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The next time Mariah saw her mother, she had told her about FP being released soon and about the not so lunch with her father. Amara hadn't said much about what went on between Mariah and Patrick because she wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't surprised that the man had tried to make himself seem less like the bad guy. It was actually quite amusing that it had backfired on him.

But she still hadn't said much about it. Mariah couldn't blame her. If she were in her mothers shoes (which in a way she was), she would have completely shut down as well. She wished she hadn't, but Mariah knew how it felt to be cheated on. And it absolutely sucked. Amara had never wanted her daughter to know of the pain that came with something like that, especially at such a young age.

Unfortunately, Mariah did. Of course it wasn't to the magnitude that her mother experienced. She and her father had been together for years. There was a lot of history between them. A lot of years of love. Mariah and Archie had been together for months. But even though they hadn't been together for as long, the pain was still there. And boy was it painful.

Mariah had wanted to just take her mind off of anything relating to her father and to FP. She just wanted a distraction, even if it was for a little while. She had been watching TV in her room when Betty had texted her. She and Jughead were throwing a retirement party for FP Jones, as he was leaving the Serpents. Betty had asked if she would want to go, completely understanding if she didn't. Mariah wasn't sure why she asked at all. Maybe Betty had hoped that in going, Mariah could get some sort of closure.

Mariah had replied with a 'no' and that was that. As the night went on, she had thought about actually going. Maybe if she did, she could speak to FP and actually get that closure. Maybe she could put the entire thing behind her. She contemplated it for a while before deciding against it. The wound was still pretty fresh. It still felt as though it was too soon.

The blonde rolled over onto her stomach as she stared at the TV. She couldn't even focus on the show she was watching. Some distraction.

She didn't know what to do. She was bored. She didn't want to bother Cheryl or Josie. She felt as though Kevin only wanted to hang out with her because he felt bad for her and she wasn't in the mood for his sympathy tonight. Betty and Jughead were at the White Wyrm and Toni, Sweet Pea, and Fangs were probably there too, so she couldn't call them. Her mom was already asleep.

Mariah felt completely alone. She knew she wasn't. She still had friends and family. But she felt like such a burden nowadays. She was such a mess. Everything was such a mess.

She groaned in annoyance and turned off the TV before pulling out her laptop and opening up YouTube. She clicked on a random video and for the rest of the night, she just watched YouTube, unable to to even pay attention to the videos either.

••••

The following Monday, and everyday after that, the blonde had to force herself to get out of bed and go to school. She made herself as presentable as possible, even styling her hair in a half up half down fashion and doing her makeup. She was slowly, but surely, getting back to her old self. At least, she hoped she was. She felt indifferent now about the Archie and Veronica thing so that was something, right?

She went about the school day like she normally would. She talked to her friends, paid attention in class, and didn't want to punch something at the sight of Veronica or Archie.

She tried her best to console Betty, who had told her about her breakup with Jughead. She then talked to Jughead to try to see where his head was at. But he hadn't wanted to talk to her. In fact, he had tried to push her away just as he did Betty. "To protect her." And oddly enough, Mariah didn't fight him like she once would. She only nodded her head and walked away. As if it hadn't bothered her.

And maybe it didn't. Or maybe, she knew that Jughead would come to his senses eventually and see that pushing the people you care about away won't necessarily keep them safe. Mariah went with the latter.

After school, she went home and did her homework. She repeated this process for the next few weeks. Then one day after school, she decided to go to a store to buy hair dye. She walked down the aisles, eyes scanning the different colors of dye. She stopped and picked up a bottle of a platinum blonde color. She looked it over, placed it in her basket, putting a second one in the basket as well. She began texting Toni to see if she was busy.

She then began Googling what she would need to dye her hair a lighter color at home. She looked around at more of the bottles of hair dye and picked up two of the silver gray color. She placed them in her basket as well. She then went down the aisles in search for hair bleach and toner. Toni had texted her back, informing her that she wasn't busy. Mariah asked if she would come over to her place and help her dye her hair. After Toni agreed, Mariah texted the girl her address.

The blonde found the toner and placed it in her basket, doing the same when she found the bleach. She then went to checkout and once she was done, she drove home. Mariah went upstairs to her bathroom once she got home. She took her recent purchases out of the bag and set them down next to the sink. She then went into her bedroom and waited for Toni to arrive.

