Me-Black. Dark black.
Ava-love it! Let's do it! I’ll be over soon with dye.
I toss my phone on the bed and head over to the dresser to grab clothes for today. Knowing I’m going to be dying my hair, I throw on a pair of dark leggings and then search through the drawers, trying to find one of Hunter’s black t-shirts. When I don’t find one, I throw on one of my new t-shirts and then make my way out to the kitchen, where I can hear him. I stop in the doorway. “Can I borrow one of your black shirts?” He nods but doesn’t turn away from the stove, and I wonder for just a moment what he’s making. Knowing it doesn’t matter because that part of my life is over, I spin around and head to his room. I grab a black t-shirt out of one of his drawers and then make my way back to my room to wait for Ava.
It doesn’t take long for her to show up. She knocks on my door and doesn’t wait for me to answer before she opens the door. “I’m here!”
“I got that,” I say dryly.
“Okay, when you said black hair dye, I thought that was a no-brainer. But do you know how many shades of black they have? There’s black, soft black, peppercorn black, natural black, espresso black, midnight black, jet black.”
“I think I get the picture.”
“You really don’t,” she says as she throws two boxes of hair dye on the bed.
“There was plum black. What even is that? Purple black? I don’t get it. Anyway, I got soft black and espresso black. You can choose which one.”
I stare at both of them. “Have you done this before?”
“Dye hair?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Oh yeah. Many times.”
“Really?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Once or twice.”
I find that I don’t even care. “All right. Let’s do it. I want the blond gone. The blond was old me.”
“Totally. You are gonna rock this black; it’s going to look amazing!” We set up camp in the bathroom. “All right. Let’s get this started. Let me just do this real quick.”
“What are you doing?” I ask out of curiosity.
Her eyes meet mine in the mirror. “Nothing.” Her face isn’t nearly as innocent as she’s trying to make it out to be.
“You’re asking ChatGPT how to dye hair, aren’t you?” I accuse.
“Yep.”
The next few hours pass in a blur of making a mess, laughing, arguing, and having the best time I’ve had in a really long time. Ava doesn’t let me look in the mirror the entire time, which was scary before she started making faces of concern. Now, I’m really starting to worry. But it’s too late; I’m all in now. I’ll make the best of it, no matter how good or bad it looks. I figure it can’t look any worse than what I had before.
Chapter Nine
Sherese
“All right.” She finishes combing my hair. “I think it’s done.” I start to turn around. “Not yet,” she shrieks, and I nearly fall out of my chair.
“What in the world?!”
“You can’t look yet!”
I stare at her. “And why is that?”
“Because we have to do a whole outfit.”
I stare at her in confusion. “What?”
