Love Me Tender (On Hold)

Shave And A Haircut...

I turned and saw Alex standing to one side in the now dark hallway. He coughed. I looked back at Angie's features, frozen into place, and then back to him, "Do you need to use the bathroom?" How silly, there were four other bathrooms, why did he need this one? "Um, no.....I was just thinking, maybe..." his voice sounded raspy again, and he looked an odd shade. Too pale. "Yes?" He jumped at the simple word. "Would it be possible for you to cut my hair?" His sentence was simple enough but it still made no sense.

"You want me to cut your hair?" It was sinking in slowly, of course he did need it, he looked a lot like a grizzly bear. "No, no, it was a bad idea, no. I'm sorry." He stuttered. "Wait, I can cut it." Had I lost my mind? The guy was a spaz and a half, not entirely his fault, since he'd been stranded on an island, but did he honestly want me to cut his hair? Did I want to? I sighed inwardly, no one else was going to do it, so it was my job, like most things were.

He turned back and looked at me. I poked Angie in the arm, "You were just leaving right?" Her mouth fell open. I leaned towards her, "It's okay, I cut hair all the time right?" But I knew it was more about her leaving me alone with him, than the possibility that I might actually cut his head off, that had her eyes all wide and frightened. "Y-yeah." She walked out the door slowly. I smiled when she started turning every light in the hallway on. Silly girl.

Alex stood to the one side of the door, his hands balled up into fists at his sides. Maybe he didn't trust me, he looked like he was going to a firing squad. I pulled up the tall chair and patted the seat. "Go ahead, sit down." He stood there a moment, then walked slowly to the chair. His stride was even and strong. The food must have helped a lot. I used a small squirt bottle to wet his hair, but when I went to run my fingers through it, he flinched.

I wondered if he had any head wounds I should know about, I didn't want to hurt him.

"Are you okay? Am I hurting you?" I could have sworn I heard a mumbled 'yes' but he's mouth never moved. He swallowed hard. "It's not that, no, you didn't hurt me. I've just... I'm just not used to it." I frowned. Used to what? I could see he understood my confusion. "I haven't had any physical contact with another person in eight months, it's just, it's hard to explain, but it does kind of hurt when someone touches me." He closed his eyes, his mouth turning down. That's why he had jumped when Angie had touched him, it had hurt.

"You don't need your hair cut, I don't have to..." But he interrupted me. "No! I mean.... I need it cut, I need to.... to look normal. You don't know how bad it was, seeing myself..." He looked into the mirror. I remembered the awful look on his face, the sound he had made when he'd touched the mirror. "Okay." I had to cut his hair. His tone was almost heart wrenching, and I knew I would do whatever it took to make him feel normal again.

I wet his hair again, then ran my fingers through his hair slowly. He flinched, but just barely. I ran a comb through it, there was no obvious part in his hair. It must just kind of fall haphazardly across his head. "How short do you want it?" I wasn't sure what he wanted, and I didn't want it to look bad for him. "About three inches long, all over, if you don't mind." I started cutting and snipping. He had a lot of hair, very think, very...nice.

"So you go to school, what for?" My hands stopped. He had been listening to our conversation, I wondered how much he had heard.

"I'm sorry, that was rude, I shouldn't have been listening, it just took you longer than I thought to cut his hair..." He grimaced in the mirror as I ran my fingers across his scalp. Did he feel bad about getting caught snooping, or had I hurt him? "I'm not really sure." That was true enough, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. "So, you're a nurse, a doctor, a maid, and a hairstylist?" It looked like his lip turned up at one corner. I snipped a large chunk of his hair off. "Yes, something like that. And you're just a photographer?" Wow, my tone sounded harsh even to me. His eyes narrowed a bit, then he looked down. "Yes, just a photographer."