I didn’t want to get into it over the phone. “I’ll tell you tomorrow so we’ll have plenty to talk about.”
“Alright, later.”
“See ya.” I hung up the phone and thought, “Perfect, tomorrow I’ll be on my way to Atlantic City with Lulu for two days of relaxation.”
“Where you going?” Peyton asked joining me outside.
“To A.C. with Lulu.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” she growled.
“You know Teresa wouldn’t let both of us off on such short notice.”
“Whatever,” she said as she lit a cig.
Work went by quickly after that. I put the flowers on the empty station next to mine to avoid any questions. I wanted to not worry about having to explain what happened this weekend or talk about Cole. Most of my clients didn’t notice my bruises and if they did they didn’t ask.
All of the stylists got done early, except of course, Kayla. We always ended up staying late because she could never shut her big, fat mouth long enough to finish her clients on time. Luckily Teresa let the rest of us go and volunteered to stay behind with Kayla. On my way home I thought about all the stuff I needed to pack for A.C.
When I pulled up to my house I saw someone sitting on my front porch. It was dark so it was hard to see at first. I swear if it’s Cole I’m ending this now. Hello stalker.
When I got out of my car I was finally able to see who it was, Logan. Great, just what I needed. I took the flowers from Landon and Cole out of the front seat and walked up to the porch.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked Logan.
“Did you get my flowers?” he asked looking at the flowers I was holding; the roses he sent not being among them.
“Yes I threw them in the trash.” I lied, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Can I come in?”
“Ha!”
“Will you at least talk to me?” he asked.
I put the flowers down and turned to face him.“You want to talk, okay let’s talk. Let’s talk about how you treated me like I was some dirty sock you toss in the corner or the fact I got arrested because of that stupid ass whore of yours, or how you embarrassed me in front of strangers—”
“Embarrassed you?”
“Oh hell no, you don’t get to feel angry or upset,” I said as I poked him in the chest. “In fact you won’t get anything from me ever again. So take your pathetic loser ass and get the fuck off my property!” I turned to open my door and he grabbed my arm. I flung around forcing him to let go.
I glared at him trying to calm myself so I wouldn’t do anything irrational and said, “Do you want one black eye or two?”
He put his hands up as if to surrender.
“One more time, Get. The fuck. Off. My property,” I repeated saying it slower thinking maybe he was too stupid to get it the first time.
He took a step towards me, but then stopped when he saw Tyler walk up.
“Is there a problem?” Tyler asked Logan.
“No, not anymore,” Logan said looking at me.
“Well then, I believe she asked you to leave.” Logan stood there a moment waiting to see if I would say something. “You can leave on your own or I can make you leave, your choice.”
“Ty, it’s fine, he’s leaving,” I said staring at Logan trying to get it through his head I was done with him. Logan took one long look at me and left.
When we got inside Tyler asked, “Who was that douche bag?”
“Nobody important,” I said as I threw my things down on a chair.
“Whatever, I’m hungry, got any food?”
“Yes I have food, why don’t you have any at your house?”
“I do, but I was in the area.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Tyler could be miles away and would still stop by my house first to see if I had food. Mostly, he was hoping I cooked so he’d get a hot, fresh, and free meal.
“Hey don’t forget dad and Trina will be here next Saturday and then Sunday we’re having everyone here for the cookout,” I reminded Tyler.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
“Yeah you know, but for some reason you always seem to forget,” I said to myself. “I need a favor,” I started to ask. Tyler looked at me and I could tell he was thinking I was out of favors to ask him for a while. “I’m going to A.C. with Lulu for the next two days. Can you stop by the house and check on Leo, make sure he has food and water?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“And don’t eat all my food!”
“You don’t want it to go to waste.”
“It won’t in two days.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He started fixing himself something to eat. “You gonna tell dad you got arrested?”
“No and I’d appreciate if you didn’t either.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow….
-Unknown
Chapter 5
I left early in the afternoon the next day. We couldn’t check in until three so there was no point in leaving too early. I picked up Lulu on the way there. She lived in Philadelphia so it was a nice little pit stop before getting to A.C.
Of course the first thing she noticed was the cut on my cheek. I had done a pretty good job covering it up for work so no one noticed, but today I didn’t bother.
“What happened to your face?” Lulu asked.
“Hi, nice to see you too.”
“Oh, sorry, hey,” she laughed and gave me a hug.
Lulu was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with ballet flats. This was her normal attire. Lulu isn’t a prima donna, but she does care about her appearance—to an extent. She doesn’t spend much time on her hair and makeup, she doesn’t have to. She has long, natural, wavy red hair, which she normally lets air dry but it looks like she spent hours doing it. She has a creamy white skin tone with a soft clear complexion. The most makeup she puts on is mascara and lip gloss. And like me, she is covered in tattoos. She stands about five foot four and has a small figure.
I opened the trunk so she could put her stuff in and then we got in the car and headed off. “So are you going to tell me what happened?” Lulu asked.
