「f r i e s w i t h t h a t?」kris stew au

21

Three o'clock in the morning, that's when the group finally got back to Jake's cabin. They had had to go back to the site to grab their tents, even if they had all their valuables with them. because that would be a shitty thing to do, but mostly they did it because emma reminded them there probably was a fine for leaving three large tents full of rubbish right by a forest and a river bank. when they did get back to the cabin however, ryan and jake greeted them with warm blankets and mugs of hot chocolate, which was very considerate of them, since irish robert had fallen in the river somehow when no one was watching and probably got hypothermia, and everyone needed some alternative-brand-much-too-darkly-coloured-tongue-burning hot cocoa that left a very bitter after taste to lift them up from the cold. everyone agreed the cocoa reminded them of their middle class childhoods.

jake had the fireplace on, and it felt like a cosy winter holiday, with rain tipping at the windows and everyone's kinetic energy floating through out the cabin, except it wasn't. it was a just a group of fifteen english speakers stuck in a manageable sized wooden shelter, waiting for heavy rain to pass. but that was alright. kristen never had a cosy winter holiday, not really. this was more than alright. she sat in the living room, between emma and jesse on the droopy brown fabric couch. jesse, who had finally sat down with kristen without ed or jordan or harley tagging along for more than a dozen hours, was recapping his day to her, their shoulders over each other, as they often are. kristen enjoyed the close space between her and jesse, since it had seemed to linger further away lately. but now everyone's here, and everyone's cosy. 

the living room had one main light that emitted a warm mellow glow, and several smaller mismatched lamps around the room. this was the largest room in the cabin. the rain pounded lightly on the windows, as if politely asking for entry away from the complete darkness behind it, but it was not invited in, though the curtains lay unclosed for the rain to peak inside of the space, where just more than a dozen people sat and stood around the room, having a jolly time without it showering all over them. robert was over by a corner with matty, who was quietly telling some amusing story to him, while irish robert, domhnall and some others strut around two long couches against the back of the room, leaving the cabin owners, emma, kristen and jesse to harry's own devices. though the room was loud with chatter from all the different parties, harry's audience could hear his story quite loud and clear. ryan and jake laughed as they held onto each other in the large leather arm chair and jesse and kristen smiled discreetly, while emma egged harry on with his dramatic retelling of a time when he once tried to remove a cigarette from his mouth , but some how flicked it up wards, and it hit him straight in the eyeball.

 "isn't there a scar or something, since you poked your eye with a little burning stick?" emma asked.

"no, actually," harry said, grinning the whole time, his face expressive and excited, a little drunk as well from a couple of fridge raided beers. "i think the human body - is such a resilient thing, isn't it, guys? like, it hurt bare, and my eye was yellow and there was pus coming out at some point, i think -" emma grimaced in horror at this as did everyone one else. " but now - this eye is just as eyebally as the other one. i had to go to a & a for it as well, though my mum actually told me just to splash some water over it when i called her."

"a & a?" emma asked, quizzically. 

"yeah, a & a."

"do you mean a & e?" 

"uh, i think its a & a, right?" 

"its a & e."

"a & e?"

"accidents and emergencies?" emma said, grinning at harry, then she looked at krisen. oh harry, what a goof. they both thought. they looked back at him and back at each other, poking himself in the eye with a cigarette, and now he takes out another one from his jacket pocket. emma made a face, kristen too.

"what? that was two years ago, i think  i know how to smoke without getting a corneal abrasion this time." harry stopped before lighting, then lit his mayfair up after gaining a nodd from jake. he took a breath in and puffed it out.

emma clapped, "wow, harry used a big word, maybe next he'll learn to spell carcinoma." they laughed, and harry inhaled more. soon the room became a cloudy sauna with more than a few smokers taking light after harry's queue.

it was all a bit chaotic really, but they all had a good time. thank god no one had asthma or anything.

nightlife was certainly something kristen was used to. she was accustomed to sneaking out of her house at night to see music with jesse, or just bathe in the starlight with jesse under some forest clearing outside the city. they always had their getaways. but this sure was different. jesse wasn't the one next to her tonight, and they certainly weren't sneaking out anywhere soon, the drizzle soon turned into a downpour, and then into a storm. but it was fine, kristen had other pastimes to attend to. a decision made hours ago by kristen was finally going to be fulfilled. there was an itch after the second she and jess stepped off the wrong plane to europe instead of south east asia, an itch to change somethings about her. now she's gonna scratch it.

really, it was all in good fun, and change is inevitable, so why not make it now, and make it bleached blond hair? yes, hair bleaching. while it may not seem as dramatic a change as dying it neon or even getting a mohawk,  for kristen, it does. like many girls, her hair held so much of her identity because it represented her sort of uniqueness, since she was one of an actual few kids that never really toyed with their hair, and really, it was a constant reminder of her femininity. which was pretty neat, since everything else about her seem to be a little on the opposite side of that. but it had just been with her for so long, she never thought she'd have to say goodbye to such a seemingly unimportant part of her appearance, that she never really cared about before.

but change is good, and change is gonna ahappen.

with some unidentifiable swedish drugstore hair bleach they got from the mall, emma and kristen start the process of frying kris's entire head, which in total took three boxes of the product to cover her whole body of bark dark hair. emma wore gloves along side kristen, and she happily helped her apply the bluish shampoo thing where ever kristen couldn't reach. it wasn't until now that kristen realised how much hair she had, and how thick. maybe they didn't bring enough bleach, or applicator or whatever it's called, perhaps she'll end up with patches of orange fuzz and strands and strands of untouched hair. perhaps not. kristen hopes not, that would look silly, and be very embarrassing. she could imagine jesse's face upon seeing her potentially ruined hair, how instantly his eyes will widend to the size of tangerines  or something, and how hard it would be to conceal the snigger behind his eyes. but there's about an hours wait until that might happen, to leave the dye or what ever on kristen's hair. and when that passed, another hour or so to wash and dry her hair again, only to be smothered in some more product. emma and kristen kept laughing as both their inability to keep the dye on kristen's hair might end up with her having chemical burns on her scalp of some sort or both of them getting bleached finger tips from the cheap plastic gloves ripping with in the first minutes of the application. the entire cabin could probably hear squeals and continuous giggling from the second room across the wooden landing as kristen's hair gradually turned auburn to  carrot orange to a dingy bright yellow, then eventually to one desirable shade of light blond.

rain continued outside, but almost all activities in the house ceased to.