Impossibly His

Chapter Thirty

"Why do you look so glum?" Maya asked from beside me.

"Why do you look so glum?" Natasha repeated.

"I am not!" I lied for the hundredth time that day. "Do I look glum, Jules?"

"Uh, maybe?" He shrugged, looking up at my tinfoiled head. "I can't really tell."

They were right; I was glum. Something had to give. It felt like I was slowly losing control over my life. Everything was changing and I felt stuck, unable to move on from all of the things pulling me down. No distraction was strong enough.

Natasha stood from her chair, having finished her final blow dry. She now showcased emerald green hair and bangs. The color looked good on her; she had always gone with lighter hair but the dark color highlighted her tanned skin beautifully.

We had been sitting at the salon for hours, chatting while us girls got our hair done and Jules waited patiently. "Moral support" was what Natasha said when she had invited him. I had a feeling she was up to something.

It had been three weeks since the party. Three weeks since I had saw Reth. I had started going back to school, finding that it wasn't so bad after all. There were rumors, all started by Kira, exaggerating what happened to the point of disbelief. I didn't pay attention anymore.

Maya, Raquel, Jules, Natasha, and I had been sticking together, becoming closer friends with each passing day. It was nice to not feel like I was so alone all the time.

The other three guys had drifted apart, each one mostly keeping to themselves aside from Matt, who had Kira hip to hip nearly everywhere he went. Maya and Blake needed space, and it was understandable; they had a lot of issues to sort out.

Maya was the next to finish, her hair streaked with brown highlights. I could tell by her face she loved it; she had never done anything extravagant with her hair, and neither had I. We would both be taking big steps today.

"Ready to rinse?" The hairdresser asked me next.

"I'm so nervous," I gasped, getting to my feet and walking over to the sink. A shampoo, trim, and blow dry later she turned me around, revealing my new ash blonde hair.

"Well, damn," said Natasha. "You just got twice as hot."

"That color suits you so well!" Maya exclaimed.

I smiled at my reflection, loving the change. Maybe I wasn't in control of everything, but this, I had decided myself. I needed a positive change for once.

"Do you want a ride home?" Jules asked me.

"I wouldn't want to trouble you," I chuckled. "You're probably ready to get home after having to sit here for hours with us."

"It's no trouble," he told me. Shrugging, I followed him out to his car after saying goodbye to Maya and Natasha, giving him my address as I sat down. "So, how have you been?" He asked as we drove out of the parking lot.

"Good, actually. I've been feeling a lot better." I was only half lying. The sadness had left me days ago; what was left now was emptiness. "I'm glad Tasha forced me to come with you guys today."

"Well, if anyone can convince you to make a drastic decision it's her," he chuckled. "Do you want to know something funny?"

"Sure," I said.

"So typically, Raquel is a female name in Spsnish culture. Raquel's parents are really religious and decided to wait until he was born to find out his gender. His mother swore she had a vision from God that her baby was a girl. She prefilled out all of the documents and everything, certain he was a girl. Turns out he was actually a boy, but the name just stuck. Don't mention his female name to him though because it gets under his skin."