Participants:
| Scene Title | I Really Needed This |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Melissa visits Raquelle's salon to get her hair fixed, and gets a mood booster. |
| Date | April 13, 2010 |
So there's a lot of snow out there. So it's several feet above Melissa's head. Snow cannot stop the vain from wanting to look good! Which is how Melissa has come to be peeking in through the window of Raquelle's salon. Seeing lights on, she opens the door and steps inside, and it's clear that this girl has had better months.
Her coat is only halfway on, the left side just draped over her left shoulder, to accommodate the sling that her arm is currently in. A sling decorated with colored Sharpie markers, but still a sling. When her hat comes off, there's also a nearly healed cut across her forehead, and her hair, her beautiful blonde hair…it's been scorched. At least it no longer smells burnt, but there are still signs of it. On top of that, she's makeup-less and looks like she hasn't slept much in a few days. In a word, she looks terrible.
"Okay, I need Raquelle. Badly. He says he's good, and I need better than good. I need fabulous. I need extra fabulous."
The person at the front desk just stares for a moment, opening her mouth and shutting her mouth and opening her mouth again. The pixie blonde is just pushing the clipboard towards Melissa to sign in as she picks up the phone and dials a number before eyeing the back private office/station and gesturing towards the door and clearing her throat. "Y-you can go on back…"
Raquelle sits in his office at his desk, wearing a soft grey and black v-necked sweater with a pair of tight black jeans, boots laced up his shins and hair styled with its usual emo-fringe as he /had/ been going through his budget on his computer until the phone call that has him rising from his desk and frowning, waiting to see who comes through his office door.
Melissa shoves her hat in her pocket to free up her hand, and she signs her name, her signature exceptionally neat. "Thanks," she says to the woman before heading on back, looking relieved when she sees Raquelle. "Oh good, you are here. Your receptionist wasn't exactly clear. And she stammers. Like she's never seen someone come in looking anything but fabulous," she says, unwrapping her scarf and tucking as much of it as she can into her pocket.
Buh-Link. Raquelle places a hand on his hip as he takes a step away from his desk. "Heeeey, darlin'." He drawls softly, brushing his hair out of his face and arching an eyebrow. "Can I help ya bab-" Then his eyes fall on the woman's hair and almost fall out of his head with how much they widen. "Oh my god woman, and you're /just/ coming in to see me?! What on earth happened to you?!" He approaches the woman quickly, hands coming up to reach towards her head.
Melissa gives him a sad smile. "It's been a busy week. Hell, a busy month. Okay, let's face it. Life hasn't slowed down since I got to this god forsaken city," she says with an apologetic tone. She stands still to let him play with her hair, shrugging off her coat and draping it over her arm.
"Can you fix it? Without chopping it all off? I really like it long, but where it got burnt just feels…well, you can tell for yourself. I look like shit right now, and I know it," she says with a sigh.
Raquelle just shakes his head slowly. "Do I really want to know how you managed this all honey?" He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, gesturing towards his shampoo station. "Over there, chop chop, get yourself settled down. "You don't look like shit don't worry, you just need a bit of cleaning up and you need to stay away from fire…dayum baby this is just…goodness.." He moves to start working on collecting the shampoo, conditioner, creams and etc that he needs.
There's a soft laugh and a shake of her head. "Probably not," Mel answers, before she sets down her things wherever looks handy, then moves towards the shampoo station and sits down. "And goodness? That's the nicest way I've ever heard of saying that I look like shit," she says with a more genuine smile. "Besides, I've needed an hour or two to just relax and let someone take care of me for nearly two months now."
Raquelle sets out the things he'll need at his station, picking up his usual cape, draping it over/around Mel, all purple and sparkly and he gets the water started, feeling it until it isn't too hot and isn't too cold. He gets to work rather quickly. "Tilt your head back a bit, let me know if your neck hurts, I'll put something under there…" He clears his throat. "Raquelle'll take very good care of you angel don't you worry."
Melissa does as she's told and smiles faintly. "I'm fine. Trust me, after the week I've had, a little discomfort is barely even noticeable anymore. And I know you will. Abby speaks pretty damn highly of you, and since I trust her…I trust you."
"You want to talk about it?" Raquelle asks softly, fingers massaging Melissa's scalp as he shampoos them purty locks. "Abby is a sweetie isn't she?" He laughs softly. "Thank you for the vote of confidence."
There's silence from Melissa for a moment, before she sighs. "Most of it…no. Most of it I can't really. Not sure it'd do any good anyway. Let's just say that I could very easily hate New York. It's been a lot of accidents and incidents, some dangerous to the point of being nearly fatal, and some just…painful," she says, the last word whispered.
Raquelle ahhs and hums softly as he works, washing, working on conditioning the hair well as well when it comes to that and he doesn't really talk very much. "You know, when I lost my two girls…" He finally offers. "I thought the very same thing…about hating New York." And then he clears his throat. "But then I got them back and really learned what hope was…"
"You have daughters? Not sure I would've pictured you as the dad type," Melissa admits. Then she laughs. "Then again, I sorta have a foster son who's only ten years younger than me, and I know I never would've pictured that." The laughter gone, she sobers again. "I've yet to find anything good in New York, Rock. Thought I had, but not sure now. Not sure if I want to fight for it anymore either."
