Thinking Of You

Chapter Two

In the last month since I moved back I feel like I’ve made real changes to my life. I started working at Plymouth Tube Co. as a custodian. The earlier I go into work, the sooner I go home for the day, I basically make my own hours. Plus you can’t beat weekly pay. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go out with Evie. She hasn’t asked me to, so I just stay here and watch TV. Sometimes I’ll read one of my books to occupy the time. And, when my loneliness gets to be too much, there’s always my vibrator. Paying my part of the bills isn’t an issue since most of them are pretty cheap most of the time it seems. I even have an actual bed now. My room is decorated and set up to my liking, despite Evie’s pushing, with mostly black furnishings. Bedding, curtains, even ninety percent of my clothes. All black with minimal color thrown in. She tries so hard to bring color into my life, even offering her own clothes for me to borrow. But, me and Evie are basically an opposites attract type of couple. My room and style look like Halloween threw up all over it. Evie, on the other hand, never met a pink she didn’t like. Her room, when I first saw it, reminded me of somewhere Tinkerbelle might like to spend the weekend. Her lit canopy over her fluffy blankets really brought it all together.

I’ve also had to accept the fact that Evie gets around, like alot. I might have lost my virginity before she did, but she definitely collected more notches in her headboard then I ever had. And now, unfortunately for me, I’ve heard more sex going on in the adjacent bedroom then I ever did watching porn. I went ahead and took her advice about the ear plugs, but even they sometimes fail me. I even figured out that I even know some of the guys that blow threw here. I remember one morning I was sitting eating my cereal and I saw Connor stumble down the hallway from her room. He definitely recognized me too. He actually remembered I was dating Trevor and asked how he was. When I told him we weren’t together anymore he seemed genuinely surprised. Said he should try to look him up to hang out. But the second he heard Evie’s bedroom door open, he bolted. As far as I know, he hasn’t been back.

This morning, thankfully, has been silent. Same for the night before. I actually got a decent nights sleep enough to go into work pretty early and get it over with. Cleaning and taking out trash generally doesn’t take very many hours to accomplish. And since I basically make my own hours, nobody cares when I arrive or leave for the day. I figured I would just continue the trend after I got home and went ahead and did the dishes and started the laundry, hers and mine. I take my coffee to the patio, sit in one of the crappy, weathered chairs, and enjoyed the silence for a little while. After my cup was finally empty, I went back inside to check the laundry. It was still damp when I went to pull it out of the dryer. Considering I had to drag everything to the second floor to use said utilities, I wasn’t exactly happy about that. I ran back downstairs to the apartment to grab more quarters.

By the time I went back upstairs and restarted the dryer, I was over it. I walked back inside to find Evie grabbing a cup of coffee. “It’s about time you woke up”, I tell her as I sit down on the couch. She glanced at her phone, no doubt looking for the time. “Bitch, it’s only just after ten. Calm down”, she says sipping her coffee. I quickly realized she was right. “Sorry, time seems to move differently when you wake up at the ass crack of dawn”, I tell her, “when I go in, it’s dark. When I come out, sunshine everywhere”. “I get it”, she said sitting next to me. I started flipping through TV channels when she asked me, “so.....it’s been a month now. Have you thought about maybe trying to get back out there? Maybe start seeing somebody, if anything just to hang out?”. Her questions threw me off a little. I hadn’t brought anything like that up to her in any way. In fact, I myself haven’t thought about hanging out with literally anyone besides Evie when we manage to be home at the same time. “I don’t think I could do the casual thing. I’ve always been in relationships whenever I happen to fall into bed with someone”, I tell her. She sets her coffee down on the coffee table and faces me, “I’m not saying go roll around with some random dude off the street, I’m just saying I think it might be time to start at least interacting with real, live humans. Staying locked up every night and not truly moving on with your life will only turn toxic”. I nod my head, “you’re not wrong. I just don’t know how to do that type of shit. I didn’t get party years, I was always with Trevor. I don’t know how to be the party girl you got to be”. “That does it”, Evie said getting to her feet and blocking the TV, “we’re going out tonight. No excuses bitch. If I have to, I will teach you mu hoeing ways”. That made me laugh, “your hoeing ways? Who are you, Yoda teaching me the ways of the hoes?”, I laugh at her. Pulling me up from the couch she answers, “yes, absolutely. But first”, she says, touching my dark hair, “this needs some help”.

*

The salon Evie took me to was small, mostly full of old ladies getting perms. But one stylist there that understood what exactly we were there for. “I need my roots and color refreshed and my girl here needs a new look”, she explained to her. “What are you looking for? Cut? Dye? Maybe both?”, she asked me. I wasn’t really sure what to tell her, so she went ahead and started on Evie’s hair. I scrolled through google images on my phone for a bit, trying to find something new to change my look. I finally landed on a deep purple look when my phone started going off, several times. There wasn’t a name attached to the number but I knew this one by heart. Because he made sure of it.

Trevor was never one to be subtle with anything. His messages now were no different, the desperation seeming to ooze through the screen. The first was basically him telling me how he forgives me for leaving, how he still loves me even after I threw shit at him. How I really wants me to come home. The next was wondering where I was living and if he could possibly come visit and talk. I didn’t answer him, just clicked the screen off, shoved it into my purse and continued to wait for my turn. Once the final foil was placed in Evie’s hair the stylist called me over. “So, did you find something new to try?”, she asked. I pulled my phone back out to show her the color combo I picked and realize that he sent another message. I swipe it away and show her the picture. “Do you wanna get that first?”, she asked. “It’s not important”, I say laying the phone down. She immediately let it go, “alright, lets get started then”.

As she started to section out my hair my phone buzzed again, no doubt another message from Trevor. I could feel my anxiety start to rise as I wondered what the text said. I tried to push it down, just focus on my hair. Evie did a great job of that by talking about how changing my hair was gonna help me move on from my break up. I guess she was half right. If I look different, I should feel different. Maybe even better then before. I can only really go up from where I feel now. And I do feel pretty sexy when the foils came out after my new color transformation. The purple against my skin tone couldn’t look any better. And with my darker make up on my eyes, I feel like a total vamp.

“You look soooo good!”, Evie said, “purple is really your color. Makes those blue eyes really pop”. I flipped my hair around, “I think you might be right”, I agreed. “We need to go out”, I declare, “tonight. Give our new hair a proper test drive”. Evie looked surprised but completely happy with the idea. “Yes, yes we should”, she happily agreed, “where do you wanna go?”. “I was hoping you would have a place. I think I’m finally ready to get out and party like a real life human”, I joke. She lead me out the salon door to her car, “I’ve got a place we can go, as long as you don’t mind it being a little rustic”. I shake my head, “I don’t care. Let’s just get out and have a good time”.