Scene 3

Standing outside the address Tabitha gave him, Jackson swayed slightly with a small smile on his face as a light cool breeze went by. Cool weather wasn’t something that stayed around too long in Florida and this week they were expecting a cold front or so he had heard on the radio when the uber driver was taking him to the salon. The cool air flowing across and up his nylon covered legs and inside his skirt was a not so unpleasant feeling. No spike of adrenaline or embarrassment came to him as mother nature reminded him of how he was dressed, the double dose of xanax he took when he was out with Tabitha early that day was still doing its job hours later.

Jackson needed the pills to take the edge off, when he realized he couldn’t put off telling the pretty blonde about what happened and fabricate a story about something that didn’t, because she just wouldn’t accept nothing happened as an answer. Luckily he was able to skimp on the details of his sexual encounter with Abe, getting away with saying all it was, was a blow job. Telling her that she got enough details about her and Lincoln, how big was he, how did he taste, did you like it more when he face fucked her, or more when she was in control… he had no idea girls even talked about things like this. He still really didn’t know really, it wasn’t sure if it was just her or if it was normal. Jackson hated the idea he had blown Linc and swallowed his cum, making up a story that he had done it to another man felt somehow worse. Like he was bragging about doing something that he didn’t even want to do, and that he didn’t do. “Do, do.” Jackson laughed lightly to himself reflecting on what happened over lunch.

His eyes glanced over the brick building, painted over with some dark paint, the overhand was a white plastic that looked to be kept clean, not something always easy to do with some of the recent rains. The sign read Educe Salon, the sign next to the door had been more artistic. A white box, with black border and two black capital Es, one turned to face the other and a yellow pair of downward pointing scissors between them. Jackson stood there enjoying the cooler weather just looking at the sign for a minute, his eyes blinking slowly, hardly a care in the world now, a big difference compared to how he felt when Tabitha first talked about him going to get a haircut at her salon, a woman's haircut wasn’t exactly something he wanted to go and get done, yet here he was. Stepping inside he looked around the interior, the check in station was a standing desk with shelves of productions all around it and off to the side instead of a row of plastic chairs like he was used to seeing when he went to normally cut his hair he saw a cozy area with two love seats, throw pillows, a shiplap decoration on the walls. It looked more like a living room, minus a tv than a waiting room.

“Good evening miss, how can I help you tonight?” Turning his head, Jackson pushed a few stray hairs behind his ear as he looked at the receptionist. She was a blonde woman, her hair coming down to her shoulders, curling in at the ends and looked to be in her late forties. She wore a white top that just showed off a hint of her cleavage with a bright red button up shirt, left open over it that had three quarter sleeves, with a pair of tight dark blue jeans that stopped just above her ankles and a pair of black rounded toe pumps, that Jackson would guess were around three inches. He smiled back at her, her words were spoken in a bubbly tone that just made her seem welcoming and friendly. He read her name tag, he had always been big on using people's names. It was always easier to convince someone of something, or to buy something if you did that or so he had been told and read in books about being a good salesman.

“Hi Jill! I’m here for an appointment, my friend set it up for me.” When he said the word friend it struck him as odd, he wasn’t really friends with her, really he wanted to sleep with her, but when they separated to get back to work she had hugged him saying how great it was to have a bestie at the office. Bestie, he had somehow in the course of a week, had it even been a week? Become a girl's bestie… did that mean best friend or just a term for girlfriend? He wasn’t sure, but he did know it was emasculating.

Jackson blinked a few times, looking at the woman in front of him, realizing she had asked him a question while he was thinking about being friends with the petite little tight package that was Tabitha. “I’m sorry, I just zoned out a little. One of those days, ya know?”

“I really do get it, been there. I hope you have a fabulous time with us though! I was just asking your name.” Jackson took note that Jill was one of those girls that talked just as much with her hands and body language.

“Jackson.” He said without really considering the answer he gave.

“Mmmm, I have you right here, it does look like they had a mix up and were canceling your appointment. Did you call to cancel by chance?” Jackson pressed his pouty lips together, pushing his jaw off to the side as he shook his head.

“No, but I considered not showing up… honestly I was nervous about coming, but I have definitely thought about chopping my hair off.”

