Ginny glanced at the clock. “We’ll need to leave in a half hour. Will that be enough time to get ready? You don’t need to wash your hair again. Rita will do that for you.”
Based on Ginny and Ricki’s style, I thought Rita’s place would be a fancy salon in a casino or mall, but it was far from it.
The windows were covered in a dusty floral shade. A bell tinkled when we entered. Ginny’s heels clicked on the floor as she approached a middle aged Hispanic woman.
“Rita, thanks for fitting us in. I know this was last minute.”
Rita fussed with my hair and muttered in Spanish. She was interrupted no less than three times by customers coming into the shop. She told them all the same thing. “I’m not taking any new clients.” And they all left disappointed or angry.
Finally, she beckoned Ginny over. “Her hair has been over treated. We’ll definitely want to put some color back in, but we can’t do anything dramatic. I’m thinking a light brown with copper highlights, though even highlights may be a bit too much. I’m also inclined to go shoulder length with long layers. Does that sound okay to you?”
Ginny didn’t answer, but looked at me. I shrugged. No one ever asked my opinion before and one color is as good as another as long as it wasn’t blond. I was sick of blond.
Over in the corner Ricki chatted with the girls. She whispered to the one with long black curls and handed her something.
Rita hollered at the girls and they came running. They listened intently as Rita barked instructions about my hair. They asked a few more questions, again in Spanish and the one with short spiky hair grabbed a pair of scissors and started snipping away. She had flipped the chair around so I couldn’t see the mirror, but long blond locks fell to the floor. Good Riddance.
My stomach began to twist. The Master says that cutting your hair is a sin and if you do cut it, you’ll have to shave it all off in shame. If my parents didn’t really murder someone and I had to go home, I’d have to shave my head. Then father would probably kill me out of his shame. But I wanted Ginny to like me. Was that a sin?
Rita watched from a chair for a bit while she and Ginny chatted.
“We’re going around the corner for some coffee, will you be okay?” Ginny asked.
I nodded.
“Good. Rita’s daughters will take good care of you. You need to have your toes done. It’s nearly summer and you’ll want to wear sandals. I’ll not have my niece run around with bare toes. Maria does a great job.”
They swept out of the shop and left me alone with the three Hispanic girls and Ricki.
Ricki came and sat on the other salon chair. “Maria, do my toes first. Ginny said I could get a pedi if I came with her today.” Maria, who had bright pink hair, laughed.
“Sure she did, Senorita. Pick your colors.”
The one cutting my hair paused and looked directly at me. “What’s your name?”
“Naomi.”
She nodded and continued clipping.
“I’m Gloria. How come your hair is so long? It’s dreadful for your face. Not to mention completely fried.”
“My mother wouldn’t let me cut my hair. And my father wanted me to be a blond.” Her face betrayed no emotion. Ricki also shut up. It was very quiet in the room. The girl that Ricki had given money to disappeared in the back and Maria painted Ricki’s toes a bright red. After a while, Gloria seemed satisfied with my hair but didn’t let me turn around to look.
“I don’t want you to see until we are finished. Anita will do your color and then I’ll finish styling it. While the color is setting we’ll take care of your pedicure, wax and face. Is it okay if we do your make up? Ginny will most likely take you to get make up, but I don’t want you running around Vegas naked.”
Out of all the sisters I liked her best. She seemed up front and honest. And she talked to me.
I did not like Anita. She tugged and pulled and the color smelled awful. Like cat pee and fertilizer. Finally she put a cap on my head. Maria held out a few bottles of nail polish and asked me to pick one. After some deliberation I picked the amethyst.
Ricki looked at the color before Maria began and scoffed. “Purple is tacky. You should pick a pink or red.” I blushed. I didn’t want to look tacky. And I wanted Ginny to approve. I started to point at the red one, like Ricki’s, when Gloria spoke up.
