“A devil’s angel, maybe.” Gabriel smirked. He snapped his fingers at me. “Alright, now you.” He pointed to the chair.
I tiptoed over to the chair, perching carefully. I was worried he would give me a horrible haircut. He’d only done boys’ hair before, right? Would mine be cut short? Or would I end up looking like Luke with his longish blond hair hanging around his shoulders?
Silas backed off, sitting on the ground cross-legged, putting his hands behind him to lean back. It comforted me that he was there and might run interference in case Gabriel tried to buzz my hair short. I smiled pleasantly at Silas and he beamed.
Gabriel put aside the clippers on top of his blue duffle bag and out of the way of Max sniffing around our legs. Gabriel put the scissors in his back pocket. He took my towel from my shoulders and readjusted it to cover my body and started combing out my hair. He smoothed out the strands, feeling them between his fingers. “Feels better,” he said. “Don’t use the stuff you were using at home, okay? Wait for me to bring you a new batch.”
Silas started making faces at me. My shoulders shook as I giggled.
“Stop it,” Gabriel commanded. “You make her giggle when I’m cutting her hair, I’m likely to fuck up.”
“Don’t fuck up her hair,” Silas said.
Gabriel stepped in front of me and blocked my view of Silas. Gabriel angled his head down to me. “You’re too short,” he said. He swept a finger across my cheek as he combed the hair close to my face. “I should take you home with me.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Kota’s voice floated out to us from beyond where I could see without turning my head. Max greeted him with a yip, leaping to meet him.
“I need her higher,” Gabriel said. “It won’t look right if I try to do it like this.”
“Stand up for a second, Sang,” Kota said, his footsteps moving closer.
I stood up, holding the towel in place around my shoulders. Kota was wearing Levi jeans and a hunter green polo. His brown hair was smoothed back, still slightly damp. His eyes swept over me, a smile catching on his lips. He nudged his glasses up by the bridge and sat on the chair and putting his knees together.
He patted at his lap. “Come sit here,” he commanded.
“I can’t move around you,” Gabriel said.
“She can sit facing me and then sit facing away as you need,” he said. “Unless you want to wait.”
Gabriel grumbled, shifting on his feet as if considering the options. “Fine.”
Kota planted his hands on my hips and I sat on his knees, facing Kota first. I sat closer to the edge of his knees so Gabriel didn’t have to lean around Kota’s legs. My palms met with Kota’s chest to steady myself. My face felt hot. It was an awkward predicament. It was different from sitting in their laps in any other direction, because from anywhere else I could look at other things. Now it felt like I was forced to look at Kota. His eyes were always so questioning, so invasive me. Not for the first time, I felt he could see every little secret buried inside me.
Gabriel combed the back of my head and started snipping the scissors. Comb, snip. Comb, snip.
“Is he making spikes in my hair?” I asked Kota.
Kota laughed, his friendly voice echoing in the garage. His palms fell on my thighs just above my knees to rest. “Did you want spikes?”
“No spikes,” Silas said.
“I’m not doing spikes,” Gabriel mumbled. “Not today at least.”
“I didn’t know you cut girls’ hair,” Silas said.
Gabriel shuffled around to the side. Comb, snip. “Sang’s my first.”
My eyes widened at Kota. “Really?”
Kota grinned. “He’s kidding.”
“Like hell I am,” Gabriel said. “What, you think I’ve got dummy girls in my closet at home to practice on?”
“What about all those girls you woo or break hearts of or what not?” I said, recalling his poem and his singing and all the times he talked about things he knew about girls.
“Mergh,” Gabriel said. “Shut up or I’ll leave you with half a haircut.”
I rolled my eyes, but pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to bug him anymore. We’d been picking on him a lot that morning and he still looked like he was about to fall over from exhaustion.
Gabriel was measuring out my hair just off my shoulder when the side door opened. Erica stepped out, wearing shorts now, and a faded brown t-shirt. She padded out into the garage. The air electrified around me. Silas half coughed. Kota stiffened in the chair at this. Gabriel combed my hair more than he snipped. Silent warning system?
