Carlisle

2

"How did Carlisle meet Coco?"

Carlisle got up, his hair going in every direction in one huge mass of cow licks, and shuffled around his house to get ready for a day of work at the salon. It wasn't that he was unhappy to go to work, he loved his job, but the hours were crazy and offset from his normal sleeping schedule of 10 hours a day. Carlisle styled the first hair of the day(his own) and headed to the salon. When he got there, a couple other stylists had already set up shop and were tending to customers. As he was heading to his station, a woman called to him.

"Uh, sir? I'd like to make an appointment!" Carlisle turned around, frowning. The woman was nearly a foot shorter than him and had red, tousled curls surrounding her face like a lion's mane.

"Yeah, sure. Right this way- I don't have anyone booked today." Carlisle shrugged, leading her to his chair. She bounced on the balls of her feet, smiling childishly.

"Thanks! uh-..." she looked at his nametag. "Carlizzle!"

Carlisle flinched, looking at her with emotion for the first time. He stiffly motioned for her to sit and looked in the mirror at her.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Could you just style it? I'm going to a rave later." she asked, still smiling. Carlisle nodded and started on her hair. After a while, he actually tried making conversation.

"So... is it one of Sourcream's raves?" he asked nonchalantly. He had been invited to two or three by some of his old high school friends, but he never went. Not his type of crowd.

"Yeah, he's a rad DJ! Have you gone to one of his raves before?" she moved suddenly and Carlisle had to do a half 'dab' motion to keep from burning her with the iron.

"No." he sighed, returning to his task.

"Really? You look like someone who would go to those kinds of things. Hey, I could take you to one sometime!" the girl exclaimed.

"No." Carlisle disagreed, focusing on the curly hair in his hands.

"Aw, why? I think it'd be fun!" she argued. Carlisle remained silent and when he didn't answer, the girl decided not to push the matter. About half an hour later, Carlisle stood back and they both marveled at his work. "This looks great, thanks!" the girl stood up.

"Fifteen." Carlisle stated, his arms crossed.

"Huh?" the girl tilted her head to look at him.

"Fifteen dollars." he replied.

"Oh! Ok, here we go." the girl handed him the cash and he shoved it in the register. The girl turned to walk away, but ran back to the counter. "HEY! We should get food sometime, if you don't like raves!"

"What?" Carlisle looked at her incredulously.

"Great, see you later. Name's Coco, by the way." Coco waved goodbye and walked out of the door, leaving only the 'ding' of the bell and a confused Carlisle behind.