“Cállate Ricki. Purple is perfect. Red is so commonplace. The purple will stand out more because it is different. And you yourself are different, in a good way. You have unique beauty that Ricki’s jealous of. She doesn’t know what she is talking about.” Oh no. I didn’t know who I was supposed to listen to. Ginny seemed to value both Ricki’s opinion and the salon. I liked Gloria and she was the one taking care of my hair so I decided to listen to her.
“Okay, Purple.”
Ricki rolled her eyes and took out her phone while Gloria came at me with a huge pair a tweezers. “This is going to hurt.”
And hurt it did. I think she ripped out half my eyebrows. But apparently that wasn’t all she was ripping out. She frowned at my legs.
“Why are you so hairy? Were you protesting something?”
I shook my head. “My mom wouldn’t let me shave my legs.”
Maria handed Gloria a bowl full of sticky stuff that she smeared all over my legs and covered with a thin cloth.
“Take a deep breath,” instructed Gloria. I did and on the exhale she ripped the cloth off my leg.
I was proud of myself for not screaming. But it hurt worse than when Gloria ripped out my eyebrows. Why did beauty have to be so painful?
Finally the cap came off and Anita rinsed out my hair. Gloria had disappeared into the back of the salon. When I settled back into the chair Maria gasped.
“Anita, what have you done?”
Anita grinned and popped her gum.
Ricki looked up at me from her phone and hissed. “It was supposed to be a streak. Ginny is going to kill you.”
At that moment, Gloria came out of the back of the salon and screeched. Then let out a stream of curses. All in Spanish. She grabbed Anita by the arm and yelled in her face.
I turned around and looked. My hair. I’d never seen anything like it before. I stared, dumbfounded.
After a few moments Gloria looked at me and smiled a tight smile. “Well, it’s a good thing you picked the purple nail polish.”
The whole salon was silent after that. Ricki didn’t take her eyes off me while Gloria brushed and dried and straightened my hair. I kept my eyes on my purple toes. I liked them. They looked like petals.
Rita and Ginny came back into the Salon as Gloria finished with a spray. Ginny had a drink carrier in her hands full of coffee which she dropped when she walked in the door. Rita shrieked as the coffee splashed up on her legs. Ginny covered her mouth with her hands.
Then, I looked in the mirror.
I didn’t recognize myself. That girl staring back at me had neatly trimmed eyebrows, a bit of mascara and glossy lips. Her cheekbones appeared prominent and her wide eyes looked larger than mine. But her hair.
It was green.
Roses are beautiful from the roots to the stems. Healthy rose leaves are glossy and shiny and deep green. Even its thorns carry a strange sense of beauty. My favorite part, of course, is the smell. But, a rose wouldn’t be a rose without its petals.
THE HAIR MATCHED MY EYES. Ginny called it leprechaun green. At least that’s what I think she said, it was hard to tell between the screeches. I let them carry on while I simply stared at myself in the mirror. Ricki never took her eyes off my hair either. Somehow Ginny missed the fact that Ricki was involved. She must’ve paid Anita well.
Rita was all apologies. She said we could come back in a few weeks and she’d fix it, but that I’d have to use a deep conditioner every night to heal my hair.
The longer I stared at it, the more I liked it. My father would kill me and the guilt gnawed at me, but I felt a bit like a fairy or a flower. And that pleased me.
Ginny
despaired all the way to the car when I finally spoke up.
“I like it,” I said.
She looked at me for a moment and shrugged. “We’ll have to be careful shopping this afternoon. No red or you’ll end up looking like a Christmas tree.”
We walked through a casino. Ginny walked with a purpose through hundreds of machines and past tables. Women in short dresses carried around drinks, and men dressed like Roman soldiers wandered around taking pictures with tourists.
After a few minutes, Ginny looked around like she’d forgotten she had others with her. “Have you any idea what kind of style you’d like? The green hair lends well to punk and Goth, but you don’t have to do that.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “I’m not sure. I don’t know much about styles.”
We entered a mall. At least I thought it was a mall. It had a tall ceiling painted like the sky and shops surrounded us. Mother took me down to the mall in Fayetteville once, but it looked nothing like this. The mall in Fayetteville had worn carpet and old women walking in circles. And it was mostly empty. This one was full to bursting with people and energy. The floor was marble and huge statues surrounded us.
