Loving Damon

| 14 | Forbidden Fruit

| Ariel | 

Emma stood in front of me and squealed with delight. A huge smile displayed on her face as her hand reached out and twirled a piece of my hair around her finger before letting it go. "I freaking love it!" She gushed "This is the personification of you! You needed to reclaim this color Ari!"

My smile matched hers just as bright and laughed softly at her reaction to my newly colored red hair! Last week after the fireworks display, on a whim I called my old hair salon and booked an appointment for yesterday afternoon; without telling anyone I changed my hair back to its rightful color. Bright red. Emma was right, I felt amazing the second I stepped out of the hair salon yesterday afternoon. Bringing back this color did something to me, to my confidence and I felt little bit more like I did in highschool. I loved it on myself, it felt right, it felt like me again.

Emma made her way inside as I shut the door behind her. "I feel so much more like myself Em, you have no idea what something as simple as a change of hair can do to your confidence." I confessed to my best friend as I made my way into the kitchen. When Emma rang the door bell I was in the middle of plating her and myself breakfast. I had woken up earlier that morning to make my dad breakfast before he had to rush to work which he always loved and appreciated and so I had so much left over that I decided to invite Emma to join me for breakfast because I knew she was alone, Tyler began his shift at 7am and she was in a deep pit of writers block.

Maybe some waffles would give her some inspiration? I laughed inwardly, the sweet treat always made me feel better. According what she told Lena and I a couple days ago, she couldn't get past the seventh chapter, she had tried everything from reading her favorite books to seeing her most loved movies but nothing was doing the trick just yet.

As I plated her a large Belgian waffle with strawberries, bananas, maple syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, I heard her pull out a chair from the kitchen table.

"Im so glad you did, the red hair will always be your trademark Ari," I heard her voice pause hesitantly as I turned around and placed the plate in front of her. "But you know, you don't need to change your hair to be beautiful Ariel, matter of fact you don't need to change a damn thing. You, my girl are as gorgeous as they come, curves and all." She winked my way.

I decided to ignore her vision of me. I wasn't as gorgeous as she portrayed me to be. I wasn't a supermodel and I wasn't a guys dream girl by any means. She was my best friend, she just saw me in a different light. I was working on my confidence and feeling better but there was no way I would ever think of myself as exceptionally beautiful or worthy of being graced on the cover of a magazine like most of the woman we see.

She lifted her fork to take her first bite and moaned when the sweet waffles hit her tongue. She chewed and swallowed quickly before mumbling "Its like heaven in my mouth. Jesus girl I forgot how much I missed your waffles!"

I smiled at her compliment and shook my head, I knew very well she knew how to make her waffles just the same and her pancakes were even better. You'd think being a baker I could make a decent pancake but for some reason they never came out as fluffy and light as I wanted the too — even if I add more milk and whip them up right.

"Mmm," I turned around and plated myself a breakfast plate of the Belgian waffles "Tyler says differently, according to him he's never tasted anything better than your pancakes."

She scoffed "He's just trying to keep himself from blue balls." A hint of amusement in her tone.

I gasped and glanced back at her with a smile "Em!" Shaking my head and finishing plating my food I continued "You have really become a little devil to Mr. Davis, haven't you?"