The Aftermath Of You

Chapter Twenty Six

Danny stared at her in shock. "You weren't listening to the radio while you were in the bath, were you?"

"No, why?"

"Making toast in the shower?"

"Not at all," Toni said with a sniff.

"You look like you've had a hair raising moment." He hiding a chuckle into his mass of frizzy hair.

Pot calling the kettle black. "I did not get electrified," she informed him. Checking her hair in the window over Danny's shoulder, she saw that it stood on end like horrible orange candy floss that nobody would care to eat. It had happened all too quickly – at some stage while practicing her 'kiss face' in the mirror (drooping her eyelids, pouting her lips and jutting out her jaw ... and then on second thoughts pulling her jaw back in) and pondering on Granny Smith's advice that, 'It's just like riding a bicycle!' (gardening – not kissing but Toni felt it was appropriate), she'd blasted her new hairdo with the hair dryer to the point of no return.

"What do you think about my dress?" she asked now, hoping to distract him from her hair. "I bought it off the internet."

"It looks like a quilt. It suits your bed hair."

"It kind of is a quilt; apparently it's fashionable in other parts of the world. Do you like it?" She rotated side to side, the hem of her skirt skimming her knee caps.

"Well, it's a lovely shade of green! Is it supposed to be so ... loose?"

"Apparently."

Toni felt that the dress was excessively revealing. She could nearly see her ribcage down the bodice of the dress, but if the website said it was stylish then who was she to disagree. She hoped Wanton Wayne (which she'd affectionately named him) would appreciate it. And besides, her denim jacket thrown casually over the top covered the saggy bits.

"Toni, do you have a baby in your tummy?" Jayden asked suddenly.

"I – no, no I don't."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Toni inspected her reflection in the windows, confident that her new diet had given her slutty new curves which would make Wayne crazed with desire. But a grim skinny woman stared back. "What makes you ask something like that?"

"Freddy says that his mother has a baby in her tummy."

Danny leaned close to Toni's ear and hissed, "Freddy's mother has a sex life."

"Jayden," Toni began. "Not all adults have babies in there tummies."

"Freddy says that she has a round belly." Jayden eyed Toni's stomach warily.

Toni looked down in shock. "This isn't a baby, Jayden. It's a bum bag. So that I don't lose my keys or wallet. They're quite handy."

Danny sniggered softly.

*

Wanton Wayne was seated with a soda water clenched firmly in one hand and a cellphone in the other..

"I'm here!" Toni smiled as she approached him. "You don't need to call me." Butterflies had filled her tummy, beating around until she felt nauseous.

"Huh?" He gazed at her in terror.

"It's me, Toni ..." He didn't look much different, still the most attractive man in the room, with sandy blond hair.