Chapter 10 Sophie
TEN
SOPHIE
Shopping was crazy. I’ve never seen so many things at once like in this supermarket. The small store I went to with the boys the night before was nothing compared to this one.
At first, I felt completely overwhelmed by the countless aisles and shelves, but Jules helped me find my way. Her direct, yet loving way of doing that helped me quickly throw the last bit of uncertainty overboard.
Cole, on the other hand, seemed a bit miffed over all the items he had to carry while he trotted behind us.
But when I asked Jules whether we should take some of the stuff from him, she just laughed.
"He could carry us both for hours on end and not even break a sweat.
The clothes are nothing for him." And before I could say more, she had already dragged me along and pointed at something else I had never seen before.
As soon as we arrive back at Cole’s place, he carries the countless bags upstairs and then disappears without another word. My impression that he’s fleeing is reinforced when Jules calls after him, "Yeah, just get out of here. We can’t use you here now anyway."
Though her tone seems to be quite normal for them, I can’t suppress the question. "Aren’t you afraid he’ll get angry with you if you talk like that to him?"
Jules looks at me in wonder. "Cole being angry with me? Never ever. He loves me way too much for that." Then she reaches for the bag of toiletries and hair dye. "Now come on. Off to the bathroom with you!"
It must be nice to have such a close bond with another person.
Because that seems to be exactly what keeps Jules and Cole together.
The sometimes harsh tone between the two of them is not the only thing I noticed.
The looks they give each other also speak volumes.
It’s as if Cole is following her every move to make sure nothing happens to her.
I could also see the depth of their affection in Jules’s eyes, even when she sticks her tongue out at him like a naughty child.
While I wonder if I’ll ever have someone so close, Jules gently pushes me into the middle of the bathroom.
There, she places me on a chair she’d conjured out of thin air and covers the mirror above the vanity and the one in the corner with towels.
After that, she places all the items we got next to the sink and takes her mobile phone out of her pocket.
Skepticism and a hint of fear spread through me. "Why are you covering the mirrors?"
She taps along on the screen of her phone until music comes out of the tiny speakers. Then she puts it down, ties her hair up, and looks at me, beaming with delight. "This is going to be a makeover. You’re not allowed to see what I’m doing," she explains. "Where would be the fun otherwise?"
When I look at her uncertainly and chew on my lip, she squats in front of me and puts her hands on my knees. "Don’t worry. You’ll look amazing, and it won’t hurt either. I promise."
"Okay," I reply with a nod and can’t help but return her smile as she rises.
"All right, let’s do this!"
Jules lied. It does hurt. If I had known beforehand that she was going to pull out hairs and how painful that could be, I would have run away screaming. But she holds me firmly in the chair.
"If I stop now, your brows end up uneven. I can’t let that happen," she makes clear sternly, before the tip of her tongue darts out between her lips again.
During her torture, the hair dye she applied earlier is developing. It stinks terribly, but I keep my mouth shut. What follows after the dying and brow tweezing doesn’t seem to be fun either.
"Women started doing it over one hundred years ago, and since then, most of us kind of felt compelled to do it. It’s actually totally stupid, but…
well… yeah." Shrugging, she waves a razor in front of my face before holding it out to me. "You don’t have to do it. At all! But I figured you’d at least like the opportunity to do it. "
"It really sounds kind of stupid."
"I know!" she whines.
"Are you shaved?" I ask skeptically.
"Yes."
Carefully, I take the razor from her. "Everywhere?"
"Yes."
I inspect the plastic thing with the sharp blades suspiciously. "Won’t I cut myself doing this?"
"Not as long as you’re careful."
I never thought about my body hair… well, not being on my body anymore. It was just there. And since no one has ever seen it, it never occurred to me to shorten it or even remove it completely.
"Do men do that too?
Jules nods. "Some of them do, but not everywhere. They usually don’t shave their legs."
This world is so complicated, it makes my head spin. And I’ve only been away from home for one day.
"Do you want me to show you?" Jules asks, noticing my hesitation.
I lift my head to look at her with widened eyes.
"On the legs," she adds when she sees the look on my face.
Relieved, I laugh and nod.
She unbuttons her jeans and, a moment later, stands in front of me in her underwear.
Then she goes to the bathtub, puts one foot on its edge and rubs some foam from one of the cans we bought onto her leg.
After that, she turns on the faucet of the tub and reaches out a hand.
I hand her the razor and look over her shoulder to see exactly what she’s doing.
"If you shave against the direction of hair growth, it will get much smoother," she explains, running the razor over her leg several times from bottom to top. Every now and then, she holds it in the water stream to rinse it off.
When she’s done, the foam is gone, but I can’t see any difference from the other leg and frown.
"Feel this," Jules says, stroking her hand over her shin.
When I do the same, her skin is soft and smooth and feels like silk.
"Now the other leg so you have a comparison." She takes the foot off the tub and puts the other one on it instead.
Again, I do as she says and immediately understand what she means. "Oh!"
Jules winks at me. "Like I said, it’s totally up to you whether you shave or not. And don’t you ever let a guy tell you that you have to. Because that’s bullshit, okay?"
"Okay," I reply, nodding. "And why do you do it?"
She shrugs. "I don’t know. I think I like myself more without the hair."
"And… how does it look…" Faltering, I lower my gaze as I feel the heat rising to my cheeks.
"What it looks like down there?"
Again, I nod.
"It’s been a few days since I shaved, but if you want, I can show you." Before I can say anything else, she has already pulled down her panties.
It’s not like I’m unfamiliar with the female body. After all, I’m a woman myself. But seeing Jules naked and looking there, of all places, still feels strange, since nudity was never something normal in my home. When I spot something shiny, I tilt my head in wonder. "What’s that?"
"What’s what?" Alarmed, Jules looks down before she sighs in relief. "Oh, that. It’s a piercing. Jewelry. Like an earring, just not in the ear," she says as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Doesn’t that hurt?"
"The piercing of the skin did, but now I don’t notice it. Most of the time, I don’t even remember it’s there at all."
"Piercing of the skin?" I ask, looking at her in shock.
"Did you ever get an injection? Or… sew something?"
I decide right then that I don’t want to know. "The stuff on my head burns a bit," I say instead, taking a step back.
"Shit! The dye!" And just like that, Jules has forgotten about the piercing. She pulls up her panties and directs me to the bathtub to wash out the hair dye.