I took a deep breath and told her everything. I started with the fight first, telling her every little detail. What led up to the fight, every punch and kick, and my few hours in jail. I left the part about Cole for last. I felt he was a whole other story of his own.
As soon as we got to the hotel, we checked into our room, changed into our bathing suits, and headed to the pool.
“I’m gonna scope out the Jacuzzis and see if there are any empty ones,” Lulu said. She walked up and down checking out the place. From what I could see most of them were filled with old people. “Quick there’s an empty one. Grab your stuff before someone gets in.”
We grabbed our things and headed to the empty Jacuzzi in the corner. The water was pretty hot so I worked my way in slowly.
“Okay you ready for the rest of my story?” I asked.
“Jesus Christ, you weren’t finished. Why do your stories take forever?” Lulu whined.
“Sorry I have a life.”
“Whoa!”
“Fine, we can sit here and not talk,” I said as she looked at me and rolled her eyes.
“Just tell me, you know you want to.”
“Fine,” I said, but before I could start some guy walked over wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
He took off his shoes and socks, and dipped his feet into the water. He looked at us and smiled. “This is the extent of me getting in,” he chuckled.
Lulu and I just looked at each other trying not to look totally disgusted. We didn’t say anything while he was there. Five minutes later the guy got up, said goodbye, and left.
I looked at Lulu, “Uh gross.”
She nodded in agreement. “Yeah thanks buddy for contaminating the water with your nasty feet.”
“I know weird right.”
“Creepy.”
> We both started cracking up.
“What were we talking about?” Lulu asked.
“I was going to tell you the rest of my story.”
“Oh yeah, can I take a nap first, being this is probably gonna take another two hours.” I glared at her getting ready to say something. “I was just kidding, relax.”
I sighed and went into my story about Cole. From the first night we met, to him being the one to bail me out, the night at Landon’s and the flowers and lunch.
“He bailed you out and paid the charges. Is he rich?”
“I don’t know, I guess he must make good money.”
“Well find out if he’s rich and if he is go for it and he can pay for us to go to Vegas.”
I just laughed. “Lulu, I’m not going to date him because he’s rich and so you can go to Vegas.”
“Do you like him?”
“I don’t know?” And I really didn’t know. This was the first time I actually admitted I wasn’t sure. I mean I didn’t really know him, he seemed nice, but I haven’t ruled out potential stalker yet.
“Well just go on the dates and see what happens. If you don’t like him then oh well. What have you got to lose?”
“My life. What if he’s a stalker?”
“Then kick his ass.”
“I wish there was another way to pay him back.”
“Why? You’re lucky that’s all he asked for. I think you made out pretty good.” She was right, I was lucky. Most people aren’t that nice which made me wonder if he has other intentions.
“What if he kidnaps me and hides me in his basement and tortures me for pleasure?” I said.
“Depends, is it for your pleasure or his?” I tried not to laugh. “What if he’s a cannibal like in Silence of the Lambs?”
“Or like he skins people and wears their skin as mask in like Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” I said. “You know both those movies were based on the same person.”
We went back and forth comparing different scenarios from various horror movies and cracking up at each one. “We watch too many scary movies,” we eventually concluded.
“I don’t think we watch enough,” Lulu said.
“Please I have enough nightmares from the ones we’ve seen.” We both looked at each other and at the same time said, “The Ring,” shuddered, and started busting up laughing at the memory of when we went to see that movie.
Lulu had gotten free tickets to see the movie and that’s the only reason we went. When we got to the theater, we ran into my friend Travis and his boyfriend Shawn. They were also seeing The Ring so we decided to sit together. There were only about five other people in the theater besides us.
We sat in the middle on the end towards the left. Five minutes into the movie Lulu and I looked at each other, “I don’t want to watch anymore,” she said.
“I know it’s freaking me out, I don’t want to watch anymore either.” We started cracking up and Travis and Shawn looked at us like we were nuts.
“What’s so funny?” Travis asked.
“We’re scared,” I said.
“It’s okay, I’m a little scared too, but we can be brave together.” I smiled at him and then Lulu and I shrunk down in our seats. More or less so no one would see us jump at the scary parts. We would sometimes look at each other to see if the other noticed we jumped, but we never did and would always laugh about it later.
“Okay Lulu, seriously now what should I do?” I asked her referring back to Cole.
“I don’t know, umm… how about we make a list of pros and cons,” she suggested.
“Okay, let’s start with the pros.” I started to think of the potentially good things about Cole. “He’s very good-looking.”
“Always a plus,” she said.
“Beautiful blue eyes, tall, great smile, good hair…”
“Anything besides looks?”
“Well he’s nice, sometimes too nice, sweet, caring, thoughtful…”
“When did you meet him again?”
“This past weekend, why?” I said looking at her curiously.
“What!” she yelped.
I gave her a ‘what’s that supposed to mean’ look.
“I didn’t say anything,” Lulu said defensively.
“I’m not saying you did.”