The doorbell rang about fifteen minutes later. Mariah bounded down the stairs and looked through the peep hole before opening the front door. She smiled when she saw Toni. "I thought you said you didn't live in a white picket fence kind of house," Toni said as she walked in. "Do you see a white picket fence?" Mariah asked, closing the door. "This house is close enough. I mean, you seriously live here?" Toni said, looking around.

"This is a pretty normal sized house to be honest. But if you're impressed by this, you should see my best friend Cheryl's house," Mariah said. "Wait, that burned down. But her new house is pretty big too," Mariah then corrected. Toni raised an eyebrow. "It's a long story," the blonde muttered. "Looks like you're getting into the Christmas spirit," Toni pointed out, gesturing at the decorations that littered the house.

"Yeah, my mom's big on Christmas. She always makes it such a big deal. She did all of this when I was at school last week. She rarely let's me help with the decorating because she wants it to be 'perfect.' I don't really care about Christmas so it doesn't bother me," Mariah said. "You don't like Christmas? Why?" Toni asked.

"I don't dislike it, I just don't really care for it all that much," Mariah replied. "Is there a specific reason?" Toni asked next. Mariah bit her lip and shrugged, averting her gaze to the decorations. Toni cleared her throat. "So, you uh, wanted help dying your hair," she stated to which Mariah nodded.

She beckoned for Toni to follow her and went up the stairs. "I was originally just gonna go for a more natural color. Platinum blonde isn't that natural but it is blonde so, I figured, natural enough," Mariah began. They walked through her bedroom to get to her bathroom. "Then my impulsivity sort of kicked in and I bought this color too," she continued. She held up the bottle for Toni to see. The pink haired girl looked down at the bottle and read it over.

She looked back up at the blonde. "You wanna dye your hair silver?" She questioned. "It's stupid right? But I figure, if I was gonna try something new, might as well go all out," Mariah responded. "You sure you don't wanna do something more practical like brown or something?" Toni asked next. "I didn't buy brown hair dye," the blonde stated.

Toni looked very unsure about the whole thing. "If you don't wanna help then that's fine. Either way, I'm gonna do it and probably fuck it up because I have no idea what I'm doing. But if you do want to help, I'll pay you," Mariah said. Toni looked down at the bottle again before looking back at Mariah. "I'll help, for free. But only because I don't want you to accidentally turn your hair green. You're cute and all but I don't think even you could pull that off," Toni said with a smirk.

Mariah shrugged, biting her lip. "You'd be surprised what I could pull off." The two looked at each other for a moment. Mariah could feel her stomach churn, that reoccurring strange sensation fluttering within it under Toni's stare. She smiled awkwardly and looked away. "You wanna start?" She asked. Toni nodded and took off her Serpent jacket, placing it near the sink.

Mariah picked up the box of bleach. "I think we're supposed to start with this," she said, handing Toni the box. "You got gloves?" She asked. Mariah nodded and opened the cabinets below the sink. She pulled out a box of gloves and set it on the counter as Toni opened the box. She pulled out two gloves and put them on before beginning to mix things together. Once she had finished, she led Mariah to the bathtub and the blonde sat inside, her back to the side of the tub.

Toni sat on the closed lid of the toilet and began bleaching her hair. Once she was done, the two waited the instructed amount of time, having small talk whilst they waited. Once the timer Mariah had set he gone off, Toni helped her rinse the bleach out of her hair.

Toni bit her lip to suppress a laugh at the sight of Mariah's hair. It had become more yellow color, which was only temporary. But still, Toni though she looked funny. And cute. More cute than funny. "Are you laughing?" Mariah questioned. Toni shook her head, fighting off her grin. "No," she denied. "How awful do I look?" Mariah asked.

"You don't look awful. Let's keep going," Toni assured. She pulled off the gloves she was wearing and swapped them for new gloves. The next thing that went into Mariah's hair was the purple toner. The two continued talking whilst it was being put in. After the toner was rinsed out, she toned it again before rinsing it out again.

Then she began using the silver gray hair dye, applying it gingerly all throughout Mariah's hair. Section by section, Toni went through Mariah's hair, applying the hair dye to it. Mariah sat in silence as Toni worked. She grazed her teeth against her bottom lip and sighed. "I used to like Christmas." Toni paused for a brief moment before continuing what she was doing.

"For the most part at least. But after my dad left, Christmas never felt the same. My mom always tried to make it special after that. Show me that we didn't need him to have a good Christmas or live a good life. But seeing all of these Christmas movies with happy families or hearing people at school talking about it, just made me..." Mariah trailed off.