Jill changed the appointment, hoping the Jacqueline who filled the appointment slot didn’t show up, or showed up late enough that the appointment would have been canceled anyhow. “Must just have been a mistake then. You nothing to worry about. Tonight you will be working with Emmy and Chelsea they will have you looking like a million when they are done. Big changes can always be… a lot, but let me get you a glass of wine, while you wait. Is Riesling okay?” Jackson’s eyebrows went up, never hearing about getting wine when someone went to get a haircut, but this place definitely was fancier than anywhere he had been before.

“Yeah, Riesling, that sounds great!”

Sitting down on one of the couches, Jackson smoothed the black pencil skirt out as he sat, crossing his legs. He was taking a closer look at the decor before opening his purse to take out his phone, wanting to ask Maddy why she never told him that he could get booze while he waited for a haircut. Not feeling the phone he pulled the purse to his lap, looking in hoping to see a phone that he hadn't felt, but it was nowhere to be seen. Meaning it was probably sitting on top of his desk where he had last used it when he sent a text off to his sister to let her know he would be home late. Scoffing at himself, he pushed the purse to his side, chalking this up to the downside of taking pills that affect his mood. The sour expression on his face changed quickly seeing Jill, his savor bring him the glass of white wine.

“Thank you so much, you have no idea how much I need this right now.” Jackson said, downing half the glass in one gulp.

“You did say you were having one of those days, let me get you another. Be back in a jiffy!”

It wasn’t long after he drank down the second glass when a dark haired woman that looked to be maybe thirty came over to retrieve him. Her clothing was simply, something closer to black medical scrubs, the tattoo sleeve on her arm on the other hand was anything but simple. “Miss Jackson, come with me if you could. I am Chelsea Rosado and will be helping you tonight, I know you were also supposed to be with Emmy tonight, but it will just be you and me. I promise you are in good hands.”

“Okay.” Jackson said not feeling an ounce of worry between the medication running through his system and the light buzz he had from the wine.

He knew Tabitha had told them what needed to be done and he didn’t know a thing about women's hair styles so he just nodded along with whatever was said to him. It was a little worrying when she said something about stripping his hair, but he did know it felt great when she was rubbing whatever chemicals or shampoo into it. At some point he completely zoned out. Easily enough to do with the earbuds that had given him, playing light relaxing music. The girl started talking about something called kerastase, how it helped with damaged hair. Something about nutrients, oils… nourishing and hydrating, but how that would wait till she was done with his color. He normally just used the blue bottle of axe when he washed his hair, and didn’t really know how the color of his brunette hair really mattered.

“You are going to love this kerastase Fusio-Dose conditioning treatment, it is so good that your hair might just speak up on its own to thank me. What do you use now?” Chelsea asked prepping the bottles. The hair needed something to come alive, but it had to wait till she was done with the all over color.

“Ahh the blue axe bottle, but recently I think I’m umm using my sister's herbal essence.”

“Okay, that will have to be fixed. No more using your boyfriend’s shampoo and we can do a lot better than herbal essence. I will send something home with you tonight and when I’m done for maintenance you will just have to wash it twice a week with your thick hair.” She paused for a second touching some of the split ends on the long hair. “With your new hairstyle you will just have to blow it out, and come back here for touch ups of course.”

“Of course.” She is pretty good at sales, though I am a captive audience he supposed. “What do you mean blow it out? Like with a hairdryer? I don’t have one of those.”

“Don’t worry honey, I will set you up with everything you need.” Chelsea could practically see the dollar signs with everything that was going to be run up. She started the pre shampoo stage, explaining everything as she went along, but it was clear to her the girl in her chair wasn’t paying a bit of attention to her or what she was saying. It was fine by her, small talk was part of the job, but all through the dying process she hadn’t said more than three words.

Jackson closed his eyes when she started to gently massage his scalp with whatever this new thing was. All he wanted was a haircut, but it was taking forever, but he didn’t mind so much when she started to rub her fingers over his head. She said something about nourishing cleanse a hair mask or something. He wasn’t sure what the stylist was talking about, other than her using different bottles of things on his hair and all of that was before she ever used her scissors at all. By the time she declared him done he wasn’t sure how anyone could stand being stuck in a chair. He had come in at just after five and it felt like it was nine at night already, it couldn’t have been that late, but it felt like it.

“Let me introduce you to the new you!”

Jackson opened and closed his mouth a few times, reminiscent of a fish as he looked at himself in the mirror, dumbstruck at what he was seeing. His long brown hair was now shoulder length, had a slight wave kind of thing going on and most importantly, he was now blonde! He slowly moved both of his hands up to his head, his fingers just hovering over his hair, almost afraid to touch it and confirm it was real. No spike of dread or anxiety came, he felt like he should care much more than he did, but mostly he was just processing the change. “You… ahh, I’m blonde!”

