My Thorn And My Rose

We arrived and Matthew and I left right away. Matthew was all to happy to come with me. He didn’t like sound check so a trip into town was a good break for him.
‘‘What do you plan on buying?’’ He asked me as we walked up a rather busy street.
‘‘Hair dye. My hair's looking a little ratty, so I thought I’d make some kind of effort and do something with it.’’ I replied, avoiding knocks on the shoulders by passers by.
He examined my hair and nodded in agreement. ‘‘I see what you mean.’’ He said, then smirked.
I slapped him lightly on the arm and poked my tongue out at him. ‘‘Do me a favour?’’ I asked him as we entered a shop so I could buy the hair dye.
‘‘Anything for you.’’ He replied, picking up different tubs and boxes of hair products.
‘‘Cut my hair for me?’’ I asked him. He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me, raising his eyebrows.
‘‘Seriously?’’ He asked me, sounding a little shocked.
‘‘Yes, its horribly long now, and totally dead on the ends, I’m sure you wont make a mess of it.’’ I replied, giving my best pleading eyes.
‘‘But what if I do? What if it all goes wrong and I get carried away and keep cutting and styling and…’’ I cut him off when he started to ramble.
‘‘I wouldn’t have asked you to do this if I didn’t trust you, now please, will you just cut my hair?’’ I asked, now begging him.
He stared at me a short while, possibly to determine whether I was joking and about to change my mind. ‘‘Fine.’’ He sighed. ‘‘But its not my fault if it goes wrong.’’ He added.
‘‘I know. Its mine.’’ I beamed and went to pick up some black hair dye.
We took a slow walk back to the venue they were playing, picking up milkshakes on the way, Matthew’s favourite of course, so it was an excuse to keep him out longer, I wasn’t in the mood for sitting around a stuffy room all day.
‘‘So, you enjoyed being out on tour with us?’’ Matthew asked me, taking sips of his drink.
‘‘Yeah, I’m glad I eventually agreed to come with you. I was objecting to it at first, because I didn’t see how it was going to help me move on in anyway, but it has helped, so I’m glad I came, its been amazing.’’ I grinned at him causing him to smile.
We eventually reached the venue and Matthew, to his luck, was just in time to catch the end of their sound check.
‘‘Urgh, fun.’’ He muttered as he walked towards the stage, picking up his guitar as he went. I chuckled and walked to the toilets so I could dye my hair as I waited for them to finish.
I was half way through and I heard my phone start to ring. My heart seemed to stop for a second, I panicked a little. I pulled my phone from my bag to see that strange number again. This time I wasn’t curious, I ignored it, I put it back in my bag and let it ring out. He couldn’t have more then two phone calls a day, so I just had to wait for the second, and hope it would stop.
I stayed in the toilets while the dye was settling in, I had probably counted the tiles that made the ceiling fifty times over and read the same warning sign for hot water that sat above the sink a million times more but I didn’t want to drip hair dye everywhere by walking around.
Finally half an hour had passed and I stood up to lean my head over the sink and wash out the excess hair dye. I flipped my hair over and filled a cup I had with warm water and started to wash my hair out. When I was satisfied with it I flipped my hair back the right way and what I saw made my heart stop. My reflection wasn’t me, it was Terry. I punched the mirror and ran. I knew I was seeing things, I knew he wasn’t there…because it was really my reflection. But seeing his face instead of mine made me scared and I didn’t want to stay in the toilets with it.
I was to focused on what I had seen rather then the pain that was pulsing through my hand. I found the room with The Blackout sign stuck to the door and ran inside. My hair was dripping wet, my knuckles were dripping blood everywhere and my face was no doubt pale from shock.
‘‘Oh my god.’’ Was the only thing a cleaner managed to say when she saw me.
‘‘Where are they?’’ I asked, not wanting her to comfort me. I wanted my brother and Sean, and my best friend.
‘‘They’re still out on stage…are you ok, dear? You look like you need some help.’’ The cleaner said stepping towards me.
‘‘Yes…I mean no…I mean, I’m not even sure what’s wrong with me!’’ I sobbed to the random lady who just looked scared now.
‘‘Don’t worry love, I’ll go find someone.’’ She quickly ran to the door and down the corridor to find someone to help me. I let the blood drip onto the once clean floor, making a dark crimson pool beside my foot. My t-shirt was beginning to stick to my back because of my wet hair and I could feel my stomach knot together. I felt the bile rise up to my throat and I wanted to run to the toilets but I couldn’t go back in there. What if he was there? What if I wasn’t actually seeing anything?
I heard frantic voices and footsteps…well, it sounded more like they were running. ‘‘Maddy!’’ Gavin’s tone sounded frightened and angry. Just then, I vomited all over the floor. I felt bad because the cleaner had just spent most of her time making it nice and clean and tidy for the band, but I felt glued to the spot.
‘‘Maddy!’’ I heard Gavin say again as he eventually reached the room I was stood in. He ran in front of me, avoiding the vomit. He held my hand and pulled out a small piece of glass from my middle knuckle. ‘‘What the hell has happened to you?’’ He asked me, a tear escaping his eye.
‘‘It wasn’t me, Gavin. I didn’t see me.’’ I sounded crazy and there was no doubt he was going to send me home.