They Call Me Daring

Chapter 39

"Ready?" Meg said coldly, and suddenly I questioned my motives for allowing her to take sharp scissors and blades near my neck and head areas.
"Uh... you sure you know how to do this?"
"Please." She dismissed it, and then I heard the buzzing of an electric razor, and the vibrating in my skull.
"Oh, god." I muttered, closing my eyes and trying to ignore thoughts of murderous Megs. I knew she was still ticked off at me for earlier. But we'd met in the basement just like planned, and she'd showed up with clippers and scissors. Apparently she thought it would be sort of a dead giveaway if I showed up with pure white hair.
"You need a haircut anyways." I heard her say over the sound of the buzzer. "Side-swept bangs? Sooo 2010."
"I don't think there is an 'in-style' anymore, Meg." I said through gritted teeth. There was no mirror, so I had no idea how much she was taking off. I knew my hair grew really fast, and she was only supposed to cut it down to the brown, so it shouldn't be too short....
"Believe me, there is." She said, and the buzzer snapped off. I shook my head and the single bare lightbulb illuminated the dozens of tiny white strands that flew into the air. "You just ignore it."
"Okay, then." I challenged. "What is the 'in-style' then?"
"You're about to find out." Was my answer.
Great. She was gonna shave me bald, or something else terrible.
"If I'm bald-"
"Don't worry, you're not."
"If you did something terrible-"
"Don't you trust me, Liam?"
"NO!" I exclaimed, wincing at the slicing of the scissors as she pinched and pulled at what was left of my hair. I reached a hand up to feel my head and make sure it was even, but she slapped my hand away.
"I'm not done yet."
"How much llooonnngeer....." I complained.
"It's literally been two minutes. Do you know how long I spend on my hair daily?"
I shrugged. "Few hours?"
"Oh, Liam." She sighed.
"Do we have a plan, then?" I asked after a while.
"Man, I'm just getting you in. You come up with the plan yourself." She replied. I grimaced, because I actually had no plan whatsoever. I supposed I could always wing it. I would end up doing that anyway, because plans never seemed to go according to plan.
Finally the snipping was done, but when I reached my hand up again, she knocked it away. "For God's sake, Liam. Just sit still!"
"It's harder than it looks." I answered, tapping my fingers on the sides of the plastic chair. I beat out a rhythm. Then another rhythm. I tapped my foot, twiddled my thumbs. What was she doing-
"What is that?" I asked when I felt a cool slime on the front of my head. "What are you doing now?"
"Hair gel." She said dismissively.
"Why?"
"Because that's what guys do to look good."
"Why would I want to look good?"
I could literally feel her glaring at me. "God, you're weird."
"What guys wear hair product?"
"Have you ever looked at your brother?" She said incredulously.
"Why would I want to-" I stopped. "Why were you looking at Clark?"
"Why wouldn't I?" She said cooly, and I felt her rubbing the gel whatever up my scalp. "He's very good-looking, Liam."
"He's too old for you." I said immediately. She stopped, and moved around the chair to raise an eyebrow at me.
"Whoa, somebody's getting a little protective. I just said he was good-looking, that's all-"
"I thought you said I was good-looking." I said defensively, hurt.
She actually laughed incredulously. "Oh my God. And I thought you just said you didn't want to be good-looking."
I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again, searching for an argument, then, again, finding none, I gave up. "Are you done?" I asked grudgingly.
"Sure, Liam." She replied, and I tried to ignore the bemused look on her face.
She pulled a mirror out of the bag she'd brought with her, and I took it, tilting my head down to see every inch of my head and make sure she hadn't made a huge bald circle or something else.
"Well?" She asked smugly after a moment.
"Well what?" I murmured absently, still staring at the mirror in awe. It was startling. I barely recognized myself. Without the red eyes and white hair, I almost looked like regular old Liam again. Almost, except with short hair. And still really, really pale.
"Do you like it?"
"It's not..." I turned my head to check and, again, found no bald spots.  "You didn't do too bad..." My hair was completely brown. You would never have been able to guess it had been pure white a few moments ago. It was slightly shorter on the sides, nearly an inch long on top, the front pieces spiked up neatly.
"Okay, you can stop admiring yourself." She snatched the mirror away and looked me up and down. Her eyes landed on my face. For quite a while. Her mouth opened slightly. "I... did a really good job, actually." She said slowly.
I grinned awkwardly. "Okay, now you can stop admiring me. I know it's hard, but-"
"Shut up, Liam."