,” she replied. “I clean my ears, but
not every day. But, clean them as much as you like, as long as
you’re careful.”

Yesterday, this was the girl of my dreams.
Today, I
am
the girl of my dreams, she’s in my body and
we’re talking about how often we clean our ears. Could this day get
any stranger? I guess at this point, I shouldn’t challenge
strange.

“So, I usually wrap the towel around my
waist, while I finish up in the bathroom. When you have really
short hair, it tends to dry before you have a chance to get
dressed.”

“That makes sense,” she seemed to think
aloud.

“I usually put a little gel in my hair while
it’s still a little wet, and I kind of mess it around. I brush the
sides back.

“Next, I put on deodorant.”

“I think my brother keeps some in here for
when he is home,” Nicole said as she opened the cabinet below the
sink. “Yep. Here it is.”

“I guess that’s better than wearing yours,” I
replied. “Once you are done, you can finish getting dressed.”

“Do you put lotion on or anything?” she
asked.

“Well, no, not really. You can if you want
to, though.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I feel all itchy if I
don’t have lotion on. I’ll finish up and be right out.”

“You know, it’s kind of weird putting my
brother’s underwear on,” she called out.

“Probably not any more weird than putting
mine on,” I said, laughing.

“Well, that’s a pretty good point.”

After about three minutes she came into the
bedroom. “Wow, don’t get me wrong…I don’t want to stay in your
body, but I could sure get used to this 15 minutes to get dressed
thing. Shall we head over to your house?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Are you getting
hungry, because all of a sudden I’m starved?”

“Yeah, I could use something to eat. I’ve got
sandwich stuff downstairs. I’ll make a couple of sandwiches and
we’ll take them with us.”

“Works for me,” I said.

We went downstairs and Nicole went to work
pulling out what she needed to make some sandwiches. Once she had
made the two sandwiches, I helped her clean up the mess. “What do
you want to drink?”

“Do you have any Pepsi?” I asked.

“We probably have some in the fridge in the
garage. We don’t drink a lot of soda in our house, but we try to
keep our fridge stocked for guests.” She headed into the garage,
and came back a minute later with a Pepsi.

“Here you go. Soda isn’t real good for you.
Keep in mind that I don’t drink a lot of soda, so if people see you
drinking a lot, they might notice the change. Plus, I want you to
keep my girlish figure intact,” she said with a smile.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the Pepsi. “I’ll do
my best. So what
do
you drink?”

“Water. I drink milk or orange juice in the
morning. Usually milk with dinner. But mostly water. How about you?
What do you like to drink?”

“I prefer Pepsi, but I’ll drink anything that
is available. I’m not very picky.”

“So, I can drink whatever I want and nobody
is going to look at me funny?” she asked as a matter of fact.

“No, probably not.” Do people really pay that
much attention to things like…what I drink?

“Okay,” she said. “That’s good to know.” She
grabbed a bottled water, we gathered up our things and headed for
her car.

“I’m not allowed to have anyone drive my car,
so you had better drive. If I drive, anyone watching would see you
driving my car. My parents would take my car away for a week if I
did that.”

“No problem. I can drive.”

We got in her car, backed out of the garage
and headed toward my house. With her car, my house was only about
30 minutes away. Now that I knew where she lived, I knew how to get
where I was going.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked.

“Didn’t you just do that?” she said.

Why do people always think that’s funny? I
didn’t respond and eventually, she said, “Ask away.”

“Well…I know we agreed to cooperate to get
through this.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you are being almost nice to me right
now. With the way that things went this morning and yesterday, and
with what your mom told me you said about me yesterday…”

“Oh no! What did she tell you I said?”

“Well, she didn’t get into specifics, but she
said you seemed proud of how you treated me yesterday.”

I looked over at her and saw what looked like
shame on my face. Again, the expression wasn’t quite mine, but it
was on my face.

“I wasn’t proud of myself for saying what I
said to you. I was frustrated at how the day went yesterday. You
were the third guy to come up to me and I was beginning to feel
like a piece of meat. The first two guys were arrogant and one was
crude. Your antics in class just added to my annoyance.”

I wanted to interrupt her, to tell her that I
wasn’t goofing off in class, but I didn’t think that would help at
the moment. I let her continue without saying a word.

“When you came up to me, I was kind of fed
up. I waited to hear what you had to say, and it sounded like you
were headed down the same road as the other two guys. I was more
proud of myself for standing my ground. I tend to be too polite,
and sometimes I feel like certain people take advantage of
that.”

She stopped for a minute as I drove in
silence. After a minute, she continued her thought. “I don’t really
know you that well, and don’t think for a minute that I’m over you
flashing your friend. But…I may have taken my frustrations out on
the wrong guy. Time will tell. If so…I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“If so,” she emphasized,
“you’re…welcome.”

“So,” I continued, “That still doesn’t
explain why you are being so nice to me now.”

“I like to think that this is the way I
normally am. I’m not really being nice as much as I’m being polite.
I’m usually this way with everyone.”

“Well,” I said with a smile, “that’s what I
thought before yesterday.”

“Look,” she offered, “maybe we should just
start over.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Maybe after
this is all over…”

“Yeah, don’t push it,” she stopped.

Maybe after I grow on her a bit…

It didn’t take long before we were pulling up
to the curb in front of my house. My house is a single story house
built in the early 90’s. It doesn’t really stand out in our
neighborhood. All of the houses are single story and they are all
painted in shades of brown. After seeing Nicole’s house, I was
feeling a little self-conscious about my own house.

“Well, it doesn’t compare to your house, but
it’s home,” I said meekly.

“I hope you don’t think that matters to me,”
she said, affronted. “I love my house, but my parents raised me not
to be about
things
. I realize it may not look like it from
the size of our house, but if you look closely, it’s very
functional.”

I particularly liked the functional movie
theater. “I noticed. It’s just…well, it’s just very nice.”

“Well, thank you, but I saw your house
earlier. It’s not as big, obviously, but it seemed nice. At least
what I saw of it as I was running out the door. It matters a lot
more how you live than where you live. I didn’t feel uncomfortable
in your house. Okay, so I did feel uncomfortable in your house, but
it was more about waking up in a strange place and a strange body
than it being your house. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine
in your house while I’m here…hopefully just for today. Although…I
don’t know if I’ll get used to sleeping in your bed.”

“What’s wrong with my bed?” I asked.

“It’s
your
bed. I should say, it’s a
guy’s bed. It just doesn’t seem right.” She was smiling when she
said it, so I figured she was being playful.

“You should talk. I’m not exactly looking
forward to sleeping with all of the frilly flowers on your pillows
and blankets. And pink. Everywhere pink.”

“Well then, let’s just hope things are back
to normal in the morning,” she countered.

We had made our way in through the front
door. “So,” I continued, “this shouldn’t take too long. The living
room is to the left. We usually save this room for company, but we
don’t have a lot of company, so it’s almost never used.

“You can get to the kitchen through that
opening in the living room or you can just walk straight down this
hall.”

I turned left and faced the kitchen. “The
fridge is on the left, there. Feel free to help yourself to
anything in there. The pantry is to the left of the fridge. You can
help yourself to anything in there also.”