His Name Is Trouble

34. Cuffs.

Chapter 34: Cuffs.

"You need to try this on." Hannah tells me as she waves a blue tie-dye dress in my face.

Hannah and I are doing some college shopping. We decided that we were going to go all out and wear stuff that's way outside our comfort zone because why not?

"I don't really know." I tell her, looking at the length. Everyone will see my butt cheeks in these.

"Oh, come on. We're going off to college in a few weeks. We get to create these new personas that we didn't have in high school. We get to show them the sides of ourselves we want and hide away the rest." She says as she hands me the dress. I reluctantly collect it.

"Because that's how college works."  She adds.

"I'll be right out." I say as I enter the dressing room.

I take off my jeans and my tank top and I am left in my strapless bra and lace panties. I unzip the dress and I put it on. I try to zip it up but the zipper gets caught in my hair and I wince in pain.

"Everything okay in there?" Hannah asks me from the other side. "You sound like you're giving birth."

"I'm fine. The zipper's just...stuck." I say, tugging at the metal.

It finally zips up but then it freaking chops my hair off. I look at the ground and see a reasonable amount of my hair on the floor.

"Um...Hannah." I call out.

"Yeah." She answers.

"I think this zipper just cut my hair." I tell her.

"What do you mean you think?" She asks me. She walks into the dressing room and she sees my hair on the floor.

"Valarie, what the hell happened?" She asks as she rushes over to me. She checks my scalp to see how bad it really is.

"Well, right in the middle here, it looks like you're missing hair." She tells me.

"What, as in a bald spot?" I ask her.

"Nope. As in I tried shaving my head at home and now it's not leveled." She tells me. "Spot." She adds.

"What am I going to do?" I ask her, totally freaking out.

"Calm down. We'll stop by the hair salon on our way back. And by the way that dress looks fire on you." She says and I just put my hand over my face.

***

Hannah and I made it to the hair salon and I have a confession to make. They did a really good job fixing my hair, but I kinda, might have, gone a little overboard, and now...I am walking into my house with blonde hair and blue tips.

Hey, I know what you're thinking.

What is she going to do next? Get a tattoo?

No, I'm not.

Maybe.

I just needed a change and I'm going off to college, I just want to look brand new.

"And dyeing your hair a different color is the way to do so?" My subconscious asks me.

Pretty much, yeah.

And we only have one life to live. Why not live it. My mother is going to kill me. I cut my hair that was at my waist and now it barely reaches my shoulder.

I'm dead.

I put my bags by the staircase and I head to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. I see my mother, she has her back to me. She is cooking something on the stove.