Chapter 2.18- I'll Just Live

          Standing nervously in front of the stylist’s station at the salon made Layla feel incredibly self-conscience. It had been a long time since she had stood in front of a full length mirror. Also, her ends were far more frizzy and split that she had realized.

          “Are you sure about this?” Layla asked Sally.

          “Kyle is the best in town,” she answered bracingly. “I’ve already told him you need a new look and he’s been thinking about it all the last hour he said. You’ll see. He’s good.”

          Moments later Kyle swept up the stairs and over to where Layla had perched on his little box.

          “Those shoes. All wrong this season,” he barked, approaching like a sledgehammer. “We must get you new shoes. Kyle has a pair that will compliment your legs and make your ankles look slimmer than ever.”

          “Shoes? I just wanted a haircut. And what's wrong with my ankles?”

          “No way! He’s the best! Just go with it! Kyle will make you look like a new sim!” Sally chimed in.

          “I don’t want to be a new sim?”

          “Not want new shoes! Only a haircut! Never! Kyle will not let you leave here in such an outfit! Though, your hair, you are quite right about it and Kyle will make it perfect.”

          Layla’s eyes finally snapped to him. He was wearing more makeup than she was. Maybe he did know better.

          “You’re such a miracle worker!” Sally breathed.

          Layla was starting like she’d been caught in a tornado as quickly as these two were moving.

          “Kyle thinks we should give you a bob,” he indicated a spot midway down his ear. “This would allow your jaw to be free, you have a wonderfully strong jaw and it demands attention!”

          “Uhm, no,” Layla looked at him incredulously. “Too short for me. I have my dad’s jaw and I’d rather it stay hidden if possible.”

          “But your father in you begs to be unleashed!”

          “I don’t think so,” she told him with barely veiled contempt.

          “Layla! Be nice!”

          Kyle’s enthusiastic manner dropped immediately.

          “Layla?” he half turned to Sally. “Layla Sixkiller? As in the woman who scorned our Mayor-elect to sleep with that known hooligan? Is my client that woman?”

          “I thought this was about my hair?”

          Sally pressed her lips together and averted her eyes. Kyle’s look of disgust as he turned back to her rather alarmed Layla. What had she done to this guy?

          “You are the woman aren’t you?” he asked again, his voice flat and reedy.

          “So what if I am,” she said, starting to be a little worried for entirely different reasons. “It’s no one else’s business what I do in my private life.”

          “It is when someone in the public spotlight is involved,” he answered tersely.

          “Layla? Drop it. Kyle you’re the best and now you know who she is you know she needs a new look so people won’t recognize her so easily. You do fabulous work. Please, please, work your magic on her?”

          The man showed no sign of relenting.

          “You want paid or not? I know your wife just bought another new car. And I know prom is coming up and I’ve seen the dress Bonnie wants for it,” Sally said.

          Kyle looked Layla over once more before nodding curtly. “Very well,” he said, pulling something out of one of the drawers and pointing it at Layla. “Turn.”

          Eyes still closed when he told her to stop Layla found she was almost unable to look in the mirror that she presumed was in front of her.

          “There,” he said. “You needed new shoes you have them. Now where is my fee?”

          Sally scoffed. “No haircut as was promised? Half.”

          “Fine.”

          Layla finally peeked just in time to see Kyle marching away from them. The vision in the mirror was horrific to her. Her clothes were bright colors she’d never consider. With a flowered print no less! And a skirt? Since when did she wear skirts regularly? Figuring Sally was pleased, though, she tried to put on a brave smile for her cousin.

          “Oh for PlumbBob’s sake don't look so frightened,” Sally said sternly. “You don’t look that bad. He really did a pretty good job considering.”

          “Considering what?” Layla asked. “Why on earth was he so put out over something that happened to Ned? Does he even know Ned? I know he doesn’t know me.”

          “We really should cut your hair,” Sally didn’t respond to Layla’s questions. “It’ll help. I’ll do it.”

          “You’ll cut it?” Layla looked up in horror. Surely not.

          “Sure! I’ll make you look like a movie star. I cut Bonnie’s hair all the time. She thinks her dad gets it too short when he does it. And I cut Lola’s hair, and Skeet's, and Silas’, and Dad’s, and-”

          “-Sally? Do you really know how to cut hair?”

          “Yes. And I bet if I dig around a bit I can find your regular clothes too. We don’t want to walk out of here drawing too much attention to you. He really went for bright didn't he?”

          Starting to feel something deeper was going on Layla tried to catch her cousin’s eye. But Sally had turned her back and was digging around to find the things Layla had come in wearing.

          She turned back around briefly. Seeing Layla’s raw concern she stepped closer.

          “Really. You’ll look great.”

          A few moments later, Layla turned and stepped off of the box. It had taken a few tries for Sally to get her clothes back on her properly before she got to the hair cut.

