𝐆𝐎-𝐆𝐎 | 𝐬.𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬

𝟎𝟏𝟔. 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

Chapter 16

Haircut

Abandoned church benches were horrible beds, Cadence would know. His shoulder had long since gone into a spasm, and he had been sneezing non-stop since they had broken through the moulding wooden beams.

A loud bang rattled his blocked ears, dust flying wildly before settling once more on the filthy floor.

Had they been caught? Was he in trouble?

Cadence's body shot up from his makeshift bed, panting heavily in fright as his hand flew to his chest to slow his racing heart.

He moved his sight to the location of the startling noise, only to find the unimpressed face of Ponyboy Curtis meeting his gaze with a scoff and a shake of his head.

The blonde stood up slowly, fanning out his white t-shirt and cautiously approaching the stiff crate with bated breath. Inside he found; cigarettes, three packs of matchsticks, baloney, bread, bleach, gasoline, and a paperback copy of Gone with the wind.

"Damn hood, you can read?" He raised a snarky brow at him. Upon seeing Ponyboy's deadpanned face, he fell silent and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I never took you as the type." Cadence grumbled, taking the book in his hands carefully. "I've never met anybody that's read this shit for fun, didn't we do this in school already?" He raised a brow, reading the blurb with a fond, yet mortified expression on his tired face.

"I skipped a few grades." The brunette spoke curtly, snatching a pack from the crate and lighting the cancer stick with the matchbox that lay in the pocket of Dally's jacket.

"Yeah, I gathered that." He rolled his eyes, reaching into the crate and taking out the baloney with a deep grimace.

"What's with the face, Cady?" Pony teased, blowing thick smoke from his lips, "too good for baloney, huh?"

"Don't call me that," Cadence snapped, glaring at him from under his eyelashes, "only my sister can call me that...and no, I'm not too good for baloney but this expires in two days, if you used your big head you'd know we're gonna be here longer than that."

"I guess we'll just have to eat each other to survive then." Pony shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets casually, "We'll snack on you first."

"What the hell man.." The blonde scoffed, "Why me? Can't we eat Johnny?" Throwing his hand in the air in gesture to the boy outside.

"Eat the rich, or whatever." The brunette pursed his lips, running his hand through his hair.

"That is such bull-"

Just then, Johnny wandered inside, flipping the switchblade in his hand as he ran his fingers through his wet hair. He threw his denim jacket on a bench, taking a seat next to the two boys.

"The news must've gotten out by now." he spoke solemnly, his voice barely above a whisper, causing the others to nod their heads weakly in agreement.

"Let's see what we got here," The meek boy shook his head, reaching into the crate and pulling out the goods one by one, until he got to the last item that Cadence seemed to miss, peroxide.

Pony took a whiff of the bottle, sending Johnny a horrified expression as he screwed the lid back on, "you ain't gonna-"

"We gotta cut our hair Ponyboy, bleach yours. They got our descriptions in the papers, we can't match 'em." Johnny argued over Ponyboy's distasteful objections.

"Ain't no way I'm doin' that, I'm gonna look like him." He gestured to Cadence, who sat unassumingly, eating a baloney sandwich with his mind in a place his body couldn't reach.

His face dropped, the dazed expression being replaced with a deep frown. He found himself shrinking into his own body a little more with a scoff, and a flurry of insecure thoughts entering his mind in abundance once again as the dim fire in his eyes burnt out a little more.

"Jackass." The blonde sneered, his voice muffled due to the food stuffed in his cheeks. So 'jackass' sounded more like 'yackas' than anything else, but the point was there.

The flannel clad teen stuck his tongue out childishly before shaking his head as Johnny pulled out his switchblade, "no sir, you ain't touchin' my hair." He refused, rolling his eyes as he sat down.

"Imma cut mine off too and wash all the grease out," he persuaded, "listen man, it's gonna grow back anyway. It's not that it won't..."

The brunette sat in thought for a minute, but soon after turned away with a pained look in his eyes, "go ahead..." he grumbled.

With that, piece by piece, thick chunks of Ponyboy's dark hair fell to the floor, as did his dignity.

___________

"Yeah...I look tough." The youngest Curtis raised a brow, running his hand through his newly cut and bleached hair in the cracked mirror that was held by Johnny. Whether his comment was sarcastic or not would remain a mystery to Cadence, because the once brunette now looked like a total dandelion.

"Something like that." Cadence muttered, pulling low lying leaves from the old tree he leaned against. He stood, one ankle crossed over the other, his back against the rough bark with an apprehensive expression on his face, taking occasional glances at the other two boys to see what they were up to.

They hadn't spoken to him much, they didn't seem to like him much, well at least that's what he thought anyway. It made him upset. Not in an angry way, where one causes havoc in a means of revenge. But just pure loneliness, did anyone even like him? Why did everyone hate him so much?

"Shut it, Blondie." Ponyboy sneered, throwing his cigarette at the other boy, only to miss by a substantial amount as the Soc leaned over and stubbed the cancer stick out with a rock.

"I'll shut up when you learn how to throw." He scoffed, glancing at Johnny for any kind of support, only for the remaining brunette to look away from his gaze and stare at the floor.

"You gotta cut your hair too, right?" He wondered out loud, gesturing to Johnny with his head.

"Yeah, I do." He confirmed, taking his switchblade out of his pocket and handing it to Pony with a mischievous smile, "alright, have your jollies." He sat down, letting Ponyboy take his revenge by pulling much harder on his hair. The youngest Curtis smirked and began his work.

"Are you gonna cut my hair too?" Cadence asked, squinting at the bright sunlight that blinded his eyes.

"If you want, I guess." Pony shrugged, the smirk dropping into a disinterested expression.

"Seeing how you turned out, I'll pass." Cadence snorted, only to receive a disgruntled eye roll from Ponyboy.

"It looks tough." Johnny defended between pained grunts as he tried to pull his head away from his ruthless friend.

"At Least you think so, Cade."