it was thursday and i was laying on the couch while mindlessly watching tv - a tv that i had to buy because surprisingly, our phones weren't enough to keep nicole and i entertained. that's minus three hundred dollars on the whopping two thousand i had brought with me. i wasn't worried though, i had a job now.
i started working at groove's a couple days ago and i can already say it's honestly one of the best jobs i've had. well to be fair, i've only had one job before but anything is better than deep frying fish all day at an old fish and chips place back in maryland. having a cute guy telling me i smelled like fish after i was done working a shift was the final straw that led me to quit that wretched job. god, that was so embarrassing. i still cringe just thinking about it. just to be clear, i don't smell like fish okay!
anyway, back to groove's; it's awesome. i pretty much get paid to stand around and chat with my coworker donna. she's really nice and we instantly hit it off. that's something that rarely ever happens for me as i'm usually an awkward and pretty reserved person but donna is really easy to talk to and our conversations seem to just flow. i had asked her who this mysterious celebrity that was having a record signing at the shop was but she wouldn't tell me, calling it "a surprise." suddenly, i hate surprises. i just wanna know who it is! i'd be lying if i said the anticipation hasn't been eating at me for the past couple days but it's fun having something to look forward to.
"y'know what we should do?" nicole asks from her spot on the couch, breaking me out of my thoughts. i raise my brow and ask, "what?"
"dye our hair!" she answers excitedly. i laugh at her excitement and think about her proposition for a quick second. i've never dyed my hair before, it's always been this boring brown color and although i've had random urges to dye it before, i've never actually gone through with them. i've been too afraid of change i guess.
"uh," i say, "i don't know. i've never dyed my hair before. i don't even know what color would look good on me."
"c'mon, viv," she says, dragging out the 'c'mon', "dye your hair with me please. i can help you pick out a color and besides you'll look good with any hair color so don't even worry about that."
"hm, alright. i'll let you help pick out the color but i hope you know that if i end up looking horrible i won't hesitate to murder you." i joke.
"yay!" nicole says as she stands up from the couch and slips on her pink slides. "and that's a risk i'm willing to take." she smirks, "now get up, i'm getting us an uber."
"uh, and where are we going to exactly?" i ask as i stand up from the couch as well.
"to sally's, duh."
"wait, you meant dye our hair right now?" i ask her nervously. i didn't think she meant today. i wasn't one to make spur of the moment decisions like these too often, especially ones having to do with changing my appearance. i was expecting to have some time to really think about it.
"obviously. let's go." she answers and we walk out the door, nicole locking it behind us.
i gulp nervously but immediately roll my eyes at myself after. i'm overthinking this way too much. it's literally just hair, if it looks bad i can just dye it back.
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the car ride to sally's felt excruciatingly long. LA's traffic is no joke and the weird uber driver's lame attempt at flirting with me the whole drive definitely didn't help. i had no idea how to reply to him so i just awkwardly laughed, nicole snickering at how uncomfortable i was from the back seat. i still rated him five stars though - mostly out of fear that he was going to get offended and come back and murder me for not liking him back. god knows how crazy men can be - or maybe i'm just paranoid. probably the latter.
nicole and i looked through the isle at all the hair color options the store had. she had already decided on her color; she chose a pretty pastel pink that i just know will look amazing on her as she already has light bleach blonde hair and the color will pick up well. i, on the other hand, could not make a decision for the life of me. i just can't picture myself with any of these hair colors. i fear they'll look horrible on me.
"ou," nicole says, pointing at one of the hair strands displaying the color, "how about this?" i raise a brow skeptically at her suggestion. "black?" i ask, "nicole, are you forgetting how pale i am? i'll look like a vampire!"
she lets out a short laugh and scoffs, "no you won't but if you're so worried about that, self tanner exists. besides i was thinking of buying one anyway so it'll be perfect, we can have matching tans. you'll look so good trust me. when have i ever failed you, eh?"
"well," i start jokingly and she sends me a look telling me to shut it. "ugh, fine. i trust you. if you think it'll look good then i'll try it."
