Rebel Yell

Shit. The night fell around me and I have no idea where the time went. Sure it went something like; one bottle, two bottle, three bottles four, five bottles, six bottles seven bottles-
“another one please” I slammed the empty bottle next to Tre and he chuckled at my pathetic drunken state.

“we are out Rhodes, we only got a bit of booze for tonight because we have a show later on and we figured you wouldn’t want us drink” Tre grabbed my arm, pulling me back up right and he tapped my arm reassuringly. “In fact Rhodes, we are on in less than 15 minutes and so, I think you should go back to the bus with Debbie and the rest” he nodded towards Debbie, who had helped with the organising of the roadies today.

“Tre?” I asked, as I tried to slow down our pace over to Debbie and he looked at me questionably, one eyebrow higher than the other, “why don’t you just kiss her already?” I hiccupped in between my speech, a typical drunken moment for me and he smiled as if smiling to his own thoughts.

“My idea exactly but I’m just going to wait till she is ready” I felt a tear run down my face, that was really sweet of him to say and I pushed the tear away from my tired eyes.

“that’s so sweet” I slammed my fist into Tre’s chest and turned to look at Adeline, who was stood with Debbie with the same smirk as Tre. “Where did Billie Joe go?” I asked out of curiosity; of where my boyfriend had gotten too after he had picked me up off my bum, from yet another clumsy fall on the floor.

“he went to get his guitar set up for tonight’s show, now you go and rest and we’ll give you our present later on” Tre ruffled my hair, like an owner would a dog and nodded towards Adeline as he finally let my arm go. It was like Bambi on Ice and I tumbled into Adeline’s open arms....or so I thought but my body undershot her arms and my legs crashed onto the concrete floor before heading, face first into the dirt. Ouch, the pain that shot through my knees was ten times more painful than the face full of concrete I had received. I stirred light headedly on the floor before finally giving up the fight,

“Well at least it will be easier to get her to the bus” I heard Debbie say jokingly before the chuckles of Adeline and Tre followed.

The first step to recovery is admitting to yourself your downfall, mine is being a lunatic when I drink. I’m like that woman, Kim Basinger off Blind Date, the one who is allergic to alcohol and ruins Bruce Willis’s life.

I had found myself seconds (or so I thought) after I had stumbled out of Tre’s grasp, in my bunk, feeling the pain of an awful headache arising. It wasn’t a hangover headache because, honestly I knew for a fact I was still drunk but obviously, from the size of the lump on my forehead, as I glanced at myself in the mirror- the headache was very much self inflicted.

However even with my headache, the fuzzy beer goggles and the inability to act normal, it didn’t take long for the two other ladies, who occupied the bus, to have their fun.

“We are going to give you a birthday makeover, we are going to dress you up so good” Adeline picked up another strand of my hair before placing it in another deformed style.

“you’re going to look so fetch” Debbie searched through her makeup case for a nail colour to match the shade of hair dye, they had planned on dying my lovely brown locks into.

“fetch? Who says fetch anymore?” I asked Adeline, as she snapped her scissors together in one hand. I shook my head, dazed at what she was doing and carried on looking at my best friend, as she contemplated which colour to use on my nails. It was like one of those very vivid dreams, I knew what they were going to do and yet I did nothing but sit and watch them plot, to give me a ‘makeover’. I didn’t think I needed a makeover, I was perfectly happy with how I looked, a little bit lumpy in places, a reasonable hairstyle, adequate makeup when needed and overall an ‘ok’ fashion sense but really why wasn’t i stopping them.

“Billie is going to love it” Adeline pulled on two rubber gloves out of the hair dye box and slapped them to her wrists, like a surgeon would before going in to operate and I cringed as Debbie’s eyes lit up.

“you are going to look so freaking cool, Adeline make sure you do all the roots” Debbie had begun to place her makeup back in the bag, more carefully than she had done getting it out and watched, as a squirt of liquid, that stunk of cat pee, shot into my hair. The coldness on my scalp was very refreshing to my hot head but as more and more of the hair dye was poured and massaged into my head, it began to heat up again.

“Let me do your nails whilst she dyes you hair” It was more of a demand, rather than a request, as she pulled at my hand, which was covered in bruises and hangnails towards her, where she sat black nail polish in hand.

“black, why black?” I asked her lazily but she just smiled, correcting my hand, as it slid down her lap.

“It will all make sense when you see what a babe we’ve turned you into” Debbie spoke softly, her full concentration on each stoke of nail polish she did. I laughed a little at this because for some strange reason, when I’m drunk, I find everything ten times more amusing and everything is always twenty times more amusing when Debbie does it.

“Stop wiggling, you’ll get dye in your face” Adeline held my head still, as I did what I was told and let them do what they wanted with me.

Hello I’ m Marci Madison, Barbie’s older and better sister......with gorgeous matching 50’s housewife clothes.

I could feel myself zone in and out of daydreams, as I mindless watched what they were doing to me. The hair dye was washed out, my nails were painted black and something strange was going on my face. I could feel my hair become lighter, as pieces of hair dropped onto the floor in front of me.

“You look fantastic” Adeline finished ‘poofing’ my hair, as she liked to call it, and Debbie stood smiling, looking like a proud mother at her kids graduation.

“Just wait till people see you, Billie, Mike and Tre are just going to be like, ‘who brought Madonna on tour?” I smiled a little, dreading the worst of what they had done. It had all come more apparent, as slowly but surely they sobered me up on glasses of water and bread.

“no, more like who brought Blondie on tour”

“let me see then” I asked, anxious yet scared of what they had done as Debbie popped the last of her makeup into her bag and stood up next to Adeline. Her bump had grown dramatically since she had told us and the clothes that she had once been able to smuggle her bump away in, now hardly covered her belly. She had been asked by Tre, to utilise his clothes but Debbie took a look at the four t-shirts he wore and decided against the idea of a sweaty t-shirt.

Adeline brought me over to the wardrobe, where there was a built in mirror, showing a cracked but overall working reflection of me. She placed her smooth hands over my eyes before revealing the new image. I took a deep breath and I squeezed my eyes closed as I felt her remove her hands slowly. I didn’t dare look at myself but once I did, I swear I felt my jaw hit the floor.

I came closer to the mirror and viewed my new permanent image.........that’s it I’m never drinking again- ever! My hair was cropped, it no longer had its curly bounce to its brownness but instead, it was peroxide blonde, much like Billie Joe’s. My eyes were dark with the slight resemblance of what Bettie page might have done, if she was in the back of a lorry and drunk. I touched my hair and cringed, this was permanent now. I had never done anything like this before, never, I was never even tempted by the idea and now look at me.

If I said I was drunk before, I knew straight away after looking at myself once again I was 100% sober.

“So what do you think, Blondie?” I turned to Debbie and Adeline, hoping that they’d pull out a candid camera and say it is a wig, but they didn’t and I turned back to cringe again at my image.

“I look like Myra Hindley” I saw a resemblance to that serial killer back in England and they both tutted behind me in disappointment.

“you look like Madonna Marci, we did a good job Adeline” Debbie high fived Adeline and I turned around to eye them both up. Shoot me!