The More Boys I Meet

“Alice!” I shrieked from her bathroom.

I heard a thud and her little footsteps hurrying through her living room and kitchen to get to me. “What? What’s wrong?”

I hold out my hair where there was a giant wad of bubble gum tangled in my dark hair.

“What the giant fuck.”

“I don’t know!” I panicked. “Get it out! Get it out! Oh my God that little fucker in my Geography class will fucking die that little fucker!”

“Okay,” Alice held out her arms. “Just let’s be clam here. We can fix this. We can totally fix this.”

“How?!” I shook my gum filled hair at her.

She grabbed me by the hand and threw my shoes and jacket at me. “I’ve got an amazing hairdresser.”

I stopped. “I fucking grew out my hair for five years,” I said, actually realizing what was happening.

“Uhm. . . well change is good,” Alice nodded. “It’s spring so spring means change,” she declared.

“It’s barely March!” I threw my shoes at the ground.

She sighed, picked up my shoes and threw them at me again. “Do you want the gum in your hair forever or what?!”

“Stop yelling at me!” I cried. “I’m going through a crisis you inconsiderate bitch!”

She sighed. “I am sorry for being an inconsiderate bitch. Now can we get a move on so she doesn’t shave your head?”

I must have gasped because she snorted and walked out to start her car. “The nerve of the bitches I meet,” I muttered.

“You look terrified,” Alice told me as she drove us across town.

“I always am whenever we drive your car. It’s about to break down any second now.”

“Oh hush. Don’t listen to her baby. You’re just fine. You purr.”

“She growls,” I grumbled.

“She’s taking you to get the gum stuck out of your hair,” she reminded me happily.

I shut up after that.

Two hours later and finally the woman let me get a look at my hair. “What took so long?” I asked as she spun me around.

She smiled. “You said fix it. I fixed you and your hair.”

I glanced nervously at Alice who shot me a thumbs up. “Marcus will love it!”

I raised my eyes to the mirror and my mouth just dropped. I was used to seeing my long black hair down past my boobs, straight and flat essentially. The hair that was resting on my head was not what I was used to.

“You look hot,” Alice told me.

I fingered the short locks of hair that was just above my shoulders. Above my shoulders. It even had a wave to it, being this short. And my hair had layers.

“Do you like?” she asked.

I hesitated. “I think so. . .” I answered honestly. “I’ve been growing out my hair for a very long time and I didn’t think I was getting a haircut today.”

She chuckled. “Well with long or short hair, you’re beautiful and I’m sure that boyfriend of your’s will love it.”

“I guess I should tell them so they’ll recognize me when we go home in a few weeks,” I thought out loud.

“Or,” Alice’s eyes lit up. “Just wait until we go home and let them be surprised!”

I sighed. “Hair grows back, right?”

Alice laughed. “Don’t worry. In five years, it will be just like that gum never got stuck in your hair.”

I punched her in the shoulder. “Inconsiderate bitch,” I mumbled.