The Beard

Chapter Thirty-One

*Long chapter y'all. Hold onto your underwear.*

Christmas and New Year's had passed in the blink of an eye. Each holiday was uneventful to say the least. Christmas day had been filled with a nice, hefty dinner that left our fridge full of leftovers. Since everyone in the house is an adult, all of our presents had been gag gifts, save for the new phone my parents had gotten me. Other than that, I got a bar of soap, a candy necklace, and a new toothbrush. I can say that it had been full of laughs and it was nice to spend time with my family, even Shelly who had calmed down recently.

For New Year's I stayed home with Shelly to watch the ball drop on TV. My parents had a New Year's party to head to for my dads publishing company. They had also decided that they would stay in a motel afterwards just in case the roads got bad at night. I wasn't opposed to it.

After those two holidays, school started back up. Snow still covered the ground, but at least it hasn't snowed after Christmas. It was just about all of this thickness melting, but it didn't look like that would happen for another week.

The bell rings as I'm shoving books into my locker. A force slams into the locker next to mine, scaring me and causing me to jump. I look over to see a worse for wear Miguel. He looks inexplicably tired, as if this whole break was full of late nights. As he leans slumped on the locker, eyes closed, I noticed that his clothes are wrinkled and a little disheveled. He looks terrible.

Miguel opens his eyes when I close my locker. He slowly turns to face me, doing a double take once he looks at me. "Your hair?"

My hands lifts up to shyly tuck a strand behind my hair. The day after Christmas, when places were open, my mom had taken me to get a trim. Well, a trim ended up turning into a full blown haircut. Rather than going down my back, it was now cut to just below my ears. I was told this look was called a long pixie cut and I trust the hairdresser. I had a deep part on the right side of my hair so the hair was pushed to the left side. I had also gotten it dyed and I have to say this professional dye job is better than the at home job I had done. Not only that, but my roots had grown out a lot, revealing the blonde that's under the brown. Well, now I had decided to revert back to blonde. It wasn't hard since all my hair is gone, but they did have to dye the parts that were still brown which was really only the tops. Some highlights were also added to give it more pizzaz.

"Yeah, I decided to go with something new." I give Miguel a small smile, suddenly very self conscious of how I look. "I don't look bad do I?"

Miguel shakes his head frantically. "No, no. It suits you actually. I like the blonde better than brown on you." He admits sheepishly, a reassuring smile on his face.

"Good," I nod my head, blowing out a breath. I have no idea why I was so nervous about what he would think. "How was your Christmas?"

Miguel kicks off of the locker so he's standing away from it. "Good, good." He runs a hand through his hair, looking away from me. His mannerisms make me suspicious about how his break really was.

As soon as I open my mouth to grill him, a force knocks into me. I look behind me to see Jenny with a wide smile on her face. Looks like I'm not the only one who had gotten a new 'do. Jenny's hair is straight, a contrast from her normally kinky hair. I'm surprised to see it like that because before school had started back in August, she had told me that she was going to go the whole year with her in its natural curls. Now it was straight, but Jenny looks good with any hairdo.

"Hi, Jenny." I greet, turning to fully face her. We hug briefly, her hand shooting out to wave to Miguel. "How was your break?"

"Amazing. I got a bracelet from my dad and a necklace from my mom." she says enthusiastically. "I see you got a haircut."