"I have two daughters. They were traumatized and one was abused in a way and they both were returned to me with emotional and lasting damage done to their minds I'm sure." Raquelle explains as he does another rinse and takes a deep breath. "I found a really good boyfriend here in New York and I found…that there's people worth helping here as well."
"Yeah…it was the boyfriend thing I was working on. But we both have issues and he won't even give me a chance, even though he feels something for me," Melissa says with a sigh, letting her eyes close. "Not sure about helping people though. Seems like it only causes me more pain. I'm not that altruistic."
Raquelle hesitates for a moment. "What is your definition of pain?" He asks, getting the hair wrapped up and tousling it as he dries and nods over to his stylists chair, chuckling softly. "Don't mind me honey, I've just learned a lot since I've been in this city, and worked hard to not become jaded."
Melissa gets up to move towards the other chair, shrugging a little. "I have a…unique view on pain, believe me," she mumbles. "But I mean physical, mental and emotional pain. The shoulder is because I was trying to help some people, actually." See, she even has proof!
Raquelle mmhms and will start his work on repairing what he can repair with the woman's hair, working tangles out first and then he has straight edged razors and scissors laid out so he can use them, squinting at the head before him. "Well, I was talking about things like giving somebody you don't know 100 dollars because they look like they are having a hard time."
"Ahh. Effortless, no risk help. Gotcha," Melissa says. "Yeah, guess I could do that, but knowing my luck, soon as I gave away a hundred bucks, something would happen to make me need that cash." She pauses for a moment then grimaces. "And when the hell did I get so damn pessimistic? Ugh."
"Nah, not always no risk. I've been in lots of risky situations, but never because I wanted to risk things, but always because I knew it was the right thing to do." Raquelle gets to work! And he really is an artist, the hair around the face is cut shorter and balanced out with layers because he trips a couple of inches off of the back where it was singed and then to line everything else up right. There is an illusion that it is longer than it is though due to how he's layered the front…whatever people might say, he knows how to work a razor yo. "Well only think happy thoughts while you are here. It might make you happier."
"Yeah, it might. Hell, it can't hurt anything, can it?" Melissa murmurs. So after a moment's consideration, she asks, "Will you tell me about this boyfriend of yours? Is he cute? Have dimples? A biteable ass?"
"Ahhhhhh…" Raquelle just snorts and snickers to himself as he makes another strategic cut, running fingers through the hair to check something. He continues edgey cutting away and he laughs now, aha. "Oh yes, he'd love to be described like that I'm sure. He's a cop though, very good where it matters and he has a /really/ nice ass, yes he does."
Melissa wrinkles her nose. "A cop? He'd better have a really nice ass for that. And not just because of the risk necessary for his job. He local or a fed?" she asks, silently hoping for the former. They're less dangerous!
Raquelle hmms softly as he works. "He works around the city, so I suppose he's local." He hmms and arches an eyebrow. "He doesn't run around with a uniform and some donuts though."
Melissa's smile fades a little when donuts are mentioned, then she forces the smile back. "So…? Gonna tell me his name? Or should I guess? Hopefully it's something more exciting than Tom, Dick or Harry."
"I let him tell his own name usually. It is a rather exciting name though, very…exotic." Raquelle smirks and rolls his eyes as he steps back to look at the woman's head, nodding slowly to himself and getting the blow dryer to start work on the actual styling. "Granted I usually just call him baby, and honey, and some stuff that can't be said in public."
"Aww, but you won't tell me now? Well that sucks. Now I have live with perpetual curiosity. So mean," Melissa says, working on making the tone teasing. She's not very good company though, sadly.
Raquelle ahhs softly and curling iron…flat iron…they all play parts in styling the new haircut as he finally offers. "Not mean, but it'll give you something to think about when you get bored now won't it?"
There's a hint of genuine amusement. "Trust me, boredom isn't something that I ever suffer from. I don't have the time to be bored," Melissa answers.
"Well then hopefully it'll give you good dream." Raquelle winks and then turns the woman to face the mirror as he puts finishing touches on the hair-style, hands fluttering around her head.
"Man, I could use a good dream," Melissa says with a sigh, before she smiles as she looks into the mirror. "You do good work, sugah. I think I've found myself a new stylist."
Raquelle laughs softly and just shakes his head slowly. "Oh you have no idea, I do very good work…and you look /beautiful/ honey…you really do look very beautiful."
Melissa smiles. "Thanks, Rock. I needed this. I really needed this. And not just 'cause my hair looked horrid."
"Okay then, this time this is on the house okay baby? You pay me by doin' something real nice like for somebody else." Raquelle winks at the woman in the mirror before offering a hand to help her out of the chair, even as he's removing the cape and shaking it out.