Breaking Free ? TFC 2.0 ? l.t. au

Chapter Thirty One

Mum takes a deep breath and sits up. She looks at me with a bright smile, covering her own pain. "Your hair! It's coming back to blonde!" She beams, changing the subject. I consciously touch the top of my head.

"Yeah, I know... It's getting to me."

"You don't have any plans on dying it?" She asks and I shrug. I don't really know. I haven't thought about it. I dyed my hair to change my identity and I'm debating whether I should or shouldn't now that everything's back to normal. But if it meant another change, a better change, then why not?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The salon woman pulled, trimmed, dyed and did everything parlor shiz known to man. I just sat there for over 2 hours waiting for everything to be over and it was agony!

I was done, finally. I look at the mirror and saw a totally different me. My hair's a bit shorter, it's dyed to caramel brown instead of dark brown, my blonde roots are gone but there are high lights and they're barely noticeable. It falls an inch or two below my shoulder blades and curves inward.

My mum smiles at me through the mirror and nods. It's better than my previous hairstyle, I'd say. I can't stop looking at myself! Call me vain, but if you haven't done anything to your physical appearance in 6 years, you'd probably be the same.

I tilt my head and try different angles of how I'll look like. It makes me feel and look more mature. I don't look like the outcasted teenager but more of an independent adult. If I say my hair color makes me 3 years older than I am, then I wouldn't be lying. For some reason, I feel like it's important to look good because I should be pleasing people.

"You look so professional!" Holly pipes in as she enters the salon. She stands beside me and holds my hair out of the way so it falls to my back. "Louis' going to be impressed." She says in a sing-song voice, nudging me on my shoulder.

"Wow thanks." I say sarcastically. Mum pays the dresser and I thank her before we go out. As we walk out, I see Em playing a little football with Karen.

"those two," I turn to see Holly standing beside me. "They've been inseparable. What is in football that..." She stops and takes an exasperated sigh. "I just don't understand." She says as if she's in stress. I pat her back and she looks at me. I smile and push her towards them as we walk.

"You're such a drama queen. Are you joining theater?" I ask her and she looks at me like I've offended her or something. "There's something in football that let's you loosen yourself." I say.

"You'd know why?" She asks cockily. There's the bitch I know. I simply smile but I think I annoyed her pretty well. "Duh, your boyfriend is the captain of Queen's Isle football team and a professional, kind of, coach in Wembley stadium, why haven't I thought of that before?" Her sarcasm drips off every word.

"Why don't you just give it a shot?" I tell her but she shakes her head immediately. "Really not my thing." She says confidently and shrugs.

"Call me when you need me, then." I say, running off to the two girls. I take my shoes off and run towards them. Emily was surprised when I snatched the ball away from her.

For 50 minutes or so, I've spent it kicking the bloody ball away from Em. She looks so thrilled she gets to see me play again. So do I. I catch a quick glance at mum every now and then. I see the smile on her face that's wider than her face itself. She flashes me a thumbs. Just then, Em hits me in the back of my head.

Just like old times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I miss about family trips is the surprise family trips. When I was 10, we used to go around the UK for fun. One weekend we were just eating breakfast in King's Cross station then mum mentioned that a guy in Paris got in a car crash. Before I know it, we were in line to grab a train ticket to Paris. We came back the next day but regardless of the limited time, we had so much fun.

It's wonderful I get to remember these memories again without having a dreadful back up memory to ruin it. I feel like a normal person again.

Mum and Em went back to their hotel to pack up. Tomorrow they're going back to Doncaster and in a few weeks, Louis and I have to drive down there to pick Em and Louis' sister. They had an agreement that they'll stay with us until I start my training at Walden's in later July.

Holly's staying with us for the night cause she has to go to King's College early in the morning to get some inquiry on the scholarship program. After we said our goodbyes, we decided to visit Louis over at Wembley. See, this is what I mean by unplanned trips.

When we walked in, he was surprised. He had to give the group a break to let it sink in. Right now, he's standing beside me with sweat dripping from his brows. He wipes it with the sleeves of shirts and drank from his water bottle.

He looks at me with an adorable shy smirk on his face. "You look different." He says.

"I feel different." I say making him laugh.

"I take that you and your mum had a great time together?" He says and I cock my head. "Not that great." I say but my smile says otherwise. He laughs as he dries himself from the sweat.

"You've had that little ketchup mark on your nose for about 20 minutes now." He says. I wipe the spot with my fingers and sure, there was.

"Why didn't you tell me, you jerk!" I say slapping his chest. He grins and pulls me into a hug that I quickly refused.

"Just cause I'm a jerk, you don't want my hugs anymore?" He says with a fake hurt tone.

"You're sweaty and you smell bad. Go back to your rookies!" I say, shoving him off. He laughs as he runs off to the group. "Your hair looks great, by the way!" He yells, giving me a thumbs up then turns back to his team.

He's training mostly teenagers. I'd put about 13-18. He blows the whistle and motions over one who's stuck in the back. I guess Holly found him interesting. Holly jogs up to me and takes a deep sigh when she's beside me.

"So much for saying football isn't your style." I say but not looking at her.

"I never said football players weren't my type." She says, feeling proud of her statement.

"I did say your boyfriend's hot and I wasn't kidding. Not at all." She says.

<<<***>>>

Hello lovelies! A happy-ish chapter for you, huh?

What a stressful week! Have you ever written an essay for math?! Math! Algebra! We had to write an essay in algebra! Glamorous? Right?!

It was exam week last week and I have an entrance exam to take this Sunday, YAAAAYY....

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well.... Update again on MONDAY!

Goodbye! :)