“A striking blonde I would say. I for one think you look amazing with the choppy lob, the shoulder length cut with jagged textures looks great on you. Very bold, I hope it is everything you were expecting when you wrote down what you wanted done tonight.” Chelsea felt more bold when she first showed her customer the look, but she was starting to get a sense this isn’t what she wanted. As the seconds ticked by without her answering or saying anything she started to feel a little annoyed. If it wasn’t what she wanted, she could have stopped her at any time, it wasn’t like she wasn’t included in the process and she was just doing her best to follow what she had asked for in her appointment profile.

Feeling like something was caught in his throat, Jackson swallowed. There wasn’t much he could do about… about what just happened. He wanted to freak out, but the **** emotion just felt off, felt far away like it wasn’t something that belonged to him to use. “I’m blonde… I hope it is more fun.” He joked at his own expense trying to make light of what he was seeing.

“I can guarantee it! Oh, I was worried you didn’t like it when you didn’t say anything.” Chelsea put her hand to her chest, letting out a sigh.

“Just, umm speechless.” The hairstyle wasn’t far off from what his sister had, but of course she had her natural hair color, while he by all accounts was a busty blonde secretary with inflated lips and with the corset he was the perfect looking office bimbo.

“Perfect! You head up to the counter, Jill will have everything you need ready for you. You have an amazing night Miss Jackson.”

It was at that second that things clicked in Jackson’s mind. He had said his real name, not Jacqueline, they thought Jackson was his last name. Jackson was sitting in a salon chair that was meant for someone else, getting their haircut and it was all his fault. Numbly he got up from the chair, smiling on reflex back to Jill when she smiled brightly to him.

“Wow, just wow you look fab! Now I have everything here for you. We have three of our kerastase bottles for you to take home. This one here is forty two.” She said holding up a purple and pink bottle, before putting it into a bag and grabbing a purple jar. “This one is fifty and the last one is fifty three. We have two brushes, one boar bristle paddle brush, one aluminum round brush, each fifteen and the Harry Josh Pro hair dryer for two fifty. Add that to your total here, thirty five for the kerastase Fusio-Dose conditioning treatment, sixty three for the cut and blow dry and lastly one oh three for the coloring. So today’s total comes to six twenty six, before tip.”

“Six hundred dollars?”

“Little over.” Jill leaned forward on the counter, she felt a little bad. This woman had said she had a terrible day and it looked like she didn’t even have proper brushes at home. That, and there were little signs that Miss Jackson was born male, just like her and she was going to help a sister out. “I tell you what, if you will let me schedule you for another appointment in say…” She leaned away from the counter, tapping something on her screen to pull up future appointments. “In three weeks, I could let you use my employee discount. Thirty percent off.”

“Thirty percent!? That would be like a hundred dollars cheaper, that would be amazing!” He hadn’t bothered doing the math on that discount, he still had money from the little windfall and what was left of his last paycheck to cover this, but he had no idea girls ever spent this kind of money on hair.

“Close, it would be…” Jill typed her employee ID into the system to add her discount. “One hundred eighty seven dollars and eighty cents off. Bringing your total today to four hundred, thirty eight dollars and twenty cents. Do you want to do ten, fifteen or twenty percent for tip? Just on the hair services of course, that totally on its own was two oh one before the discount and one forty and seventy cents after.”

“Yeah, yeah” Jackson nodded enthusiastically. “Totally sign me up for another appointment!” If he had to give Jill some of his blood to get that bill down he would have, but just signing up for another appointment that he could just cancel. That was a great deal. Still he was leaving this place on the wrong side of five hundred dollars poorer, paying for something he didn’t want.

Jackson stayed in the front of the salon, the last customer there for the night, chatting about little things with JIll, happy she was nice enough to give him a discount as he mentally groaned at how expensive being a girl was, all while waiting for an uber to come pick him up so he could go back to the office to get his phone. All he wanted to do now is go home, drink and drink heavily even though he was a lightweight so he could stay in a drunken haze for the weekend to pretend this wasn’t his current life. Well that and make Linc buy him dinner again, he was the boyfriend after all and he was so close to being completely broke and he still had another week before his next payday. It had to wait though, his phone was back at the office and he would need to pick it up. On the bright side it was just about eight thirty at night, so he wouldn’t be running into anyone other than security.