Chapter 28 - Playing Hairdresser

Kerri was about to leave with Carter to go see his room when suddenly a guy appeared next to them with a paint bucket over his head.

Carter burst out laughing.

Kerri swatted his arm. “It’s not funny! Don’t laugh at the poor guy,” she hissed.

The guy reached up and took off the bucket, revealing his face. It was Arik, and his entire head was completely covered with white paint.

Kerri looked at Carter. “Forget what I said,” she said before they both burst into laughter again.

Arik growled, took off his shirt and used it as a towel to wipe of his face and hair. “Don’t say anything. Just don’t.”

“What happened to you?” she asked him, still in fits of laughter.

“Drake,” he growled.

Kerri howled with laughter in a very unladylike manner. “I’m going to give the guy a medal.”

Arik gave her a look, and before she knew it, the shirt he was using to wipe his face was suddenly forced down over her head and shoulders so that she looked like she was wearing a straitjacket. He pushed her against the wall and whipped out a camera.

“Behold,” he rasped in a fake accent while Carter laughed in the background. “The beauty of the Polaroid.” The shutter clicked three times and three black photos slid out.

“Ha,” Kerri scoffed, pointing—at least, trying to point—at the black photos. “It doesn’t work.”

Arik smirked and shook the photos so that they became clear. “Look, I fixed it.”

Kerri narrowed her eyes. “I hate you,” she hissed. Then she remembered she’d need his help taking the shirt off. “Can you please take this shirt off of me?” she asked him hopefully.

Arik raised an eyebrow. “No.”

She gave him the same look she had given Carter a few hours ago.

“Look away, man,” Carter warned Arik. “Look away.”

“Please?” she begged Arik. “Please.”

He sighed and pulled the t-shirt up and over her head. She shook her head, momentarily dazed. Then she slapped him.

“I hate you,” she hissed.

Arik’s hand reached up to touch where she’d hit him. He looked at her, an unfathomable look in his eyes, and then he turned to Carter.

“I’m going to go take care of something. Can you stay with her for a little while longer?” Without waiting for a reply, he shifted away.

Carter shook his head. “Kerri, you really shouldn’t have said that.”

“Why not?”

“Let’s say that Arik just told you he hated you. He thought he was joking around, but you didn’t. How would you feel?”

Kerri shrugged.

Carter shot her a look.

She sighed. “Fine, I’ll feel hurt, but only a little.”

“Yes, well, ‘I hate you’ is kind of the worst thing to say to your true love.”

“He is not—”

“Shut up. You are, and you both know it.”

Kerri narrowed her eyes. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”

Carter’s eyes widened. “I meant for you to…I just…”

“Did you just interrupt me while I was talking to tell me to shut up?”

Carter backed away. “Please don’t kill me.”

Kerri grinned. “Fine.”

“Okay, now I’m going to ask you for a favour.”

Kerri frowned. “Ohhkay.”

“Can you promise me you’ll do it?”

She snorted. “I don’t have to promise you anything.”

“Please?” He looked at her in a way that Kerri assumed girls always found irresistible.

“Yeah, I don’t think the look works the other way round, honey.”

“Dammit. Please? Just promise.”

She looked at him grudgingly. “Fine, I promise.”

“Say sorry to Arik.”

“What? No!”

“You promised.”

“But…you…no! Why?”

“It’ll make him feel better. You know it would.”

“But…I don’t want to.”

“Grow up, Kerri.”

“Shut up, Carter.”

“You promised,” Carter hissed to her as Arik walked towards them.

“Fine, but I’m not doing it in front of you.”

Carter shrugged. “I’ll be hearing it from him anyway.”

“Hearing what from whom?” Arik asked them as he joined them.

Carter and Kerri exchanged a look.

“It’s difficult to answer your question properly when you look like that,” Kerri said, smirking.

He rolled his eyes. “Come on, we’re going back to our room.”

“Why?”

“Because I got the rest of the day off because of this,” he said, pointing to his paint-covered head. “And also because you need to be in even more high protection than before, thus it would be less safe for you to be in the protection of a trainee than a trainer.”

Kerri sighed and hugged Carter. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said glumly.

“Don’t worry, K,” Carter said cheerfully. “We had fun, right?” He leaned into her. “You promised,” he whispered before dropping a kiss on your cheek.

She drew back from him. “Only Drake’s allowed to do that. Next time you try to kiss me, I will kill you.”

He chuckled. “Is Arik allowed to do that as well?”

She half glared and half blushed, and then turned away. “Let’s go.”

***

“How about now?” Arik asked, emerging from the bathroom.

Kerri giggled. “You still have a lot of white in your hair.”

“Dammit,” he muttered, running his hands through his hair. Flakes of white drifted down.

“Ew, it looks like dandruff now.”

Arik grimaced. “God.”

“I think you should take a shower. Wiping it off with a towel isn’t exactly hygienic, if you know what I mean.”

“Have you forgotten that I showered before trying to wipe off the paint?”

“Oh, that’s right.”

He groaned. “We’ve been doing this for at least three hours now.”

“Correction. You’ve been doing this for three hours. Not me.” She grinned and then hesitated. “I could help you, or try to help you. That is, if you want.”

“Would you?”

She shrugged. “I can try.” She got up from where she was sitting on the bed. “Come on, let’s go to the bathroom. I want to try to wash your paint off your hair in the sink.”

He followed her into the bathroom and knelt down in front of the sink.

“I told them I’d find a reason for expanding the size of the toilet sinks,” he muttered.

She stood right behind him, one foot on either side of his legs, her hands on his shoulders. “Head down.”

He obeyed, and she turned on the water and squeezed soap onto her hand.

“I’ll try not to smash your head onto the tap,” she told him and he winced.

“Please try. Try very hard.”

She grinned and gently pushed his head under the tap. “The water too hot for you?”

“No.”

She ran her hand—the one without soap—through his hair to make sure it was completely saturated before rubbing the soap into his hair, trying her best to get the white paint out.

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