Style||AFI

one

I silently groan as I attempt to untangle my patient's hair. Finally after a lot of detangling spray I finally get it all untangled. I set the brush down on the desk by the mirror and switch it out for the electric hair trimmer. I carefully shave the sides of his head. After I finish that I use the gel to style his hair as he had requested and ask him to look in the mirror. He tells me it's good and goes to pay as I clean up.

"Boss wants to speak to you, I can finish," I look up from my sweeping to see Macy. I thank her and wipe my hands on the black apron and go to see what she needs.

"Have a seat," She gestures, I nod and sit in front of her.

"So I have noticed that you are falling behind in work, and you have been late quite a lot," She states. Oh no.

"Even after countless warnings, I have made the decision to fire you. I am so sorry, but I can't have employees late so often, it's just not good for our image." I smile and thank her, before going to the back room and hanging my apron on the hook and grabbing my bag out of my locker.

When I get to the bus stop I am holding back tears. I have no job, barely any money, my parents think I am doing amazing so I don't want to bug them. When the bus arrives I search for change in my bag but I can't find any.

"Please can I ride free, just this once?" I question. The grumpy driver gives a gruff "no" and now I am stuck on the side of the road, at six o clock, walking home. It takes about an hour and a half of walking but I finally get to my old studio apartment, where I turn the lights on and flop on my unmade bed.

I scream out and put my hands over my face. I have one box of macaroni left and enough money to maybe pay for my next bills.  A loud banging sounds on the door and I immediately know who it is. I open the door for him and he walks in as I rub my eyes and try to fix my hair.

"Hey babe," I say. He scoffs at my appearance.

"You look like a water bottle," I nod at his remark and he sits on my bed, plugging his phone in my charger.

"What happened to you? Fix yourself up, we are going out, and use that strawberry shampoo, I don't like it when you smell like vanilla." I nod again at his remark and go into my small bathroom, undressing and turning the water to warm when my phone rings.

"We are going on another tour!" my best friend Luke yells into the phone. I pull it away from my ear before putting it back against my ear.

"That's great," I choke out, trying to hold back the tears but failing.

"Oh what's wrong," he says, his voice changing to sympathy.

"Caleb won't let me break up with him, I got fired, I have no food and barely enough money to pay my next bills, I am just a mess," I cry into the phone. He comforts me as Caleb bangs on my door.

"Hurry up," he yells. I give Luke a sad goodbye and step into the shower, using the still unopened strawberry scented soap.

When I leave the bathroom in the towel Caleb is sitting on my bed with one of my few dresses picked out and a pair of tall black heels.

"I got you these heels because you only ever wear that brown pair." They are actually beige but I smile at him and grab the short white dress that was a little too tight. I grab a strapless push up bra knowing he would like that and a pair of underwear and walk back into the bathroom, clothes in hand.

I put the dress on and pull it down as far as I can and try pulling at it to make it a little less uncomfortable. Whatever. I slip on the black heels that are a tad too small and put on makeup. I take in my reflection. My blond dyed straightened hair flows over my shoulders and my eyes are now blue from the contact lenses.

Caleb made me dye my hair and use blue lenses because in his view, a perfect girl has blond hair and blue eyes with unnatural curves. I don't have any curves and I am pretty sure I am a little overweight.

I sigh and go back into the rest of my studio apartment and I smile at Caleb. This time I take in his appearance. He has on suit pants and a white collared shirt. We go to his car and I sigh as he opens the door for me, my heels are already killing me and I am exhausted.

At the nice restaurant we always go to, Caleb orders me a salad and some water, because he thinks I should lose weight.

When I get home I lay on my bed and cry. Luke is going on tour, with the band I haven't had time to meet, I have no money and no job. I pull out my phone and sigh, I won't have any data after this month, I Facetime Luke, hoping it doesn't drain my data that much. I don't have WiFi in my apartment because I needed to cut down on bills.

"How are you holding up?" he asks softly. I shrug and go into my bathroom to take out my contacts. After I do that I go to my closet and pull out one of Luke's shirts I stole and some shorts.

"I need to find a job, fast," I groan sitting on my bed, crossing my legs. He sighs. "Yeah, I wish you could be our stylist but we have one, I don't like her though, she's a hoe. She was totally hitting on Calum last concert."

I laugh at this, I think Calum was the bassist, I listen to their music and have watched a few of their live concerts on YouTube. To be honest I thought his name was Cayson, but that could be the name to a different band member.

"That's funny," I say running a hand through my blond hair.

"Yeah, she has been acting weird lately though, she doesn't talk as much, she has been eating weird food, she is like really sensitive to smells, like I didn't put any cologne on today, and she went off about how I was wearing to much," he says scrunching his nose and running his fingers through his curls.

"Weird," I say, climbing into my bed and pulling the covers over my body.

"I am going to pick you up for breakfast tomorrow, then we can go get you a job, then we will go to lunch," I don't turn down his offer, I need food. And it would be nice to have someone to help me find a job.

"Luke we need you over here!" a voice yells.

"Fine," he yells back. He gives me a sympathetic smile. "I gotta go, love you."

I say love you back and he ends the call. I roll over and try to fall asleep before I have an emotional breakdown.