Chapter 2: Going Away.
The next day.
She woke in the morning feeling exhausted. Her whole body tingled uncomfortably and her head pounded. She tried to remember the night before and soon enough it became clear again. Surely that was all a dream? She sat up straight then pounced out of the bed rushing to the bathroom. She walked carefully and on edge to the bathroom mirror and when her reflection appeared the matter was clear again. A blonde streak of hair still remained on the right side on her head. She was worried and scared, not knowing what revelations were to come next.
One thing she did know of though, was that she had to hide the streak. It wasn't too early for the local store to be open, so she decided to get dressed, don a hat and head straight there for some hair dye.
Once out the door she walked quickly and shiftily to the store hoping not to meet anyone on the way. She had made it without any disruption and searched for the right aisle for the dye. Scanning the shelves she soon found what she was after: it was for a dark brown colour, it was permanent and it was perfect. All she had to do was get home, fix her hair and there would be nothing to worry about.
The hair dye was a success and there was no sign of a bizarre white blonde streak. She hadn't even experienced any strange electrical issues, even when she dried her hair with the hairdryer – an action she took great caution with before making the attempt. No, everything was fine. Whatever had gone on last night was surely just a freak accident and was nothing to worry about.
It was just in time to go out anyway, as she was scheduled to meet college friends for a run through of their final work and a much deserved morning of lattes and muffins. She set off and upon arriving at the coffee shop was greeted by four other classmates. Her friend, Eve, immediately noticed something different.
"Oh my god, your hair!" Stunned at her friend's exclamation, she began to worry. Had the streak come back? How am I going to explain that?
"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked.
"Ha! Ha! Nothings wrong don't look so scared. I just noticed you'd dyed your hair darker. It's cute." Eve played with a strand of hair and flicked it at her nose playfully. She smiled a nervous smile and sat herself down. The lattes and muffins had already been ordered and laid out in front of her, so she began to tuck in.
"So." Started Eve "We caught your sexy boss on television last night. Were you proud?"
"Were you drooling?" Adam, a male friend from the group, asked.
"Excuse me?" She was shocked at the allegations.
"Come on!" Eve continued. "You're hot for the guy. Those were some sexy words you wrote by the way."
"Yeah, but you left out 'How I love thee, let me count the ways…'" Adam added.
"Oh my god, what are you talking about? The guy is married. We're just good friends." She tried desperately to defend herself.
"You're just a broken record." Eve laughed. "Come on it's so obvious."
"How is it obvious? Because I work hard for him? I try to do a good job?" She was not enjoying the accusations.
"We're sorry that was mean. We just figured all that "hard work" might have had some other underlying alternative motives." Eve continued to giggle.
"Yes, actually you're right, my plans to break up a marriage and show up my boss, a contending politician, and make him look like a big fat adulterer." She started to aggressively break away at a muffin. The others noticed her frustration.
"Hey, we were just kidding." Adam put the subject to rest, but the friends slyly looked at one another with an infectious smirk. She insisted they get down to business and each got out their work. Adam pulled out his laptop and switched it on, but it wouldn't respond.
"Uh Oh!" The others looked up at him. "It's not switching on. I swear I fully charged it last night. Urgh, please don't be broken!" He bent down to his bag and began fumbling through until he found his charger. He looked around for an outlet and noticed one behind where she was sitting.
"Hey, can you plug this in for me. God I hope it's still working?" Adam asked her. She nodded and he passed her the charger. He plugged one end of it into his laptop whilst she went to plug the other into the socket.
"Thanks, it's woken up." Said Adam, but she looked up and turned to face him disbelieving. She looked at the laptop and sure enough it was loading up. She then looked down in shock at her end of the charger – it was not yet plugged in, just sat in her hand. She quickly concealed it from the others, slyly plugging it into the wall. She then got up and sat back down in her seat trying to figure things out. Eve looked at her and noticed something odd. Leaning towards her, Eve put up her hand to her friend's hair and stroked a small strand.
"What now?" She asked Eve. Eve continued to stroke the hair with confusion on her face. "Eve?"
"Your hair, how did it get like that?" She knew Eve wasn't talking about the hair dye and the darker shade of hair, but no doubt another streak of white blonde had appeared.
She couldn't stay around her friends any longer. She couldn't explain to herself what was happening to her, let alone explain it to her friends. She was scared and confused, rushing to the bathroom as soon as she returned home to inspect her hair. Sure enough there it was again, but even more than before it seemed. She started to cry and slumped onto the cold bathroom floor. Weeping, she knew there was only one solution to the situation – to leave. If she had to find out what was happening to her, she needed to be alone, without anyone around to see what was going on. She had made up her mind, and as soon as she had finalised her thesis, she would be out the door and out of New York City.
