Chapter 4: Dressing Styles

Riley stayed at mine for hours that night, convincing me to audition for the X-Factor and trying out this whole “Harry Styles” bit. By the time she left, I was still uncertain about the whole thing, but I decided I would just give it a try because she wanted me to. I honestly didn’t think I was good enough to be thinking about trying out on a show like that, but I supposed it would be nice to get an honest, non-bias opinion for the trouble anyways.

Riley had cleared all her Saturday plans with Kyle just to have a day with me. I could hear him cussing at her over the phone, but she actually held her own. Well somewhat, she did promise to see him that night. I cringed at the thought of her cuddling up next to that complete ass. He definitely did not deserve her heart.

I fell asleep that night with thoughts of Riley and how happy the charade was making her. I guess I was a little excited about the whole thing. It was definitely something new and interesting to take on.

I woke up the following morning with the sun, feeling well rested. I liked waking up in the morning knowing I had a full day ahead of me. I stretched my arms and legs before climbing out of bed. I felt blind so I stumbled into the bathroom to find where I had left my glasses the previous night, and then headed down stairs. There was nobody awake and the dark house seemed rather peaceful. I grabbed my back-pack from the entry way and decided to get some homework done as I presumed my day would be filled spending time with Riley and work at the bakery. I plopped down on the couch and got straight to work.

It only took me a couple of hours to get through all the assignments I needed to get done for the weekend. All I had to worry about from then was reading ahead for a few classes. I stood up from the couch feeling rather accomplished. I placed my books back into my bag, and still my mother and sister were fast asleep. I decided I would make breakfast for them, since they usually slept in on Saturdays. I made pancakes and hash browns. Luckily enough, I had timed it just right because when I placed the food on the table both my mother and sister, Gemma, entered the kitchen with exhausted, yet smiling faces.

“Sit down. I made breakfast.” I sat down in my usual seat, beginning to dig in to the meal I had just made.

My mom walked up behind me, placing a kiss on top of my head, “Aww… thanks Marcel. You are going to make a very lucky lady happy one of these days with all the sweet things you do.”

I blushed faintly, trying to hide it. My sister sat across from me giving me a weird look, “Your hair looks curlier than usual this morning.”

I nodded, “Yeah. Riley did it last night.”

Gemma giggled under her breath as she jokingly stated, “Did she give her best girlfriend a makeover or what?”

“No… it’s sort of a thing we are planning.”

My mom gulped down a bite of food and asked, “What sort of thing Marcel?”

I wasn’t sure if I should tell them. They knew how much I loved music, but I wasn’t sure if creating an alternate ego for yourself sounded crazy or not. I just decided just to go for it. They were my family after all. “Well… Last night when Riley came over to play our music… She sort of got this bright idea that I should try out for the X-Factor.”

My mom smiled at me, “That’s great Marcel! I’ve been listening to you guys play down there, and I was thinking about signing you up myself.”

I was taken a little by surprise, “Really?”

My mom nodded happily when Gemma cut in. “Yeah, that’s awesome…but what does it have to do with you looking different?”

With a tiny hint of annoyance in my voice I stated, “Well… I was getting there.” Gemma giggled at my attempt at seriousness towards them as I continued, “I just don’t think people take me seriously as me. So in order to get an honest opinion out of my voice, I will sort of need to…look the part.”

My mother’s face grew serious as her jaw somewhat clenched. “Marcel. You shouldn’t have to change the way you look to do this. People will love you for you. You just need to let them see how amazing you are.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Gemma took over for me. “Well I think it’s brilliant. While I love you no matter what, it’s true. People are harsh out there with judging looks of people. I’ve watched that show. Some people have the most amazing voices and don’t get through; while other times the vice versa happens.”

I nodded my head agreeing with what my sister had said, “Also, I think maybe I can feel more comfortable knowing nobody will even know who I really am.”

My mom stared blankly for a few moments before saying, “Well… if you think it will give you a confidence boost. Then I support you. I am just glad you are even considering giving this a shot. I think it can serve as just another really great learning opportunity for you.”

That conversation ended and we continued to talk about the previous day, as I had not seen them really. They seemed to have had joyful days as the conversation switched to what the plans for the current day were.

“I am just doing a bit of shopping and what not with Riley.” I spoke.

Gemma practically beamed, “Aww… are you going to ask that girl out yet?”

My face fell a little when I spoke, “No… she has a boyfriend.”

“Still? I would have thought they have broken up by now?”

“No… I think she really likes him.”

My mom smiled trying to encourage me. That’s what everyone who knew about my feelings seemed to do. “Well. She’ll come around someday Marcel.”

