The Boyfriend Bet by Josie Eccles Read Free Book Online Page A

snapped off.” Sarah admitted at this most inappropriate moment. Briony
is her younger sister and unlike mine she isn’t a complete bitch. “You know, I
think it looks done.” Sarah whined.
    “Are you sure, she needs it to go blonde.” Bex looked
quite horrified at Sarah’s apparent ‘freak out’.
    “Oh my god, I swear it’s going stretchy already. We need
to wash it off!” Sarah was panicking big style which made me kind of freak out
as well. Stretchy? Was my hair going to break off at any second and leave me
half bald? I should have never listened to them. Being a boring, mousy colour
was totally better than being half bald!
    “Quick! Wash it off!” I yelled. I didn’t even bother
making it to the bathroom upstairs. I stuck my head in the sink and turned the
mixer tap on full speed and just plonked my entire head underneath. Oh my god,
it was freezing.
    I scrubbed and scrubbed at my hair and ordered Sarah to
run upstairs and find my shampoo. Phew, there was no hair in the sink. I patted
my head after I’d finally convinced myself that I’d washed off all the bleach.
There was still hair attached to my head, it didn’t stretch or worse still
break, when I pulled it. Phew!
    “Looks like you were over worried, no problem at all!” I
giggled as I tugged on my hair.  I felt so relieved until I saw Bex
strange expression and Sarah had a very worried face on her. “What?” I said,
making a run for the mirror in the hall.
    “What have you done to me?” I shouted so very loudly, as
well as shouting out much worse things. I think I’d just about used every swear
word under the sun until I couldn’t think of anything else to yell at Sarah. I
instantly regretted it, as the whole street would have probably heard, which of
course meant next door would have most certainly got an insight into the not so
nice side of me.
    “Maybe it won’t look so bad when you actually comb it
out.” Sarah said in a timid voice. She was standing behind me, looking a little
sheepish. My hair was so patchy, the ‘highlights’ were the worst shade of
orange you could ever imagine, and I had all these random orange spots all over
the top of my head.
    “I think the bleach seeped through the holes I missed
out.” Sarah suggested a totally bloody obvious answer to the horrendous
monstrosity attached to my head.
    “Do you think?” I snapped.
    “I told you, you needed to leave it longer. You totally
freaked out Sarah.” Bex was now offering her insight but she hadn’t done much
in stopping the situation.
    “What the hell am I going to do?”
    “We could bleach all of your hair?” Bex suggested.
    “Great, but I’ve got to help out at dancing at 1.” I was
yanking a brush through my hair now. “We won’t have time before I go.”
    “Well let me dry it, it might blend in better when it’s
dry.” Sarah was trying to talk me round. Maybe she was right. Yes, hair did
always look much lighter when it was dry, didn’t it?
    I took a few deep breaths and sat back down in the
kitchen. However much I tried to kid myself, I would be an idiot to think that
a hairdryer and a pair of straighteners was going to solve my ridiculous hair
problem but we all have to live in hope, don’t we?
    It did look very different from when it was wet. It was a
more vibrant shade of orange. Wonderful. And the orange spots, well, that
really set the whole look off. I scraped it up. I preferred it up for dancing
anyway, but no, it still looked bad, just splodges of orange, and the ponytail
looked like some kind of deranged firework, sticking up on top of my head.
    “Well, I’m going to have to go to dancing like this
aren’t I?” I checked the kitchen clock. It was already half 12.
    “How old are the kids, 5 or 6? They aren’t going to
notice, are they?” Sarah tried miserably to reassure me.
    “True, I’ll just have to rush there and back and then
hopefully come up with a solution later on.” I sighed as I slipped my trainers
on and grabbed