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“Hey. I don’t dye my hair either,” Rory protested.
“Firstly, you’re blonde. And second, how could you? It’s a head full of corkscrews.”
“Harsh but true,” Rory sighed. “Jack likes it though.”
“Honey, you could shave your head and he’d still be crazy about you,” Piper drawled.
“So how about a trim, Mandy? Just a bit of styling and a few highlights. Nothing too drastic,” Cynthia said.
“Do it,” Rory said. “Don’t give her an option, Cyn, she’ll just say no and run home.”
She would, Rory was right. Instinct told her to run.
I’m not running anymore.
“Mandy, contrary to what your crazy friend says, this is your choice,” Cyn added.
“All right,” she said, taking a deep, steadying breath. “Do what you want, but I don’t want it short. I like to tie it up when I’m in the kitchen.”
“It’s okay, we won’t let her scalp you, we promise,” Bailey said.
“I know, and I’ve seen some of Cyn’s haircuts. They are amazing.”
“And yours will be too.” Cyn patted her head.
Mandy usually just trimmed the ends of her hair herself. It was at that moment as she felt Cyn’s comb gliding through her hair that she really saw herself for perhaps the first time.
She’d been in hiding since arriving in Ryker Falls, aged nine. To start with it had been fear, but now… now it was habit, Mandy realized. Her aunts were right. She no longer had a reason to hide.
“I don’t want to be scared anymore,” she found herself whispering.
They all heard, and then they were all in front of her. Each one touching her shoulder as they passed to sit at the table.
“I don’t want you to be scared either.” Rory took her hand, eyes solemn. “How can we help?”
“I’m sorry, that shouldn’t have come out.”
“But it did,” Rory said. “And it’s about time.”
“I don’t know that you can help me,” she said truthfully. “I’ve been this way for so long, I don’t know that I can change. But I’m going to try.”
Talking to Ted seemed to have taken the lock off her mouth. Suddenly she felt the need to talk, when before she’d kept everything inside.
“Can you tell us what made you this way?” Piper asked.
Mandy shook her head. She wasn’t ready to go there yet. Didn’t know if she ever would be. It was a dark, dangerous box that she kept locked inside her.
“Okay, that’s all right. We’ll get to that. But first things first, Mandy. There are a few people in Ryker Falls you can talk to if you want. About your fears, I mean.”
“Thanks, and maybe I will one day. For now I just want to take some small steps toward changing.”
“Well, if you need us, we’re here,” Rory added.
Mandy nodded, and felt more tension ease from her body. She knew she wasn’t alone, knew no one could hurt her here. She often told herself this, as had her aunts, over and over again. But she’d still been scared. Was now the time to change that? Now the time to become the person she’d always wanted to be?
Looking at the women around her who were everything she wasn’t, she thought that maybe it was.
“Can I borrow something to exercise in until I can get to the shops?”
