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“You gotta change your hair color”

They decided to change my hair color, not me They wanted me to have platinum blonde, but noith my roots, it was a beachy blonde look I knew the back was super light, al I recognized any I still had

“I can’t use you until your hair is blonde”

That guy A wave of nausea rolled throughforward

I chose to go to him I picked him They asked my name and I told them Brooke

That was the first name I used She was the first one

“You’re gonna die with a needle in your arm”

The lady who didthem they needed someone professional to turn hair from black to platinum said to me, “Go to the bus station, buy a ticket, and disappear They’ll forget about you… Go far”

She tried to save me, but she hadn’t known

Hell I hadn’t known, and now here I was, seeing a stranger in thesweatshirt In Texas Go figure

No more memories There was no point

No going back Only forward, and thinking about that, I et a second sweatshirt, especially if we’d be using it to hide a gun because thateverywhere and every day, and holy et stinky

I was so tired

I’d trudged to the bathrooed down the stairs and through the kitch—I stopped as I passed the living room Jake was sprawled out in theI felt it vibrating through the floorboards

Moveht my attention from the kitchen

Raize was pouring coffee into a therrabbed a second thermos My eyes ide as he handed one tothe cream he’d added He took his coffee black, so I knew he’d done it just for me

“When did you get these?”

He gave me a look but didn’t say a word as he stepped outside

I couldn’t discern whether that had been a good look or a bad look It’d just been a look It had asted? I did not talk like that, or think like that

So odd What aalready