Chapter Text
A bell dings as the door to “Riptide Styles” is opened. It’s a quite small and empty room. It’s almost silent, aside from the noise of birds chirping outside the shop, the wind breezing against the windows, and the just dung bell. The room smells of ocean breeze perfume, and various hair sprays from across the years.
“Caspian!!!” Gill yells excitedly as Caspian opens the door.
“Hello Gillion, the usual. No need to wash my hair.” Caspian says in a calm tone.
“Alright!! Right this way!” Gill responds.
Gill’s station is decorated with seashells and undersea themed decor, a sheet of paper taped to the wall with Gill’s constantly updating titles on it, and a photo of Gill and his Coworkers/Friends on the beach.
Caspian sits down at the station as Gill pulls out his scissors, which are themed like a sword with a Gold hilt, wrapped in a turquoise ribbon and a blue blade that reflects in the light. He takes a comb and brushes it through a part of his hair. Gill trims Caspian’s hair while he strikes up conversation.
“So…. What’s the latest?” Gill asks Caspian.
“Nothing much.” Caspian responds.
“Oh! That reminds me, Lizzie was promoted to Manager recently!” Caspian says adds to his response.
“Good for her! I figured she would get a promotion considering how hard she works!” Gillion cheerfully says.
Gill takes a comb a brushes it through another part of his hair and continues to trim.
“I’ll try to get her to swing by here today, I’ll text her once your done.” Caspian says.
“Anyways what about you, Gill?” Caspian asks as Gill continues to trim his hair.
“Oh, umm, just the occasional customers coming in and out. Apparently on one of my Vacation days some guy tried to apply for a job, but was turned down by Chip and Jay. What was his name…? Goobleck i think?” Gillion Responds, taking another part of Caspian’s hair and brushing through it.
Gill finishes up trimming Caspian’s hair and spins the chair around facing himself.
“Welp, i suppose you’ve finished. Thanks again. See you next month!” Caspian says.
“We really gotta hang out some time. Does Saturday work for you?” Gill asks.
“Sure, how does my house sound this time?” Caspian asks.
“Perfect. See you then! Tell Lizzie and John I said hi!” Gill responds happily, waving as Caspian leaves.
The door dings once again, this time signaling Caspian’s leave.
“He paid. Right?” Chip asks walking over to Gill.
“Of course he did! He paid in advance.” Gill responds.
“Alright, just don’t want you giving him free cuts because he’s your friend.” Chip says.
Gill ignores the comment and starts to speak.
“So Lizzie got a promotion. She manager now!” Gill tells Chip excitedly.
“Hahaha! Really? Nice!” Chip responds.
“Wait, who’s Lizzie?” Jay asks peaking up from her phone.
“Oh I guess you’ve never met her before.” Chip says.
“Oh you’ll love Lizzie! She’s actually coming by later today! You can give her a haircut!” Gill says excitedly, stimming with his feet.
“Alright, if you say so.” Jay responds to the twos unhelpful answers.
About 3 hours of cutting people’s hair and waiting goes by before the bell dings once again. This time a lady with curly black hair, dark skin, and deep brown eyes. Jay wouldn’t recognize this woman, but Chip and Gill would recognize this as the familiar face of Lizzie.
“Hey, Congrats on the promotion.” Chip says as she walks into the room.
“You sound sarcastic right now.” Lizzie says, giving a small scoff at Chip.
“Nono! I mean it. Congrats!” Chip reassures her.
“Thanks I guess. Anyways who am I getting a hair cut from today?” Lizzie asked.
“Oh you can go to Jay over there!” Chip points in the direction of Jay.
“Alright.” Lizzie says as she walks up to Jay.
“I’ll be getting my hair washed and having it cut to medium length.” Lizzie says.
Jay zones out for a moments. All she can think about it Lizzie’s gorgeous and boldly, fiery brown eyes.
“Oh- Oh yeah, right this way.” Jay says, stuttering.
Lizzie sits down in the seat and Jay puts a small towel around the back of her neck, protecting it from the water. Lizzie then lays her head down in the sink.
Jay runs her hands through Lizzie’s hair while pouring water on it. Lizzie lightly shuts her eyes and relaxes.
Jay then then squirts shampoo in her hand and softly applies it to Lizzie’s scalp. She then rubs it around in her hair and lightly pulls her fingers through Lizzie’s hair.
She then rinses it with water again and this time squirts conditioner in her hand. She applies it to Lizzie’s scalp again, and continues with her method. She continues to apply the conditioner to her hair, washing it.
Eventually she is finished and she rinses it off with more water.
Lizzie Chuckles “Done already?”
Jay can’t help but pause for a moment. She blushes. “I- I- I-“
Lizzie looks up to see her facing away from her. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Lizzie gets up and sits down at Jay’s station.
Jay’s station is decorated neatly with barely any declarations. Other than that she keeps a photo of when the Barber shop opened for the first time and a picture of the three sitting at a table in a café.
