Briden House

[Aiden Munslow]

“I don’t think I would trust me to teach kids a lesson, because by the time I got done with it, that kid would probably be a prostitute, or a druggie, or both,” he was pretty sure that if he had to teach a kid then that kid would fail at life just like him, but he didn’t feel the need to say that because he was sure he had already explained himself enough at that point. “Hey I could tell them that too, I didn’t know that people loved my hair in the first place, but I mean if you want me to say that then I will, but only because I like you,” he hadn’t meant it in a romantic way, but now thought about it, it seemed like it might have come out that way. He didn’t want to clarify though, because that wouldn’t help him so he continued talking like he hadn’t meant anything by that comment.

“If you want me to,” he chuckled. “I’ll probably make a huge mess though, I’m warning you now.” Aiden knew he was not really good at not making a mess and this was probably not going to turn out to be a good idea if she really wanted this to look decent, and not have blue hair dye all over her kitchen, he was pretty sure that she wouldn’t appreciate having to clean up that mess later. “Tell me what to do,” he said. Maybe she had decided against letting him do it, because he wanted to it. “Cause I have no idea how to dye hair.”

[Hannah Briden]

"Remind me not to let you around kids, like, ever." She teased, rolling her eyes. His 'I like you comment' was rather offhand, and the way he continued made her feel like he didn't mean anything by it... So she didn't think much on it. It would be awesome if she had someone interested in her, for once, but she didn't know if she and Aiden would be like that. He seemed to just be very friendly, not so much flirty. She didn't want to just assume that because he was a guy and she was a girl that they would end up as a couple. That could be her problem, at times - never having guy friends without wanting them to be boyfriends. She was trying to train herself out of that bad habit.

"Okay, maybe I should show you the ropes, then." She pulled a chair out from under the table and sat it adjacent to Aiden, but closer to the counter so that she would be next to the dyes. As cool as he seemed, she didn't really trust anyone with her hair supplies. There was one time that she invited a few friends over, and someone stole her super expensive styling gel. No one fessed up, but she had a few suspects - including her sister, who didn't need gel, but probably would have done it to her out of spite. Everyone thinks siblings are supposed to hate each other but feel real love on the inside. Sierra was one of those cold to the core kind of people, and Hannah just couldn't get along with her. They sort of had a mutual despite for each other, understood it, and moved on with their lives.

Picking up her black dye, she tilted her head. "See how my roots are dark? You're never supposed to directly dye the roots of your hair cuz that can totally fuck you over. So I like doing a dark color at the top, so you can't tell where my roots are and where the dye starts." She picked up her brush and started laying the color on, painting a good two inches or so of a charcoal black onto the top of her head. "Really, dying is just painting, sort of." She talked while doing her hair, using the mirror she had set up to help her. "I think I'll leave my own head to myself, but you can definitely dye your hair. It's easier to do to yourself, in my opinion." She shrugged, pulling a palate off of the sink and mixing the black with blue as she began the next color. She felt the need to make small talk before Aiden got bored and decided never to hang out again. "So, how's it going? I haven't seen your friend Jem on the chat in a while. Aren't you two like, partners in crime?" She smiled, hoping that talking about his friends would be okay - considering she didn't really have any friends to talk about.

[Aiden Munslow]

“Yeah, I should not be allowed to interact with kids,” he listened to her whole explanation about the hair thing carefully, but didn’t add in with any questions, and watched her do her hair. How was he supposed to answer that question about Jem, they hadn’t talked much since the other day and he was pretty sure things were still awkward between them. “Yeah… I think crime is a pretty good word to describe what we do on a daily basis,” he laughed, “I mean I didn’t do anything that illegal… except for that one time but we never got caught so I guess that was a good thing. I don’t know where’s he’s been, he must be busy or something,” Aiden didn’t really want to tell anyone what had gone on.

Only because he wasn’t sure that Jem wanted people to know that he was gay or whatever he actually was. He didn’t really care about the other parts because that wasn’t something he wasn’t afraid to admit. “But who cares about my life,” he was really just trying to avoid the subject because he didn’t want to accidently out him to people that he didn’t know if he could trust. “Don’t you have friends though? Tell me about your friends, or your life, “ he shrugged. “I like hearing people’s life stories,” well if they were interesting. Some people just had really boring lives.

