A Place on My Pillow

Half and hour later, Polly’s head felt much lighter. And as always, she could not stop touching her hair. Rachel had chopped and layered Polly’s golden locks. The longest strands of her hair now only just met her shoulders. It was soft, like stroking a new teddy bear’s fur. The ends didn’t feel so brittle that a gentle brushing might break them off. She was in awe when Rachel had turned her around to see herself. She literally let out a gasp of surprise. She looked like an entirely different person, not like the street rat she’d grown accustomed to seeing staring back at her. She looked like Young Polly, except for the lackluster pale skin and the dark bruise-like circles below her dulled brown eyes. Young Polly would’ve been appalled, seeing the state of Current Polly’s skin and nails. Oh, the nails! Young Pollyanna would’ve died of humiliation, seeing Current Polly’s chipped and broken nails, bare and worn. She would’ve turned her back on her older self. It wasn’t that Young Polly was shallow, at least not about others. She loved people for their personalities, and didn’t care what people looked like. But she was very prim and proper about her own appearance. She liked to look her best, that’s what her friends had said. That’s what she thought as well.

“I love it,” Polly said and hugged Rachel. Rachel grinned and shooed the pair out of the shop before her boss came back and made Pollyanna pay. The pair of girls left the shop and headed for a clothing store, Cady chattering about how amazing Polly looked. Polly kept running her hands through it, whacking herself in the shoulder when there was no more hair to guide her movements.

“What kind of clothes do you like? Skirts and blouses? Jeans and t-shirts? Dresses?” Cady asked.

“Anything really, as long as it comes in a dark green,” Polly replied.

“Why dark green?”

“It’s my favorite color, and it’s always been the best color on me. That and navy blue,” Polly said. Cady nodded and pulled Polly into a store geared towards teenage girls with no waist, no chest and no butt. Even though Polly had lost quite a bit of weight in the past year and a half, she still couldn’t fit in those clothes.

“Cady,” Polly started. Cady wasn’t listening. She was halfway across the store already, skipping as she went. Polly sighed, hung her head and followed the bouncing girl to the jeans.

“Now! Do you prefer skinny, boot or straight?” Cady asked as Pollyanna neared.

“The pants I have are straight leg,” Polly replied, leaning against the dressing room door.

Cady turned her eyes down to the taller girl’s legs and whistled.

“Do your legs ever end? I wish I had legs like that! Gosh, I’m so jealous!”

“Are you kidding? It’s a pain finding pants that cover all this,” Polly said, gesturing down her legs. “I wish I had your frame. You’re so petite and cute.”

“Nah, you don’t. People use you as an armrest when you’re my size. They give you nicknames like Itty Bitty and Munchkin. It’s not as cute as people think it is.”

“Better than Stretch or BeanPole.”

“No, Alex is a bean pole.”

“Yeah, he is.”

The pair burst into a giggle fit that didn’t end for a few minutes. Other shoppers stared in disgust at the two, and the cashiers looked at them as if they’d lost all of their marbles. To be fair, they kind of had.

“Oh, that really wasn’t that funny,” Polly breathed out, trying to calm herself down. Cady had a cute laugh, Polly thought, listening to the small girl also try to stop laughing. It wasn’t working.

“Ow. Ow. That hurts,” Cady complained, while still giggling.

“Laugh too much?” Polly asked. Cady nodded, taking in a deep breath.

“I think I’m good now. Okay. Back to the pants. We’re gonna need a long straight leg. Do you prefer the light or dark washed?”

“Light.”

“Good. Me too.”

And so the day went on.

The weirdest part was that Polly was actually enjoying herself. She hadn’t had a friend that was a girl since she was 19, almost three years before. And even though she had had a friend that was a girl at the point didn’t mean that she’d had fun like that. No. That friend was more for intellectual stimulation. She had served no girlish purposes, not the way Cady was.

“Thank you, Cady,” Polly said as they were walking out of the shoe store. They’d visited three clothing stores, two shoe stores, a music store, Hot Topic, and the book store. They were carrying 8 bags each, laughing as they went. They had bought a ridiculous amount of stuff but that was okay by both of them.

“For what? Buying you stuff?”

“No. Well, yes. But I was more referring to the, uhm, company. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the company of a decent girl. Especially one as fun and fun loving as you. I mean, it’s just… nice. Thank you.”
Cady grinned and dropped her bags. She launched herself at Polly and hugged her, catching her off-guard. Cady detached herself and asked, “Is it wrong that I consider you to be a really close friend? I know I only met you today and we haven’t talked about anything personal. But you’re easy to talk to. And I prefer to surround myself with people who are easy to talk to. It makes life so much more enjoyable when you don’t have to force words out, you know?”

“I know. Don’t worry. You and Alex, two best friends right now.”

Cady grinned and picked up her bags.

“I’m so hungry, how about you?”

“Starved,” Polly grinned at her friend. Friend.