Water runs in suddenly icy rivulets down the bare length of my body, skin prickling up in goosebumps at the frigid temperature. A sharp inhale and then the water warms again and I'm left wondering why the fuck the apartments hot water service is on the fritz again after we coughed up money to have it serviced last week.
"Lou!" I yell from the slowly re-steaming shower cubicle, "The water's fucked again!"
His reply comes muffled through the sound of the rushing water, so I don't reply and I'm still massaging shampoo into the dense matted mess of my hair when I hear him knock on the bathroom door. He opens it almost immediately after without giving me any time to reply and his silhouette through the mould-spotted pink shower curtain is one of resignation; all curved shoulders and head in hands, fingers massaging the temples of a head which thinks too hard.
"Ya mean it's goin' all freezing and then heating back up to only lukewarm, again?" He's asking in a voice more sigh than anything else.
"Aye."
"Fuckin' doss cunts," he swears, before the shadowed shape of him disappears from behind the curtain and I poke my head out between the tiled wall and sopping edge of the plastic sheet to see him standing staring in the mirror, body drooping and face dismayed.
He catches my eye in the dirty toothpaste-flecked reflection and gives me a wry grin, as if unworried, as if undefeated. My heart stings.
"I got a call about a deal for Davie down at the racecourse," he's saying, picking at his teeth with his fingernail before he starts brushing them with his toothbrush. The bristles of the poor thing have been almost entirely flattened out from months of forceful use.
"Okay well I just gotta condition my hair and then I'm good to go," I tell him, pulling my head back behind the curtain. Davie's really good looking for one of Lou's friends; there's no way I'm going to go meet him with hair like an overgrown rats nest.
"No time, I'm running late already and Davie's heaps paranoid after he got done for possession last week. You'd think a few hundred quid fine and a good behaviour bond would be something to celebrate but the radge is shifter than ever."
"Shifty or no, I'll be done in a second, just hold ya horses," I'm replying, smirking at the thought of the coke-head being on a behaviour bond. I hear the sound of Lou spitting out toothpaste froth before his answer comes.
"Got no horses left to hold, it's now or never."
"Just wait five fuckin' minutes, Lou," I snap, hurrying in my efforts to slather home-brand conditioner through the all too tangled locks of my hair.
"Can't Slo, I gotta move this product or we'll be in deep shite with DeWitt," he snaps back, finally losing his temper.
I hear him storming from the echoing bathroom, the door closing behind him in what sounds more like a piece of decided punctuation to our conversation than an actual slam.
"Wait! Wait! I'm coming now!" I yell out, anxiety beginning it's first insect winged flutters within my chest. My hair tears and is yanked out in clumps as I viciously rinse it under the tepid water, rubbing it hurriedly with frantic hands before grabbing the tap handles and wrenching the water off.
The shower curtain is ripped to the side with the accompanying rattle of its hooks clattering together in double time and I almost slip as I leap out of the cubicle and onto the wet tiled floor. There's only one towel in there and Lou has used it to wipe his toothpastey mouth so I dodge from the bathroom to my bedroom completely naked and dripping water across the linoleum.
YOU ARE READING
The Trapeze Swinger
Fanfiction"Him. 2D. I could see him even now, his goofy grin while holding the water gun like a hunting rifle, lining me down the sight. His hands ruffling my hair, one eye closed in a squint as if sizing me up, as if looking into the sun." The year is 2003...
