The Hairdresser Diaries (17 page)

“Huh?”

“Earth to Tatum?”

“Sorry, What?”

Kelly just laughed at me and said, “Never mind.”

I stuck my toe in to test the water. It was pretty cold. I thought I would work my way in slow, warm up to it.

I saw some of the girls in the water staring behind me. Half of them looked like they were going to faint and the rest were fanning themselves. I turned to see what they were getting all excited about.

Oh. My. God.

Tommy, shirtless, and walking towards the water. He was like the perfect male form, like he was molded to perfection. Tommy was just too sexy for words. I wanted to run up and just rub my face on his abs. Doesn’t matter how vivid your imagination is, sometimes there’s nothing better than the real thing and Tommy was the real thing.

Tommy and Cole had reached the spot where I was standing and they stood on either side of me. Tommy put his arm around my shoulder and I could feel myself start to sweat.

“How’s the water?” Tommy asked.

“G-good,” I stuttered.

“Are you alright? You’re sweating pretty badly and your face is getting red.”

“I’m just…really hot,” I said fanning myself. “I’m …gonna go… in the water and cool off.”

I stepped out of Tommy’s arm and dove into the water. I didn’t care how cold it was. I needed that shock to cool myself off.

Tommy got in and went straight over to Jessie. Cole stood by the edge. I waved for him to come in, but he shrugged it off. I got out to see if he was okay.

“You don’t want to come in?”

“Not yet. I told Landon I’d help him with the food.” I just nodded and went back into the water.

I thought I should try to make nice with these girls the boys brought. Well pretend to at least.

Kelly and Alex were already talking to them. Peyton, like me, had her defenses up. She was just watching and listening. Jessie’s attention was on Tommy and vice versa.

“Wow! You’ve got a lot of tattoos,” said the one girl. I think her name was Juju? Or something like that.

“Uh yeah,” was my response.

I got that reaction a lot from stupid people. I really wanted to say, “Wow, you’re observant.” But I thought I’d keep my snide, sarcastic comments to myself—for now at least.

“I always wanted to get a tattoo, but like, I’m afraid of how much it would hurt. I’m not good with pain. I’m very sensitive,” said J.J.? Jackie? Crap, what was this girl’s name? Who cares, I’d probably never see her again.

These boys didn’t keep the same girls around long. I couldn’t even understand what interest they had in this one. After five minutes I had enough. Maybe she was just a tag-a-long.

The girl barely looked legal. She had medium length hair that was bleached so much it looked like hay. And probably felt like it too. Her eyes were brown and big and practically bugging out of her head. She was about medium height—shorter than me—and had the body of a twelve year old girl. The other two girls weren’t much different aside from their hair.

The one had a shaggy, short haircut, light-brown with very brassy highlights. The other had a cute bob, dark-brown, with some red highlights. She was the only one of the three who had decent hair, who didn’t look like she let one of the other ones practice on her. She was the tallest out of the three and looked the oldest and was quiet too. Still, I wouldn’t put any of them older than twenty-one. God, where did they find these girls? At the mall?

“How bad did they hurt? I bet they hurt a lot. Did you cry?” asked the annoying blond girl again referring to my tatoos.

Before I could answer, the girl with the good hair responded. “JoJo, stop asking such stupid questions.”

JoJo, that was her name.

“I was just curious Krystal,” she whined like a twelve year old. “Come on Kallie, let’s go lie in the sun.”

She grabbed the other girl and they walked out of the water and over to some towels that were laid out on the grass.

“Sorry about that. She can be really annoying,” Krystal said.

“No biggie, I’m used to it,” I told her.

“Krystal right?” Peyton asked.

“You can call me Krys,” she said.

“How did you meet the guys?”

“I work with Jaxson. He invited me to come along today and told me to bring some friends. Instead I was forced to bring my sister and her friend JoJo.”

“Kallie’s your sister?” I said, basically restating what she already said.

“Older sister,” she corrected.

Huh, I would have guessed she was the younger.

“They’re both morons.”

I think I might like this girl.

A breeze picked up and I started to get cold in the water. I headed over to the grass to lay out in the sun for a bit and dry off before the food was done. Everyone else followed and did the same. I pulled the towels from my bag that I brought for Peyton and me and spread them on the ground.

