"How hot was that?"
"Yeah, that was rad. He finished so strong."
Jemma raised her eyes to the ceiling, head thrown back in exasperation.
"I swear to god, what I feel for him is fucking real, but I can't get him to notice me." Throwing her head forward into her hands, she said into the coffee in front of her, "you have to help me Bess; I totally can't go on like this."
Bess stood and went over to the stereo that took pride of place in her lounge room. She lifted the mix tape CD out of the player and passed it to her friend. She glanced around her room at all the faces of so many bands, so many DJ's so many artists staring back at her.
"Yeah, I can help. I know what to do."
Jemma turned toward her friend, a gleam of hope in her eye.
"Anything babe. I'll do anything you tell me." Bess at back in her chair looking hard at her friend.
"Ok, so Jemma, I'll make you up tonight so you look totally hot. We'll work to your strengths and I can lend you clothes." With a hand Jemma's chin, Bess looked at either side of her face with a professionals eye. "You're heaps prettier than you know, and we have tons to work with here.
It's gonna be a punish though. I'm taking you to my hairdressers first, and that'll set you back in the order of three hundred bucks, plus she's doing what I want her to do with your hair right? This is my fucking hairdressing appointment I'm giving you after all."
Jemma grinned. "You're the best babe."
"Yeah, yeah, wait till I send you the bill. But there's something else. He will notice you. I know him well enough to know what he likes. But when he comes on to you man you gotta deal with it properly, you know? You have to be smooth, and work the situation. I can't make you cool; I can only make you look cool."
Jemma smiled. "I'm pretty nervous. I know what you're saying. But I really feel a connection. I love his mixes, and when he DJ's I'm in another place. I just want a chance, you know? I just want to try it out and see if what I feel is real."
"Then we better get started." Bess grinned at her friend.
A few hours later, back from the hairdressers, Bess sat in the deep leather chair in her bedroom as Jemma paraded back and forth in a variety of outfits. Jeans, sweaters, minis, and dresses all lay on the bed in various states of disarray. Jemma's thin frame had donned and shed them all in their turn as Bess stressed and fussed over the right outfit.
"No. I hate that too. Take it off."
Jemma swished her now waist length dark burgundy hair with deep pink highlights showing through from underneath, with her famous head toss.
"Fuck, how many things do you want me to try on? I look ok in all this stuff."
Bess shook her head. "Look, I was right about the extensions, I'm right about this. Do you want my help or not?"
Jemma examined her painted black lacquered nails. "I know I know... I'm sorry. I'm just tired. This doing yourself up shit takes ages, and I didn't know it would be this hard."
Bess and Jemma had been the unlikeliest of best friends since they were neighbours, before they both went to school. Even in the early year's Bess was the cool one, preferring to go to school than stay home, all the kids crowding around her in the playground; Always the first with the coolest lunch box or the raddest shoelaces.
Jemma happily took on a bookish personality but she did not make a success of it. She studied hard, but only ever reached the middle of the class, while Bess fell naturally in the top five all the time. As a person to whom things came easy Bess coasted through life while Jemma was forced by circumstance to fight for everything she had.
With all this, never a second's animosity passed between them. Jemma recognised moments of self-consciousness in her friend as she clutched another award after school assembly and the cutest boy in the school stopped to give her kiss before leaving her to her weird friend. She sensed Bess waited for the day Jemma had enough, but it never came. Jemma loved her friend and she loved her for who she was deep down.
What Bess realised early, was Jemma would love her if the awards dried up, if she got married and settled down and became a frumpy housewife. Jemma would stand by her, faithful, devoted and loyal. There was nothing fake about their connection. Bess loved Jemma more than Jemma could understand, she was sure.
And now, for the first time in the history of their friendship, Jemma actually wanted something badly enough to come to Bess to ask for it. Jemma came to her friend and asked her to make her cool.
In all the years, she'd not seen Jemma need her help. As soon as she asked, Bess heart soared. She'd suggested an image upgrade many times of course, and offered help, and bought certain presents, but her friend always smiled and shrugged her shoulders saying cool was Bess' department.
Finally she'd come to her. For the first time Jemma wanted something Bess could give her to say thanks for all the years of devoted loyal friendship. For some unearthly reason Jemma had fallen in deep love with local indie DJ -- DJA. She listed to his mix tapes, followed his blog and commented as often as she could on face book, but the guy couldn't see her.
This was something Bess understood. Jemma, with a gorgeous heart, didn't understand image, and about attracting the right attention. Jemma wasn't a virgin; however she'd rarely seemed interested in anyone before. Bess wanted this for her, and she knew how to help her get this guy. She saw it as the biggest present a friend has ever offered another woman that she owes everything to.
"That's it! That's the look I want." "You've got to be kidding. How the fuck am I gonna pull this off?"
"Jemma, look at yourself! Go to my full length mirror and look at yourself."
A gentle quake started in Jemma's heart as she approached the mirror. She knew this outfit would look hot, she'd had a feeling like bells going off in unison inside when she put it on. The colour of the velvet was exactly the same colour of her hair, and there were other small details that stood out to her. Things she'd never noticed before. Feeling about herself she'd never had before.
She opened the cupboard and took a sharp intake of breath at the image in the mirror.
