Catastrophic Happenings

“I have a plan,” Rick grandly announced the next day at practice.

“Please share this majestic plan with us, oh wise one,” Azalea replied.

Rick gave her a sarcastic smile in return. “We,” he paused for effect. “Are going to follow Linda’s advice to a T.”

Austin asked, “Why should we listen to that bitch?”

“I think her criticism was tough, but fair.”

“So what are these grand plans of yours?” Cade pried.

“We’re going to revamp our look, and then have a photo shoot to post pictures online.”

When no one spoke up with comments, Rick went on. He turned to Azalea, “You have a hair appointment with a friend of mine next Thursday—“

“Rick!” Azalea yelled.

He was taken aback by her sudden anger. “What?” he asked, almost fearfully.

“Next Thursday?” she asked, fully expecting him to realize what he had sad.

“It’s her birthday!” Sammy exclaimed, from behind his drum kit.

Rick counted the days in his head. He cringed when he found out his error, “Next Thursday is the seventeenth.”

“Yeah,” Azalea said bluntly.

“But I thought we were celebrating on Saturday?” At this point Rick was just grabbing at straws, but he only made Azalea even more upset.

“You promised I could take the whole day off. Ben is taking me to the zoo and then we’re going out to dinner with my mom. I’m spending all of Saturday with you guys, doing whatever mystery thing you have planned.”

“Aren’t you a little old for the zoo?” asked Cade.

“One’s never too old to enjoy the fellow species that us humans inhabit the earth with.”

Since the day they had that meeting at Ben’s house, things between Cade and Azalea had definitely improved. Cade’s jabs were less hurtful. Azalea’s replies were less mean.

“I called in a lot of favors,” Rick said. “My friend Cathy is only free Thursday at four, and she’s doing it for free. And by the way, Cade, I want you to touch up those blonde streaks of yours. And Austin, the blue hair has got to go.” Both Cade and Austin subconsciously touched their outgrown roots.” But you’re going to do that on your own because I didn’t want to ask Cathy for too much. Then we have all of Friday to shop for outfits for the shoot my friend Michelle is doing on Sunday, which by the way is her day off, since we’re celebrating Azalea’s birthday on Saturday. And then on Tuesday, I was able to hook us up with some recording time in a studio in Baltimore so we can get our entire EP recorded.”

The band took a while to process the schedule Rick had just dropped on them.

“Wow, Rick,” said Azalea. “I had no idea you had so many connections.”

“Rick got around in college,” Austin snickered.

“I was popular in college,” Rick corrected.

“Hey Rick,” called Sammy.

“Yeah?”

“I get to keep my hair, right?” he asked timidly.

The entire room chuckled. “Yes,” Rick answered. Sammy immediately sighed a breath of relief. “I thought about it, but I seriously doubted any other color would fit you.”

Azalea got up from her position on the floor and stood next to him. She reached out and tousled his hair with a smile, “You wouldn’t be Sammy without your red hair.”

He blushed in response as Azalea went behind him to rest her elbows on his shoulders.

“Azalea,” Rick said sternly to get her focus back on the matter at hand. “I’m sorry it’s your birthday, but you will go to the hair appointment, right? It’s at four and you’ll be out of there by six or six-thirty at the latest.”

“You have enough time to go to the zoo before the hair appointment and you’ll be done by dinnertime,” Austin informed.

“Okay,” Azalea agreed. “For the good of the band I will sacrifice birthday time to see Cathy.”

“So what do you have planned for her hair?” Cade asked.

Rick smirked, “It’s a surprise.”

“What?” Azalea exclaimed. “You’re not going to tell me what is going to get done to my hair.”

“I’m afraid you won’t agree to it if you know beforehand. But Cathy’s amazing. You’ll look better than ever.”

Azalea’s mind fluttered with images of her with all sorts of haircuts that she deemed disastrous. But she had a feeling that Rick wouldn’t budge.

“Fine!” she exasperated. “But nothing shorter than shoulder length. And not green or a coon’s tail—“

Rick placed his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. “Relax,” he said slowly. “You’ll look great.”



“Hello?” Austin answered his cell phone, still confused from seeing that it was Azalea who was calling. He was sitting at home, playing video games since he had nothing planned for his Thursday night. He assumed since it was almost seven, Azalea had just gotten home from her hair appointment and was getting ready for her birthday dinner.

“Hey Austin,” Azalea said in a voice that lacked her normal confidence.

“What’s up?”

“I know that we aren’t the best of friends…and I normally wouldn’t talk to you about this, but Sammy wouldn’t understand and Rick is the culprit of the entire manner,” she finished angrily.

“Not liking your new hair?” Austin guessed.

“No, it’s not that. I’ve actually grown quite fond of it. But I’m practically shitting my pants that Ben is going to hate it.”

Austin instantly felt a stitch of sadness when he found out that he was the main reason for this call.

“Why don’t you send me a picture?”

“Austin,” she said in a serious tone. “I’m not that kind of girl.”

His eyes went wide as he started to panic, “No! Wait. That’s not what I meant—“ Austin stopped talking when he heard the laughter on the other side. “Very mature.”

“You make it too easy to mess with you,” Azalea replied. “I sent you one right before I called you, so it should be there by now.”

Austin sighed and rolled his eyes and thought, [You are the only that can mess with me. You damn sure mess with my head at least. He then removed the phone from his ear and went to his text message inbox. He opened his conversation with Azalea.

“Oh wow.”

Rick had made some major changes to Azalea’s brown, medium length hair. From root all the way down to the top of her rib cage streamed pin straight auburn locks, except for the heavy fringe that now covered the left side of her face. But Austin guessed that what Azalea was most anxious about were the chunky streaks of hot pink and white that made up part of her under layer.

“Ugh,” Azalea groaned at Austin’s words. “Why did Rick have to change so much at one time? Extensions and dye upon dye upon dye. I’m gonna kill him. Ben’s going to hate it.”

“No,” Austin rebutted. “You look really good.” He truly meant it too. Now she looked even more like the type of girl that Austin was usually in to, and he wasn’t sure if that improved matters or made them worse. “Why do you think Ben won’t like it?”

“He likes girls natural,” Azalea explained. “And my hair looks just about as real as Michael Jackson’s nose.”

“You look great,” he repeated. Beautiful, he thought. “If Ben loves you he’ll find you attractive no matter how you look. And you said he loves you, right?”

“Yeah, he does,” she stated, but Austin could still sense a hint of doubt in her voice.

“I still thought Rachel was attractive when she got her septum pierced. I used to hate that piercing, but I thought it was pretty cute on her.”

When Austin heard nothing but silence on the other end he asked, “Hello?”

“Oh! Sorry, I’m still here,” Azalea responded. “With the way the rest of the band acts, they make it seem like I need to treat your ex like she’s Voldemort. I was just surprised that you brought her up.”

“Well,” Austin said softly, sadly. “I guess I’m finally starting to get over her. Have fun at dinner and stop worrying.”

“Thanks,” Azalea replied. “And thanks for listening. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

Austin ended the call and rested both his hands on his lap. He opened his phone and went to his conversation with Azalea. After staring at the picture for a few moments, he locked the message. Austin sighed and sunk further into the couch, that picture of Azalea seeping into his mind; he was officially feeling the ups and downs of being in the ‘friend zone.’