[Hannah Briden]

Hannah moved from the black and blue mix color to straight up bright blue. One of the reasons she loved Manic Panic was that you could see the colors you were using in your hair without a change. What you see is what you get, which is perfect for dying. Some dyes are a different color that matures over time, and then you wash it out and find out what color you got - which is sometimes not even close to what you wanted. With the dyes from Hot Topic, most of them gave you exactly what you need. She was putting bright blue on, and she was going to get a bright blue when it washed out, which was awesome.

"Um, actually, no," she sort of snorted, laughing at herself. "I don't really have a lot of friends. I don't know many people at Somer, but they all know my sister... so there's a preceding reputation." She shook her head, rolling her eyes. "It's pretty sad, I know. I need to go to more parties, especially ones like that seven minutes in heaven bash you threw. Damn good fun." She tried to move the subject away from her pathetic social life. "So, what almost-crime did you commit with your friend? I'm dying to hear this."

[Aiden Munslow]

“Hey, you got me and I’m the only friend you’ll ever need right?” Speaking of that party… “I don’t think I know your sister… or maybe I do and I don’t remember her, I don’t see how you can, but yeah the party was cool, but you know it would have been a whole lot more fun if you went in the closet with me though,” he winked. “I’m such a fun person.” Why that remark was necessary he wasn’t sure, but he pretty much made sexual passes at everything that was human so it was a given that that was going to happen eventually. He was honestly surprised that she wanted to hear his story about him doing almost illegal things with Jem.

“Ok so this one time, I don’t even know what we were doing at the zoo, because who goes to the zoo for fun, because if I really wanna see animals in cages, I could just stay home and watch animal planet for free. I’m not gonna lie the zoo is pretty cool though, if you like that kind of thing, so anyway, we were looking at pandas, and those things are pretty damn cute. I mean not as cute as you but pretty damn cute. So since we’re hard core criminals, I mean I eat names for breakfast, ya’ know? So I’m pretty hardcore. We decided to steal one because why the fuck not?” Some part of him almost didn’t want to tell this story because it made him miss his friend. It was weird having things be awkward between them, and it made his life a lot less fun.

“So anyway, you know you gotta make sure none of the zoo people are looking, so I was the decoy thing, and I got to distract them while he was bribing it with Pringles, because everyone loves Pringles right? I don’t even know how I got them to believe that I was lost. Like who would even be looking for me? I’m pretty sure if my mom lost me some where she wouldn’t even look for me she would just be like ‘ Oh Aiden is lost,’ and kinda shrug it off and say ‘oh well I raised him well he’ll come back if he wants to,’ so I was pretending to be a lost kid so that the lady wouldn’t be paying attention to the dude trying to bribe a panda with Pringles. That doesn’t look suspicious at all right? So then I guess he got it out of the cage thing somehow and the lady was like taking all my information and stuff, and I was like ‘oh I found my parents,’ and then I ran away, like I don’t know how that’s not suspicious, who even loses a teenager anyway? So apparently they have these things called security cameras, like I don’t know who thought of that idea, but he was a genius.

So the lady came looking for us, and she wasn’t that mad but she said that it was illegal, but she wasn’t gonna tell anyone, and Jem’s excuse was; ‘it was cute, but then it bit me,’ which made me laugh. She didn’t tell on us, so we didn’t get arrested thank god, because I don’t know what I would have done in jail, can you imagine me sitting there in the corner all quiet and not talking, and then someone asks me how I got there.” He lowered his voice and pretend to ask why he was there, “and I’d just be like ‘I helped my friend steal I panda,’ “ that time he did a high voice like he had inhaled helium, except he couldn’t get his voice to go up that high. “I would probably get raped, and I think my ass is fine not having a penis in it, but anyway that is the story of how we got banned from the zoo pretty much until the end of time.” He figured that it was a good idea to end it there, since it was probably just some really long and boring story to her.

“But, since I shared that amazing story with you, I’m curious, what was the worst thing you’ve ever done? Unless it’s really personal, I mean then you don’t have to share if you don’t want to.”

[Hannah Briden]

He kept making passes like that - smart comments about sexual things. And he kept calling her cute... what was that about? Hannah had never felt attractive, ever. The way he kept making these remarks almost made her want to blush. Except, of course, she knew he probably meant nothing by it. Not to mention she wanted to play it cool. She didn't have a lot of friends - and she wasn't going to bring anything up to make this one in particular feel odd.