"Angry," Toni said. Mariah sighed, "Yeah. And sad. But I was more angry at the fact that it affected me so much, you know? He left and I continued to let it get to me." Toni sectioned off another part of Mariah's hair. "But how could you not? I mean, your dad left you. That's grounds for being angry, Mariah," she said.

Mariah shrugged, "Yeah I guess." It was silent for only a moment. "So, I take it things between you and your dad are still rough," Toni said. "Yeah. And I don't know if that's ever gonna change. I feel like maybe I should forgive him. Maybe I should forgive a lot of people. But, not everyone deserves your forgiveness I guess," Mariah replied.

Toni didn't say anything and the two sat in silence even after Toni had finished putting the dye in Mariah's hair. By the time the process was done, the sun had already set and it was dark outside. Mariah looked at herself in the mirror. Her once blonde hair was now a silver gray color. She picked up the wet strands of hair and examined them in the mirror.

She wasn't sure how she felt about it just yet. She plugged in her hair dryer and began drying her hair. Once it was dry, or dry enough, she went downstairs to the kitchen where Toni was eating pizza they had ordered during the hair dyeing process. Toni looked over at her once she approached, silently examining her handiwork. She swallowed a bite of pizza before speaking.

"You know, I wasn't sure about the whole silver thing but, it actually looks good. Seems to me like maybe you can pull off anything," she complimented. "Even green?" Mariah joked. "Okay, let's not get too crazy," Toni retorted causing Mariah to laugh. "Seriously though. You look, pretty," Toni said. Mariah smiled, fighting off a blush, "Says the beauty queen herself." At this, Toni laughed.

"I can pull off many things, sure. But I'd never be able to pull off that outfit," Mariah went on, picking up a slice of pizza and taking a bite. "Oh I don't know, you look pretty good in anything. I think you'd look good in this," Toni responded. "Not better than you," the silver haired girl said.

Mariah smiled at the girl before taking her pizza slice and a plate into the living room. Toni stood from the stool she was sitting on and followed her. "Uh, cool piano," she said. "It's nice right? My mom bought it because she claimed that she missed me playing it. Kind of an impulsive decision. Guess I get it from her," Mariah replied, taking another bite of pizza.

Toni laughed again and Mariah smiled. "But I'm glad she did. I kinda missed playing," the former blonde continued. "Oh, so you still play?" Toni asked. Mariah shrugged, "I dabble." Toni jokingly rolled her eyes, "I'm impressed." She then walked over to the piano and sat down. "Play something for me," the pink haired girl said.

"Why?" Mariah asked. "I wanna hear you play," Toni replied in a duh tone. Mariah bit her lip before placing her pizza on the plate, setting it down, wiping her hands on her pants, and walking over to the piano. She sat down on the bench next to Toni. Her hands hovered above the keys before she began playing "Sticks" on the piano. Toni rolled her eyes and pushed her hands whilst Mariah laughed.

"Play something serious," she said. "Like what?" Mariah asked. "I don't know, you're the pianist. Pick something," Toni said. Mariah huffed and began thinking of something to play. A smirk overtook her face and her hands hovered over the keys. She pressed down on the keys and began playing "Still Dre" by Dr. Dre. Toni rolled her eyes as soon as she recognized the song and pushed Mariah's shoulder, a laugh bubbling out of her mouth.

Mariah chuckled as she continued to play some more of the chords. "That's all the chords I know from that song," she said, stopping. "You're annoying, did you know that?" Toni said. "And yet, you still chose to be my friend," Mariah said with a smile. She then began playing whatever song came to her head. Toni stood up from the bench and walked over to her backpack, picking it up and making her to the front of the piano.

She began unzipping her backpack where her camera was. Pulling it out, she looked over at Mariah who was completely focused on the song she was playing on the piano. A small smile was on Mariah's face as she reminisced. Toni held the camera up to her eye and took a picture. The flash alerted Mariah who looked over at her.

Toni lowered the camera and smiled innocently. "Did you just take a picture of me?" Mariah asked. "Yes..." The girl chuckled, "Why?" Toni shrugged, "To capture the beauty that is, Mariah Coleman." The former blonde laughed again. "Aw, Toni stop or you'll make me blush," she said.

She had said it jokingly but was completely serious because compliments made her feel weird. Toni had been complimenting her a lot that night and it took everything in Mariah to not get awkward and most certainly to not blush. "Go ahead, I bet you'll look cute blushing," Toni said, walking back over to the piano bench and sitting down. She set her camera on her lap.

