Read Joseph for Free Online Page B

sorority sister’s red hair. A shudder ran through her at the memory. She settled on a rinse instead of a permanent dye in raven black with dark red tones and bought makeup to match her new hair color.
    The clothing store’s stereo system pounded out nauseating heavy metal music. Cringing against the sound of screaming voices and wrenching sounds that in no way resembled a melody, she looked at the clothes offered with trepidation.
    “Can I help you find something ma’am?” A male’s voice drifted over the abomination someone called music.
    Ember glanced at the waif thin salesman. Blue hair stood in four inch spikes over the crown of his head. His cheekbones rose in a prominent lift and his nose hooked radically. Only the piercings in his eyebrows and gauges in his ears kept him from looking like the parakeet she’d had as a child. Barely.
    Deciding to take the plunge and buy something like Joey had instructed she smiled before she nodded. “Actually I’m looking for something to wear to a club tonight.”
    “Yeah? So…you’re buying clothes…like…for you?” The shocked comment shouldn’t have upset her. But it did.
    “Yeah, for me. I’m looking to change things up, be a little wild.”
    “Well, sister I should hope so. You could pass for like…thirty! Let me help you. First you need…” he lifted a hand and spread out his fingers as he made a circling motion in front of her, “style. This thing you have going on here? So last decade. Where do you shop? Like, seriously? You raided your mom’s closet, right?”
    “Um, no. These are the type of clothes I typically wear.”
    “Oh sister…” A sucked, ‘Tsk, tsk.” from his black lined lips condemned her as a hopeless case. “This?” His long thin index finger flitted from a limp wrist towards her clothes. “This is not anything anyone should ever wear.” With his other hand, he tapped his long fingers against his hipbone that protruded above his tight low cut jeans and below his tighter black t-shirt.
    “Well, sweet-cheeks I didn’t anticipate reforming the last refugee of the late nineties today.” He extended his limp hand for a handshake. “You’re lucky we’re slow. I’m Sledge and you are?”
    “I’m Em.” An hour later in some worm-holed alternate reality she paid Sledge a ridiculous amount of money and thanked him for his help. She mentally chastised herself for spending almost six hundred dollars on a few items, but Joseph told her to look different. God knows with Sledge’s help she would. He’d picked out a black spandex mini skirt, a pair of faded blue skinny jeans, and black knee high leather boots with three inch heels. A black halter top with silver studs and about two dozen silver and black leather bracelets for her arms were added to the growing stack. Huge silver drop earrings and a silver studded leather choker completed her new look. What the hell that look was she had no idea. Yeah, she would never wear any of the clothes she bought after this fiasco was over. The boots? They were keepers. She loved them.
    Em stopped at a second drug store and bought a pair of scissors, more makeup based on Sledge’s recommendations and a few toiletries since her suitcase was presumably on its way to Kansas City. She entered her hotel room and poured her purchases onto the bed. With a resigned sigh, she cut her hair at shoulder level and held up the severed mass of thick auburn tresses at least two feet long. No turning back now, girl.
    Forty-five minutes later Ember towel dried her hair and looked at the mass of dark curls in the mirror. The loss of the weight allowed the quirky coils in her thick hair to become riotous. She shook her head and laughed at the jumble of black spirals that circled her face and fell just past the nape of her neck. She used a small hair dryer anchored to the bathroom wall to dry her hair allowing the curls to run amuck. The new make-up was up next. She applied a smoky green shadow heavily to her eyes