“Hmm, well what inspires you?”
This mall, I thought.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry I still don’t understand.”
“For example, when I designed my own style, I centered it around a beach. Most of my clothes are soft beiges and blues with a touch of pink here and there. You’ll notice even my apartment reflects that. And Ricki is mostly a party girl. You should see her room. Loud and obnoxious. If you have something that inspires you, you’ll be easier to dress.”
Oh well, that was easy.
“A flower garden. Roses.”
Ginny laughed. “Fitting. Come on then, my little green haired elf.”
Shopping with a stylist and her minion is humiliating. Ricki sat in a corner ridiculing everything I tried on. I was nervous about showing too much skin, so the shorts I picked were longer and I refused to put on a bikini. Mostly though, I let Ginny make the decisions. It seemed easier somehow. Every time she held up two shirts and asked which one, I said, “You pick.”
Ricki rolled her eyes and would say something like, “Take the one that shows more cleavage.”
By the time we were done, Ginny had spent over ten grand. But, I had quite a wardrobe and three new purses. Mother would never let me keep all of this. Not that she’d ever see it. I liked a lot of the clothes Ginny picked, but I knew that I could never go shopping on my own. There were far too many choices to be made.
When we arrived home that evening there was a letter for me sitting on the table. My heart leapt for a minute thinking that it was from Kai, but the handwriting was all wrong. When I opened the envelope a fifty-dollar bill fell out with a small note.
Got your fifty bucks back.
Have your aunt teach you some street sense.
—Puck
I rolled my eyes. Ginny came up behind me.
“What’s that?” she asked.
I told her the story of what happened the night I arrived.
“You could’ve been killed. Or worse. I don’t understand how you could be so ignorant.”
My cheeks reddened. It’s not like I wanted to be stupid.
“I’m sorry,” I replied and headed to my room. Ginny stopped me.
“No, wait. That came out wrong. You’re just so different. I don’t know how to fix it. And sometimes it feels like you don’t even want to fix it. I know this is hard for you, but it’s hard for me too. Two days ago I had a blissfully quiet life, and now I have to try to figure out how to raise my niece who doesn’t even know how much a cab ride from the airport should cost or that she shouldn’t get into a car with boys she just met. Or for pity’s sake, Naomi, why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t have your phone number.”
The tears came without warning. I wanted so badly for her to like me, but I wasn’t doing anything right.
She stared at me, pity in those soft brown eyes. “Come on, let’s see how your room turned out.”
The clothes had all been cleared away. Along the back wall, black wallpaper with red roses hung. The rest of the walls were painted stark white, with a few scattered vintage photos of girls holding a single red bud. The bed sat in the center of the far wall, low to the floor with a soft white duvet. Red throw pillows adorned it.
Three dressers, all black but each a different height sat along another wall.
Ginny surveyed the room. “Looks good. Do you like it? I took a chance after Alejandro gave you that rose.”
I nodded. Ginny confused me. It was like she wanted to do the right things for me, but she wasn’t sure how. And, I didn’t know how to get Ginny to relate to me. Shopping, clothes, celebrities. They meant nothing to me. The evidence of our shopping day had already been hung in the closets and put into the drawers.
I sat down on the bed and Ginny stood in the doorway, looking drained.
“Good Night,” she said and shut the door, leaving me alone to wonder how I would cope in this brand new world.
Roses are entirely feminine. Yet scattered across my garden are Barry Stephen, Daniel Boone, Frederick Keeling, Hector Deane, and Jason. Having boys in my garden seems as strange as having boys as friends.
