My Crazy Housemate

They had placed a small wooden chair inside the bathroom in front of the mirror while Jeremy sat there and waited for Chloe to blow dry his hair for him.      

Chloe tried not to look at his face in the mirror because she may blow up at him if she saw the grin on his face.     

"Why do you keep a long hair if you cannot take care of it?" Chloe asked and frowned at him before moving about to get the things she needed in place.     

She couldn't believe it. She of all people was doing this. Maybe it was a mistake employing him in the first place because he was making her do the things she didn't like to do.     

As she walked towards him,  she noticed the look on his face had changed and now, he looked sad.      

She stared at him through the mirror in confusion. Did she say anything wrong? Why was he sad and no longer looking at her?     

'Should I ask him what I did wrong?'      

'Ah! What's my business? He can be sad for all I care.'     

She placed a small towel on his hair and as she began to use it to clean his wet hair, she finally asked.      

"Why do you look that way? Did I say something?"      

She bit her lip when she realised she had just asked him that.     

Jeremy shook his head gently and after a small pause, he said.     

"My mother... loved it." He raised his eyes to look at her through the mirror.     

"She suffered from long term alopecia so she didn't have a hair and missed it... you know... those things girls and women do, staying in front of the mirror, styling hairs, tying it and all..."     

Chloe looked at him quietly as he spoke.      

"She spent years wearing wigs and even though I was young, I was able to understand her pain. Especially how she always spent time trimming my hair or conditioning it or styling it."      

"It made me happy when I realised she was happy whenever she did it."      

He blinked a couple of times and looked down.     

Chloe could tell he was trying to hide his sadness from her and it made her feel.... sad? She didn't know. But she knew she didn't like him feeling sad. Jeremy was always supposed to be happy and cheerful and make her want to smack his head. Not looking like this.     

"So I let her. I remember how happy she was when I told her to see my hair as her hair." He laughed sadly.      

"She asked me if I was sure and I told her a firm yes. I wanted my hair to grow like a girl's hair but she didn't agree because I looked a lot like a girl when I was younger. She said people were going to tease and bully me a lot which was true by the way. I was bullied a lot back then in junior high."     

"When Ellie came, I was happy and jealous at the same time. Because she had a longer hair and I thought mum was going to abandon me for her but she didn't. She treated us equally."     

He sighed deeply.     

"Well... she died when Ellie was four."      

His eyes blinked uncontrollably and he had to use his hands to cover his eyes.     

Chloe's lips were tucked inside her mouth as she just stood there, looking at him through the mirror with a sad and confused look. How was she supposed to comfort him? If she had known, she wouldn't have raised this topic.      

"And I couldn't just imagine someone else's hands on my hair. It took me a while to accept the fact that I was never going to see her again. I just wash my hair in the shower, towel it dry and do things to get my mind off everything. By the time I came back to my senses and looked at the mirror one day, my hair looked really longer."     

She heard him sniff and clean his eyes with his hands before he raised his head again and she could see how misty his eyes were.      

"I'm sorry... I... I don't know what else to say." She said and bit her lip again, hoping this wouldn't make him feel even more sad since she was just standing there without trying to comfort him.     

"It's fine. It's been four years already. I think I am beginning to accept things the way they are." He said with a forced smile and a shrug.      

"What about your father? Where was he back then?" She asked. She had never heard him mention his father at all. When she went to his house the other day, he had only talked about his mother and now, he only talked about his mother also.     

He sighed for the hundredth time before shaking his head. "Sorry Chloe. But I don't want to talk about it." He said in a strained voice.     

"Oh.." She was a bit flustered but nodded. "It's.. fine. I'm sorry."      

She resumed drying his hair with a towel and saw him looking at her through the mirror. The silence was becoming too awkward so she asked.     

"What about Ellie? How did she cope? With everything?"      

She couldn't imagine how a four years old girl must have felt hearing her mother had died.      

"Ellie actually took it better than I did. It surprised me. I had to be there for her. She was also there for me. Watching my mother always taking care of our hairs, Ellie decided she was going to be a stylist and look for the right products to cure my mother's alopecia since drugs didn't work. So she took over caring for my hair after our mum died even though she was still very young then."      

Chloe smiled and nodded. "Ellie is adorable. And she really did a good job. Your hair looks and feels really nice." She said as she ran her hand over it.      

Seeing his hair like this, he looked like a rockstar. Who would have thought that he had such a sad story behind his hair?     

"Thank you. At least there is something about me that you like." He said with a smile.     

Chloe eyed him before picking up the dryer to blow his hair.      

"So.. who helped her care for her hair? Ellie, I mean." Chloe asked curiously.      

"I did."      

"You did?" She asked in confusion.      

"Didn't you admit you didn't know how to use a dryer? How can you help her with her hair and not know how to use a dryer?"      

She asked and stopped what she was doing to look at him sternly through the mirror.      

Jeremy smiled sheepishly.      

"I... never said I didn't know how to use one. I only said 'I've always had people do it for me'."     

"What the hell! You played me!" She said with a frown as she turned so they were both staring at each other face to face and not through the mirror.      

"No. I didn't. I've never lied to you." He shook his head and looked at her sadly.     

"Of course, you do not lie but you are pretty manipulative." She said while giving him a stern look.     

"I've had people call me pretty, but I do not know about being manipulative." He said innocently making Chloe scoff at him in disbelief.      

"Please... just do it for me? Besides, I'm still sad." He said with a sad pout which made her eye him.      

Jeremy smiled when she returned behind him and knew he just won this round again.      

"Thank you boss. I can return the favour some other time if you want."      

"Just shut up before I stick this dryer inside your mouth." She said with a glare making him seal his lips.      

  ********     

Mia adjusted the collar of the pink turtleneck longsleeve gown she was wearing self consciously before getting down from the car.     

When Alicia selected this gown for her despite her protests, Mia thought she was eventually never going to wear it. Pink wasn't her thing. Even when she was younger and they had made her wear pink clothes, she always felt weird in it.      

But today, the dress was serving her well. After Leo left her room earlier and she had gone inside the bathroom to bathe, her eyes had almost fallen from the sockets when she saw the very obvious hickey on her neck.      

While Leo had been kissing and sucking earlier, she hadn't thought this was going to happen. And it was worse because it was at the upper part of her neck, just beneath her jaw.     

How was she going to go to school without people seeing it? She was going to need more turtlenecks to hide it. But how was she going to do it when she had an early class tomorrow?      

She stopped thinking about all of that for now. Something else was more important.     

Linda turned and was a bit surprised to see Mia behind.      

Mia looked totally different. Her hair, dress, the fancy boot she wore and she was even wearing pink and carrying a feminine purse. Everything about her was different.     

It was all thanks to Leo who had chosen the whole outfit for her to wear when she screamed in horror after seeing the hickey.     

He had also said he wanted her to look pretty so her mother would see she was living well with or without her.      

Linda looked at Leo who went to take Mia's hand in his.      

It was a bit uncomfortable for Mia with her mother watching because she knew how her mother reacted to things like this.      

Linda stood there looking at the both of them as they approached her.      

"Mia... you look good." Linda said with a small smile when they got closer.      

"..." Mia said nothing.      

Linda turned to look at Leo who was now holding Mia's hand tightly.      

"You must be the young man paying up the debt. I am Mia's mother. Linda Lucas" She said with a polite smile.      

Leo returned her smile but his eyes were cold as he looked at her.     

"Oh... you are? I didn't know my girlfriend had a mother." He said as the smile left his face before he pulled Mia along with him towards Mr Timothy's office.