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Chapter Text

“Do you not own hair dye?”

Claudia shook her head. Her mother had always been insistent on only owning what they needed, and hair dye had never fallen into that category.

It wasn’t until Grace came up to her house one day with clip-on streaks of bright purple, red, pink, and yellow that Claudia realized dyeing her hair was an option. And ever since that day, the thought hadn’t left her mind.

So the next time Grace came over it was the first thing she brought up.

”Ok. I don’t have any money on me and I’m not getting my allowance for another week,” Grace said, fidgeting with the candy necklace around her neck as she thought. “We wouldn’t be able to do it for a while then.”

Claudia’s face fell and Grace immediately reached her hands across the table they were sitting at to hold hers. She rubbed her thumbs in circles on her hand, a soothing gesture.

“Hey, it’s not all bad. Your hair is naturally blonde, so you won’t have to bleach it before.”

”Would you dye your hair?” Claudia asked.

Graced giggled and ran one had through her long brown hair. “No, it’s too long. Look at it!”

“Oh yeah, that would take 20 bottles at least,” Claudia said, biting back a smile.

”I don’t think either of us have enough money saved in our piggy banks for that,” Grace added. As soon as the words left her mouth, and idea began to form in her head. Her eyebrows knitted together and she sat up a bit straighter.

Claudia leaned forward toward her girlfriend. “What’re you thinking?”

Grace grinned conspiratorially and leaned in to whisper her plan in her girlfriend’s ear. When she pulled back, Claudia was glowing, completely committed except for one thing.

”How’ll we get into town?”

Chapter Text

There was a light rain as they walked into town, and by the time they reached the corner store the sun had almost set, turning the horizon orange, yellow, and purple.

Purple, Claudia thought as she adjusted the hood of her raincoat.

The rain wasn’t nearly hard enough to justify wearing them, especially when they were obviously designed for someone much older, but Grace had deemed them entirely necessary to their mission.

”If we have a bag and leave without buying anything they might get suspicious,” Grace had reasoned as she buttoned up Claudia’s coat for her.

”But if we just look around and leave, it’ll just seem like we didn’t find what we were looking for,” Claudia finished. Grace beamed at her.

”Exactly.” She pulled her in for a quick kiss, and then flicked up her hood. “Remember to hide your face, my mum would kill us both if she found out about this.”

Claudia’s face, so warm from the kiss, faltered. She thought she had worked through everything that had to do with her mother, she really had. But every time Grace brought up her mum, she felt something inside her chest. Like someone had shot her, then quickly scooped out all her organs and left her hollow. It had gotten better over time, the feeling growing duller, the space it took up in her mind becoming more free, but it was still there. Even an off-hand joke from the person she loved most in the entire world could set it off. And often, Claudia would hate herself for it.

But then, just like she had before, Grace took her hand and lead her on and she remembered where she was. And she felt her body grow warm again.

She would talk about it one day, and when she did she knew Grace would listen and hold her. That was enough.

Grace held the door open for Claudia as they entered the store. Claudia raised a hand to block the florescent lights that seemed intent on torturing her eyes. The only other people there were the cashier and a woman who was inspecting a box of diapers. Neither paid the two girls any mind.

”Over there,” Grace whispered to Claudia, pointing at a section labeled Hair Care Products. “I’ll get the dye, you stand guard. But also like, pretend you’re shopping.”

Claudia nodded and the two walked down the aisle. Claudia stopped to pretend to look at different brands of shampoo. Really she’d never seen the point of all these different brands, but she pushed the thought out of her mind to focus on the task at hand: standing guard.

She watched the cashier out of the corner of her eye as he moved from behind the counter to assist the woman. So far, so good.

Grace, on the other hand, was facing a bit of a crisis. As she kneeled in front of the shelves of hair dye, she realized she hadn’t asked Claudia what colour she wanted. There was no time now, not if they wanted to get the hair dye and leave without being caught, but there were so many colours and shades on display to choose from. And that’s when she saw it: Purple Sunrise.

Grace chanced a glance at her girlfriend, still standing guard. They still did the Purple Promise, and had vowed not to share it with anyone else even if they broke up one day.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the purple dye, slid it into the raincoat pocket, and dashed toward the door. Claudia grabbed her hand and the two ran out of the store, not stopping until they reached Claudia’s house. By then the sun had completely set.

“What colour did you get?” Claudia asked, breathless from running.

”Close your eyes,” Grace said with a smile. When Claudia did, she pulled the hair dye out of the pocket. “Okay, you can open them now. Ta-da!”

Claudia looked at the bottle, reading the labels and warning, gazing at the photo of the model, her hair dyed a wonderful and vibrant purple colour.

”Do you like it?”

In response, Claudia threw her arms around Grace, pulling back only slightly to kiss her just as excitedly. Grace put her hand on Claudia’s cheek, touching their foreheads together even as the kiss ended.

”I love it.”

”Really?”

”I love you.”

A pause.

”I love you too.”