Kvjatka

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I expected Friday to be much like Thursday was. Sulking, Netflix, cereal, repeat. But I grew restless, I needed to have a little going away party for myself before it was time to pack on Saturday. Mom would be at work all day, so I trekked down to Walgreens, bought Forest Green hair dye, and left. 

        I'd never dyed my hair before, so I was hoping that I wasn't going to accidentally make all my hair fall out. I followed the directions on the back, the stuff smelled like shit. While I waited for it to set, I imagined the ammonia burning my scalp until I was patchy and bald like one of the many Barbie's I had made suffer during my childhood.

#

The green hair was a success. It was quite liberating actually. I didn't look like an algae head or a Chia pet. I looked kind of badass, and that was exactly what I needed. So I was about to be shipped off to some mystery school in one of the East Coast states that I couldn't point out to you on a map if I tried, whatever, I had green hair, and I felt cool. 

        Maryland's woods would bow down to the sheer badassery that was my new hair. I felt a little loopy, which was probably a result of inhaling so much ammonia and god knows what else is in Walgreens' generic brand hair dye. I wasn't ready to come down from this cloud of coolness just yet, but I wasn't sure how to fuel it further. My mom would be home in a few hours and it was almost dark. The best thing I could think of was to order a pizza, solely for me. A personal pizza, but actual size. Not that bullshit they sell at the movie theatre that comes in a little Digiorno box and parades itself around under the guise of pizza when it's really just a puffy mess with pepperoni that's sub par.

        Once the pizza had been delivered, I decided that the best place to eat it was the roof. A significant chunk of my childhood had been spent on our little house's roof. It was where mom had pointed out the constellations and told me the stories the Roma had for each one. I never grew up on Orion or the Big Dipper. I'd always liked the Roma stories better, there was something about them that was just more wondrous, fantastical, than the Greek stories.

        Our neighborhood was one of those one's that didn't have street lamps, which was one of my favorite parts. Turn out the lights in your house, go outside, if the skies are clear, you've got your own planetarium. Friday night was one of those nights. The combination of pepperoni pizza and a clear view of the Milky Way, is something that really can't be beat. The moment was so perfect that it stung, because I knew that this was the last time I'd get to eat pizza on a roof for a very long time. The last time I would have this view. This pizza. This life.