It's two days before our first day of classes at our new campus, and Grace and I are sitting in a hair salon, bleach seeping through our hair.
We decided to go together and get our hair redone. She had dyed her hair a strawberry blonde color, but it faded pretty quickly, so she's getting her icy hair back. My hair faded from its red color I got in New York, so it's just brown now. I'm bleaching my ends to dye them back to blue. We both had these colors our senior year, but honestly we both missed it a lot.
"Just like old times, huh?" Grace snaps me out of my light day dream. I look over to her, holding in a laugh at her appearance. I take out my phone and take a picture on Snapchat.
She poses and I post it on my story without a caption. She chuckles and I answer her statement, "Just like old times."
"How was Calum feeling this morning?"
"He was good," I nod, glancing at the timer for my hair. I have two minutes until I get this bleach washed out of my hair, "He's working out like, all the time. He's desperate to get his strength back."
"He will," She nods confidently, "I'm really surprised at how quickly he's recovered. When is it two months since he's been home?"
"Next week," I sigh, "But it feels like years to him."
She shrugs, as if saying that it's understandable. I speak up again, "Have you spoken to Luke?"
"Yeah," a smile grows on her face and it makes me smile. It's so great seeing her happy. "He started classes yesterday and he's already swamped. He's going to FaceTime me later after he writes a paper."
"Yale be like," I joke and Grace's timer goes off. One of the ladies that did her hair comes right over, putting her hands on Grace's shoulders, "Alright girl. Lets get you icy blonde."
She leaves with her and shortly after I'm brought to the sink right next to her. Within an hour and a half, Grace has her signature blonde back and my hair is as blue as ever.
We walk out feeling ourselves again, a new sense of confidence and contentment washing over me.
It's dumb, I know, but I feel like everything is going back to how it was supposed to be. I'm happily in a relationship with Ashton and she's finally out of the toxic entanglement with Michael. We've grown and matured and I'm starting to really see it.
When we get to the apartment, I see Cooney and Moran in the mail room. We sneak past them, being able to avoid the encounter. It's happened a few times since they've moved in but honestly, nothing has come up with it. I guess they've moved on too.
When we get to the apartment, both of us slow down to a stop when we see a woman standing in front of our door. She's taller than Grace but not as tall as me, her hair long and pinkish purple. Her eyes are super blue and she has black jeans and a black tee on. I have no idea who she is, but by the way Grace tenses next to me, she does.
When the woman sees us, she grips onto the strap of her bag nervously. "Grace, hi."
"What are you doing here?" Grace asks, "How did you find our apartment?"
"I snooped through Michaels phone and found it," She looks down, "I know it's super weird and creepy, but I need to talk to you."
"Michael? How do you know-?" I start, but realization finally dawns on me. This must be Crystal. "Oooooh."
"I'm sure you have an opinion on me already," She shakes her head, "One that I know I deserve. But I really need to talk to you."
I look over at Grace, trying to get a grasp on what she's feeling so I can act accordingly. She bites the inside of her cheek nervously before she speaks quietly, "Okay."
