As soon as I walked out of the bathroom that morning, my mother could tell something was wrong. The tears in my eyes were an obvious give away.
"I'm not going to school today", I told her as I strolled by, making every effort to avoid direct eye contact. "Not today, not tomorrow and probably not this entire month!" With those words, I retreated to my bedroom and contemplated my next move. How am I going to explain what just happened, I thought, how could I have been so stupid!
Sadly though, I had to share a bedroom with my older sister and she was not known for minding her own business. As exaggerated as always, she barged in the room and insisted I tell her why I was upset. With teary eyes, and a swollen eyelid, I looked at my sister with embarrassment. "I pulled all my eyelashes out with the eyelash curler! Now get out!" I'm sure she meant it in the nicest way; however, it didn't feel like it as I stood there watching her laugh at me. It's important to mention, at this time in my life, I was only a couple months into my freshman year of high school. There was a lot riding on my hopes of being classified as a cool girl, and having no eyelashes was not conducive to my plans. Equally important, it had only been a couple of years since I made the decision to venture out of my tom-boy phase and into the world of acting like a girl. I was beginning to wonder if that was the best idea.
Curious about my comments and the commotion echoing from my room, my mother hesitantly opened to door. "What is going on in here?" she asked, "and what makes you think you are not going to school?" Before I even had the opportunity to answer, my sister blurted out what happened and ran out of the room. I'm pretty sure my mother was doing everything in her power to hold back a giggle of her own as she proceeded to interrogate me for the details. I hesitated momentarily, trying to find a way to articulate what happened in the least ridiculous way. I couldn't rationalize anything, so I just spoke the words, "I don't know what I was thinking. I was curling my eyelashes and it was exhausting. I thought to myself, what if I rest my elbow on the door knob? Well, my elbow slipped right off that door knob, and there went the eyelash curler along with every one of my eyelashes!"
By now, the giggle my mother had been suppressing became full blown laughter. I can't tell you what hurt worse at that moment, my red, puffy eyelid or my pride. One thing indisputable about this experience, "thank goodness for eyeliner!"