"perfect!" she grabs a box of black hair dye for me and some more supplies we need and we head over to the register. nicole asks the girl behind the register where she can find self tanner and she tells her she thinks they sell it at a walmart not too far from here. we pay for our things and begin our walk to walmart. nicole offered to pay for another uber but i told her to save her money for our uber ride back home and that it'd be fun to walk as we hadn't really done that here in LA yet.
we walk for around ten minutes, taking in our surroundings, until we finally get there. nicole and i walk inside and head straight to the beauty section, looking for the self tanner and once we found it and paid, we got an uber and made our way back to our apartment. everything in LA was new and exciting to us, even a quick trip to walmart was fun.
once back at our apartment, nicole excitedly starts opening up the hair dye boxes. "what should we do first, our hair or our tans?" she asks. i tell her i didn't really care and she decides on our hair after reading that the self tanner we bought works best went left over night.
secretly, i was shitting myself. i was so nervous about how not only my hair was going to turn out but my tan as well as i've never gotten a fake tan before either. to add to my nerves, i was dying my hair first too. today seems to be a day of firsts, doesn't it?
nicole plays 'better off' by ariana grande on her speaker as she begins to set up everything and i change into a random t-shirt. once she has everything prepped on the kitchen table, i pull a chair and sit down in front of her. i swallow nervously, preparing myself for the worse.
as she begins to apply the cold hair dye on my hair, she asks, "you're shitting yourself, aren't you?"
i laugh. "am i that obvious? i'm just scared it'll look bad."
"yes you are." she says, "stop being such a negative nancy, viv. you're gonna look hot! besides, you're in good hands. i dye my hair all the time, i'm pretty much a professional at this point."
"yeah, i guess dying my hair in our kitchen is pretty professional." i say sarcastically and she laughs. "shut up before i fuck up your hair on purpose." she says and continues dying my hair.
after about forty minutes, i was ready to wash the dye out of my hair so i stepped in the shower while nicole finished up dying her own hair in the bathroom with me. even after all of nicole's positive affirmations, i was still nervous about how my hair was going to turn out.
"nic," i say loudly over the sound of the water running, "it looks like there's black ink running down my body." i look down at my feet and at the water turning black due to the dye. she just laughs and she changes the song on the speaker to '90210' by travis scott, both of us singing along to it as i finish showering quickly. i stop the water and wrap a towel around my body but not my hair so nicole can see it.
she gasps. "oh my god!" my eyes widen at her reaction, not having looked in the mirror yet. "oh my god, what? is it bad?" i ask worryingly, grabbing a strand of my wet hair to look at it. oh, it was black alright.
"no, no, no," she says, "i meant oh my god, i love it! look, look in the mirror."
i walk over to the mirror and let out a little gasp. "jesus christ, i'm so pale." was the first thing i said because well, that was the first thought that popped into my head. nicole rolls her eyes at me and calls me a negative nancy again which i admit, i was being. "no but really though, i do like it. i kinda look like a sexy vampire." i jokingly tell her.
"hell yeah, you look sexy. now move and let me get in the shower so we can do our tans and you can stop complaining about your paleness."
i get out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me and walk over to my room to change, my wet hair dripping and leaving a trail of water droplets on the floor.
as i finish drying off and changing into my underwear, i lay down in bed and wait for nicole so we can do our tans. i unplug my phone from it's charger and notice a text notification from donna from two hours ago.
'there was a little altercation w/ the celeb's schedule so he's coming in tmr instead of saturday', the text read. i smile down at my phone excitedly. i shoot her a text back saying, 'aha! so this mystery celeb is a guy ;)' and then i text my mom as well, informing her about my newly black hair. i wasn't expecting her to reply as it was almost nine pm here and there's a three hour time difference between LA and maryland and knowing my mom, there's no way she'd be awake at midnight. she'll surely text back tomorrow before going to work.
i was scrolling through my instagram when nicole walks into my room in her underwear and her newly pink hair. i smile at her. "it looks great, i love it." i compliment her and she thanks me, putting on her tanning mit and opening up the self tanner bottle, tanning herself first. as she does so, i tell her about the text donna sent me.
