Liability

july 15, 2014.

“Alright, love, spill the beans, please.” Lou dramatically flopped herself down into the salon chair in front of my station at Bleach. She had probably only been back in the country for a few hours, long enough to drop her suitcases and her daughter off at her house, before she was in the salon to get her hair done. She needed her dark roots touched up to match the platinum colour of the rest of her hair, and had been texting me about the possibility of trying out some new extensions, insisting she was coming in to get this all done the instant she was back in the country. Hours before stepping foot into the brightly lit salon, now long since closed to the public, she had been relaxing on a beach in Portugal on the final day of the European One Direction tour. It amazed me how Lou could live such an over the top and lavish lifestyle while on the road, but was so down to Earth and level headed once home. “I want to know everything I’ve missed while I was gone.”

I heard Alex, my boss and Sam’s co-owner of the Bleach empire, let out a loud laugh from the back room where she was cleaning up and eaves dropping on our conversation. The salon’s regular hours had came and gone, but I had promised Lou I would stay late today just to fix her hair since she had called me repeatedly with rants about how tour always left her hair an utter disaster. I was sure Gemma would be popping by soon as well, as she usually stopped by to say hi on her way home from work if we were working late.

“You haven’t missed much.” I answered vaguely, reaching for a comb from off of the counter to begin to brush out Lou’s unruly waves.

Lou rolled her eyes, ignoring my response. “Sam!” She hollered loud enough so her twin sister could hear her from where she was working in the back room. “Trix is lyin’ to me out here!”

I continued to run the comb, rather roughly, through Lou’s hair as Sam appeared in the doorway into the backroom. Her hands were full of bottles of the pre-packaged pastel hair dye Bleach specialized in selling, which told me she was probably helping Alex fill out orders in the back room. Since the popularity of the pastel grunge salon had grown, they had begun to sell their custom colours as well as apparel and at home bleach kits on their website. It had absolutely blown up once Lou and other girls in the One Direction crew had endorsed the brand, and I knew Sam spent most of her days now trying to keep up with the massive amount of online orders that came in on a daily basis.

“What’s she doing now?” Sam asked, raising her eyebrows expectantly at her sister.

“Tellin’ me fibs about how nothing’s happened since I last saw her a month ago.” Nothing substantial had happened in my life here in London, especially not in comparison to the adventures she had probably gotten up to while travelling across Europe for the last month. “Remember when I last saw you? A month ago? In Paris? When you spent all night with Harry?”

Her series of questions were obviously directed towards me, and it was my turn to roll my eyes as her questions earned a hearty laugh from Sam.

“She keeps telling me nothing happened. Claims Britain’s most eligible bachelor, Mr. Styles, just helped her back to the hotel when she wasn’t feelin’ well and that was it.” Sam answered on my behalf before I could get an excuse out. Granted, that was the exact story I was going to tell Lou, as it was the truth. “It’s her story and she’s stuck to it.”

Lou scowled at me through her reflection in the large mirror that hung above my station. “I’ve been waiting a month for a juicy story only to find out nothing happened?”

Placing the comb back onto the countertop, I just shrugged my shoulders. “Don’t know what else to tell ya, Lou.” I answered as I grabbed a bottle of hair developer, and a tub of bleach powder out of one of the drawers I had at my station. Putting on a pair of black latex gloves to protect my hands, I also grabbed a bowl to mix the bleach in, along with a brush to mix and apply with.

The morning after my birthday in Paris, Sam, Gemma, and myself had to leave early. It was a direct result of booking the trip so last minute, as the only return tickets we could get left at noon the following day. We just had enough time to say goodbye to Lou and Lux, while Gemma woke up at the crack of dawn to squeeze in a quick breakfast with her brother, before we were on our way back to England. We had missed the opportunity for a girl’s gossip debrief discussing everything that had happened the night before, usually my favourite part of a girl’s night out.

“You could tell her about how you’re still living at my bloody flat, Trix.” Sam dropped her bombshell of information, before immediately turning back around and retreating into the back room to continue filling out merchandise orders.

My week at Sam’s flat had ended up turning into nearly a month of consistently crashing on her couch and I think Sam was growing sick of it. Apparently fans had snapped photos of Harry and I arriving back to the hotel that night, despite security’s best efforts to keep us separate. They were grainy, low quality pictures that a fan had taken of us in the lobby waiting for the elevator, Harry’s hand protectively resting on my back. They didn’t look as innocent as they actually were, and there had been a few nasty press articles about me. My name was in every gossip column for a week, until Harry was photographed with an Italian supermodel in Milan not long after and I was forgotten just as quickly as I had been discovered. But Jackson had seen the pictures, and had arrived at my flat in the middle of the night to confront me on them. He threw dishes and spat hurtful names at me all night, until he passed out on the couch and I could sneak away to Sam’s for a few nights. I left out all these details of why I refused to go home, rambling off false stories about how I just wasn’t used to being alone in my flat. I knew Sam knew that Jackson was the reason I was avoiding my own house, but she had stopped pressing me for details. I was running out of excuses, and I think she was just waiting for me to come to her with the truth when I was ready.

