Duplicity [h.s]

68

A lonely bell chime.

A radio on low.

Voices, laughter.

The scent of mixed perfumes.

Warmth.

My fingers delicately pulling the corner of the next page, turning from one scandal to the next. The first impression being the same as the last, shocked. Pretty women and heartbreaking stories filled the pages that made me wish I one day look just like them. Articles riddled with tips and tricks on how to be the ideal woman—how to simply have it all.

"Love, come sit please." My mom pulled my attention away from the grown up magazine, tapping her leather stool in her individual station.

I jump off the chair, my loose sneakers thumping the ground in its arrival. I threw the Cosmopolitan magazine back within the stack, running over to mom waiting for me. I almost trip on my shoelaces, making her give me a little glare. She hates it when I don't tie up my shoes.

"Aven, what did I say about your sneakers?" She mumbles as I launch myself up on the chair that was taller then me.

"You'd only buy them for me if I tie them up." I repeat the exact words she once told me, words that were the only condition to getting sneakers.

"So why aren't you tying them up?" She takes the black cape and throws it around my front, tying it behind my neck.

"I don't know, I forget." I shrug.

"Then I'll have to go back to getting you flats instead." She untucks my hair from the cape and starts running her fingers through it.

"No!" I protest, I hate flats.

"Then start tying up your shoes, you're ten years old now." She was stern, but her fingers felt nice running along my scalp.

"I'll try." I scuffle in defeat, my legs swinging in their dangles. It's not that I didn't know how, I just forget and I guess you can say I'm...lazy.

She starts parting my hair like usual, all of her products next to her on the dolly. I knew exactly how long everything would take now, I mean we do this all the time. I knew all the names of her products and what each of them did to my hair, we had a system now. She had her long blonde hair up in a tall bun, it always looked so silly when it was that messy.

I heard the bell chime again, making my eyes look at the front door of the shop through the mirror I was facing. In walked dad with Winnie swaddled in his arms.

"Dad!" I smiled as he walked in, caught of guard he was here.

"Hi pumpkin." He walked right up to us through the salon, leaning in to give mom a kiss on the cheek before bending down to do the same to me. "What are you in for today?" He asks me, hand on my shoulder.

"Just a root touch up." Mom answers, combing through my tangled blonde hair. "Shouldn't take too long."

"Ah," He nods, looking like a giant next to mom. "I was wondering if you had an extra pacifier on you? I forgot one at home but I don't have time to go back before my doctors appointment." He talks more quietly to her.

"Yes, there's one in my bag." She answers him before looking at Winnie sitting on his hip. "Hi sweetheart." She smiled with a cheerful look on her face, making Winnie smile too.