The Good Hair Family Sitcom

S3 E6.2: Flame Thrower

Cyrus's POV

Cayenne folds her sleeve up one more time to show me the entire blue ring of ink tattooed on her skin.

"This is the blue circle by the airport," she explains proudly.

I look at it, trying to understand why anyone would get that tattooed on their self. That blue ring is a 'modern art' statue that costed more than Shadyside spends on the education system in four years.

"Does that have meaning?" I ask.

"Nah. I did it for the meme."

"What a...choice. So let's talk about the belly button piercing."

She sits back in her seat, rolling her eyes. "I sterilized the safety pin first with one of the burners."

"Well, safety is always a priority," I respond. "I'm not going to ask you why you wanted it. What I'm wondering is why at school? Why not at home?"

"Don't got a home," she answers frankly.

"Where do you go after school?"

"Out."

"Where do you sleep?"

"Wherever I can find a bed."

"So who is your legal guardian?"

"I have foster parents. But they couldn't care less about me. Only keep me for the money."

Now that I have her talking, I stay quiet, using the same trick on her that I use on Jayda when I want her to tell me something. Sure enough, it works, and Cayenne spills like a tipped bottle.

"I'm too difficult for them. Just a problem."

"The problem they have is theirs. It's not yours," I tell her. "You aren't a problem. You are a person."

She nods, chewing on that and her gum while I wait for her to continue again.

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Jayda's POV

Hazel disperses the surveys across the table, and I am instantly overwhelmed by the thickness of the booklet. This is going to take a while.

"So basically I'm surveying to see what are the opinions of teenagers and almost-teenagers regarding love and romance," Hazel explains.

Andreas looks uncomfortable as he glosses over the questions.

"Uh, some of these are...interesting."

"Wildly personal," I add on.

Auntie Andi speaks up from the kitchen, saying, "Please tell me it's all appropriate for Wyatt."

"I'm twelve," my brother snipes. "I'm not a kid anymore."

"But, like, you can still get kids' menus, so you kind of are," Auntie Andi reasons.

"Love is gross anyway," Wyatt mumbles.

"It's fine," Hazel promises her mom. "It's not that personal."

Yeah, okay. Most of these questions look like the kind of shit girls ask during a game of Truth or Dare at a sleepover.

"'How old were you when you had your first crush?'" I read aloud.

I click my pen and write down the number 7. When I finish, Andreas picks up his own pen and starts recording his answer. And I totally don't care what it is, because it doesn't matter. I totally don't care. But, like, there's nothing wrong with taking a look, right? Like, I'm his girlfriend. I'm allowed to know this. And it's not like he's trying to hide it. Of course, if he were hiding it, I would be concerned. It's not that big a deal. It's not. But, like, also it's totally natural for me to wonder this about him.