“You want something to drink?” Peyton asked.

“Yeah, grab me a soda.”

Cole came over and sat next to me in the grass.

“Hey.”

“Food should be done soon,” he said.

“Having fun?” I asked.

“I like your friends, they’re very welcoming.” He was sitting Indian style with his hands in his lap. “What about you, make any new friends?” he asked gesturing toward JoJo and Kallie who were sitting about ten feet away.

“Who, tweedle dee and tweedle dumb?” I said.

“Be nice.”

“That was nice,” I said with a playful grin.

Cole just laughed.

In the little time we knew each other, he knew enough to know I was being nice.

“Hey Cole, can you grab the rolls from the cooler next to you?” Landon shouted.

Cole got up, took the rolls out of the cooler, and walked them over to Landon.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I rested my head on my knees. That’s when I saw JoJo eyeing Cole up and down, whispering and giggling to Kallie like little school girls.

I lifted my head when Peyton sat down next to me and handed me a soda.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“I don’t like those two,” I said looking back at Kallie and JoJo.

“Don’t let them bother you. You know they won’t last long.”

“I know,” I sighed. “That Krystal girl seems pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I like her,” Peyton agreed.

I peeled my attention away from the girls and yelled to Landon, “Landon, I’m starving, is the food done yet?”

“Yes, come and get it.”

Peyton and I stood up. I picked up my towel, and wrapped it around my waist. When I looked up, JoJo and Kallie were standing in front of us.

“So, are you and that Cole guy, like together?” JoJo asked.

“No.”

“So, he’s like single?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Good, cause like oh my god, he is like so hot!”

“Totally,” Kallie said.

Apparently JoJo was the ring leader in this duo and Kallie was her drone.

“Come on Kallie, let’s go talk to him,” JoJo said as they made their way over to Cole.

“Why didn’t you tell them you guys were together?” Peyton asked.

“Cause we’re not. Cole can do whatever he wants.” Peyton just rolled her eyes at me and shook her head. “What?”

“You will never learn.”

We walked over to the picnic table and sat down. Peyton sat on the end and I sat next to her. Everyone else slowly filled up the open spaces. Tommy sat next to me on my right and Jessie next to him. Alex, Kelly, and Nate sat across from us. We quickly realized there wasn’t going to be enough room, so some of the guys pulled another picnic table over and pushed the two together.

“Hey Cole, I saved you a seat next to me,” JoJo said smiling.

Everyone at my table looked at me.

“What?” I exclaimed.

No one said anything. They just looked down or looked away.

Cole sat down next to JoJo, smiled sweetly, and told her thank you. Once everyone was seated, we dug in, and ate. We passed plates of food up and down the tables. I watched as JoJo passed up every plate that went by her and she gave Kallie a dirty look for taking a burger.

“You’re not hungry?” Cole asked her.

“I don’t eat meat,” she said.

“Well, maybe there’s some fruit.” Cole looked around. “Landon, is there anything else, like fruit?”

“Uh, there are tomatoes,” Landon replied

“Tomatoes are a vegetable,” JoJo said. She would know, takes one to know one.

“I’m sure we can find something for you,” Cole told her. She touched his arm playfully and gave him a flirty smile.

Krystal apparently missed the conversation and asked JoJo, “Why aren’t you eating?”

“I’m a vegetarian,” JoJo said with a slight glare towards Krystal.

“Ha, since when?” Krystal laughed.

“Since forever.” You could see it in her face she was getting annoyed at being challenged.

“Uh, I’ve seen you eat meat,” Krystal said not letting up.

“That was tofu,” JoJo replied with an air of distaste, hoping to get Krystal to shut up. Krystal stared at JoJo for a moment, but let it go.

“Well you could walk over to the woods over there and look for some nuts and berries,” I said with a smirk. Peyton tried to cough to hide her laugh. Cole gave me a displeased look, saying he wasn’t happy with my comment thinking it was rude.

“Here, why don’t you take some of the lettuce and tomatoes and make a mini salad. You can even eat a plain roll,” Cole said to JoJo.

“Oh, it’s okay, I don’t want to be any trouble,” JoJo said all sweetly. Kallie almost choked on her food and JoJo shot her a look like she had daggers coming out of her eyes.

