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While the color marinated on my head, Fi called for room service. I was nervous that they would reprimand us for doing hair dye in the bathroom, but the guy who came up didn’t even give me a second look.
“We had so many snacks today,” I said, looking at the little rolling table that was piled with food. French fries and lobster rolls and chocolate mousse and a huge plate of heirloom tomatoes with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
A Maine feast.
We sat along the edge of the tub and stuffed our faces as my color cooked. I ate so much that I was barely able to move afterwards, but I had no regrets. Fi had a tiny speck of chocolate mousse in the corner of her mouth and it was like one of our things. I leaned over and instead of using my finger, I used my tongue to wipe it away, which led to us both ignoring the timer on her phone in favor of kissing. I didn’t think it would matter. My hair wasn’t going to fall off, and if it did, totally worth it.
Kissing Fiona Davis was the best thing of all things.
At last, we washed out the dye and then Fi gave me a trim and parted my hair for the undercut. I’d almost forgotten about this part of the deal because I was so dazzled by the color. I looked like a mermaid. A kind of badass mermaid.
“You ready?” she asked, firing up the clippers. They buzzed loudly in the large bathroom.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, not sounding sure at all. She turned them off.
“You don’t have to. It looks amazing just like this.”
I turned my head from side to side in the mirror. It looked great, but I wanted something more.
“Do it,” I said, meeting her eyes in the mirror. She turned the clippers back on.
“Here we go.”
*^*^*
“It feels prickly,” she said as we lay on one of the queen beds. I loved hotel sheets. They were just so nice. I wondered if there was a place you could buy hotel sheets for your own bed. I’d put them on my dorm mattress in a heartbeat.
“Are you happy with it?” she asked, still stroking the undercut side of my head.
“I am. I think it’s going to take a few days before I’ll recognize myself in the mirror. I’ve never dyed my hair before.” It felt like an extremely radical thing to do, but it wasn’t, really. It was my head and I could decide what the hair on it looked like. Still, I had the feeling my parents were going to freak when they saw it. I’d deal with that later.
Right now I’m nineteen years old and I’m on a road trip with the girl that I’m . .. dating. That was still weird for me to think of, but it was true.
“Are you my girlfriend?” We hadn’t actually said the word yet.
“I should hope so. If you want me to be,” she said, twirling some of my hair around her fingers.
“I want you to be. And I want to be yours.” She snuggled closer into my chest.
“I like thinking of being yours. And you being mine.” I did, too. It felt like we had always kind of been that way. That even when we were apart, we were still connected in some way. That we only had to find our way back to each other.
“My Cricket,” she said.
“Chirp chirp,” I said, rubbing my legs together.
“You dork.” I crossed my eyes at her.
“My beautiful dork with the amazing hair.” I did have amazing hair now. I was pretty excited about it.
She yawned and I realized how late it was. I wished we were of age to get champagne from room service, but I’d snuck a few small bottles of wine in with the snacks that I’d pilfered from Anna’s cabinet.
I pulled one of them out and poured it in some of the plastic cups the inn provided.
“Cheers,” I said, and we clinked our glasses. We hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements, but there were two beds, so all our bases were covered.
I looked at Fi and she went to her suitcase and pulled out her pajamas. I turned around and rustled in my own suitcase. We hadn’t talked about this part either.
“You can look,” she said, her voice quiet. I pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank and turned. She had a baggy T-shirt on that skimmed the tops of her thighs, and a pair of panties. That was it.