“Because of Jackson?” Lou spoke carefully, watching me as I measured out the developer and powder and began to mix the two together.

“Yeah.” I answered shortly, avoiding looking up at Lou.

It was still a sore subject. I hated how helpless and stuck I was feeling, even after breaking up with Jackson. I had change the locks on my flat like Sam had instructed me too, but it didn’t stop him from showing up drunk and making a scene as he banged on my front door and hollered loud enough to wake all my neighbours. Every time I was forced to return to my flat alone, I waited around in an anxious panic on edge over the fact that he could show up at any moment. I contemplated moving, but I had gotten the large flat at such a bargain price for the London real estate market that I couldn’t bring myself to pass it up. I knew I would have to downgrade significantly as my monthly rent budget wouldn’t allow me the luxuries of my current flat at full market price. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been able to eat a full meal or sleep through an entire night. Sam had taken pity on me, letting me stay on her couch in an effort to stop me from withering away into nothing, but I was still so sluggish and drained.

I think what I really needed was a holiday to get away from everything.

Lou didn’t say anything as I began to apply the bleach to the dark roots of her hair, but the way that she was chewing on her bottom lip told me she had a lot she wanted to say.

“I’ve tried to tell her she needs to do something legally before Jackson does anything that could hurt her.” Sam was back, taking a seat in one of the empty salon chairs to join Lou and I’s conversation. She had obviously been listening in the back room where she was supposed to have been working.

The front door of the salon swung open, and Gemma stepped inside arms completely full. Gemma’s arrival signalled to me it must have been nearly 9 o’clock, an hour passed our usual closing time. Her arrival also bought me a few spare seconds to think up a defence for Lou and Sam’s interrogation over Jackson as conversation paused for a moment as she made her way inside.

“Fill me in.” Gemma demanded as she took up the empty chair on the other side of Lou and I so we were surrounded on both sides by her and Sam. She was straight to the point as she sat down, not even bothering to waste time with greetings or salutations.

“Trix says nothing happened with her and Harry on her birthday, and Jackson is still harassing her at her flat.” Lou summarized, earning an enthusiastic nod from Sam.

“Yeah, H said the same thing. I asked him the next morning over breakfast.” Gemma set her bag down on the floor, slung her sweater over the back of the chair she was now occupying and popped open a styrofoam takeaway container that she had been carrying. There was a plastic fork already inside as Gemma took a few bites of what smelled like orange chicken after confirming my story that nothing had happened between Harry and I. The smell of her food instantly reminding me that I hadn’t had dinner yet that day. Or lunch. Or breakfast, really. A coffee on my way to the salon hardly counted as a meal and I was now madly craving a bite of Gemma’s dinner. I would have to make a detour on my way home to pick up some of my own when I finally left Bleach today, or I was going to go mad. I couldn’t recall a time I had ever had a food craving so intense, but I guess that’s what happened when you didn’t sleep and skipped every meal.

Lou looked disappointed at Gemma’s answer, while I laughed. “I told you.” I sang, as I sectioned off a new layer of Lou’s hair to apply to bleach to.

“He asked about you the other day, though.” Lou wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me as she spoke, but all I could do was shake my head. I wondered if this was before or after he was busy cozying up with exotic European supermodels. “Wanted to know how you were doing.”

“He just wanted to make sure I was okay because I was a right mess last time he saw me.” I reasoned out loud, but Lou seemed to ignore my comment. She reached out to grab a piece of Gemma’s chicken, but the younger girl just scowled and swatted her hand away.

“I told him you’re doing pretty well since you’re a newly single pringle.” I glared at Lou through the mirror as I painted on more bleach to her hair. “That sure seemed to peak his attention.” This was definitely before the models then. Or Lou was exaggerating. She had the tendency to do that sometimes.

“Oh, gross.” Gemma whined, dramatically placing her hands over her ears. “This is my baby brother we’re talking about here.”

I took my time replying, adding the last bit of bleach to Lou’s hair before placing the bowl onto the counter and peeling the black vinyl gloves off of my hands. “He was just being a nice guy and checking up on me.” I reiterated, slipping my phone out of the pocket of the cutoff jean shorts I was wearing in order to set a timer to let the bleach on Lou’s hair process.