"ou, a guy." she rubs tanner down her leg, it turning a golden tone as she does so. "what if it's harry?" she raises her eyebrows up and down at me suggestively and i laugh and say, "yeah, right."
ever since i told her what happened that one night a couple months ago, when nicole and i stupidly decided to sneak into some bougie hollywood party and by some miracle actually managed to get in, she wouldn't stop teasing me about harry styles being my boyfriend. ha, the harry styles being my boyfriend? funny and very much impossible.
"you better do your makeup and get all dolled up tomorrow and look extra hot for him." she says, finishing up the last of her tan. i sit up in my bed, getting ready for my turn and the realization hits me.
"oh shit, i don't have any makeup that's gonna match the tan." why did i not think of that? probably because i was too busy unnecessarily freaking out about my hair.
"oh sweetie, what would you do without me?" she says, finishing up her tan and handing me the mit. "don't worry, i got you. i'm pretty sure i have foundation that'll match you. i can't have my best friend looking busted for harry."
"dude, i'm a hundred percent certain it's not going to be him." i tell her and i was being honest. harry styles never even popped in my head as a possible option for who the mystery celebrity was. the fact that i even met him once is crazy, there's no way it's happening again.
"you never know, viv." she says, "anything can happen. now finish your tan and let's go to sleep. i'm making you wake up early to get ready. i'm going with you, i wanna see if it's harry or not."
"fine but don't be too disappointed when you see it's not him." i tell her, hurrying to finish my tan because i was tired and i still had to wait for it to dry in order to go to bed. why must these things be so complicated? i'm just trying to go to sleep.
"disappointed? please, i'll take whoever it is to be my rich boyfriend if it's not harry. that's anything but disappointing - well, for you maybe, but for me? mama's getting rich, baby." nicole winks at me and walks over to my door. "well goodnight, girl. i'm off to bed."
"goodnight nic." i tell her and she walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. i continue applying the self tanner for a couple minutes, letting it dry, and finally getting under my sheets to sleep.
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the next morning nicole busts into my room to wake me up, shocking me as i was always the one that woke up first. you could describe nicole in many ways but a morning person was not one of them.
"nicole, what the fuck?" i say as she rips the sheets off of me. my eyes widen a little when i notice the self tanner stains on my white sheets. i just ignore it and decide to deal with them later.
"up, up, up sleepy head." nicole says, moving her hand, signaling me to get up. "we're getting you beautiful today." she walks over to my closet and starts shuffling through my clothes. "hm, what could you wear?"
"nicole, i'm going to work not the met gala. it isn't that big of a deal. i really don't need to get all fancy." it seemed she was way more excited about this than i was. sure, it was exciting that someone famous was coming into the shop but it's nothing to get this worked up about.
"no big deal?" she says as if she had just heard the most unbelievable thing in the world come out of my mouth. "viv, it is a big deal. this is a celebrity we're talking about! now go shower so you can start getting ready. go, go!"
"jeez, okay!" i say and get out of bed, grabbing a towel and some underwear before going into the bathroom and hopping in the shower. i decide against washing my hair as i had just washed it last night and quickly washed my body and got out, going back to my room and finding clothes laid out on my bed, nicole not in the room anymore. i assume she was in her own room getting ready for this, according to her, oh-so-special occasion.
i shake my head and smile at how extra nicole was being, finding amusement in her actions. i choose the least flashiest outfit she picked out for me and quickly change into it. i start my makeup and put a little more effort into it than i usually do for my usual day to day makeup but nothing too crazy - i was just going to work after all. i certainly didn't believe nicole's crazy assumptions about who the mystery celebrity was but i still didn't want to look bad.
after i was done, i look in the mirror and take in my appearance. i smile, quite honestly liking the way i looked. i've always thought of myself as quite plain. not being the most confident person, feeling pretty was something that i didn't really feel often but my newly black hair seems to have raised my self esteem a little. well damn. thank you nicole for convincing me to dye my hair.