          At first, she’d been surprised. As reluctant as she had been when she’d started it seemed Sally really did know how to wield a pair of scissors. The end result looked nice, and Layla was pleased with the cut. And now it was all over, it was time to ask a few questions.

          “Do you really like it?” Sally asked. It was uncharacteristic of her to be less than positive about something, and Layla was reminded of all the inconsistencies in Sally’s actions that day.

          “I do. It’s cute. It’s lighter too for all this hot weather,” she said. Sally smiled at the praise, looking just a mite sheepish.

          “Now you’ve made up for what that man did to my outfit, why don’t you tell me what’s really going on here?”

          “What do you mean, ‘What’s really going on?’” Sally asked innocently.

          “You know exactly what I mean young lady,” Layla responded, narrowing her eyes a little. “You were jumpy even coming in my house-”

          “-Uh! You would be too if you’d walked in on what I walked in on the last time-”

          “It wasn’t just that. You checked to see if anyone saw you come in my house!”

          “You’re supposed to watch your back, right? Stranger Danger and all that?”

          “Sally! Kyle didn’t want to work on me when he heard my name! And you made this appointment! Why not give my name?”

          “I made the appointment! I gave my name! That’s the name that matters, isn't it?”

          “Why are you so keen on me looking different?”

          She’d struck gold. Sally’s face deflated and she pouted like a child caught stealing the last cookie from the jar.

          “So I told you how mom and I had kind of told a few people what we saw right?”

          “Yeah.”

          “Well, they all told other people and most folks in town kind of think Ignacio is no good anyway. And they don’t know you, never mind they don’t know Ned, and they kind of decided you were some kind of a ‘scarlet woman’-”

          “A scarlet woman?”

          “-and they feel bad for Ned that you were cheating on him-”

          “-We told him first thing yesterday morning! Right after it happened!-”

          “-and a lot of people think you’re a bad influence and not a good person to be around. In fact, Mom doesn’t want me to go to your house anymore.”

          “Aunt Estella doesn’t want you to come and see me anymore?” Layla was shocked. Ignacio was right. The town had turned their backs. Her heart hammered and her stomach sunk. This wasn’t the business of the town! It was a personal matter and she was an adult! She didn’t need punishing!

          “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I’ll keep coming over, she’ll never know. I’ll just drop the study group I'm in and come over then. I think all this is so ridiculous and it’s totally unfair to you and Ignacio. And if I hadn’t-”

          “-Sally?” Layla had to stop Sally. “Sally, if your mom says you can’t come see me, then don’t. I don’t want to get you in trouble. And don’t blame yourself for walking in. Okay? I don’t. If I hadn’t been so impulsive in the first place Ignacio wouldn’t have even been over. There would have been nothing to see in the first place. So I guess I need to tell you I’m sorry.”

          “No! No it’s totally my fault for blabbing, but I was just so shock-”

          “Sally? No. No honey. And I’ll pay you back for the hair cut too. But don’t risk your relationship with your mother to come and visit me. Really. It’s not worth it.

          “But I’ll miss you,” Sally pled.

          “And I’ll miss you, too,” she said.

          “What will you do now?”

          “I’ll do what I do every other day. I’ll just live.”

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          Matthew had only accepting doing business with Ignacio on one condition: No drama in his store. In order to fulfill this request Ignacio had taken to dropping off his fish in the evenings immediately before the store closed.

          Generally this was when Matthew was cleaning up and sometime Ignacio had to go in search of the proprietor, as he had today. Only before he could find Matthew she found him.

          He was so desperate to not make a scene that he’d already ducked furtively behind several customer displays when he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. This time, he knew he’d been cornered and took the opportunity to gather his thoughts instead of coming up with another plan of evasion.

          She walked with purpose and Ignacio stepped back into the room behind him. If anyone else came in at least they weren’t in the main room, and in here he might be able to avoid drama if Matthew came in. No matter that though, he still refused to look at her. Instead he showed his displeasure by sighing and rolling his eyes.

          Only once he truculently turned to look at her did she speak.

          “You’ve been avoiding me.”

 

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          Layla learns Scientific law! Albeit the hard way. “Every action has an opposite and equal reaction.” However the big driving force behind her hair change is I'm rather tired of her old one and this one won't clip as bad. Hurrah! lol. I just used it as a story device in the end to confirm what Ignacio had said and to give Sally a break for a little bit. We've got new characters comin' in folks.

          And Kyle is completely based off of my cousin's husband who is the only person permitted to touch my hair and who talks in third person in front of his clients for reasons I have yet to discover. I love David to death. He's totally my hero and is the only stylist I've ever had who understands my hair. Most likely because his wife (my cousin) has the same type of scary crazy hair. lol. No matter, he's just plain awesome.


          Then there are bloopers for this chapter up. They include the actual makeover Sally gave Layla. It was 70'stastic and Layla cried. I laughed. Also, one of Ignacio's siblings showed up and tried to get in a shot.