Page 29 of Fight for Me

I eye her hair slowly. She’s got a point, but I would rather not end up looking like a freak. My hair was always a touchy subject for me, wild, thick, and curly, the color somewhere between brown and auburn. It was always impossible to tame it, so I’ve just given up on it. I want to avoid adding a bad dye job to it.

“Okay. But you know what you’re doing, right?”

“Of course!” Lucy waves her hand. “I’ve been doing it forever. I have two sisters, and we used to dye each other’s hair constantly. Trust me, you will look fab!”

“All right then, let’s do it.” I rise from the bed and laugh when Lucy jumps up after me with a happy squeal.

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“SOOO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Lucy asks insecurely, biting her lip, as she’s holding the mirror up.

I eye my new look critically in the bathroom and keep a straight face for as long as I can, then explode, “I fucking love it!”

Lucy exhales loudly with one hand on her chest. “Jesus, I thought you were going to hate me.”

Laughing earnestly for the first time since I came here, I hug her and say, “No, it’s truly great. Did you think about doing it for a living? Really, you’ve got talent, Lucy.” I move closer to the mirror to inspect my new haircut again.

My hair is now dyed light blonde. Lucy shortened it a bit with scissors, so now they don’t even reach my shoulders, and then straightened it with a flat iron. The whole look is completed by delicate side-swept bangs. Honestly, I look good. And not like me at all. I honestly have trouble recognizing myself right now. Claire would freak out if she saw this.

“Oh, it’s nothing. And you have great natural hair. I would kill to have that volume.Anyway, the aim was to help you start the new chapter or whatever. Also, you look almost unrecognizable, so that’s a bonus if your father was looking for you or something.”

At the mention of my dad, I flinch involuntarily, but try not to let it show as I smile. “Yeah, thank you again for doing this.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lucy chirps and links our arms together, turning us toward the door. “Now, it’s almost lunchtime. I wonder what Amelia prepared today. I hope...”

Lucy gets cut off as the door to the bathroom opens suddenly and Amelia falls through it, looking as if a horde of demons was chasing her, breathing erratically, her eyes wide open.

“Amelia? What’s wrong?” Lucy entangles herself from me and runs toward the frightened woman.

Amelia completely ignores her though as her big eyes focus only on me. “The men, they’re here,” she pants.

“What men?” I’m too stunned to speak, so Lucy asks for me.

“The police, they came here looking for you, Jenny. Ruth is trying to stop them, but they have a warrant. It won’t be long until they come upstairs. She sent me here to tell you, you have to run. They will come here.” She shudders.

We're all turning our heads in synchronization toward the open door when we hear multiple masculine voices coming from the staircase. Lucy immediately jumps forward and closes the door, locking it with a key.

“That will hold them off, but you have to run, Jenny. You’re a minor and the police will release you straight to your father’s hands.”

I look frantically around the stalls and bathroom sinks. “What?! Where do you want me to go? Do you have a fucking Chamber of Secrets tucked somewhere in here or something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Lucy hisses and moves from the door to the window and opens it to look down. “You’ll have to jump.”

“We’re on the second floor, I’ll break my fucking legs!” I clip back, but then hear the voices getting closer, and I know my time is running out.

“There’s a dumpster right by the wall, try to land in it,” Lucy whispers urgently and gives me a quick hug.

“W-what about my things? I only h-have my phone with me,” I stutter as the door knob starts to jiggle and Amelia lets out a scared whimper, moving away from the door.

“Call your guy! He’s with the law, I’m sure he’ll be right on his way,” Lucy tries to reassure me in a calm voice, but by the look on her face, I can see that she’s truly freaked out by the whole situation.

We all jump up when there is a loud knock on the door. “Police! Open up!”

“Shit,” I mutter and glance at Amelia who looks like she’s about to pass out and then nod to Lucy one last time before lifting myself over the window seal.

I look down and gulp loudly before moving a little to the right, so I have a better chance of landing in the trash two levels down. I say a fast prayer in my mind and then jump.

Whoever came up with the idea of fleeing heroes in movies falling softly on bags of trash and then getting up and running as if nothing ever happened, has probably never experienced anything like it. Because this shit fucking hurts. I groan in pain and curse under my nose as I try to get up. My body barely had a chance to heal this last week, and now the whole process has to start again.

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