Morning came far too soon. Jon had hoped that rest would bring invigoration. She hoped that tears would be dried, her resolve would be summoned, and her life would be changed. Instead, the sun burned into her tired eyes. Her limbs felt stiff and heavy. Even just breathing was a burden. She groaned and peered past the pillows to see her alarm clock. She had a merciful half hour before she had to start getting ready, and so turned to bury her face back in her pillow. Unfortunately, her body had a different idea.
It started as a general sense of unease caused be a tension deep in her belly. She groaned into her pillow, and tried to take a few deep breaths to unwind that knot in her gut. "Just relax" she told herself. "It'll go away." She sighed and tried to surrender to that heavy blanket of fatigue that lay on top of her. Instead, that tightness became a churning, her mouth began to salivate. She groaned into her pillow as she tasted a hint of her putrid sickness at the back of her throat. A moment later she stumbled from her bed, and staggered bleary eyed out of her bedroom. She practically fell into the bathroom as she threw open the door, and a heartbeat later she plunged her head over the toilet bowl. Her hair hung in her face and she gagged. Fortunately nothing came up so she let her cheek rest against the cool ceramic of the toilet seat. She didn't care that it was gross, all that mattered was that the cool hard surface felt good amidst her swimming head, and churning guts. For a moment, she began to feel better, so she drew herself up, and brushed her hair out of her face. Unfortunately that moment passed, and she heaved suddenly and violently into the toilet. Her eyes closed tight as she heaved once, twice... And then... she came to rest. Her body finally offered her reprieve and her stomach settled.
She rested there, catching her breath by leaning against the toilet bowl. Part of her wanted to be exasperated, or indignant, or to get mad, but frankly, she was too tired for that stuff. When she finally rose to her feet, the first thing she noticed was that her hair now dripped with something wet, slimy, and smelly...
"No!" Jon stammered to herself. "Gross, gross, gross, nononono." The words flowed senselessly from her lips as she felt that wet mess slapping against her cheek and neck. Cringing, she peeled her now damp shirt off her body, and jumped in the shower. She turned the shower on, yelped at the shock of cold water that flowed from the faucet, and danced back out of the shower as quickly as she'd jumped in. She stood there, cold, wet, and with the taste and smell of her vomit still fresh in her mouth. Her hair sat cold, and disgusting against her flesh. And the shower just seemed to take extra long to heat up. As steam began to rise, she soaked in the hot water, letting the patter of droplets lull her to a state of comfort. As she stood there, her thoughts began to drift...
God she wanted that hair gone so badly... More than anything... With a vague since of gratitude, she considered that she could control her hair, even if she couldn't control other parts of her body...
The thought lingered in her mind. Come to think of it, she COULD control her hair. She wasn't stuck with that part of her botched wish, she could fix it! Her eyes fell to a pair of scissors on the bathroom counter. In fact, she could fix it this morning, before school! She swiftly finished her shower, and wrapped a towel around her waste, then after an exasperated moment, rewrapped it around her torso over her chest. Her heart beat heavily in her chest as she took up the sheers. A smile slowly began to grow on her face as she suddenly recalled her dream from the previous night, and she imagined those small cosmetic sheers to be comically sized.
"How hard can it be?" She asked whimsically. With some small degree of optimism returning to her mind, she pushed through the slump, took a long finger full of hair, and cut.
shhhhk!
The sheers sounded out in the bathroom, and Jon tossed the first tuft of hair into the bin by the toilet.
Shhhk! Shhhhk!
She took another handful, and cut another long strand. She laughed, as a gentle catharsis washed over her mind. She may have lost control over a lot of things, but she still had this! This was the first step towards taking her life back, and living it her way!
