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She’s just slightly taller than I am with a thin build, though her arms appear to have muscle on them even though she's slim. She’s dressed in skinny black jeans with rips all over them and a dark red tank top, and combat boots much like my own.
All of that is normal enough and not what caused my reaction.
Her tank top lets me see that she is covered in tattoos. From her neck down to her hands, there is just ink. Some are solid black, and other spots have color worked in, though I can’t make out what any of the designs are from this far.
Her hair is long, falling down to just above her ass, and it’s close to the same shade of blonde as mine. As she gets closer, I see that most of her hair is twisted together and falls in thick strands down her back. Some of them are colored underneath the bulk of her hair, in different shades of blue and purple, with the space above her left ear shaved short.
She reaches us, and Clair pulls her into a hug before pulling back and introducing her to me as Mel.
“It’s great to meet you, Jade. Clair was telling me about how you could use a girls' day out yesterday when I saw her, so of course, I insisted.” She tells me with a friendly smile as she reaches out to shake my hand. I take her hand and can’t help but to smile back.
The longer I look at her. The more beautiful I realize she is. She has high cheekbones and a little button nose, and her green eyes are so intense they look like they sparkle in the light. She has two metal rings in her lower lip on the left side and a ring in her nose on the right. The makeup around her eyes is just a dark line of eyeliner and mascara, but it really makes her eyes pop. She has thick black circles in her ears that appear to be like an ear piercing but bigger.
I’ve never seen a girl who looks like her, and before meeting Kratos and the guys, I had never seen anyone like this at all. Kratos and the guys all have tattoos, but for some reason, this woman having them hits me completely differently. Kratos and Zander also have some piercings, and I think Zander might have the larger ones in his ears as well. Usually, men with tattoos are attractive, and while I believe Mel’s tattoos definitely help with that, I want to be her more so than I want to be with her. Somehow, seeing her snaps something in my brain that makes me realize I have the option to look like this, whereas seeing the guys like that didn’t. And damn it, the longer I look at her, the more I want it.
She’s the opposite of what I would say society calls “natural beauty” but I think it’s better. All my life, I‘ve strived to be the most looked at, the one with the attention, dressed up and made up to be whatever kept eyes on me and off the girls. I could have never looked like her. I could never look like anyone but who they wanted me to, and it wasn’t something I even cared about, to be honest. But standing here with them right now, I realize I might care about it if given a chance.
I realize I’m staring when she cocks her head to the side as she looks at me with a hint of humor on her face.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to stare. You're just...” My words trail off as I try to find a good way to describe it.
“Different?” She says at the same time I say, “Beautiful.” and her cheeks turn a slight shade of pink before she throws her head back and laughs.
“Oh, Clair! You weren't wrong. She’s a freaking treat.” She says as she continues to laugh. “I’ve had a lot of people stop to stare at me in this town, more so when I first came through a few years ago, but I think you're the first one to have this reaction, hun!”
She pulls herself together and turns to walk towards one of the stations farther back in the room, waving us to follow her as she goes. “Come on, Jade, let’s get you in the chair and see what ya want. I have a feeling we're going to get along great!” When she stops at the chair, she motions for me to sit. I look from her to Clair, who nods at me reassuringly.
* * *
Talking to Mel is easy.I’m not sure how long we have been here, but not a minute of it was uncomfortable. Clair, Mel, and I talk about so many things and nothing the whole time. It takes me a little while to decide what I want to do with my hair, but between the three of us and all the choices, we piece together something that I’m beyond excited to see.
After it was decided, she turned me away from the mirror, letting me know she wanted the reveal to be a surprise. It makes me anxious to have no idea what's happening but also excites me to think of all the possibilities.
“Alright!” Mel stands before me as she returns after setting down the curling iron.
“Are we ready to see the final result?” She claps her hands together and beams at me.
I can’t fight the smile on my face, I turn to look at Clair, and she’s smiling too.
I nod my head, feeling giddy, Mel’s energy is contagious, and I can’t help but be just as excited as she is.
“Okay, close your eyes, and when I say one, you can open them.” She tells me, and I don’t hesitate. I feel the chair start to turn the moment my eyes are closed as she begins the countdown from three.
My eyes fly open before she even finishes saying one. I watch my reflection as my jaw drops open, and I have to remind myself to breathe.
I sit still as a statue for a moment, my eyes darting around to take everything in before I’m up and out of the chair to look closer in the mirror.
Mel’s either super talented or a freaking witch. Honestly, I’m leaning toward the witch.
We decided to only give my hair a trim, I might not know what to do with it most days, but when given a choice to cut it or not, it didn’t sit well with me to chop it off just for a fresh start. I’m done giving up pieces of myself.
Instead, Mel suggested an overhaul of it entirely, and damn did she deliver.
My once long blonde hair is now a dark brown at the roots, so dark it looks black, but as the light hits it, you can see some brown in it. The brown starts at my roots and continues down until just around my ears, where it mixes with a beautiful green in what Mel called an ombré.
I knew from the moment I saw her colorful hair that I wanted to try it. It took us a while to decide on the color, but when Mel suggested a dark Jade green as a joke about my name, it felt right.
Everything about my hair is the opposite of what it was before, making me feel like a new person. The longer I look at my reflection, the happier I am with the result. Gone is the blonde that was a huge selling point for so long, something men wanted and found attractive, now I look good for me.
