// amethyst //
-
"but nobody noticed, nobody ever seemed to notice."
-
"you ready for the finished product?" I ask maisie as she covers her eyes, trying to hold back a smile.
"yes!" she says, biting her lip.
"okay you can look now." I say as I pull the curler away from her hair.
as soon as she removes her hands from her eyes, I can tell she loves it. her eyes light up with excitement just like mine did when I dyed mine a few weeks ago.
"oh my god. I love it so much." she says, hugging me tightly. "thank you so much, amethyst."
"you're so welcome." I smile genuinely.
"here, take this." she says, grabbing a 20 dollar bill from her small clutch.
"no, I can't." I tell her, taking a step back.
"I insist. you did such an amazing job." she whines.
"I promise you can use that 20 dollars on something more than a tip." I tell her, grabbing the paper and placing it back into her clutch.
"okay fine, whatever you say." she rolls her eyes. "I'll text you later. maybe we could do something this week?"
"for sure." I tell her before she walks away to the front of the salon.
"well look who made a new friend." I hear the familiar male voice from behind me.
"what is it drew?" I ask him.
"I was just wondering if you want to go to lunch with me again?" he asks, scratching the back of his neck, kind of like he's nervous.
"um sure." I hesitate.
"okay, let me go get my wallet and I'll meet you back out here." he says, pointing towards the break room direction.
"okay." I say before he walks away.
"going out with drew again? what is going on between you two?" Val comes up behind me again, being her nosy self.
"nothing, Val." I groan. "why do you ask me this every time?"
"because I have a weird feeling you're lying." she smirks before she walks away to help the interns at the front.
I wait awkwardly for a few minutes until drew comes back.
"sorry I took so long," he chuckles. "I couldn't unlock the lock on my locker."
"well aren't you clever." I laugh at how dumb he can be sometimes.
"shut up." he says, nudging me.
once we open the doors, I grab my Marlboro box to find only one cigarette left. without thought I grab it and light it with my electric blue lighter from my purse. I place in in the corner of my mouth as I put the box in the trash and lighter back in the purse.
"so, um I was thinking-"
he's cut off by my phone ringing loudly my favorite blink 182 song, what's my age again.
"hold that thought." I tell him before I answer the call, it being from Val.
"hey." I answer the phone.
"hey Ames." she says in a nervous tone.
"what's up?" I ask her as calm as I can.
"um that guy of yours might've called me again." she says and I can tell she's biting her nails right now.
"and?" I swallow hard.
"he- he says he's coming here to make everything right." those words make my heart leap a million times, but I try my best to not make it obvious.
"he did?" I ask her, my voice shaking.
"yeah. a-and he told me to tell you he's sorry." she says into the phone.
"well sorry doesn't cut shit." I say angrily.
"I told him that. except the shit part but whatever." she says. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt your lunch with drew."
"it's fine. we weren't doing much anyway." I sigh.
"okay well have fun, remember break ends in 45 minutes." she says.
"okay. bye." I speak before I hang up.
"sorry about that." I tell him, shoving my phone back into my pocket. "Val just got a call from my ex."
"what'd he say?" he asks me.
"he's coming to make everything right." I chuckle. "that's what he thinks."
"that's kind of creepy if you ask me." he scoffs.
"oh really?" I ask.
"yeah. I mean he's flying here just to get you back. that's super cheesy." he says.
"well I think it's romantic." I say as we order our food at the shop. grilled chicken salad for me and a club sandwich for him.
"oh and what were you going to ask me earlier?" I ask him once we sit down.
"oh- it's nothing." he says, scratching the back of his neck.
"cmon tell me." I whine, biting into a piece of chicken.
"I was just, um, wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime? like instead of eating gross food during our lunch breaks every day." he says kind of quietly.
"sure." is all I reply with. don't get me wrong, Drew is a great guy and all, but I don't know why but I'm just not attracted to him in the dating type of way. "not a date though."
"just friends." he sighs. I really hope I didn't hurt his feelings in that type of way, but it's true. I haven't moved on. not one bit and i don't think I will since he's coming here in I don't know how long.
the walk back to the salon was awkward and quiet. once I get back, I try to find Val, but she's nowhere to be found. I go upstairs to her apartment to see her eating a healthy looking wrap at the empty table.
"hey." I say to make my presence known.
"oh hey." she says, setting the wrap down back into its plate.
"so about michael." I say. " I'm really sorry he keeps calling you. I blocked his number so he can't call or text me."
"it's okay. I kind of blocked his number after he called." she laughs.
"good." I start. "why is he coming here?"
"I know it's because he loves you." she says.
"no, no he can't love me. he hurt me." my breathing hitches.
"I promise you Ames, a guy who doesn't love you wouldn't fly halfway across the world for you." she says like I'm completely stupid.
"I- I don't know what to possibly think right now." I stutter before resting my head in my palms. "should I be happy he's coming or should I still be angry that he hurt me."
"I mean, if I were you, I wouldn't let him come back into your life so easily. because if you do that, he'll think it'll be okay if he hurts you again." she says, taking another bite from her wrap.
"that sure as hell isn't okay." I say. "how do you know so much about love? you're only like 5 years older than me."
"I think you know more than you think." she says before walking back down the stairs to the salon.
do I?
••••••
hey guys!
sorry this was a long filler...
thank you for reading!!
so I made the playlist for this book, tell me any other songs to add on...
bad habit- the kooks
lay me down- sam smith
aftertaste- shawn mendes
sorry the playlist is short but nobody commented songs so...
