-Forest-
"Sit down." Shelby told me as she pulled up a chair from their small apartment table.
Before I could do it myself, Fireball pushed me down onto the chair by my shoulders, and I landed in it with an 'oomph'.
I stayed silent and watched as Zoe walked back into her room, and as the twins rushed around the apartment finding the correct things to use for dying my hair and getting the faded pink out of it.
Bowl? Check.
Hair dye brush applicator? Check
Hair dye that isn't box dye? Check
Because apparently Fireball lives by a saying that is "Life is like a box of hair dye. You never know what you're gonna get."
Zoe came out of her room eventually with her laptop, a calculator, notebook, pencils and pens.
This might sound weird, even to me, but there was something about her that was different from everyone else I had met. And I meet a lot of people, majority being my fans and teenage girls who have a Pinterest board on their phone of what their wedding with me would look like.
But Zoe didn't even give me a second glance. She seemed bored with me. She saw me as a human and not as some famous person who was just expected to smile and sign everything in your hands.
She was the one person who it seemed like she didn't care about me, but she is the one person I somehow want.
Woah. Don't jump ahead of yourself there, Forest.
A chuckle behind me snaps me out of my thoughts.
"Forest, you're practically drooling." I hear Shelby whisper to me.
I scoff. "I am not."
Fireball chimes in with a laugh. "Oh you very much are."
I just roll my eyes. "She'll hear you." I sigh back to the twins.
"Nah. She's zoned out." Shelby says as she applies some hair dye to my hair. I try not to shiver at the wet slimy feeling.
And they're right. She is staring intensely back and forth between her laptop and her notebook, jotting down whoever knows what.
"What is she doing?" I look to fireball for answers.
Fireball amusingly chewed on a red vine. "Math."
"Math?" I scrunch you my nose in distaste.
"It's her major. I don't understand why she's torturing herself with that either." They shrugged.
"She's very talented at dance, yet she chose math as her major. Not sure why because she can make a good career out of ice skating if she really wants." Shelby explained as I felt her plop more dye onto my hair.
That explains the skates in her room then. Someday I'm going to have to have her dance for me, and I'm going to make sure that we stay in contact. I can't just let this woman out of my life.
I watched her silently as she punched things into her calculator, and as her pencil glided across the paper, with a lot of flipping it upside down in her fingers to erase her mistakes.
She was studious, smart, and stable. And if she didn't think she was stable, she certainly didn't show it and let others know she wasn't. That's what I immediately liked about Zoe.
Also she didn't really seem to care about her appearance around me. All she wore were sweats, no makeup, and her blonde hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. Usually women would have their faces painted around me, and very revealing clothing.
She tucked some of her flyaway blonde hairs behind her ear, and looked back up to her laptop.
"One last section of your hair and I'm done." Shelby tells me, snapping me out of my thoughts and staring.
"Has it really been that long already?" I ask, and Fireball laughs, putting down yet another redvine.
"If I hadn't known that you guys only met tonight, I'd think you were in love with her or a couple or something." Fireball shakes their head, and I glance back to Zoe, still zoned completely out.
"The only way to knock her out of that is to give her food. She's too in her head to really care about us at the moment." Fireball continues, obviously watching me closely.
"Food?" I raise a questioning brow.
"Yup. It's the only sign of letting her brain know of how much time has actually passed while it's light years away in space somewhere." Shelby explains, and sets the bowl that was once full of dye back on the counter.
"Now come with me, I'm going to wash the dye out of your hair." Shelby taps my shoulders lightly, and I stand up, making sure the towel draped across my shoulders doesn't slide off.
With one last glance to Zoe, I follow Shelby into their small apartment bathroom. A chair was set up in front of the sink.
"Thank you for dying my hair. It's better than some professional that takes hours in my opinion." I tell Shelby as I sit down, and she shrugs.
"I had a fun time doing it. Now tilt your head back and let me know if the temperature of the water is good."
I suddenly felt water pour over my head, and her slowly adjusting it from cold to lukewarm. I gave her a thumbs up when it was fine and when she no longer needed to adjust the temperature.
"Is Zoe always this cold towards people?" I couldn't help but just look at Shelby, and she bit her bottom lip in thought before answering.
"No." She shakes her head.
"Why is she cold towards me then? She might as well be known for being Elsa with how cold she is."
Shelby stifles a laugh. "I promise she's usually not cold towards people like she is towards you. She's just going through a lot right now."
"Does it have something to do with that redhead her and I ran into at the store?" I think out loud, and I feel her hands pause with moving.
"Redhead?" Shelbys smile fell from her face.
"Yeah. He was named after some city or something. Barcelona or whatever." I roll my eyes, and Shelby looks away, glancing at the door.
I narrow my eyes, my suspicions rising about this man with the more information I knew about him.
"It's not my place to explain. And whatever you do, do not mention him to Zoe unless you're looking for a death wish." Shelby turns back to me, warning me carefully.
I gulp and nod, deciding not to press on the topic any further.
But I made a note to myself to be sure to gain Zoe's trust to find out what exactly he did to her.
"Shit, I left the conditioner on the counter. One moment." Shelby exclaimed, quickly turning off the water and standing up, rushing out of the bathroom.
I sit myself up, and stand up, peering out the edge of the door.
Down the hall, I see Shelby whispering something to Fireball, and their expression darkened.
I pull myself away from peering out into the hallway, deciding it was a better idea to drop the topic on this Beijing dude.
I sit myself back down in the chair just on time for Shelby to walk back in with the conditioner, and we sat in silence for the rest of the time
———
I held in a laugh as fireball waved a redvine under Zoe's nose, and she jolted up, looking around the room, and then glancing down at the candy.
"It's been two hours babe. Take a break." Fireball smiles, and Zoe sighs, closing her laptop.
"I need to go to sleep." She mumbles, clearly obvious that she has worn herself out.
Fireball hums in agreement.
A knock on the door has us all turning to look at it. Who on earth could be here at this hour?
Shelby opens the door, and I roll my eyes.
Cassie did not look happy with me.
"Forest. Where the hell have you been?" She crosses her arms, her eyes boring into mine.
"Uh...here?" I shrug, and Cassie frowns.
She storms into the apartment, much to the twins protests, and grabs me by the ear.
"If you ever pull this shit again I will-" she begins.
"You'll what? I do this all the time and you never fail to threaten me." I retort, interrupting her.
"I'll pull you out of the deal." A smirk falls on her face, and I scowl, not interrupting any further.
"Thanks for taking care of Forest, ladies. But it's time I take him back to his place before you guys get mobbed." Cassie turns to the new friends I have made, their eyes all wide with confusion.
Although fireball looked more than annoyed with Cassie not only barging into their apartment, but also calling them a lady.
"Let's go." Cassie pulls me away, hand still on my ear painfully, and I don't even catch a chance to wave goodbye to the people who made me feel like a real human again.