When we finished eating breakfast, I offered to wash dishes. My mom had done a lot for me, so doing little things like that were the least I could do to make it up to her. I did them quickly realizing how late it was getting. I had about an hour until Riley and I were going to leave. When I finished, I headed back upstairs to get ready for my day with Riley.

I went through my normal system of getting ready. I took a brief shower, washing out my natural curls that Riley had fixed up the previous night. I then put on a pair of khakis, a plaid button down shirt, complete with a sweater vest, and my usual, now taped, glasses. I checked my appearance in the mirror before heading downstairs to get going.

I opened the door and shouted, “I’m going out with Riley now!”

My mom must have been getting ready for the day in her room, but Gemma was sitting on the couch. “Have a great day with her Marcel.” She winked at me, making me roll my eyes slightly. “Mom left you some money for clothes on the end table.” I looked to the little table beside the door and saw the money lying there. I felt guilty taking it, but I shoved it into my pocket and walked out the door.

I walked around the corner to Riley’s house and I didn’t even need to knock on the door, she ran outside as soon as I was in sights of her house.

“Ready to go, Marcel? I am so excited to dress you up!” She looked stunning, as usual.

“Erm… I guess so.”

She giggled as we began walking towards her mother’s car we would be taking to town. “Oh…come on! I know you are excited!” I smiled as we climbed into the car and began to drive towards downtown.

“So what are we looking for exactly?” I asked.

She twisted her lips up while she pondered the question for a few moments. “Hmm… I don’t really know. What do you think Harry Styles should look like?”

I laughed and sarcastically stated, “I have no idea. This is supposed to your little project.”

Her eyes grew big, “Oooooh! I like the sound of that! I am going to make you famous one day Marcel.”

“Whatever you say, Rils.”

We arrived downtown as Riley cautiously pulled into a parking stall. “We can just walk everywhere from here.” I could tell it was going to be a long day of shopping, but I didn’t really mind as long as I was spending a day with Riley.

We began walking down the sidewalks looking in all the shop windows. “Where first?” I asked

She looked ahead to the next window ahead of us, “That one!” She grabbed my hand softly and quickly led me into the store. When we entered the store, she was still cupping my hand in hers. I rubbed my fingers over her knuckles, but quickly realized what I was doing and let go. It didn’t faze her, which was part of what made her so fantastic. She never made fun or rejected me in any way.

Riley walked up to the first rack of clothing and began to browse through it. I didn’t really know how to help her, so I stood there watching her, probably rather awkwardly. She began pulling random articles of clothing out and handing them to me. So, I pretty much just followed her around.

I soon had a whole arm load of clothing. I could barely carry them around anymore. “Riley, I think this enough to start with.”

She looked up to me with surprise. She obviously hadn’t been paying attention to what she had been handing me. She laughed, “Oh, Marcel! I’m sorry! Here let me take some of those.” She could tell I was struggling to hold on to it all, as most of them were falling off the top. After we had all the clothing in our arms once again we made our way to the dressing room. We threw it all down on the bench inside and she turned to walk out. Before I could shut the door she turned and began pointing into my chest. “Now, I want to see ALL OF IT!”

“Alright. If that’s what you want.”

I first dressed in some type of really baggy pants and a rather large leather jacket. It definitely was not something the real me would wear, but I supposed it would be up to Riley what Harry Styles would look like. I stepped out and she twisted up her face in disgust. “That looks awful!”

We both laughed because of how funny that sounded coming from her. “Gee, thanks Rils.”

“You know what I mean. Go try something else.”

I entered the dressing room again and decided to put on a bit fitter pair of jeans and a loose sweatshirt. This all seemed rather mad, but I continued on.

She looked at me a bit longer this time. “Hmmm… this may do for like relaxation wear… but I think I’ve decided I want Harry Styles to dress a bit…umm…preppy.”

“Preppy?” I asked.

She smiled and nodded, and then proceeded to get up and follow me back into the dressing room. She sifted through all the clothing she had picked out and threw a bunch of them into the cart outside the dressing room. “Now try anything from what is left in this pile.”

She exited and I stripped the sweatshirt off my torso and took off the jeans. I slipped on a pair of brown slacks, a white t-shirt, along with a heavy cardigan. It looked probably the nicest out of all the things I had tried thus far. With one last look at the outfit, I walked out of the dressing room.

Riley was simply beaming. “What?” I asked turning a bit flushed because she never looks at me quite like that.