Hannah listened to his story with raised eyebrows, laughing when he was finished telling it. They stole a freaking panda? She could hardly believe it - but she wouldn't put it past Jem and Aiden. They were always up to something weird. "I never knew pandas liked Pringles." She mused, thinking over it. Ah, those delicious crisps, compacted into the damn tube she could never fit her hand into. They were so good. "Now I want Pringles... You know, after our hair is done, we should go for a snack food run. Could pick up a movie. You feel like hanging out with me more or will you be tired of socializing by then?"

As she added more color to her hair, she thought about his question. What was the worst thing she'd ever done? She might look like a rebel, but she didn't really act like one. "Well, I guess the worst thing I've ever done... hmm." She finished up the bright blue, and added a bit of green to her palate. She was almost done, really. After she went from the blue-green, it would be on to just the green, and then her hair would be done and Aiden's bleach would be ready. Then they could dye his bangs and do whatever.

"The worst thing I've done wasn't as fun as stealing a panda. But, I did steal something." She laughed at the memory. "See, it was after my sister went missing, and I knew I could get away with anything, because no one cared about me after that." Her eyes went wide and she looked pained. Crap, that was the totally wrong thing to say. "I mean - um, that was really insensitive of me. I was thirteen, though, so it was five years after Sierra went missing. You would think that maybe my mom would have remembered that she had other kids by then, but she was constantly leaving us places because she was too focused on calling another private investigator or putting up posters. So, she left me in a Wal Mart and I got really bored, just wandering the aisles and looking for her. I didn't have a phone or anything, so I was kind of screwed, and I was too much of a little rebel to want to go to the store manager and have them call my mom. I figured I wasn't really lost as much as forgotten. But, boo hoo, that's not the point.

"The point is," She said, rushing now to spit out the fun part of her story. "I was a little thirteen year old and no one was paying attention. So I kind of ran rampant. I stole some dollar-candy, you know, the boxes like you get in movie theaters? And of course, I pigged out, because I was a chubby kid and it was like, unlimited candy. I almost got caught at that point, too, because there was an employee stocking shelves, but she didn't even care. Like, there was little me, chubbin' out on the candy, and she didn't even look over.

"So after I had eaten a ton of candy, I went over to the hair dye aisle - and I got to thinking. My mom always got sad when she looked at me, because Sierra had pretty red hair and mine was similar to her's. So I figure, why not change my hair? I grabbed a box and stuffed it up my shirt and went into the bathroom. Long story short, they caught me when I was rinsing the color out. My mom had to come pick me up and pay for the hair dye, but get this - they never found out about the candy. I used to stay up and worry that not fessing up was like, a sin or something, but then... it just got to be a funny story and I didn't care anymore."

Hannah finished her story, and her hair color, at the same time. "Yeah, it wasn't that amazing as stealing a panda. It'd be totally cool if you had got to keep the panda, though." Taking off her gloves, she rinsed her hands and dried them, then reached out to check on Aiden's bangs. The bleach had worked in and made the hair almost white. She took the foil off and ruffled his hair a little. "Okay, time to rinse out your hair."

[Aiden Munslow]

“Me? Tired of socializing? Is that even possible?” To be honest Aiden was never tired of talking to someone, it wasn’t easy to make him run out of things to talk about. “Who doesn’t love junk food and movies?” Was the even a question? “Well unless it’s a crappy movie but those are always good to watch with friends because then you can just make fun of it the entire time that’s kind of fun, or do other things,” he winked at her when he said that. He wasn’t sure that the sexual passes were helping anything, but he figured that eventually she’d get it. He was mostly talk and no real game since he was horrible at knowing the perfect moment to make a real move.

He wasn’t sure what to say in response to her story, there was some part of that that sounded a little bit sad, but he wasn’t going to ask about that. “Hm.. I’ll have to teach you how to be a rebel like me,” that wasn’t really supposed to have any meaning behind it. “Yeah apparently pandas eat a lot, so I mean I don’t know how in the world we would have been able to keep it around here, ‘cause bamboo is like fucking huge and I don’t even know where we would get it from, that lady gave us this really long lecture about it, and I feel like I actually learned something ‘ya know?” He wasn’t sure what to say in reaction to her story because most of it sounded sad, or personal. “Are you a natural red head? I don’t think I can imagine you with red hair, but maybe that’s because I’ve only known you for like a day, and I think blonde looks pretty good on you.”

