You're To Blame

Fame (3)

Chapter 10: Fame (3)

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“So? What do you think! It’s rude to just stand there and not say anything!” Gabriella seemed a bit offended by my continuous silence but I didn’t have the words to speak at all.

“Whoa you really outdid yourself!” At my continuous silence another one of the women stepped in to speak on my behalf instead.

“I did, right? Right? I’m so amazing I deserve even more money this month! Right Sky?” Gabriela openly praised herself then turned to the man for his approval, unfortunately he wasn’t even in the room with us.

“He’s not here.” The woman spoke up again with a hardened expression on her face. She didn’t seem to care at all. At this point I was still having difficult remembering all these women’s names.

“Where is he?” Gabriella asked desperately as she wailed her arms back and forth in irritation he wasn’t there to witness her work of art she’d apparently did to me.

“I think he went to work.” The careless woman spoke up again without batting her an eye.

“Eh… what a shame, I wanted him to see what I did! It took me almost an hour, come on!” Gabriela continued to openly complain as she sat back down in her chair and pulled out her phone. Her disappointment evident in every action and word of hers.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m up next and I’ll make her even prettier!” Another woman spoke up with much enthusiasm, the same that Gabriella now seemed to be lacking. I suppose she was only interested in doing this for as long as Sky was interested in her end result.

“Go ahead then Jacklyn… Hope you can comb that rat’s nest.” Gabriela shot back as she glanced at me with vivid disappointment in her pupils. I’d never been self conscious about my hair before… until right now.

“Don’t be rude!” Jacklyn who seemed kinder than the other woman spoke up for me. “I’m sorry about that Angelica… I guess you had a hard time with her until now?” She apologized and looked at me with pity, it didn’t make me feel any better however.

“Not really, she was really kind… I liked listening to her as well.” I told her earnestly, it was only at the end that Gabriella became strangely hostile towards me.

“Oh… so you want to listen to stories? Should I tell you about that time we met?” Jacklyn asked me with an interested look in her eyes. I knew she wanted to talk, it seemed like all these women were bored out of their minds cooped up inside here. Working for just one person when he doesn’t do much daily must mean they have more free time than they even want to have.

“Please do…” I said while changing stations to her little hairdressing corner.

“That’s so boring, don’t tell her that!” Another woman spoke up from the sofa in the distance, I couldn’t tell which one it was just from the voice, as my back was turned to her.

“Go and clean your brushes or something!” Jacklyn shot back angrily at her and turned towards me once more. “Anyways, where was I? Oh… yes… so back then, I think it’s because we came around the same time. But Gabriella really used to hate me.” She spoke in a cheerful manner although the memories she seemed to be recollecting didn’t seem that enjoyable to say the least.

“I’m not surprised.” I remarked with a bit of a sneer.

“Why is that?” Jacklyn asked me while tilting her head to the side, she looked surprised.

“You’re also a beautician… so maybe she felt like she’d be out of a job.” I replied, I wasn’t trying to be funny but she laughed so heartily as if I had said the most funny joke known to mankind.

“Haha, maybe! Though I only do hair really, I don’t do make up anymore. It’s not my thing.” Jacklyn shared, her mood seemed to drastically improve the more she spoke.

“How did it start out?” I asked her curiously.

Jacklyn had a thoughtful expression upon her face as she took a few seconds of silence. “Well, you know the usual, Beauty school, go into debt, then work for years with little to no pay, have your higher ups take all the credit for your hard work and then rinse and repeat.” She spoke cheerfully but the mundane life she described was boring.

“I feel that…” I told her, I could relate after all my entire life had been based around doing one and the same thing, to the point where I couldn’t even stand it anymore.

“I heard you were a waitress before?” Jacklyn asked me with some faint interest I could tell she was just trying to be polite with me.

“Yes… for a long time.” I told her.

“Well, what I did was similar. Nasty clients and annoying managers are something you can find in any profession really.” Jacklyn spoke carefully making sure she was relating to me. But I already more or less knew all that.

“Tell me about it…” I shrugged a bit as she combed my hair continuously and then brought out the scissors, I never really had much attachment to my hair in the first place and yet it felt strangely odd for me to see her cut any of it off. She seemed to be making layers I felt, I saw large and small chunks of hair falling to the ground gradually.

“But when I met Sky, it felt like he was the one that I could trust.” Jacklyn spoke gracefully as she continued to work, her hands not once stopped moving.

“It’s starting to sound like he was slowly building his harem.” I remarked with a bit of a sneer. Knowing men were the type to take advantage whenever they could.

Jacklyn laughed all the more, her laughter felt contagious to me and yet it still felt fake at the same time. “Right? We all thought that at some point as well. But you know, he’s never made a move on any of us. He didn’t kiss or touch us inappropriately either… Even though there were some of us that really hoped he would.” She spoke the last part in a bit of a lower voice than the rest of it almost like she didn’t want someone to overhear her. I wondered why that was.

“I heard that from the other girl… Gabriella, that he wants something out of each of you. What was that for you?” I asked her, it had become more curious to me the more I listened to her.

Jacklyn’s faint smile faded for a split second and then it was regained again. I wasn’t sure if she had something flash before her eyes, a memory she’d rather forget or maybe she just forgot she had to be cheery all the time. She spoke quietly in a sound manner. “See… As a hairstylist I was quite good, but I never had the chance to do much of anything interesting… He saw my work and hired me so I agreed… A little bit later I realized the reason…”

“The reason?” I probed her for more information.

“Yes, it was quite more sinister than I imagined…” Jacklyn continued as she lowered herself to speak nect to my ear. This triggered my curiosity all the more.

“And that’s?” I asked her now impatiently waiting for a response from the woman.

Jacklyn stood there with a pair of serious eyes that locked onto mine when I turned around. “He wanted a very specific style with his hair! It’s so annoying to do and takes me longer to style than anyone else! And he’s so picky, it took me five tries until I managed to get it right!”

I stood there starring at her as her response had not been sinister nor particularly interesting. “That must have been tough…” I remarked in feigned sympathy towards her.

“Hours upon hours of work for that damned beautiful hair. I’ve never seen a man so preoccupied with his hair before! Sure his long luscious blond locks are amazing but does he need to be so strict about it all?!” Jacklyn’s complaints became all the more loud as she styled my hair, at this point I was terrified she’d do something horrible to it if I wasn’t careful about my following words.

“…sorry for asking.” I apologized profusely and her tone changed once more.

Jacklyn lingered onto the same spot at the top of my hear for far too long and I was secretly panicking a bit. “If only he wasn’t such a pain in the ass, I’d be the first one to stand in line to try and gain his favor, but it is what it is… What do you think about your hair?” She asked at the very end of her rant. At that point I had been so overly focused on every single move she made and hung on her words that I wasn’t even paying attention to the mirror she brought out and handed to me while she spoke.

I looked at my reflection and to my surprise it was quite better than I’d anticipated, the layers looked nice and it took only about half an hour to do it all. I was impressed. “It’s great… thank you.”

“Step aside you all, I’m on it now!” Another woman jumped right in the second she found out we were done, as I turned to look it was…