“That’s just about perfect!” She stood up once again observing me a bit closer. She raced over towards the accessories and came back with a few scarfs in her hands. “Try this?”

“A scarf, Riley?”

She didn’t say anything she proceeded to wrap one of them around my neck, fixing it into place. Her hands kneaded the different layers, trying to flatten them. Her eyes were so focused, it made me smile. She finished with slipping my glasses from my face. “With the hair from last night, and this style. Harry Styles is born! I just can’t wait to see it all together!”

We both laughed at her statement. I turned to look in the larger mirror. It was true, with my curly hair… I probably would look quite different. “Great!... Now what?”

“Now…. We find more clothes that have the same essence as this so Harry Styles… actually has a style… with a wardrobe?”

A bit shocked I asked, “How often do you expect me to be playing the part?”

“Well, I expect you to go all the way on the show! So you are going to need quite a bit.”

I shook my head, “Thanks. It’s a great thought, Riley, but we need to be realistic.” I pushed my glasses back onto my face and we grabbed a few of the other shirts Riley picked out earlier that she deemed to “have the essence,” a proceeded to the check-out.

We began walking outside once again when she stated, “You know… you are that good of a singer Marcel. I believe in you. So you need to do the same thing. We wouldn’t be going through all this trouble otherwise.”

I could sense the seriousness in her tone. I tried to smile weakly at her. “Alright Riley, I trust your judgment. I will give this my all. For you… and for me.”

“Great!” She stated cheerfully again. “Now that you said it, I am holding you to it!” She stopped our walking to pull me into a hug. I brought my hands to her back and when we pulled apart I let a few strands of her beautiful blonde hair slip through my fingers.

We smiled a bit awkwardly at each other before she took off running, “Come on then!”

We proceeded to go through several other shops finding me my new style. In the end, I refused to use any of my mom’s money. It just didn’t feel right. I ended up with a few new pairs of slacks that fit a smidge loose around my bum, but apparently that was an ‘in’ thing, several sweaters and cardigans, a couple scarfs, and some sweatshirts, including one I surprisingly liked a lot. It was purple and was from Jack Wills.

By the end of it, Riley and I were both tired and satisfied with what we had accomplished. We decided to rejuvenate by putting some food in our systems. We went to a little hamburger stand set up in the middle of the street. We each ordered burgers with everything on it, and I handed the man my money.

A bit concerned Riley stated, “No, Marcel. You’ve spent so much money today. Let me pay for this.”
I gave her a cool smile, “Please. I’ve got it Riley. I was just happy to spend the day with you.”

She blushed faintly and put her money back in her wallet. We received our food almost instantly and we walked over to an empty table. “You know what Marcel?”

“What” I asked.

“We are going to have to give you a new personality and everything as well.”

“Personality? …I-I guess we will.”

“Yeah. If we are going to do this… we need to do this right. That’s the next stage in all this.”

I gave a short smile, “Whatever you want, Riley.”

She giggled a bit to herself before jokingly saying, “Why are you such a push over Marcel?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. I guess I just have a soft spot in my heart for you.” I tried to make it sound like a joke at the end, but I didn’t think I hid too well.

Her face froze briefly before quickly releasing into yet another smile, “Aww… you’re too kind!”

I guess she didn’t really notice to what extent I had meant that. So, luckily we were able to move on to the next topic quickly. We began chatting about school… she needed help with math and I was going to help her the next day. Then she received a text message and her face fell.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked worriedly

She shook her head, but her face was still fallen. “Oh…umm…no… It was just Kyle. He wants to hang out, like now.”

“Oh.” I stated looking down to the ground.

“You don’t mind if we leave now, do you?”

I pulled myself together. “No… we can go. I have to go to work in a while anyways.”

“Okay.”

We threw away our garbage and found our way back to the vehicle. The ride back to our neighborhood was quiet, except for the constant buzzing of her phone. He really was a controlling asshole. I just wish she could see it.

We were soon at her house again, and we exited the car. I grabbed the bags from the backseat and rounded to meet her. “Well. I’ll see you tomorrow then Riley?”

She nodded her head. “Yeah. Sounds good Marcel.”

“Alright. Well… see ya.” I was about to turn to walk away when she grabbed ahold of my waist pulling me close to her. “I’m sorry about Kyle, Marcel. he just gets really impatient.”

We parted again and I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s okay. Really, Riley.”

We gave each other one last smile before I turned to begin walking away from her. I heard her footsteps running into her house, as I assumed she had to get ready for her date with Kyle. A guy I hated, dating the girl I loved.

Notes

Here's an update! I really do enjoy writing this story, so I hope people really like it!

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