When she messed with his hair it made him wonder what it looked like, but he didn’t at the same time, in fear that it might look bad.

[Hannah Briden]

Hannah smiled as yet another sexual pass occurred. It was starting to become more frequent, but Hannah figured that was just Aiden. He had to flirt with everyone, right? Didn't all teenage guys goof around? She couldn't fathom the idea of someone actually finding her cute, or wanting to do "something else" with her, like he had said. It was just friendly teasing, like poking fun and suggesting things that wouldn't really happen. Though she did wish they would - Aiden was cute. Something about the shaggy black hair and totally dork vibe made him endearing.

"Well, we'll get a good movie," she assured him. "I mean, unless you want to get a crappy movie and make fun of it the whole time." She was so close to saying something sexual back, but the shy part of herself made her stop. She didn't know if she was like, allowed to say things back like that. Would that breach the friends-teasing-each-other thing? She didn't want to risk it. What if Aiden said stuff like that for fun, not expecting her to reply seriously? She did like him, she just didn't know if he felt the same way, and she didn't want to take any chances and have any heartbreak.

She was glad that he didn't really comment on her story. Everyone was always asking about Sierra and how she went missing and how they found her and yadda yadda yadda. She was so sick of talking about her little sister's problems. They shouldn't run her life as much as they had once. So when he just kept rattling on about the panda, she let out her breath. "I still think having a panda would be fun." She shrugged. "I'm a natural strawberry blonde. It'd be really light in the summer and dark in the winter. I'm not saying carrot top, but it was red."

She took his hand, gingerly, as if she could somehow break it, and tugged at him. "Okay, you're going to have to be alright with getting a little wet." She lead him towards the sink, motioning for him to lower his head. "I just have to rinse the bleach out and then let your hair dry and then I can put the color in. That okay?"

[Aiden Munslow]

“I don’t know I liked the other things option better but I mean yeah getting a good movie sounds like a good idea too…” he let his voice trail off, almost as if to let her know that he didn’t really want to see the movie. Although, he wouldn’t have really minded watching a movie with her or whatever her plans were. It would have been weird to get too friendly with her since they hadn’t known each other long. Or would it? He wasn’t sure what was going on here, but to be honest everything he had had been hitting on her, and some of it had been on purpose and some of it by habit, sometimes he just said things without thinking, well actually that was most of the time.

Okay, you're going to have to be alright with getting a little wet. He was so tempted to make a that’s what she said sort of comment when she said that, but he decided that was lame before he could get the words to come out. “I’m definitely ok with getting wet… if you know what I mean?” ok that probably sounded worse than the that’s what she said thing. “I’m sorry that was probably awkward,” he realized after he said it that that comment was probably not the best comment to make there, but clearly he didn’t think before he said something when did he ever? He did as she wanted him to do though and put his head in the sink for her to wash out the bleach.

[Hannah Briden]

Hannah just laughed when he said they could get up to other things. "Well," she said, trying to play it cool - as cool as one can be while washing a cute guy's hair out over your kitchen sink. "I'm game for pretty much anything. So movie or... no movie." Oh, that was smooth, good job, Hannah - not. She wanted to hit her head on the cabinets or something but she was preoccupied with washing Aiden's hair. It was probably really weird, her standing over him, running her fingers through his hair... was that sexual? Maybe for some people, but she was probably just being an awkward, clumsy turtle.

"I'm trying really hard not to get bleach in your eyes, don't make me laugh." She scolded after his little If you know what I mean stab at a joke. After the bleach was finally out, she put a careful hand on the back of his neck, and one on his forehead. "Okay, stand up slooowly," she instructed, trying to keep his wet hair from getting water everywhere. "Now, stay there -" she commanded with a soft smile.

She sprinted off to the bathroom, grabbing a few hand towels from the cabinet. She returned and tossed one at Aiden. "I assume you can dry your own hair?" She glanced anxiously at the clock on the wall. "My time is up. I need to wash out this color. Might need your help though, it's hard to tell if all the excess color's out sometimes." Without another word, she leaned over the sink and began washing her own hair out.