Another Five Years

School's Out

"It fucking burns, dude!"

"Well, I followed the directions on the box!"

"Get it off my head!" David screamed, leaning over the bathtub at his house while Jimmy flailed around behind him.

"If we take it off now it won't dye!"

"Just the part on my head, then!"

He leaned into the tub while Jimmy rinsed the dye from his scalp, careful to keep the white bleach in the ends.

"Better?" Jimmy asked, helping him sit up to keep the water from dripping in his eyes.

"Yeah, thanks," David sighed. "Fuck, dude! How do girls do this shit?"

"What are you two morons doing?" Lisa asked, hurrying down the hallway to see what all the screaming was about.

"We're bleaching his hair," Jimmy replied, focused on re-reading the back of the box of dye.

"Shit," she groaned. "Does mom know?"

"No."

"Okay!" she cried, throwing her hands up and heading back down the hallway to her room. "I officially had nothing to do with this!"

*

"Oh... oh my god," Anna stopped short in the doorway when she arrived for her shift at the record shop. "David! What did you do?!"

"I'm a blonde!" he grinned at her, though it looked more like he was bearing his teeth.

Anna stifled a laugh with her hand as she made her way to him, circling him to get a better look at his hair. "Half blonde, at least," she snickered.

"Yeah, well... apparently, bleach is made of actual fire, so we decided against putting it on my scalp."

She burst out laughing at that, unable to contain it any longer. "It's all brassy! Were you going for Dee Snyder or Debbie Harry?"

"Neither?"

"Good, cause you missed both by a long shot," she giggled and ran her fingers through his hair.

He closed his eyes at the feeling and leaned into her. "I did this for you, you know."

"You did not," she gasped, ripping her hand away.

"You said you liked blondes," he gave her the same grin he gave the cop the night before.

"David!" she cried, scurrying back to the counter.

"Anna!" he mocked.

"No, you know what?" she leaned her elbows on the glass covered table and coyly smiled back at him. "I love it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she nodded and watched him carefully as he got closer to her. "I love that it's different. If you're gonna be my boyfriend, you can't be boring."

"So I'm your boyfriend now?" he teased, feeling his heart pound in his chest.

"Sorry, kitten," she laughed. "After being so gallant last night you kinda have to be. You're just gonna have to get used to it."

"Anna honey, I need you to inventory the-," her dad stopped his interruption short and stared at David over the top of his glasses. "Dear lord, son. What did you do to your head?" He looked around in confusion when both David and Anna began to laugh.

*Early June 1985*

"Anne, the office is asking for you."

She looked up from her calculus final at her teacher and immediately gathered her things into her leather book bag before leaving class. She worriedly jogged down the hallway and into the office where she was met with the dean.