“ Are you my Fairy God mother?” I asked, feeling the warmth of those two shots begin to swirl in my veins. I wasn’t drunk, but the sadness eroding my stomach all day was finally taking a backseat to a newer sensation. All thanks to Queen Bee, I could breathe without feeling like a hand was clamping down on my lungs.
Queen Bee threw her head back and laughed, carefree and wildly. “Let’s say just for tonight that I am.” She pushed me down into the chair and put her hands on my shoulders. I caught her reflection in the mirror; her bright brown eyes met mine. Her expression held a look of deep understanding, and before I realized the words that were forming, I started telling her about Caroline.
“ My friend died last night. She was sick for a long time and she never got to live her life. I’m trying to live for the both of us.” I blurted it out, never taking my eyes off her. Her grip on my shoulders tightened and her mouth flattened into a thin line. It was a brief moment of profound sorrow, but then she nodded and tucked those feelings away behind her beautiful mask.
“ Then baby, living is what you’re going to do!” She whirled me around and immediately started working on my hair. She teased it, pulled it up high, and twisted it impossibly tight. All the while I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to handle the pain. She gave me another shot when she realized how tense I was. “Beauty is pain!” she laughed before stepping back to secure my hair with more hair spray than I even realized could fit inside of a bottle. I coughed and hacked, trying desperately to breathe through the thick, chemically air.
“ Ten minutes until show-time, Sugar Britches!” she sang. I laughed uncontrollably, not even realizing what was so funny. Maybe I shouldn’t have had three shots , I thought as she layered on purple eye shadow. I knew I was going to look like a clown. Who wears purple eye shadow without looking like a clown? She swiped on mascara and smeared my lips in bright red lipstick. My face felt tight from all the tugging and pulling.
“ Are you ready, Ruby Red?” she asked once she leaned back to eye her work. Her smile was genuine and proud, like I was her baby girl all grown up. Maybe she really was my Fairy God Mother. When she turned that black chair around, my mouth hung open. I didn’t look like a clown. I mean I looked crazy, like a Texas Pageant Queen, but somehow I still looked beautiful. The eye shadow made my sage green eyes pop and the mascara made me look older and sultry.
“ This should fit, although it’ll be a little loose,” she said as she disappeared behind racks of clothing and then came back with a tight red dress. It was a cotton-blend material, and when I slipped it over my head, it clung to my skin like a wetsuit. It fell mid-way down my thighs and the spaghetti-straps criss-crossed between my shoulder blades.
“ Now! In true Fairy God Mother Fashion, I have a single pair of gemstone encrusted pumps. They’re size eight and they used to belong to Professor Luscious, but she moved to San Francisco and left them here.” I smiled at the drag name as she handed me the shoes. They were gorgeous and definitely a modern take on the glass slipper. Glittery gemstones, which looked like fake diamonds, coated the entire surface.
There was only one problem. “I’m a size seven, they’ll slip off,” I lamented.
Queen Bee arched her impeccable brow at me and shook her head. “Fake it till you make it, that’s how we work in this business.”
I thought she was referring to slipping some stuffing into my shoes so they would fit, but the next thing I knew she was slipping falsies down the front of my dress so that my size-A boobs now looked like a size-C at least.
“ You look like a mini-me! Now let’s go!” She tugged my hand and the room spun in a hazy mix of glitter and color. I had to hold her hand with both of mine so that I wouldn’t stumble in the stiletto heels.
The second we walked out of the VIP dressing room, cat calls sounded throughout the bar. Every single person stopped their conversations and held their drinks up in a wild salute to Queen Bee and me.
She kept tugging me behind her until we were on stage. A short guy dressed as an angel, complete with giant white feathered wings, handed a microphone to Queen Bee and then bowed in humble servitude. Any cheers that had followed us onto the stage completely died out as Queen Bee started to speak.