Chocolate Chip Cookies And Pink Nails | A Coming Of Age Story

14 | Cotton Candy Hair

Copyright of ButterflyFingers

This chapter nor any other chapter is edited unless indicated otherwise.

Things are going to start to speed up as we near the end of this story. Only six chapters to go! I have big plans for this story so strap in everyone and enjoy the ride!

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Chapter Fourteen: Cotton Candy Hair

"Why don't we go to the carnival? A good outing would do us wonders." I broke the silence at the breakfast table. Mason glanced up with a small little smile before returning his attention to the car magazine. Daddy Dearest hummed in response that only succeed to play on my broken heart. Ever since Dad left, Daddy Dearest just haven't been the same. Gone is the joyous laughter that would greet you when you arrive home. Gone is the live karaoke when he prepared the meal. Gone is the dancing in the living room. It as if his very soul left his body. I bit back the tears and wracked my brain. There has to be something that would make my precious Daddy Dearest excited to go out. "You can dress me up?" This sparked his attention and with a small grin, I knew that I won. Daddy Dearest, no matter how depressed, would never miss out on a makeover. He has been dying to dress me up since he saw the photos of the New York trip. "Are you going to invite your boyfriend?" Mason joked and I rolled my eyes. Mason is convinced that Zack and I are an item. Although we made it clear that we were simply friends, the boy didn't believe us. It also didn't help that Zack would make funny little comments that would fuel these thoughts. These last few weeks although quite grim, we managed to get in few laughs. I clung to that. Although the moments were short and far in between, it was like a breath of fresh hair.

After Dad moved out, life just wasn't the same. Daddy Dearest was playing into the denial card in every move. He refused to accept that the only man he has ever loved cheated on him with a woman. How he could deny how much the betrayal cut his very soul and still accept Mason into our home is beyond me. Mason took residence of our old guestroom and to make him feel at home Daddy Dearest gave him full rein of redecorating the room. The two just clicked as they went on and on about this one football team and this new car about to be released on the market. I had no idea my adorable ex-drag queen of a father had this much boy talk in him. "I will ask but he has been so busy with training." For weeks now, Zack has been training for this amateur boxing competition. He was obsessed with the sport and although I couldn't stand to watch his body turn black and blue, I tried to be supportive. I went to all the training sessions, prepared his meals and protein shakes. I even went as far as to learn the basics of giving a sports massage from the other girls at the club. I tried to be supportive but that doesn't mean I always approve of the violence that goes into it. If done right, it can be a great sport to support but the way Zack seemed to go at it...Something was different with him. Although he was still his goofy self with a smile on his face, something was different. It was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind and although I couldn't place what exactly was different, I knew there was something. If asked if there was something bothering him, Zack would wave my concern away and distract me by changing the subjects. I must be overthinking things. Zack would tell me if there was something wrong, right? He knew that I was there for him, right?

I rubbed my temples as I tried to finish my breakfast. These last few weeks were stressful, to say the least. Not only was there the tense home life and the suffocating anger that grew every time Dad tried to call, but there was also the exams just looming over my head with this ugly sneer. Graduation selflessly grew close. I was nowhere near close to deciding what I would be doing with myself, come next year than what I was months ago in New York. It feels like a different time, a different story almost. So much has changed in such a short amount of time. My love for Sasha vanished as we continued to ignore each other in school. The same girl I loved for so many years, now wandered the hall showing and glowing in teen pregnancy. According to Zack, she's having a boy and her lovely boyfriend, John, isn't stepping up to plate. He had his football scholarship to worry about. If this cut her deep, she didn't show. "Let's go on Saturday. We can go shopping on Friday." Daddy Dearest pulled me from my thoughts and I blinked. I nodded in response and pushed my now cold pancake away. "Maybe we can go out for dinner and a movie on Friday after the shopping," Mason suggested and Daddy Dearest clapped his hands in excitement. "I've been dying to see the new Jurassic World! It actually premieres on Friday." Daddy Dearest exclaimed with joy. I pulled a face not that interested in watching a bunch of dinosaurs but as the chatted about the said dinosaurs, I reluctantly admitted defeat. Seeing Daddy Dearest smile with his old spark in his eyes, I could never snub out that flame. "We should get the tickets soon. M, call Zack and ask him if he wants to join." Daddy Dearest ordered before opening his phone to watch the trailer. Mason eagerly joined as the two watched the dinosaurs run around on the tiny screen. I got up and left the room as I called Zack. He opened at the third ring, his voice husky with sleep. "Good morning sleepyhead, do you have plans on Friday and Saturday?" Zack chuckled into the phone and threw me a line that made my heart beat a little faster. "For you, never." I laughed and shook my head. "Was that supposed to sound cool?" Zack laughed before mumbling a soft no.

The movie as predicted was action-packed and incredibly boring. Although between the four of us, it seemed that only I shared this opinion. Not only did Daddy Dearest drag me against my will to the first film of the growing franchise, but he also quizzed me after the show. The men went on and on about the graphics and whatnot as I played with my meal. Most of the meal the three talked about what they would do in the situation of dinosaurs roaming the earth once more. It became a long discussion that I didn't even bother to follow. After dinner, Zack decided to go for a run before joining us for dessert on the couch. The next morning, Zack joined him at the club as he trained while Daddy Dearest started the makeover process. I sat on the floor, my hands on the table as I tried to watch TV over Daddy Dearest shoulders. He got to work by applying a hair mask, face mask and then getting to work on my nails. My tender skins screamed in protest as he pushed and probed at my cuticles. "What color do you want?" He asked after an eternity of time passed. Is my face supposed to tingle? "Pink."

I scratched at my arms as the glittery material irritated my skin. Daddy Dearest went above and beyond with the makeover. By the time he finished, I looked like I was my own attraction at the carnival. With a glittery and somehow fluffy dress, glitter stockings with shoes that glowed at every step, I walked around with cotton candy styled hair, with a lot of glitter of course, through the park. Zack full out broke out in laughter when he came home after the club and saw my attire. I looked so incredibly out of place as everyone else wore casual clothing. Kids would stop and point, adults would glance and shake their head and teenagers would snicker at my pain. Some even asked to take a picture with me which made the entire experience, much more entertaining to three men. I swallowed my complaints as I watched my father laugh the entire night away for the first time in weeks. If I knew that this would give him a pep in his steps, I would've offered myself on a silver platter days ago.