An Unstill Life by Kate Larkindale Read Free Book Online Page A

quivering in the bedclothes between us. “I’m not going to let them take my hair. If we cut if off now, I can keep it. Otherwise it’s going to fall out, bit by bit, until I’m bald all over again. I don’t want that.”
    I understood. Control. Jules knew too much going into this. Her body might be betraying her, but she’d take charge of whatever she could. If anyone could beat cancer into submission, Jules could.
    “Sure,” I sighed, helpless against her will. Mom would no doubt have some kind of fit when she found out, but by then, what could she do? “You got scissors?”
    “Yeah. They’re in the bathroom. In my make-up case. Can you get them?” Jules’s eyes were huge in her hollow-cheeked face. When had she lost so much weight? It couldn’t have happened in the few days she’d been here, not all of it. “I’m so glad you’re here. I can’t do it on my own. I’d make a total mess of it.”
    It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her why it mattered if her hair was a mess, but I bit the words back. Maybe it didn’t matter in the long run, but to her it would be important. I didn’t want to cut her hair, yet my feet moved me toward the bathroom. I found the scissors and brought them out, the steel cold against my palm.
    “I knew I could count on you!” When Jules grinned, she almost looked like normal—only normal Jules wouldn’t be seen dead in those old pajamas.
    The scissors snickered loudly as they chomped through the long, dark strands. Drifts of hair piled up at my feet. I cut close to her scalp, leaving a ragged cap. When I’d finished, I tried to even out what remained, but succeeded only making it more moth-eaten. It looked like something had chewed on her head with blunt teeth.
    “Finished?” Jules craned to look in the mirror, but couldn’t quite manage it from the chair I’d dragged into the center of the room.
    “Maybe.” I fingered the choppy mess, unsure what to do. “It’s kind of a mess, Jules. I’ve never done this before. I’m sorry.”
    “Let me look.” She stood up and crossed to the mirror, brushing hair off her arms, shoulders, chest and back. There was so much of it. I swept the strands escaping across the floor into a pile with my foot. It looked like so much more than it had on her head.
    For a long time she stood there, ducking this way and that as she studied her reflection. Without that thick mass of hair, she looked smaller. Her neck was longer than I’d thought, slender and too fragile-looking to hold the weight of her head. My feet tapped rhythms on the floor, and I was powerless to stop them. My heart sped up to beat in time.
    “You know what?” Jules turned and looked at me. “I actually kind of like it. It’s so totally different. Besides, by next week it’ll probably all have fallen out anyway.” She grimaced and stuck her tongue out at me.
    “Are you sure?” I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She looked so different. Her height seemed more regal and her cheekbones protruded like small mountain ranges. She could’ve been a model.
    “Yeah. I like it.” She ran her hands through it again, making the shorter bits stick up while the longer ones remained flat against her head. “Thanks, Livvie.”
    I shrugged and started gathering all the fallen hair together. “S’okay.”
    I didn’t even realize Mom had entered the room until I heard the gasp from behind me.
    “Olivia Marie Quinn!” My name tore through the room like a bullet, hot and blazing orange. “What have you done?”

Chapter Six
    T he pile of shorn hair lay at Mom’s feet. I stepped toward the door, Mom’s anger slamming into me like a wave. On the other side of the room, Jules backed away from her too.
    “Julie… Your hair!” Mom bent and picked up a handful of it, letting strands dribble through her fingers.
    “Doesn’t it look cute?” Jules ran her fingers through the short, choppy mess. Her voice only trembled a little.
    “Cute?” Mom sounded incredulous, the