“Yeah, Harry’s always been a nice guy.” Sam chimed in, a wicked grin on her face.

“A nice, single, guy who just so happens to be around your age.” Lou added.

“And also happens to be my brother.” Gemma whined once more.

“Shut up, Gemma.” Sam snapped, earning an eye roll from the brunette and a loud laugh from Lou.

I ignored the trio as I carried the bowl and brush across the room to the large sink that we used to rinse customers’ hair out, and began to wash the remaining bleach out. I’m sure Alex was still eaves dropping in the back room on our conversation, and she was probably loving it. When the paparazzi photos of Harry and I had first made their way onto the Internet, a few fans had showed up at Bleach for a first hand look at Harry’s new bird. Alex had found it hilarious, although she turned them all away with a short and sweet message about how the salon was for paying customers only. Upon closing the front door she had absolutely howled with laughter. I could just picture her in the back room, hand clamped firmly over her mouth to muffle her laughter as she continued to sort through merchandise orders while she listened to the four of us chat out here.

“As much as I love teasing Trix, we’ve got more important things to be worrying about than Harry.” Sam spoke up as I took out a towel to dry the bowl and brush. “She needs to do something about Jackson!”

Gemma and Lou chorused in agreement, and without even having to turn around I could feel all their eyes on me.

“We’ve all had bad break ups before, but you need to do something legally about this if it’s still not gotten better.” Lou was the first one to speak up.

“It’s not gotten better.” Sam chimed in.

I finally turned around, hands planted firmly on my hips as I glared at the three girls. “Enough.” I ordered, earning a series of silent stares from all of them. “I’m fine. I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself, thank you very much. He’ll be over it soon, this whole thing will blow over and we can all move on. I just have to tough it out until then.”

It might mean a few more weeks without sleep, but I wasn’t too concerned about it.

“Do you realize how dumb you sound? You’re just going to wait around forever and hope that Jackson decides to grow up and leave you alone?” Gemma shook her head before popping another piece of orange chicken into her mouth. I could barely focus on her words, momentarily forgetting my frustrations as I thought about how badly I wanted some fast food of my own. At the moment the greasier and more processed the food was, the better. Although, I had noticed in the paparazzi photos of Harry and I that my face had been looking a little bit rounder than it normally did, so maybe I should skip over the takeaway food and settle for the green juice I knew I had waiting in my fridge for me at the end of the day.

“Not only is it dumb, but it’s dangerous.” Sam’s arguing brought me back to reality, shoving my dinner dilemma to the back of my mind.

“You lot make it sound like I should just leave London.” I commented, bringing the bowl and brush back to set on the counter in front of Lou. I’d need to to mix up a toner once I rinsed the bleach out so there was no use putting it away just yet. “Maybe I could take a vacation. Hide out on a beach somewhere until it’s all golden again here.” My response was laced with sarcasm, but I was slightly worried when I noticed how Lou was chewing on her bottom lip. I could practically see the gears turning in her head and I knew this was not going to end well. As much as I would have loved to actually relocate to a tropical paradise, I knew my bank account begged to differ.

“You could vacation with me.” Lou’s response was short and to the point, as if this was the most obvious solution in the world. “Stick it out for a couple more weeks in London-“

“- crashing on my couch.” Sam cut in with a perfectly timed eye roll.

“- and if by the end of the month it hasn’t gotten better you can come on tour with me and the lads. We’re going to be in America for a few months. An opportunity for you to get away and help me out.”

“No.” I stated firmly.

“Better you assisting me out on the road than those bratty work experience girls. They’re always just trying to hook up with the lads on the road and never actually get any work done. It’d be way better if I had someone with me I trusted and actually liked.”

I repeated my “No.” again, shaking my head in protest for added emphasis.

“That sounds like a fair deal to me.” Gemma threw in her two cents, everyone clearly choosing to ignore my protests.

“If you’re so confident that Jackson isn’t a worry, then why are you reluctant to agree?” Lou perked a perfectly manicured eyebrow at me, waiting for my response to her challenge.

“She did say if it’s all better in a couple weeks you can stay here. If not Alex and I will gladly give you the time off to go on tour with Lou.” Sam had the same wicked grin on her face as she spoke as Lou did. This must have been a Teasdale trait.

“And you’ll be paid as my assistant, of course.”

Clearly no one was listening to me.

“Fine.” I agreed, although very reluctantly. My response was final, earning a satisfied silence from the trio. I would put up a bigger fight at a later date, when this topic of conversation was sure to be brought up again, but for now I would agree so the argument could be dropped. The quicker this was over, the quicker I could leave the salon and head home to drink my organic, vegan, gluten free, flavour less, awful green juice while looking at photos of a proper Chinese takeaway on my laptop.