She Plays Bass

Ivy Green

It's midnight now and I wake up when my mum gets out of bed to get a drink of water, I check my phone, there's a DM from Anna, I open it and it's a cute dog, "adorablee" I text back, then I go to my home page and see Harper's latest post captioned "happier with you", it's a picture of her and my ex having the time of their lives on holiday. I have to roll my eyes and then I eventually go back to sleep. 

"So you don't want me to talk to Harper anymore?" Anna asks

Anna and I are sat at the usual bubble tea place in Angel, one of our many activities. 

"No, I don't want to talk about Harper anymore," I say "I mean... you have to understand it from my point of view, she stole my boyfriend,"

"But you two were already broken up," Anna says

I think I should be more patient with Anna, she has always been a little slow, but by God is she being dumb.

"Anna," I put down my drink on the table "I just want to move on with that part of my life and focus on the future,"

"You're right," Her eyebrows are drawn close, "I know, I'm sorry," she says taking a sip of her bubble tea.

Am I asking for too much? Am I being a bad friend? Maybe I am the over dramatic one, I know I am the over dramatic one but it's not like I'm being unfair...

I stand in front of my bedroom's mirror and I start chopping off my hair

I take a long glance at the mirror and I walk out of my flat, passed the corridor, down the elevator, walk through some streets and go into a Tesco express, straight into the hair products isle and I pick up "Ivy Green".

I let a movie play in the background whilst I check the instructions in the dye box and i wait for the itchiness on my hair to simmer, I take it out in the shower, shampoo it 1,2,3 times until it all fades into the water and when I go to get the hair dryer there's a knock at the door.

I open it and there she is again, my blessing of a neighbour, Blake "Here's the eggs from last week," 

"You know, most people would just give the money back," I say

"What have you done to your hair?" Says Blake

It takes me a while to realise what she's talking about "Shut up," I respond "Is it bad?" I ask, studying her face

"No, it doesn't look that bad, I just didn't expect you to go with green,"

"Oh god, I look ridiculous don't I?"

"I can fix it for you," she says, she walks back to her place, grabs a bag of stuff and makes her way into my bathroom

She looks back at me in judgement after seeing my screen "After? really?" 

"Just fix my hair," I say rolling my eyes

I'm sat on the bath tub with an towel around my shoulders and when she starts parting my hair it calms me down, she's so much more gentle than I expected

"I'm-" I begin to explain myself 

"Don't move," she says

She doesn't say anything more but I obey, I watch her in the reflexion of my hand mirror and I don't think I've seen her this concentrated.

We're in my balcony now letting the new hair dye take action as she smokes a cigarette

"So why green?" She puffs smoke to the side

"It matches my nails," I jester and she hands me her cigarette but I don't take it

"They really messed you up, huh?" She says

"You know?" I ask

She nods her head taking in another puff 

"Of course you know, I must look like one big joke to everyone right now," I say

She gives me her cigarette and I take a puff 

"Not anymore of a joke you already were," she says, looking out into the view "Miss popular and gorgeous dating the rich older guy, imagine if they knew that you lived in council housing,"

"You're very twisted you know," I say "Sometimes you're nice to me other times you're a total asshole," I ask

She frowns and we stay quite, then the alarm on my phone goes off, she rinses my hair, blow dries it,  and brushes it back to how it was. 

I stare in the mirror in disbelief "You're amazing at this, thanks," I look at her through the mirror and she smiles 

"Whatever," she rolls her eyes "Just don't make me do that again" She says and starts walking back to her house 

"Good night," I say, watching her walk out

"Night,"