MORNINGS SEEMED TO TAKE the sting out of evening calamities. I awoke feeling optimistic. I didn’t have a window in my room so I scurried out to the living room balcony to watch the sun rise. Change was such a funny thing. Six months ago, I had no idea my life would take such drastic turns. Now, I was living in Vegas and had green hair. Would Kai like the green hair? In a few months when he came for me, he’d have many things to say about it. He’d say it was cool and that I could do anything to my hair and still be beautiful. My insides warmed at that thought. His reaction would be a far cry from Dwayne. He would probably beat me. Then he’d have the Master punish me. Although, if the Master ever got his hands on me again, I’d have a lot more to answer for than just the hair. Even my thoughts would damn me. And I kissed Kai. I wondered if there was any hope for me.
Ginny joined me about thirty minutes later with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“You like it outside better, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah, especially in the morning. Do you think I could get a few plants? I grew roses at home and I miss them.”
She paused for a few seconds, and then shrugged. “Sure, here’s Ricki’s number and Alejandro’s assistant, Jo. She’ll be able to tell you where Ale gets his roses. When you’re ready, go down to the desk and ask Princess to order you a car for the day and bill it to my room.” She stopped talking and thought for a moment.
“Oh and you’ll need this.” She handed me a credit card. “I don’t think I need to lecture you on abusing the card, but I do expect you to use it. Buy as many roses as you like that will fit in the space. Anything I’ve ever tried to grow dies in days. It will be nice to have plants. I’ll order you your own card this week. You should be fine at the nursery, but if you try to use this card at the mall they will ask for ID.”
“Also, make sure you eat.” She handed me a hundred dollar bill. “And don’t get in a car with anyone except the car Princess orders for you.” She looked at the clock hanging on the wall behind my head. “Gotta run, is there anything else you need?”
I shook my head and tried to think of something that would please her. “Wait, I know you have to go, but could you show me what I should wear today? I don’t want to mix anything up.”
She grinned and I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, something that she could relate to. She picked out a pair of dark denim shorts and a lavender tank top that had a silvery flower pattern on it.
“Don’t wear a dark colored bra or it will show right through. Any of the sandals we bought will work. Take your small purse. Your hair. It actually looks kind of hip on you. If you wash it, use conditioner and blow-dry it, it will be fine. I’ll teach you how
to use the straightener and curling iron this weekend. You should be okay with your make up. A little powder and mascara will do fine.” She looked at her watch. “Now I’m really late.” She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. Her kiss was cool and pleasant. The fact that her touch didn’t burn me surprised me once again. “Have fun today. I’ll see you tonight.”
She left in a flurry, her heels clicking on the floor. I would never be able to wear shoes like that. I’d look like a goose. After my shower, I dressed and tried not to feel self conscious in shorts. They were longer than was fashionable but I still felt exposed.
I put the phone and money in my new purse and headed downstairs. In the elevator I couldn’t help but stare at myself in the long mirror. My green hair stood out, but mostly I looked cool. And cool was something I’d never looked before. At home I’d stick out, but not here. Home seemed so far away, another universe almost. And although I missed it, Vegas was growing on me.
At the front desk I sought out Princess. She terrified me and I hadn’t seen or spoken to her since that night she refused to call Ginny for me. She eyed me cautiously as I approached her.
“Ginny asked me to have you order me a car.”
She sneered. “Why would Ginny want you to have a car?”
I stared back at her puzzled. Surely she wouldn’t refuse me again. She knew I was Ginny’s niece.
“I’m Naomi, Ginny’s niece.”
“You are not Naomi. Now get out of here before I call security.”
When I walked away from the desk, I wondered if there was anything I could do. Obviously she didn’t recognize me. Would my own mother recognize me? Probably not. Would Kai?
I’d have to wait for Ricki to get up before I could go rose shopping, but the day was gorgeous and warm. No way would I stay inside. Plus I was hungry.
When we got home yesterday, Ricki had pointed to a shop a few doors down and commented that they made the best coffee and bagels.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that a short distance by car was much different than a walk. Things looked different on the ground and I was going in the opposite direction of the salon, so nothing looked familiar. I kept looking at the buildings hoping to find something that resembled a coffee shop, but all I ever found were casino entrances. No way would I go in there, I didn’t need yet another reason for the Master to punish me. Gamblers had their fingers cut off.
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 10