27
Ty
The following day, Liam and his team prepped for our trip to Austin, Texas. At one point Tara and Liam headed into town to fetch additional supplies. I sat out on the balcony with Liam’s laptop on an old wooden table as I worked on sample questions for the CPA exam. If and when I survived all this, I’d be taking it after the semester ended.
Although, even as I looked at the questions, I knew my interest wasn’t really there. I was pushing myself to do it because I wanted to finish this thing I’d started. Not give Mom a reason to judge me for having taken the chance.
Lost, uncertain…at least the reality around me mirrored how I felt on the inside.
I spent a good bit of time being responsible before I buried myself inStrange Jungle #34.
Since the night before, I’d had an easier time focusing. Something about what Liam and I had accomplished in the bedroom, and all we’d discussed, had brought me some peace of mind. Considering all the other shit we had to deal with, I shouldn’t have felt at ease. But between Liam talking to me about Blake and confirming so much of the same things I was feeling for him, everything else seemed so goddamn insignificant. Or perhaps, so far beyond my control that I’d just thrown my hands up in surrender.
A few hours had passed since Liam and Tara left before I heard the car pull into the drive. By that time, I was lounging on the bed, nearing the end of my book.
The door opened, and Liam stepped in, carrying a couple of plastic bags.
“How’d the shopping trip go?” I asked. “Pick up any other books for me? At the rate I’m going, I’ll get through the first batch in twenty or thirty years.”
He enjoyed my joke before replying, “I think we got everything we need for now. I grabbed some more clothes for us, and there’s hair dye in here for you.”
He passed me the bag before heading down the hall, and I heard him moving around in the bathroom. I inspected the contents of the bag, noticing a few boxes of hair dye, an assortment of colors.
Oh.I couldn’t help my surprise, but why the fuck should I have been surprised? They’d mentioned disguises, and of course, if people were looking for us, it made sense.
As Liam stepped back into the room, he seemed to notice my expression. “Is that color not going to work for you? I tried to pick options. I think the brown will come out looking the best with your natural color.”
I glanced back into the bag and sifted through the boxes, retrieving the one with a “medium brown” banner across it. I assessed it on the model.
It was funny how I’d gone from feeling so at peace to suddenly like the rug had been pulled out from under me all over again.
“This model looks good in it, so that’s promising.” I tried to make a joke of it, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to make light of everything being thrown at me, and something about this left a knot in my gut I couldn’t quite shake. “What color are you doing?”
“Purple—whatdayathink?” I laughed, and he answered, “How about you pick?”
His laid-back attitude assured me I was making too big a deal out of something that should have been trivial. But that didn’t make me feel much better.
“We should go ahead and get that out of the way so Mick can take new pictures for our passports. Then we can pick out fun names. You like Clark? I think I could be a sexy Clark.”
I laughed again. “Yeah, you’d be a sexy Clark.”
His expression didn’t change much, but he approached the bed and sat down beside me. “What’s wrong?”
“Sorry. It’s just a lot. Never dyed my hair before.”
“I can help you.”
“Not what I meant. There are instructions inside and I can read, but I just always had this look. Kind of feels like me, you know?”
His face bunched up like he didn’t understand what I meant, and considering I had to be in disguise for our safety, it was stupid to have any issues about it. “I’m fine. Sorry. Let’s do it,” I said, determined to push through.
“Come on. You’ll feel better once it’s done.”
He guided me into the bathroom and worked through the directions, wearing the plastic gloves included as he massaged the solution into my hair.
“I imagine you’ve done this a lot,” I said, looking at his reflection in the mirror.
“Different colors, different styles, different genders. You name it, I’ve done it. What made you say that?”