“You need to eat and it’s no trouble,” Cole said.

“Well if it makes you feel better I will.”

Is he seriously falling for this crap? I couldn’t watch anymore. I sat silently and ate my food, while everyone conversed back and forth.

Every once and a while I’d look over at JoJo flirting shamelessly with Cole and picking at her food like she was a bird, but then I’d get nauseous and look away.

Tommy leaned down and whispered to me, “Don’t worry about her Tatum, Cole’s crazy about you. He’s just being polite.”

Tommy may have been right, but Cole looked like he was being a little too friendly for just being polite.

When we were finished eating, we covered up the leftovers and put some stuff away. We spread out on the grass to relax and digest some before we went out on the boat. Well the girls did, the boys jumped in the water and tried to show each other up with stupid flips and stunts.

I sat in the shade with Peyton and Jessie. Kelly and Alex weren’t far off with Krystal, and the bobbsey twins were in the bathroom making sure their pounds of makeup didn’t melt off.

“How’d the second date go?” Jessie asked.

“Good.”

“Just good?”

“Yep.”

“Not gonna tell us anything?”

“Nope.”

“And it doesn’t bother you that that girl is all over him?”

“Nope.”

“You’re such a liar.”

“Whatever, I don’t care.”

“Please, you can’t bullshit us,” Peyton said.

“Just drop it.”

“Ooh, she’s getting defensive. We struck a nerve,” Jessie teased.

I looked at them and couldn’t help but laugh. “Shut up.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Kelly asked as her, Alex, and Krystal joined us.

“Tatum’s in denial,” Peyton said.

I rolled my eyes. Apparently they weren’t going to let this go.

“About what?” Alex asked.

“How she’s in love with Cole and jealous that JoJo is all over him.”

“Oh my god you guys. I’m not in love with him and I am not jealous.” Please, no way was I jealous of that little twerp, annoyed, but definitely not jealous. Sensing my not wanting to continue with this conversation, the girls moved on to another topic.

The guys started to get out of the water. Nate, Billy, and Cole, lay out in the grass, while Landon, Jaxson, and Tommy got things set up on the boat. Just as they were finishing up the girls came out of the bathroom and one by one we got on the boat.

The boat was pretty big, but it was still a tight fit. There was a single seat next to the drivers, an area in the front of the boat where people could sit, and some bench seats on the side and back of the boat. Alex sat next to Landon who was driving. Kelly and Nate sat in the front with Tommy and Jessie. Billy, Krystal, and Kallie sat on one side, while Peyton, JoJo, and I sat on the other and Cole and Jaxson sat in the back. Peyton made sure I was the one to sit closest to Cole. She practically threw me in his lap.Luckily I caught my balance in time and managed not to fall on top of him.

I gave her a look and she just acted like it was an accident.

Once we were all situated, Landon took off. He drove around to find a good spot where we could all swim. When the boat slowed down enough, I stood up, only to fall back down again when the boat jerked. Instead of falling back in my seat, I fell right into Cole’s lap.

“You know, if you wanted to sit on my lap, all you had to do was ask.” Cole said trying not smile.

“Shut up,” I said as I tried to push myself off of him, but had no such luck. Landon started moving the boat again and I fell back into Cole’s lap and let out a yelp.

Landon looked back over his shoulder and said, “Sorry Tay, just relax a sec.”

I didn’t have to see his face to know he was smiling and did it on purpose. Seeing as I had no choice, I sat back and relaxed in Cole’s lap. And no I wasn’t complaining. JoJo gave me a dirty look and I just smiled.

When Landon finally stopped the boat I asked if it was safe to get up.

“What’s the rush?” Cole said squeezing me a little tighter. I just leaned back into him.

All of a sudden JoJo started coughing. I could tell it was a fake cough, just to draw attention to her.

Peyton smacked her on the back a couple of times—hard—and said, “It’s okay girl, I gotcha.” I had to try hard not to laugh. She almost knocked her over.

JoJo suddenly stopped coughing, gave Peyton a sarcastic thanks, and told her she was fine now.

Once the little charade was over, everyone started to get up. Cole being Cole asked JoJo if she was okay.