Saving Amaya

Chapter 10

I plop my butt into the chair of my vanity to try and manage my hair. Raising my arms high enough to try and wrestle the rubber band out of my hair proves difficult. Apparently, my attempt had nearly severed a tendon in my arm and it's going to be weak for a few weeks. I blow the loose hairs out of my eyes and groan. I'm going to have to ask one of the boys to help me. It's tempting to instead cut it all off, but I've been growing my hair out for four damn years since I had a really bad pixie cut in middle school and I'm not dealing with that again.

The soft padding of my steps down the hallway is the only noise in the house. Where are the boys? Because there is no way in Hell that they are quietly hanging out together. As I round the corner that reveals the living room, I find only Blake sitting on my couch scrolling through his phone. He looks up as he hears me descending the stairs.

"Hey, what's up?" Blake turns his head to the side again, still reminding me of a confused puppy.

I hesitate to ask Blake. I don't know Blake the same way I know Liam. We're not friends in the same way. Is it weird to ask him for help with my hair?

"Uh, where's Liam?" My brain almost convinces itself that a semblance of pain crosses Blake's face, but I shoot that thought down right away. I can't afford things to get messy right now. If I start seeing things that aren't there, I'll start convincing myself that he likes me. Logically, that's just fucking impossible.

"He left to grab his stuff first. We thought it would be best to give you time to cool down before you showed us where we were sleeping." Blake sets his phone down in his lap. "Did you need anything?"

I mean, the answer is yes. I need him to help me brush my hair, but I can feel my cheeks flush just at the thought of Blake brushing my hair. In my head it seems. . . intimate. "Oh, I just- uh need help detangling my hair. It's kinda all messed up." My eyes flutter around the room, trying to avoid Blake's response. But as my gaze floats past him I see a small smile on his face.

"Yeah I can do that." His wide smile calms me down.

I hand Blake the brush and bottle that I brought down with me and sit in front of him on the floor. Blake is still sitting on the couch, so I am nestled between his legs on the floor. The warmth of his body so close to mine feels nice. Only because I get cold easy, of course. For some reason, my body tenses as Blake prepares to touch my hair.

"So, I've never done this, what do I do?" He holds his hands above my head in a nervous manner.

I almost want to laugh at how clueless he is. "I would get the rubber band out first. Then use the spray and carefully brush the knots out as best you can."

Blake nods along like a child and carefully reaches for the rubber band. Even though he is moving slowly with caution, the rubber band still pulls on my hair and I wince quietly. He must have heard it anyway because Blake froze with his hands still in my hair, mid wrestling the band out.

"It's okay, I'm fine. It's my fault for using a rubber band anyway." I'm trying to get this over with and get Blake's hands out of my hair. I don't let people touch my hair often, it's just a personal thing to me and I don't want random people, like Blake, all up in my shit.

Blake keeps tugging at the band, with a little more force this time. The force of his pull jerks my head back and gives my body a chill that runs down my arms. Before I can stifle it, a small noise somewhere between a whimper and a moan escaped my mouth and echoed through the empty house. Both Blake and I freeze completely. My face flushes so hard it almost hurts. In this moment, I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

What the fuck just came out of my mouth? Are you fucking kidding me? Did I just moan when Blake pulled my hair? What the actual fuck!

After remaining frozen for a few seconds, my body flies up. I need to get away from Blake for a minute. How could I even face him after that. "I'll go get some scissors to just cut it out." My legs have never moved so fast my entire life as I all but sprint to the bathroom. My hands cover my mouth just in case another surprise noise would like to make an appearance. When I finally brave a look at myself in the mirror, I instead find a fully ripe tomato in my place. Or at least that's how red my face was. My eyes are wide and my ears bright pink. Safe to say, I'm a little flustered.