“Then stop looking at me like that.”
“Moving on…” I said.
“Any more pros, besides him being rich?”
I stifled an eye roll. “Lulu that doesn’t matter, it doesn’t hurt, but not important.”
“Whatever, it’s still a pro.”
“Okay, cons.” I said trying to move on. It actually took me a while to think of some. After all, as Lulu pointed out, I only just met him this past weekend. I didn’t really know anything about him. “Hmm…well he pays for everything.”
“That’s a pro not a con,” she was quick to correct me.
“Yeah well, it annoys me, and he’s pushy.”
“How do you mean?”
“He doesn’t give up. Even when I told him I wasn’t interested he still pursued me.”
“Huh, well until you know more about him, I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a con yet.”
I thought about Cole some more and sort of spaced out. “Well I have nothing else,” I eventually said annoyed that I couldn’t come up with anything that I could find wrong about Cole.
“He sounds too good to be true.”
“Yeah that’s the problem. He’s probably just like any other guy, nice and sweet at first, then when they know they have you, Bam! Turn into the dickheads they are.”
“Whoa!” Lulu said laughing and I couldn’t help, but start laughing myself. “Don’t stress about it. Like I said just see what happens. Go on the dates and if you don’t like him then get rid of him.”
She was right. I was making it more of a big deal than it was.
“Hey you hungry?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s go get something to eat.”
We got out, dried off, and made our way back to the room. We decided to grab a pizza because we were too hungry to wait and shower and decide where to eat. Besides, you can never go wrong with pizza.
After we ate we took turns showering, then headed down to the casino to do a little gambling. We weren’t big gamblers, so we mostly stuck to the nickel and penny slot machines. After I lost about twenty dollars I was done gambling for the night.
We headed over to one of the bars to have a few drinks. We sat there pretty much all night catching up and reliving old memories. Around three we called it a night, headed back to our room, and finished off the rest of the pizza.
The next day we spent mostly on the rooftop deck and went shopping at the outlets. We went to Johnny Rockets for dinner and grabbed a drink at Bally’s Bikini Beach bar outside. When we got back to our hotel we did a little more gambling, well I did, Lulu watched. After losing another twenty dollars, I decided I was done gambling again. We headed back to room and called it a night.
In the morning we packed up all our things and headed downstairs to have some breakfast before we left. I was glad I went. To get away for two days was a nice break. I would have loved to stay, but there’s only so much you can do in Atlantic City, especially if you’re not a big gambler.
I dropped Lulu off and thanked her for the mini vacation. Then I headed home feeling nice and relaxed. When I got to my house, I called work to see when my first appointment was tomorrow. Thankfully it wasn’t until the afternoon.
By Friday the cut on my cheek was almost nonexistent. Before I left for work I thought I should text Cole and get it over with. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to go on the date, I just wasn’t ready, and something about Cole annoyed me. I sighed, thinking better to just get it over with. Like Lulu said, just think of it as community service. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? I took out my phone and sent Cole a text.
Hey it’s Tatum
Hi
So where and when tonight?
>
U tell me, whatever u want
God, I had to choose. I wonder if he’d go for Wendy’s drive thru, probably not.
How about Applebee’s @ 8?
Sounds good want me to pick u up?
No I’ll meet u there
I definitely don’t want him knowing where I lived, wouldn’t be surprised if he already did. He knew where I worked and I swear I never told him.
See ya @ 8
Now that that’s over with, time for work.
It was just like any other work day. I was busy enough that it kept my mind off of tonight. Peyton filled me in on what happened at work while I was gone. Apparently Kayla was running her mouth the past two days about me. Peyton had off on Thursday so she had to wait until today to tell me.
“Do I even want to know?” I asked.
“She was saying how you slept with Tommy and you’re such a slut.”
I laughed. “Please, nothing she hasn’t said before. I don’t care, besides I can be a slut sometimes,” I smiled and Peyton laughed.
“True, that’s why I didn’t deny it.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically.
“Here’s the real kicker though. She said Tommy was all over her and practically begging her to go out with him. She told everyone she turned him down because she was afraid she’d get an S.T.D. since you slept with him and that you were jealous of him hitting on her.”
Okay, call me a slut fine, but to say I had an S.T.D. and I was jealous of Kayla, hell no. That really pissed me off.
“What the fuck! Did you say something?” I asked Peyton.
“Of course I did! The dumb ass bitch didn’t think I’d find out. Please, no one gossips around here without me finding out.”
That was true. Peyton seemed to know everything. People always told her or she just found out—she’s very nosey.
“Well what did you say?”
“I really didn’t have to say much, not too many people believed her.”
That was good to know. “And?”
“And I reminded her that I was the queen bitch around here and if she didn’t stop talking shit, I would tell everyone about her own little dirty secrets.”
“Do you even know any?”
“No, but she doesn’t know that,” she said smiling a devilish grin. “It’s all about intimidation, I told you, you need to be more like me.”
The Hairdresser Diaries Page 10