Jay follows Lizzie to her stand and pulls out a comb and a pair of scissors with metal wings for the grip. She then places a red sheet around Lizzie.
Jay separates Lizzie’s hair into clips. She brushes through Lizzie’s hair with the comb and uses the comb to mark the spot she is supposed to cut. She then neatly cuts upward and repeated this on the same lock of hair, slowly going upward.
Lizzie looks at jay’s face through the mirror. She looks focused. Jay clips the lock of hair to her head and lets another lock fall in its place. She continues her process of cutting upward and slowly cutting until she reaches the right length.
Lizzie contemplates saying something, but allows Jay to stay focused.
Jay continues to follow the same pattern until the last lock. Once she is finished with it she drops all the clips and cuts them all together in a similar method.
She then takes a blow dryer and blows it at cold on Lizzie’s hair. She runs her hands through her hair again as she blows her hair, drying it.
She then Takes a brush and softly runs it through her hair.
For some reason Jay pictures a rainy day. She picture cuddling up on a couch with Lizzie, brushing her hair while she has just woken up. And even though they don’t have any plans for the day, and yet still she brushes through her hair as a way of telling her she loves her and- wait what is she thinking? She had just met this woman. She wouldn’t even know her name if it wasn’t for Chip and Gill taking about her.
She finishes up brushing through her and removes the sheet from Lizzie.
“Can I have your phone for a second?” Lizzie asks Jay.
“Wait, why?” Jay asks.
“So I can give you my number.” Lizzie responds.
Jay immediately hands Lizzie her phone without any further questions. Her face goes completely red.
After a few seconds of typing on her phone she hands it back to Jay.
“Here, now I can call you if I ever need a haircut again.” Lizzie says.
“Oh! Oh- yeah of course! That makes much more sense!” Jay takes her phone back.
“Here you go, and bye!” Lizzie hand Jay $40 and leaves out the door.
Jay checks her phon to see Lizzie’s name in her contacts.
It’s listed as “Elizabeth” with a Purple Heart at the end of her name.
Jays hand began to shake as she read it over, and over, and over again.
Chip walked over to Jay
“You doing alright?” He said as he looked down at her phone.
“Oh my Gods.” He said as he realized what was causing her to be so still.
“What is it Chip?” Hill asked walking up to chip.
“Jay and Lizzie are dating!” Chip exclaims in response to Gill’s question.
“Ha- what- I- no no nono- I mean- she’s- we- haha- I- she’s just- it’s in case-“ Jay stutters.
“It’s just so if she ever needs a haircut!” Jay finally gets out.
“Sure… Sure…” Chip says, skeptical of Jay.
“Anyways, the shop is closing in 30 minutes.” Jay says.
“Oh shit! Gill and I have something in an hour! Would you mind closing up?” Chip asks Jay.
“Yeah Its fine. But you’ll owe me!” Jay responds.
“Alright thanks Jay!” Chip says waving goodbye to Jay and walking out with Gill.
“Bye!” Jay says wait for them to leave.
Jays alone in the shop now, it’s completely empty aside from her.
She sweeps up all the hair from today and washes the floor with a mop.
After that she flips the sign to closed and locks the store.
She walks outside of the store and sees all the other people in the plaza locking up and leaving for the day.
She finds her car in the parking lot and starts the drive home.
As she’s driving across the now dark suburban town she decides to check the radio for any good songs.
“Can’t finish my Lyrics by Queen, Nope. The one of stone by The Empress/Malice, Nope. Ah! Zero’s Revolt by The island of Canella! Good song!” She says as she plays the song.
It uses electric guitar, drums, bass, and accordion. She used to think it’s a weird mix, but now it’s one of her favorite songs.
The song starts off with a solo on the accordion, then the drums are introduced and finally the guitar and bass are introduced. The rest of the song is played with all the instruments and has lyrics that sing about taking back Zero from the navy and a revolt led by 3 masked hero’s and the town.
She hums along to the song, tapping her hand on the wheel until the song ends.
After that she listens to whatever songs play on the radio, and eventually she arrives home.
She gets out of the car and locks it with the key and walks up to her front door. She opens the door using her keys and steps in, locking the door behind her.
She turns on the light to the kitchen and hears up some day old pizza in the microwave. She gets a cup of water and scrolls on social media on her phone.
When she is done eating she closes her phone, setting an alarm on when to wake up the next morning.
She goes into the medicine cabinet and takes out a bottle of pills. She swallows two pills with her water. She puts the pills back in the cabinet and closes it. Then she heads to her room to go to sleep.
She gets changed out of her clothes and into pajamas and lays down on the bed.
She lays there listening to the sound of birds cawing outside and music playing from another house in the distance.
She thinks about the day, and the girl she had met.
“Elizabeth.” She whispers to herself once.
She lays in her bed, eyes open, until she finally goes to sleep.