Andrew’s finger floated in front of the doorbell. He thought: this isn’t right, this whole thing is a bad idea, coming over here while she still has a boyfriend, the way she talked to me yesterday; people in relationships don’t talk like that; this is cheating; this is adultery; this is…
Ring
Now what the fuck did you do that for? Why did you have to go and do a stupid thing like that? Her boyfriend is gonna beat you up; he wrestles; he’s got big muscles and you just sit at home surfing the web trying to meet girls.
Footsteps
In fact, if instead of surfing the web, you lifted a few weights, you could get a girl of your own much easier and you wouldn’t have to steal one from another guy.
Locks loosening
This is so wrong; this is immoral; this is sinful; this is unethical…
“Hi, Andrew”
Fuck ethics
“Hey, Natalie”
“Come inside.”
And he did
It was a nice, airy house. Her parents had money. They were rich, hard working, third generation Italian-Americans. The walls were filled with pictures of family members at various stages in their lives. Some of the pictures of people even had pictures of people in the background. Andrew stared close, trying to see if he could spot a third picture.
“See someone you know?” she said while half-laughing
“Oh, no, it’s just that you’ve got pictures of pictures”
She raised her chin at him as if he were a child that just said something unintelligible.
“Ah, do you want to sit down?”
“Sure”
And they sat. Andrew warmed his hands with the inside of his kneecaps while gently bobbing his head to music that wasn’t playing. After about five seconds, he stopped bobbing his head.
“So, I like your house”
“Eh, it’s ok. There’s a lot of old stuff lying around. We’ve got all these relics and pictures. The goddamn pictures…” and she trailed off apathetically like a wino trying to recall a story.
“…of pictures,” he said finishing her thought
This sobered her up and made her smile.
“I’m really glad you came. I just really need someone right now, with college and all…”
“Yeah, how’s that been?”
The smile vanished, and Natalie’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“Things aren’t working out. Our relationship is nothing like what it used to be…”
“Yeah, things change like that. It’s a real bitch”
Natalie was thought-drunk again, but Andrew mistook it as a cue to keep talking.
“It’s like when I was a kid, we had this dog. We got her around Christmas time and, funny story actually…”
Andrew’s verbal diarrhea continued, while Natalie, oblivious, stared at the mirror in front of her. She kept fiddling with the hair near her ears, her fingers gently stroking it.
“…and I’m looking around the house. I keep calling her name, and finally I run out back, cause I’m afraid she’s run away and I shout her name, and nothing comes out of the shadows. So I run back inside, and I run upstairs and I say ‘Mom, I can’t find Noel’ and my mom says ‘Andrew, we put her down two weeks ago’.”
Natalie didn’t seem to catch the end of the story, or the beginning, or the middle; she just kept fiddling with the strands of hair floating by her ears. Andrew misread again.
“So like, she’d been put down two weeks ago”
No response
“And I didn’t even realize it. I didn’t notice she was gone!”
Natalie stared at the mirror. She spoke, her voice distant.
“What do you think of these?”
Andrew was quite caught off guard.
“What? Your hair?”
“Yeah, by the ears I get like, sideburns.”
“Oh, yeah, a lot of Italian women get those”
“Well what do you think of them?”
Andrew was quite lost. He took a closer look at the sideburns, and then for the first time really noticed her. He’d thought her pretty when she answered the door, but he didn’t recognize her fully until now. Her long auburn hair flowed down like a fifties pin up girl. And her breasts matched the outfit too. She was large and small in all the right places, his teenage father’s archetype of beauty. But beneath the hair he saw something else; she had an oddly masculine face. Her hair disguised it quite a bit, but Andrew noticed slightly high cheekbones and wrought iron bone structure.
“Well?” she had snapped out of her haze and was now serious about his answer
“Oh, well I think they look…nice”
And she lapsed into the haze again.
“Nick loved them; he would tell me all the time. We’d lie in bed and he’d just run his fingers through my hair. He liked long hair…”
Andrew hesitated on making a comment
“…and big tits;” she said, snapping out of it “fucking pig slept around.”
Then there was an awkward silence, for Andrew at least. Natalie seemed comfortable stewing in angry thoughts, but Andrew had no idea where to take the conversation. He scanned the floor.
“I like your shoes” he popped.
They were bright red Chuck Taylor low tops. Natalie smiled again, and for once seemed even-keel.
“Thanks”
“I’ve never seen ‘em with a dress before though”
“Yeah,” Natalie held the edges of her dress “I don’t know why I put this thing on”
And she launched out of her seat like a little boy.
“Come on; let’s go!” she was suddenly quite playful
“Where?”
“Just follow me!” again, like a small boy pleading
She led him up the stairs making sure not to get too far ahead of him. Andrew’s heart fluttered at the uncertainty of it all. Natalie opened the door to her room. It was messy and she kicked various things out of the way to clear a path for Andrew.
“Are you sure…”
“It’s fine” and she pulled a drawer open. Andrew stood in a corner and tried to focus on other things in the room. That lasted up to the point that she took off her dress. Andrew blinked and noticed she had on black and white boy-short panties. Her bra, black too. She could see him through the mirror in front of her, and she smiled. Andrew’s eyes darted.
“You know, I’m gonna break up with Nick; don’t worry about that” she said while removing her bra. Andrew quit shying. She had a nice body; firm breasts that made her look active and youthful. Natalie rummaged through the drawer while humming a song and finally selected a tight black t-shirt to slip on.
“You look nice. The shirt is better than the dress”
Andrew was surprised how honest and cool he delivered the line. For a second, he thought himself a 21st century Casanova. Natalie just smiled back for a while.
“Follow me!” and she ran out of the room, this time, not bothering to wait for Andrew. He caught up nonetheless, in the bathroom. She had the sink running and held scissors in her hand. Again, she caught his reflection in the mirror, and they fell under the influence of each other.
“Did you say something about knowing how to cut hair before?” she asked
“No”
“You should try now”
The haze was thick like a steamy shower
“Yeah, I should”
“I want it short,” she said
“I want it short, too”
And they stood for a good fifteen minutes. She wet her hair in the sink, and Andrew snipped away, cutting off great lengths. He wondered what her parents would think and briefly wondered if it was right to cut a girls hair that he didn’t know all that well.
Fuck ethics
When he had finished, she had short boyish hair. He had buzzed parts of it, including her sideburns. She no longer looked like his father’s teenage fantasy.
“I’d like to take a photo of you” Andrew said hazily
So they went downstairs and she stood in front of the photo of a photo.
“Here’s to the fourth!” Andrew exclaimed, still somewhat dreamily
“Here’s to the fourth” and she stared ahead, stoic, very much like her ancestors before her, but oh so different from her ancestors before her.
