30 Days

“One love
One life
When it's one need…”
- One, U2.

It was Saturday, and I was bored. I’d done all my homework during the week so I wouldn’t have to spend my weekend doing it, but now I kind of regretted doing that.

“There’s nothing to do!” I groaned as I flopped on to the couch.

“Why don’t you dye your hair?” My Mum suggested from where she was hovering the carpet, “You’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”

I bolted upright and managed to fall on the floor, shouting, “I’ve gotta call Jack!”

My Mum only laughed, she knew me and Jack well.

But apparently not enough, if a thing like Jack asking to court me went unnoticed, I thought absentmindly, as I went upstairs for my phone.

Once I had my mobile, I called Jack.

“Lex?” He mumbled.

“Hey Jack,” I said, unable to control my excitement, “Are you doing anything important?”

“Just homework, and that can wait,” Jack said, laughing, “What’s up?”

“D’you wanna come to mine and help me dye my hair?” I asked, twirling my hair with a finger.

“Yeah, sure! Give me like half an hour and I’ll be there.”

“Ok.”

Before I could hang up, Jack said, “Lex, make us some hot chocolate?”

I laughed, “Ok Jacky. See you in a bit.”

After hanging up and finding the hair dye that had disappeared into my bedroom – which alone took fifteen minutes, considering how messy my room was – I went back downstairs to the kitchen. I began to get the ingredients out for hot chocolate. I was opening a cupboard for a pan when my Mum came in. I heard her chuckle.

“Jack asked you to make hot chocolate?” She said.

“Yeah.”

“And you just do it?”

I shrugged, “Well, yeah. He is my best friend.”

“Ok then.” My mum replied and then disappeared from the room.

By the time the hot chocolate was almost ready, Jack was sitting on the counter waiting.

“We gonna dye your hair pink?” Jack said, sipping on his mug of hot chocolate that I’d just given him.

“Yep.”

“But pink, really Alex? Pink?”

“Yeah pink.”

He shrugged, “Ok then. But why?”

I took a sip of my drink before answering, “Cause it’ll look cool.” I paused, “I hope.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose, “You hope? You’re dying your hair pink, and you’re ‘hoping it’ll look cool’?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re crazy, you know that?”

I nodded, “I knew that a while back.”

“Ok, let’s do this.” He said, standing up and putting his now empty mug down on the kitchen counter.

I followed him upstairs to the bathroom, grabbing the packet of hair dye from my room where I’d put it on my desk as I passed. When I got to the bathroom, Jack was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, waiting for me.

“I thought you’d gotten eaten by dinosaurs!” Jack said, standing up.

“Dinosaurs Jack? Really?” I replied, raising an eyebrow, “In Baltimore?”

“It could happen!” He protested as he took the hair dye off me and began to squirt it into the bowl he’d just acquired from somewhere.

I shook my head at my friend’s randomness and then sat on the side of the bath, giving Jack a little bit more room. I daydreamed until Jack said my name.

I looked up from where I’d been studying the tile pattern and said, “Yeah?”

“Come here.”

Obediently I got up and went to the sink, which Jack was standing next to. He gestured for me to sit down on the stool that he’d put in front of the sink. I did and he draped an old towel around my shoulders. I was only wearing an old purple t-shirt, but I appreciated Jack’s gesture nonetheless.

I felt long fingers gently carding through my hair, causing me to rest against the sink.

“How d’you want the pink?” Jack asked.

I opened my eyes, not even realising that I’d closed them to start with, and replied, “Like across the front and towards the back on my left side.”

“Ok got it.” Jack said. His fingers stopped brushing through my hair.

I felt Jack carefully tease away any leftover tangles with a comb and then he separated the hair that I wanted dyeing from the hair that I didn’t. I closed my eyes again as Jack clipped hair grips into my hair and began to apply the dye to the roots outwards to the ends of my hair. I relaxed into the rhythmic movements of Jack’s fingers until he broke the comfortable silence with a question.

“Lex, is this temporary or semi-permanent?”

“Err…can’t remember. Semi-permeant I think?”

“Makes sense, you don’t wanna go permeant with your first try.”

I hummed in agreement.

After a few peaceful minutes of spreading the dye evenly in my hair, Jack stopped and lightly slapped me on the cheek.

“Mmhm?”

“We’ve gotta wait half an hour for the dye to do its thing,” Jack said, holding a plastic bag, “If we put this on your head, we can go out of this bathroom.”

I shrugged, “Sure, go for it.”

He tied the bag around my head and washed his hands. I got up and walked towards the door.

“Shit.”

“What Jack?” I said, turning from the door.

In answer, he held up his hands. They were stained pink. I couldn’t help it – I laughed.

“Stop laughing!” Jack demanded, even as he joined in.

When we finally stopped laughing, we went downstairs and I made us another mug of hot chocolate each. We went back upstairs to my room and drank our drinks, talking about everything and anything that came into our heads until the time was up.

Just before we went into the bathroom, Jack stopped me. I looked at him and was blinded by a flash.

“Not fair!”

He laughed, “Totally fair.” He waved his phone in front of my face, “Perfect blackmail material.”

I pouted but Jack continued to laugh. I sat on the stool and let Jack, now that he’d stopped laughing, to tenderly wash the hair dye out. The dye gradually washed out with Jack’s fingers teasing it out, leaving me with my desired pink fringe and side. After handing me a towel, he sat on the side of the bath and watched as I dried my hair.

“What?” I asked once I’d finished and we were going down the stairs. He was staring at me, his brown eyes wide and his mouth slightly open.

Jack shook his head, “Doesn’t matter.”

I stopped on the stair I was standing on, “I won’t move unless you tell me.”

“Ok then, I’ll tell you,” He replied, “You – you look fucking hot man.”

I smiled, “Thanks Jacky.”

He blushed before pushing me aside so he could continue walking down the stairs. I followed him, thinking.

It wasn’t the first time Jack had given me a complement, but it was the first time that he’d done it when I’d been aware of his…attraction to me. It was nice, to know someone cared for me, because sometimes it felt like no one did.

“See ya Lex.” Jack said, shaking me out of my thoughts.

“Bye Jack.” I replied, waving as he left, shutting the door behind him.