Mariah laughed, albeit a little awkwardly, turning her head away in case she did blush. Toni began laughing, "No. Don't turn away. I wanna see it." She grabbed Mariah's face in her hands. Mariah pushed her hands away, "Stop, Toni." The pink haired girl smirked, "Am I embarrassing you?"

"Yes, very much so," Mariah answered honestly, which made Toni laugh louder. "Aw," she cooed. "It's not funny. I get weird when people compliment me," Mariah said. "Aw," Toni repeated. "Stop," Mariah demanded. "But that's so cute," Toni replied in a joking manner. "I hate you right now," Mariah said. Toni hummed.

Mariah took the camera out of Toni's lap. "I wanna see the picture," she informed. She began pressing buttons and Toni was quick grab Mariah's hands that held the camera. "Let me, I don't need you breaking my camera," she said. "I wasn't gonna break it, Mariah muttered. "Mhm," Toni hummed again.

Toni pulled Mariah's hands closer to herself, holding them up enough for her to see the camera and locate the picture on it. Toni pressed different buttons and the picture popped up. Mariah examined the picture, face scrunched up. "I look ugly," she said. "What? No you don't," Toni disagreed. "Yeah I do. But it's fine, I never look good in off guard pictures," Mariah said with a slight shrug.

"You look hot," Toni replied. Mariah couldn't help the bashful smile that spread across her face and she looked away in case she blushed. "Are you blushing? Hm?" Toni questioned. Toni poked at Mariah's cheeks and the silver haired girl slapped her hand away. "No," she denied. "Yes you are," Toni retorted. Mariah quickly changed the subject, holding the camera up to eye level.

"My turn," she said. She pulled the camera away from her face and examined it. "Which button do I press?" She asked Toni who chuckled and pointed at the button. Mariah held up the camera and Toni held a hand up to the lens. "I'm the photographer, not the model," she said. "Hey, you took a picture of me. It's only fair that I take one of you," Mariah said.

Toni dropped her hand. "Fine, I'll just delete later," she said. Mariah's eyes narrowed, "Then I'll delete the one you took of me." Toni only laughed, shrugging a little. "You don't even know how." Mariah shrugged too, "I'll figure it out." Toni rolled her eyes and looked down at the piano, pressing a key.

"How do you even play this thing?" She questioned. "Lots of practice and a good teacher. Or you can learn to play it on YouTube," Mariah replied, fiddling with the camera. "YouTube? Seriously?" Toni asked, not believing it.

"You can learn anything on YouTube," Mariah answered. Toni pressed another random key and Mariah gazed at her through the camera, only catching the side of her face. "Hey Toni." Toni looked up and over at Mariah who quickly snapped the picture. She pulled the camera away from her face and pressed the buttons that Toni did to get to the picture. In the picture, Toni wore a half smile. Mariah smiled.

"I'm good at this. And, you look beautiful," she said proudly. "Let me see," Toni said, taking the camera away from Mariah and looked at the picture. She shook her head. "Yeah no. This is definitely getting deleted," she said. Mariah fake gasped, "Don't you dare delete my masterpiece." Toni rolled her eyes, "I'm deleting it."

"No!" Mariah exclaimed. She reached for the camera but Toni pulled it out of her reach. Toni stood from the bench and moved away from it. Mariah stood and followed after her. "Don't delete it. You look good," Mariah said, reaching for the camera. Toni moved it. "You're just saying that because I complimented you," Toni said.

"No I'm not. I mean it," Mariah said, crossing her arms. "Mhm," Toni hummed again, not believing her. "Toni." Mariah snatched the camera from Toni's hands and put it behind her back. "Mariah, give me my camera," the girl said, holding out her hand. "Uh uh," Mariah said, shaking her head. "Mariah," Toni stated, her tone stern although she was trying not to laugh.

"Make me," Mariah said smugly. And with that, Toni lunged at the silver haired girl, hands splaying as she tried to get the camera. Mariah ran back over to the piano and sat on the bench, keeping the camera close to her. "How about this, if you can play something on the piano, you can delete the picture," Mariah proposed. "Or, you can give me my camera," Toni said.

"That's not the deal," Mariah replied, shaking her head. "Technically, we haven't made a deal yet," Toni retorted. Mariah bit back a smile as Toni eyed the camera. She then looked at the piano and smiled. "Fine." Toni walked over to the piano and sat down at the bench. She laid her fingers on random keys and began pressing them. Mariah chuckled heartily at the sound.