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nicole and i made our way through the plaza, heading towards groove's. i was excited and so was she to finally find out who this mystery musician was.
once we reached the shop my eyes widen at the amount of people lined up outside of the store. "oh my god." i say in shock, not believing the site in front of me. there were hundreds of people! i was expecting more people to come into groove's today obviously but this was crazy! especially because the shop was always quite empty. whoever this musician was, they must've been huge.
"jesus christ, this guy must be famous famous." nicole says beside me as if she had read my mind. i agree with her and we walk towards the shop's entrance, the line of people looking at us as we walk inside and i blush slightly, uncomfortable with all those eyes on me.
"vivienne, hey! oh my god, your hair! i love it." donna greets me as she notices my presence. i smile at her compliment, thanking her. "it's crazy out there huh? i didn't expect this many people. oh, who's this?" she asks, referring to nicole.
"hey," nicole says, "i'm nicole. i hope you don't mind me being here, i just really wanted to see who the celebrity was."
donna laughs, telling her it was fine and that we needed the extra help for today anyway so she doubted mitch would mind. "okay, so we haven't really gotten set up completely yet since he kind of switched the date on us last minute. would you mind going in the back room and taking out posters and shit for the table he's gonna be at? he's gonna get here any minute now and mitch wants me to meet with him in the back since he can't really come in through the front, the people will freak."
"alright." i tell her and nicole and i head towards the back room.
"ou this is so exciting." nicole says as we walk inside the room, looking for the things we needed. i quickly find boxes labeled 'DAY OF MEET N GREET' with black sharpie and begin to pick them up to take them out into the store. nicole opens one, curious to see its content. i notice the sly smirk on her face and my brows furrow in confusion. "what?" i ask her.
she looks back up at me, the smirk not leaving her face, and she closes the box again, lifting it. "nothing." she replies and i raise a brow, knowing it wasn't 'nothing' but not questioning her any further because i knew she wasn't going to tell me. "you know what, you should bring the boxes out and i'll set up the table. it'll be faster that way."
"okay." i say and we begin doing that, trying to get it done as soon as possible seeing as the mystery celebrity was getting here soon.
after a few minutes of carrying out multiple boxes, i come back for the last one. i sigh, letting curiosity get the best of me and open the last box. my eyes widen, not believing the sight in front of me. dozens and dozens of posters sat inside the box and upon reading them i realized the cause for nicole's smirk earlier. in big bold letters, 'HARRY STYLES' was written across the posters and i closed my eyes tightly and open them again to see if i had read that correctly and i hadn't just imagined it, having let nicole get to me. sure enough, his name was still there.
i close the box quickly, picking it up and taking it over to nicole who was almost done setting up. "nicole," i say as i set the box down in front of her. "you would've told me if you were a psychic, right?"
nicole laughs at my question, "i think i would've mentioned it to you, yeah." she looks down at the box in front of her and notices it is no longer taped shut and looks back up at me with a knowing smile on her face. "i told you so."
"i-" i start, not even knowing what to say. i was shocked and my nerves had suddenly skyrocketed. although i would never openly admit it, i thought about him from time to time, remembering the day we crossed paths and how perfect that short time we spent together was. i never mentioned it, not wanting to seem ridiculous and i mean, i probably was. it's just that i've never connected with a person like that before and it saddens me when the reality that it probably meant nothing to him sinks in. it should probably mean nothing to me as well, if i'm being honest. "it's just a crazy coincidence." i finally say, trying to not let my nerves show because i found it quite embarrassing that i was feeling this way in the first place.
i'm scared to have to talk to him. would he even remember me? i strongly doubt it. i'm just not going to mention our previous encounter to him if he speaks to me because i couldn't bear the embarrassment of him not remembering me after having subconsciously put him on such a high pedestal. i refuse to let myself believe the connection was more than one sided because i know it's stupid.
my phone vibrates in my back pocket, breaking me out my thoughts and i reach for it, noticing the text that i had just received.
from donna: omg he's here
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[a/n]: harry in the next chapter ;)))