Free Next Door to a Star by Krysten Lindsay Hager Page B

Eleven
     
     
    I called Charlotte the next morning to see if she wanted to come over, but she was going out on Deidre’s dad’s boat.
    “I guess I can ask if you can come along,” she said.
    “It’s okay. I might do something with my grandparents,” I said. I didn’t want to beg for an invitation.
    “Oh, okay. Well, have fun,” she said.
    I spent all morning reading and hoping Simone would call me to do something and bring up Nick. I wondered if Lauren was in town yet.
    Aunt Maggie came into my room. “I’m going to get my hair done downtown. You want to go with me? You could get a trim if you want and afterward we can get ice cream.”
    Grandma had been reading in the family room all morning, so it wasn’t like I’d be able to watch Charmed Lives anyway. At least at the salon I’d be able to read magazines.
    “Sure, thanks.”
    Aunt Maggie was getting her hair washed when Simone came in with her mom. They both had appointments, but her mom went first so Simone sat down with me.
    “I’m getting a trim and maybe some layers,” Simone said. “I want to get highlights, but my mom won’t let me because they fry my hair. I used to have them all the time though.”
    I wasn’t exactly sure what all went into getting highlights other than using some kind of bleach and tinfoil, but I nodded. One of the magazines had said Valeria had buttery highlights near her face, so they had to be a good thing. Maggie came out with a towel on her head and asked if I wanted to get my hair cut. My hair was in a messy ponytail and needed a trim, but I’d only ever had one person cut my hair for me—my mom’s hairstylist, Ramona. She had been doing my hair since I was little, and I was a bit nervous about the idea of someone else touching my hair.
    “You should do it,” said Simone. “You would look good with some layers around your face.”
    Valeria had layers around her face, so I agreed. Simone and I had our hair washed, and I felt dumb having her see me with wet hair. I always made sure never to get it wet at the beach when I was with her. However, Simone was even pretty with her wet hair plastered against her head.
    “Okay, so we’re doing layers?” the stylist asked me.
    “Yeah, like this,” I said, pulling up a picture of Valeria on my phone.
    “Do you want a bit of bangs with it like in the picture?”
    I looked over at Simone.
    “Do it,” she said. “If you hate it, they will grow out by the time school starts.”
    “Bangs like these are easy to blend in with the rest of the hair if you don’t like them,” the stylist said.
    I nodded and she said she was going to use a razor on my hair. I didn’t know what she meant and about had a stroke when she started using it around my face. I thought my hair would end up looking all choppy since the stylist kept cutting it away from the rest of my hair, but it fell right into place when she finished.
    I looked at all the hair on the floor around my chair. She cut a ton off, but it was still sorta long, and now it had shorter pieces in front like Simone’s. Simone’s hairstylist told her to use a deep conditioner since she was bleaching her hair.
    “Don’t tell my mom, okay?” Simone said to me. “I use this stuff you spray in your hair to make it blonder. She won’t let me highlight it anymore, and my hair’s gotten darker in the last two years. I had to do something while the highlights grew out.”
    Her stylist told her she shouldn’t use the bleaching stuff and said your hormones made your hair darker as you get older. Simone made a face when she said, “hormones.” Adults always blamed everything on hormones. You could steal a car and back over a dog and they’d shake their heads and blame it on hormones.
    “Where do you get that bleaching stuff?” I asked after the hairstylist left to get some styling pomade.
    “They took it off the market, but I stockpiled right before they did, so I have a ton left. It’s super easy to use. I can do it for