"There, I played something," Toni said, holding out her hand again. Mariah smacked it away. "That wasn't a song," she pointed out. "You didn't say that I had to play a song, just that I had to play something, which I did," Toni replied with a smug smile. Mariah fake glared at her. "Loophole," the pink haired girl replied. She held out a hand, "Camera."

Mariah thought for a moment. "You know, I think I'll keep it." Toni reached for the camera behind Mariah's back and Mariah leaned backwards. "No!" She screeched as she tried to move away but Toni had managed to grab onto her and hold her to the bench. She attempted to grab the camera again but Mariah held it even further away, keeping a firm grip on it so that she didn't drop it.

Toni groaned and stopped just inches from Mariah's face. Toni's brown eyes stared into Mariah's green ones for a moment before looking down at her lips. Mariah's eyes involuntarily did the same. She didn't know why she didn't move as Toni leaned in and kissed her. She also didn't know why she had kissed Toni back. But after a brief kiss, Mariah quickly pulled away. She turned her head to the side and laughed awkwardly.

"Whoa, okay. Uh, why did you do that?" Mariah said, refusing to meet Toni's eye. Toni leaned away from Mariah and planted herself back into the bench. She shook her head, "Sorry, I thought you wanted me to." Mariah grew confused and shook her head. "I don't understand, why would you think that?" She asked. Toni remained quiet, only staring at the blonde in mild confusion.

"I mean, sorry to break it to you but I don't swing that way," she continued. The tension was pretty thick and Mariah felt as though she was on the verge of suffocating. "Really? With the amount of flirting you were doing I couldn't tell," Toni retorted. "Flirting? I wasn't flirting," Mariah said back. Toni scoffed, "Could've fooled me."

"I-I only complimented you, didn't know that classified as flirting," Mariah replied. "That's not all you did, Mariah," Toni said in disbelief.
Mariah only looked at her. Toni laughed incredulously, "Are you serious? You've practically been flirting with me this whole time."

"We were just joking around, Toni," Mariah denied, looking down. Though, she wasn't sure she even believed what she was saying. "Were you just joking around when you kissed me back?" Toni questioned calmly. "I didn't-"
Mariah cut herself off. Because she did. She did kiss Toni back. She didn't know why, but she had and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"Look, I'm sorry. I honestly thought..." Toni trailed off. Mariah looked over at her and Toni shook her head, looking away. "You know what, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry for putting you in this situation. I'm gonna go because I've probably overstayed my welcome. And, maybe you wanna be alone to think about things." Toni wasn't really sure what to say but she felt as though she shouldn't have said what she had.

Everything was so strange. She had never been in a situation like this and frankly, neither had Mariah. Toni stood, grabbing her backpack from the floor and walking to the door and out of it before Mariah could think of a reply. The door closed behind the pink haired girl and Mariah stared at it for a moment for looking back at the piano and sighing. "What the hell just happened?" She whispered.

A knock sounded on the door causing Mariah to jump. She stood up and walked over to the door. She looked out of the peephole and saw Toni on her porch. Mariah opened the door and Toni looked up. "I forgot my camera," she stated.

Right. The camera.

The stupid camera that put the two in this situation. Oh who was she kidding, she put the two in the situation. She hadn't meant to do it, but she did and now Mariah could sense the awkwardness that she caused. She should've just given her the stupid camera.

"Right." Mariah turned back into her house and walked over to the piano bench where the camera rested. She picked it up and walked over to where Toni stood, holding out the camera to the girl. She hated the way their fingers brushed as Toni took the object from her hand and she hated the way that slight brushing of their fingers made her feel. Because the feeling was foreign to her and she wasn't sure that she liked it.

"Thanks," Toni said. Toni looked at her for a moment longer before turning and walking back out into the cool night. Mariah stared after the girl, her mind reeling with questions. But one question in her mind stuck out the most and she frowned.

What the fuck?

°°°°

I have no idea how to dye hair and I just Googled how to do it so I'm not sure how accurate the whole hair dying process was. Please don't attack me lol. Anyway, so that happened. I had a lot of different ideas for this book and kept changing it but the plan I have set for it now is the way it's gonna be. Y'all probably weren't expecting that kiss were you? Honestly, I wasn't expecting to write it but here we are. This is probably the longest chapter that I've ever written. Hope you all enjoyed it. Be sure to vote. DON'T COMMENT FOR ME TO UPDATE! Also, this is the color that Mariah dyed her hair to be: