Act 2 | Chapter 21

The soft tune of classical music played through my headphones. I was sitting down on my wooden stool over a safety tarp to prevent any paint from dripping onto the carpet. My easel held up the white canvas for me, and I carefully traced my brush along its smooth surface. The bristles created small faint lines in the green paint as I dragged it across. I had already started working on fixing the old painting, working on it every now and then. Most of it was already complete, all I needed to do was apply color to it now and find the time to do it. It was nice to be alone sometimes, to have space to myself where I can work without anyone watching me.

The only thing is though, I wasn't alone. For the last couple of minutes, I was able to see out of the corner of my eye, the reflection in my mirror of my door cracked open slightly. Someone was spying on me from the other side and using their phone to record everything I was doing. "Dork." It had been about an hour since I started working on the painting again, so now seemed like a good time for a break. I put my brush down to the beat of the music, and slowly stood up. As I removed the headphones from my ears, I could hear a bump at the doorway, with Riley suddenly stumbling in. She was rubbing the side of her head and on her knees.

"You okay?" I laughed.

"Y- Yeah, I'm fine."

"What did you do? Hit your head on the door spying on me?"

"N- Not in a creepy way, if that's what your thinking." Riley quickly explained.

"Sure." I rolled my eyes. And grinned, "So what do you think of it so far?"

"The painting? It's looking great!"

"Thanks." I smiled and sat down. My eyes drifted up to look at her, and they fixated on her purple dyed hair. I've always envied her hair, thinking it looked beautiful being dyed such a shade of violet. In fact, I've wanted to do the same thing to my hair, only my mom wouldn't let me. But she wasn't in charge of me now. After a moment of silence, she looked back at me and tilted her head.

"What?"

"Your hair." I pointed out.

"What about it?" Riley grabbed a chunk of it with her fist and tried to look at it.

"I have an idea." I grabbed a chunk of my dirty blond hair and held it up for Riley to see, "My mom always forced me to keep my hair like this for her body art. But... I don't have to anymore. I wanna cut it."

"Cut it?" Riley asked a bit shocked, "Well, I mean a trim would look nice for you."

"Yeah. I want to trim it to my shoulders, perhaps dye the tips purple?"

"Wouldn't that make you look like a blueberry cheesecake?" Riley joked.

"Blueberry?" I giggled, "I said purple!"

"Blueberry cheesecakes are purple, dummy." She said sarcastically.

"Are they? I tilted my head and pulled my phone out. After a quick google search, I could see that Riley was right, "Oh, yeah. I would look like one!" I replied chuckling. Riley burst out into laughter alongside me and approached me.

"Well, I'd still eat you up if you look like one~ I love them~," She said in a seductive tone.

"Ohh~" I smirked, "all the more reason to do it~"

Riley chuckled and pulled her phone out, before saying: "We can leave right now. I know a place where you can get all of it done."

"You do?"

"Yup, the same place I got mine done. I can make a call ahead of time while you get ready."

"Cool, sounds like a plan." I nodded and watched as Riley left the room.

***

The hair salon was small. It looked like one long room with several divided sections. The lights where a mix between dim and bright. A line of chairs was set up with one long mirror that ran the stretch of the room's left wall. From what I could see there was a door in the back for more private appointments. Riley led me over to the front counter and greeted the woman behind it. She seemed to know Riley judging on her facial expression when she saw her.

"Hello, Riley!" She said in a cheerful tone. "You here for your friend?"

"Yup. She can tell you what she wants." Riley looked back at me and nudged me forward. I stumbled a bit and nodded.

"Y- Yeah," I said a bit nervous. This may have been something I've always wanted to do, but that didn't change the fact it was still a little stressful. It shouldn't be, considering I've killed someone before, but it still was.

"Perfect. I can lead you over to the chairs and we can get started." The woman gestured for me to follow her.

"Go on Zoe, I'll wait here for you," Riley said, sitting down in the waiting section. It consisted of a row of chairs with a glass table in front of them. There were a couple of fashion magazines for people to read while they waited. I gave her a nod and followed the woman. She sat me down in a black spinning chair and wrapped a thick piece of cloth around my neck, tightening it, and following that up with a long black blanket that she wrapped around my body to prevent any hair from falling onto it.

"So, what is it that you want to do today?" She asked, looking at me using the mirror. I took my time, explaining to her in detail what I wanted to do. My hair needed to be slightly shorter than my shoulders and still needed to keep it in its traditional wavy look, though I had it parted to the side slightly. Once She finished up cutting everything, I explained to her that I wanted the tips of my hair dyes a light violet. The woman nodded, and led me further into the store and sat me down again. She started getting out her hair dye and began applying it. The process took longer than I was expecting, but within the next hour, it was over. She spun me around to look at myself.

My hair went down to my shoulders, and just slightly past them. Each strand of my hair was wavy and circles around the other strands, making it look like several spiraled strands of hair. The light violet color was most prominent at the bottom tips of my hair and went about three-fourths of the way up before slowly transitioning back into my natural dirty blond colored hair. I pushed a strand of it out of my eyes and smiled a bit.

"What do you think?" The woman asked.

"I love it," I said, looking at different directions to see it from different angles.

"Glad you do." She said, leaving me and heading back up front so I could pay her. Riley noticed me as I started to approach. She stood from her seat and giggled a bit.

"Looks good!" She smirked.

"You really like it?" I asked, brushing another strand out of my eyes. Riley nodded and pulled her phone up. She scrolled through her gallery and flipped her phone around to show me a simple png image of blueberry cheesecake.

"Can't even tell the difference." She teased.

"Oh my god." I sighed and rolled my eyes. Riley took a quick picture of me and smirked before turning to the counter and waiting for me to finish up. It cost a lot more than I was expecting to, but in the end, it was worth it. I couldn't stop staring at myself from the passenger side mirror during the drive home.

"This has been nice," Riley said, making a stop at a four-way intersection.

"What has?" I asked, turning to look at her.

"Just this. There isn't as much stress or any bullying. It's nice."

"Yeah. I guess it is. It's still sad that Maria is just gone, but it's nice too. I don't have to worry about her anymore, I don't have to worry about my mom. I can do anything I want." My hands played around with my newly dyed hair. It felt soft and was rather addicting to play with.

When we got back, Riley eagerly led me back up to the apartment. We stepped into the doorway, and I took my boot off, placing them on the shoe rack.

"Alright, I think I might get back to work on the painting," I said, stepping past Riley. However, just as I did, she reached down and grabbed my wrist, stopping me. I turned back to look at her and she shook her head slowly, leading me down the hallway and turning into her room.

"Riley?"

She gently pushed me down onto the bed and locked the door behind her. I already knew where this was going and decided to go along with it. She climbed on top of me and laid down, pressing her lips up against mine, and gently running her hands through my hair. I giggled and kept playing along. Soon, her hands drifted down and attempted to grab at my shirt and pull it up and over my head. The two of us took a moment to break away and strip. Both our faces turned red as we laid back down on top of each other and pressed our bodies together passionately. I locked my lips with Rileys and the two of us embraced each other. Riley was more focused on feeling up my hair, though her hand did soon drift south and rub against my entrance. I couldn't help but let out a soft, and muffled moan as I felt her finger circle, my sensitive privates.

"You like my hair, huh~" I spoke softly, putting both of my hands on Riley's shoulders. She giggled and gave me a small nod.

"It's so soft~"

"It better be. It costs a lot of money." I chuckled, "You know what else is soft~?" I lowered my hands and cupped them around Riley's breasts, giving them a gentle squeeze, and evoking a loud moan from her.

"Come on Zoe~" She rolled her eyes and bent over to kiss me again, gently caressing her hand over my head.

***

When I opened my eyes next, it was dark out. I groaned and sat up, letting out a long sigh. The air outside was cool, and my skin was covered in goosebumps. Not wasting any time, I climbed out of Riley's bed and got dressed again, this time, however, I could only find my shirt and panties in the dark. I wasn't going to accidentally wake Riley up to find them, so I just put on what I had and stumbled out into the hall. My stomach growled, so I started making my way to the kitchen to get something to snack on. As I opened the fridge, I heard the sound of the TV's volume turning up in the living room. It made me jump and I quickly spun around to see Miss Blackmar sitting down on the couch with her legs crossed.

"Evening, Zoey." She said.

"E- Evening Miss Blackmar." I could smell my own body odor, and I could only assume she did too. The light from the TV was able to let me see Miss Blackmar's face through the darkness. She had that typical mischievous grin whenever she was going to tease me on something.

"Sounds like you two had a lot of fun." Miss Blackmar said in that usual tone of voice. My face turned red.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, it's not like I'm gonna kick you out because my daughter had premarital sex with her first love." She bent over and grabbed her coffee mug from the table in front of her.

"H- How did you?" I asked, standing there frozen.

"I've been here all day. You two are loud."

"So... you heard everything?"

Miss Blackmar gave me a silent nod and chuckled a bit. "She sure likes your hair, that's for sure."

I stood there, somewhat shocked, but mainly embarrassed. I've said it before, but it's impossible to keep something a secret from that woman. She knows everything. I don't know how she's so good at it, but it's scary to think about in a way. A sigh escaped my mouth and I leaned up against the kitchen counter.

"Well... what do you think of it? My hair?" I asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"I think it looks good on you. Makes you look cute~ You two don't have much experience I take it?" She replied with a giggle. Miss Blackmar wasn't going to let me change topics that easily.

"I uh... n- no... why would we?" I asked, tilting my head "Why am I still giving her fuel for the fire?"

"Well, I could give you something to learn from~" My body froze again. I don't think I had ever felt more uncomfortable talking to Riley's mother in my life as I was right now. A part of me didn't even want to ask what she had in mind, but another suggests the opposite. "W- What?" I asked with some hesitation, genuinely nervous as to what her response would be.

"There are these websites on the internet you can look at. It's called porn." I chuckled.

"I... I know what porn is," I said, crossing my arms. Technically, I didn't know what it was until I was rather late in my teen years. My mother never bothered teaching me about sex, so I had to figure out what it was on my own once I heard people in school talking about it.

"Well, might I suggest looking into the more girl, on girl sections? You two might learn something from it."

I couldn't take it anymore.

"W- What is this! Why are you telling me these things?!" I explained. Miss Blackmar burst out laughing before taking another long sip from her coffee mug.

"I'm just teasing you, Zoey." She rolled her eyes. "Anyways, I'm happy you're staying with us. I'm sure you'll be fine here."

I sighed and turned around to open the fridge "Thank god that's over." I thought to myself. I liked Miss Blackmar, but sometimes she just acted like that and it always makes me feel really awkward. Not as much as my own mother though. Speaking of which, guess who still hasn't called to figure out where I am. At this point, I don't even think she's walked into my room to see all my stuff gone. My mom clearly didn't care. Riley soon showed up beside me. She was completely dressed, unlike me, and from the looks of it, had just woken up too.

"Hey." She greeted me, bending over to look into the fridge along with me.

"Hey," I whispered back, making a hand gesture behind me. Riley lifted her head up and turned around to see her mother staring at the two of us.

"How long has she been here?" Riley asked.

"All day. She said she heard everything... everything."

Riley went silent before sighing and shaking her head. She then bent over and whispered into my ear: "I'm too tired to even be surprised, but that's embarrassing."

"No kidding." I sighed, pulling out an old sandwich from my lunch yesterday I never got around to eating.