Blue Hair, Bad Decisions

The bathroom mirror reflected my catastrophe in HD: my hair, now an aggressive electric blue that looked less 'cool alternative' and more 'Smurf chemical spill.'

'You did WHAT?' Maya's voice crackled through my phone, the audio cutting in and out because I'd knocked the HDMI cable loose while pacing. 'Chloe's party is in THREE HOURS.'

'I thought I'd look, I don't know, different,' I muttered, staring at my scalp. 'Fresh start energy. New semester, new me.'

'You look like a highlighter exploded on your head,' she said, which honestly, fair. 'And your mom is literally going to lose it.'

My mom was deep in her wellness era. Every morning, I had to choke down these giant vitamin supplements she swore would fix everything from my skin to my GPA. Last week, she'd started me on something called 'Hair, Skin & Nails Maximum Strength.' The irony wasn't lost on me.

'Maybe I can wear a hat?' I suggested weakly.

'To a HOUSE PARTY? Jordan's gonna think you're hiding something way worse than bad hair decisions.'

Jordan, who I'd been low-key crushing on since September. Jordan, whose band was actually playing at Chloe's tonight. Jordan, who I'd hoped would finally notice me as more than 'that quiet kid in pre-calc.'

The doorbell rang.

My stomach dropped. 'Maya, I gotta go.'

I crept to the window and peeked through the blinds. Jordan. On my porch. Holding a tangled mess of instrument cables and looking vaguely panicked.

I opened the door, forgetting about my hair until his eyes went wide.

'Whoa,' he said. Then, after a beat: 'That's actually sick.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, my bassist has been trying to convince me to dye mine for months.' He shifted the cables. 'Listen, weird favor—my amp died mid-setup for tonight. You wouldn't happen to have a spare cable I could borrow? Maya said you might.'

'Yeah, actually.' I dug through my closet, finding the backup cable from my brief failed attempt to learn guitar last year. 'Here.'

'You're literally saving my life.' He grinned. 'Hey, you should come early. Help us set up. I'll teach you bass if you want.'

'Maybe,' I said, feeling my face heat up. 'I have to take my vitamin first.'

He laughed. 'Deal.'

Later that night, as I watched Jordan's band play through someone's borrowed cable, Maya leaned over and shouted over the music: 'So the blue hair was a good decision?'

I watched Jordan point at me from stage, grinning around his microphone. 'Yeah,' I shouted back. 'Actually, it was.'