Victor followed behind her, wearing designer jeans, and a short sleeve button up white shirt. Victor’s eyes fell on us. His eyes blazed at me in a way that was confusing. I wanted to tilt my head at him to ask silently what he was thinking but I forced my head to keep still, worried Gabriel might mess up. Victor roughed fingers through his wavy hair and rubbed at the back of his head.
Erica’s eyes fell curiously on me in Kota’s lap. “How’s it going?”
Kota didn’t flinch, didn’t move his hands from my knees. “So far, so good,” he said.
“She’s still too short,” Gabriel complained.
“I know you can do it,” Kota said. “You can’t stop now.”
Erica moved to her car at the other side of the garage, leaning against it and folding her arms over her chest to watch. “Do we need a stool?”
“No,” Silas and Gabriel said at the same time. Victor remained quiet but his eyes ignited and flared.
Erica’s head tilted, confusion slipping into her eyes. I knew why the boys refused a stool, but now I knew Erica most likely didn’t know anything about what was happening with me. They didn’t tell her.
“Or pillows for her to sit on?” she asked. “Phone books?”
“She’ll be fine,” Kota said. His legs raised up and dropped out from under me, causing me to bounce.
I gasped, gripping at his legs, half grinning and mouthing a small ouch.
“Hey, hey,” Gabriel said. “I’m gonna cut her ear if you do that.”
Erica’s eyes flickered back and forth between my face and her son’s. Gabriel continued to measure and cut but she didn’t seem as interested in this. I watched her from behind locks of hair in my face. Her lips twitched. She was eager to ask something or say something but I thought maybe she wasn’t sure how to start. No one else was talking, either. Kota was intently watching Gabriel work. I stiffened, feeling the weight of something floating in the air, left unspoken. I wasn’t sure how to move or behave.
“Alright,” Gabriel said. He nudged my arm. “Turn around so I can do the front.”
I slipped back off of Kota’s knees, turning around. Again I was facing Silas. Erica was out of view now. Kota’s hands felt for my hips again and he pulled me back until I was perched on his knees. In an effort to keep myself stable, I put my hands behind myself on his legs. Kota kept his hands at my waist to steady me.
Gabriel started combing hair in front of my face, closing off view of nearly everything.
“What are you all going to do today?” Erica asked, finally breaking the lull.
“North and I are going to do some work at the diner,” Silas said.
“Oh,” Erica’s tone lifted, but it lingered in a peculiar way. This wasn’t who she was hoping would answer. “Is it almost done?”
“A couple more weeks,” Silas said, seeming oblivious to the inflection from Erica. “We’re trying to finish it before football games start.”
“That’ll keep you busy,” Erica said. “But football sounds fun.” Pause. Kota’s fingers tensed against my hips, gripping more than just holding me. “Are you going to take Sang to the football games, Dakota? It’d make a nice date.”
There it was. It was what Erica was waiting to hint at the entire time. I couldn’t see her face, but her voice tipped higher at the end of her last sentence. Expectation.
Kota’s leg shifted underneath me. “I didn’t know she liked football.”
What did that mean? He would have asked me if he thought I liked it? Did he want to? My mind blazed through a thousand different possibilities. Dating? I’m just trying to get through my sophomore year with my new strange group of friends and a mother insistent on punishments they told me weren’t normal. When in the world did I have time to even date anyone? When did they? Jessica had been right, we were always busy.
“You didn’t ask her. Sang, do you want Kota to take you to the football games?”
More inflection. I felt a pressure from everyone in the room. What was I supposed to say? If I said no, did it mean I didn’t like Kota? If I said yes, did it mean we’d be going on a date? What did that mean to everyone else? I couldn’t see anyone to try to confirm how I was supposed to answer.
Gabriel swiped at my hair with his comb, removing a lock from my eyes. His crystal blue eyes stared down at me and he inclined his head a little.
“Yes,” I said quickly to recover for the moment I had paused. If Gabriel was telling me to answer positively, I would. “I’d like to.” It wasn’t a dishonest answer. I’d never been to a football game. It was Kota’s hesitation and unease behind me that had me stumped.
“There,” Erica said. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? You should ask girls about date ideas before you assume.”