Love From Afar

Ashlyn

Freak

 Photo: www.kurzweilai.net

      

      “I’m sorry, babe. I wish I could make it to your graduation, but I’m not feeling too hot.” Ashlyn sounded sad and sickly, her words separated by stiff coughs. She was twirling curls of her blonde hair with a slender index finger. There was a wicked crest smile on her face as she scrolled through her Facebook feed on her iPad.

Love From Afar

Troy

Changes

Photo: blog.sfgate.com

      I can’t believe I grew these things for so long, Troy thought to himself as he stood, head cocked to one side, in front the mirror in the downstairs bathroom of his two story apartment. He held a pair of titanium Clauss scissors with his left hand. Every three seconds or so, there would be a thick snip and a long snake of matted hair would fall into the marble sink below the mirror. Troy was cutting five year-old hair. Dreadlocks, or “locks” as he called them, were a symbol. Although he himself was not Rastafarian, he respected his father’s cultural beliefs. If Troy was to be honest, which he usually was, he would say that the religion of his pops was just another excuse to rebel and smoke pot. This day, however, was the beginning of something new.