Take Her To The Moon

Chapter 11

Ryan's POV

I wore sweats and the same t-shirt as earlier. Things have been a little touchy after Awsten and I basically-kinda-almost kissed. Maybe he didn't think of it that way, but his face was only inches from mine. I don't know if I wanted that. He was my best friend on tour and I didn't want to fuck that up. To help ease the tension I asked him to help me dye my hair, which is what was happening now. I sat cross-cross in the tiny shower while he sectioned off my hair. He wasn't talking much, and I was talking too much to try to compensate.

"I just don't like the color green. Not that your hair looks bad or anything, your hair looks great. Good. Anyways, I just think it gives off bad vibes, you kno-"

"Ryan, you've never talked this much," he interjects, "let me do your hair."

"Sorry," I quickly say, "I just-"

He cups a hand over my mouth and keeps working. We don't speak for another half hour, except for when he said "bleach" and then kept working. Finally, he says, "I kinda dig the blonde... maybe you should just keep it. We have toner."

I turn to look at him and laugh. I never know what he's going to say, no matter how much time I spend with him. "Yeah, maybe... Just kidding, absolutely the fuck not. The most blonde I'd do is split."

His eyes widen and I can see the subtle differences between his blue and green eyes. "Yeah! So then you'll be like an e-girl, right? That TikTok thing?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Awsten." I laugh. He was such a dork sometimes. Also, why does he, of all people, know what an e-girl is?

He begins sectioning off my hair and ties half of it into the worst bun I've ever seen. After quickly mixing the dye mixture, he brushes it onto my roots. I'm not going to lie, he's pretty good at this. I guess I'm not surprised, I mean, he dyes his hair all the time. He hums while he works, the dye cold on my scalp. Sometimes he moves my head around to reach certain spots. When he's done with one side, takes off his gloves.

"Do you actually want to do the split thing or do you want to do the whole thing?" He asks, stirring the leftover hair dye.

"Whatever you think would look better. I mean, you are my stylist," I say, cocking my head.

"Well I'm that case, I think you're done. Wait, like, a half an hour to forty-five minutes or so before you wash it out," he tells me, "oh, and we have to take a picture."

"Uhm, why?" I ask.

"Oh c'mon, it'll be funny. I'll make a dumb face so that you don't look as stupid. They'll make memes about it and shit, it'll be great." He says, pulling out his phone and fixing his hair.

I grab his phone from him with a sigh, setting the timer on the camera to three seconds. I prop it up against the sink and press the button. He closes his eyes and smiles as wide as he can, and I hold up a peace sign and scrunch up my face. With the last second, he grabs the brush that was covered in dye and paints it across the middle of my face.

"Fuck you!" I laugh, punching him in the shoulder. He keeps the grin on his face too big and the timer goes off.

Swiftly, he grabs the phone and opens Instagram. I peer over his shoulder as he types, "RYAN LET ME DYE HER HAIR CAUSE IM SUPER TALENTED AND COOL AND ALSO CUTE!!!" He reads it over a few times before hitting Share. I open my phone as fast as possible, typing out a quick response.

" 'It was my idea, so fuck off you short gremlin' " he reads. "God, you sound like one of them."

"One of who, Awsten? Your adoring fans? Huh?" I laugh, sticking my finger in his face. He snaps his jaw, pretending to bite my finger. Flipping him off, I walk back to my bunk. I sit, trying not to lay my head down. When the two-foot-tall bunk doesn't allow this, I head over to the kitchen to grab a water and hang out with whoever would be there. Otto was the only one sitting in the kitchen, so I sit next to him and try to start a conversation.

"So how's your day off going?" I ask.

"Fine, how's yours?" He grins, closing his laptop.

"Good, Awsten just died my hair so I'm pretty excited about that."

"Hey, whats going on there? I mean, between you two." He asks. He scrubs a hand through his hair and gives me an expectant look.

I want to say that I think Awsten might like me a little, but instead I just say, "nothing? I mean, at least on my end."

His eyebrows are furrowed. He looks like he's considering something, but he's not sure if he should say anything. Finally, he looks at me and says, "He likes you, you know."

I feel cheeks growing hot and red. "N-no he doesn't. We haven't even known each other that long. I mean, did he tell you that himself?"

"No, but I can tell. I've known him forever and I've seen him have crushes on tons of girls. I would know." He looks at his hands. "Well, not tons of girls but you get it."

I mess with the fabric on my shirt and contemplate this. Otto could be wrong, but what if he wasn't? I haven't dated in a while, not since Oliver. I'd been on a few dates, but not many and none that ever led anywhere. Would it be so bad if he liked me? I mean, he was cute and funny and we got along really well...

"Are you sure?" I turn to Otto.

He thinks for a moment. "Yeah, yeah I'm pretty sure."