Dilemma McNair

A/N Okay, so I'm just going to try and give it a shot. It may be a slow beginning, but it will develop. Tell me what you think. I'm trying to find some sort of style for this, so bare with

--------------------------

Ruby McNair was unconventionally beautiful, in a way that few people saw. 

Ruby McNair had short cropped hair with long bangs that she would pull back with a tied bandana rather like Rosie had hers in the famous poster. And for the beginning of this story, that was the most remarkable thing about her. Now, normally hair isn't all that remarkable, but for some people, the most unremarkable things hold the greatest importance. However, this story starts a while before the bandana.

The haircut had happened on a Monday afternoon in the cheap barbershop on Main Street. 

School got out at two forty-five. 

Ruby took ten minutes to pack her worn black backpack.

She took an hour to walk to the barbershop, stopping in Dunkin Donuts along the way to order a large iced coffee.

She sat at the curb outside the barbershop for fifteen minutes, sipping at the drink and chewing at the straw.

She spent five minutes finding a garbage bin to toss the other half of the coffee into.

And then she finally walked into the barbershop. 

At that point in time her hair was as black as a crow's feathers and reached her shouder blades in a sweeping curtain.

Ruby dragged her heels as she walked into the barber shop and chipped bronze bell tinkled along with the door. As the door closed, it cut off the outside world; cut off the swirling summer behind her. The floor was a patchwork of scratched gray tiles and a welcome mat that had all of its welcomings beaten out of it a long time ago. The walls were a baby blue that could have been pleasant anywhere else, just not there. The pleather chairs were in fair condition, but nothing better than that, and thank-god, the mirrors were not smudged with mysterious substances. She found the place overall repugnant and yet somehow ideal. 

A round women with her hair dyed a fake red smiled unenthusiatically, "What can I help you with today?" Ruby guessed that her gossip had run dry by noon and that the last four hours had been spent clipping the little white hairs of old and nearly bald heads.

"I want it all cut short. Except for the bangs. Those need to be long."

The hairdresser just barely managed to keep the judgemental look off her face. Just barely, it twitched at the corner of her eyes. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

The woman nodded and walked briskly to a chair. Ruby sat down before she was told to and planted her feet firmly on the metal footrest.

Then her hair fell to the dingy ground in short severed wisps quicker than she could have ever imagined.