“Why do you shave your head?”
The question broke the comfortable silence that had built between the two as they lounged in Andrew’s living room, Dana’s feet propped up against his side.
Andrew ran a hand over his head, feeling the stubbly, growing hair. It was about time to shave again, he noted.
“Hey, I happen to think I’m pretty cute with this look,” he said, eyebrows knitted in a light scowl.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t cute,” Dana said with a grin. “I just asked why you do it. Seems like it takes a lot of effort.”
Andrew nodded his head slightly as he looked out across the room through his window. The apartment was small and, in his opinion, a little too cramped, but he did have a nice, high view of the city. It was overcast outside, and he could ever so faintly hear the whistling of the wind.
Dana sat up and nodded. She had merely asked out of curiosity, but something had shifted in Andrew’s usually brash demeanor to make her believe it was a little more important than she thought.
“Well, I was 13 when I moved here,” he started. “And as most 13 year old boys did, I had shaggy, swopping hair that constantly got in my eyes. Perpetually greasy, the whole bit.”
Dana laughed. “You had Bieber hair?”
“I most certainly had Bieber hair.”
It was hard for Dana to imagine. Andrew had been consistently bald the entire 6 months she’d known him. He shaved all the time, so she had thought he just didn’t like the fuss of hair.
“Okay, pics or it didn’t happen.”
Andrew rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone. “You think I would willingly lie about something so ugly? This is me trusting you with my deepest, darkest secret right now.”
“I. Need. Proof.” She replied, leaning over to look at his phone. It didn’t take long for him to go to the beginning of his Facebook and find the evidence she wanted. She laughed as he found an embarrassing photo of him with 2 of his friends, all doing what they probably believed to be gang signs. He had his tongue out, and was wearing a long sleeve with basketball shorts, just like he was today. Besides braces, the only other thing different was that he indeed had shiny black hair, coming dangerously close to covering his eyes entirely.
“Andrew Yi, I’m sorry to tell you, but I think you used to be a douchebag.”
“I know, I know,” he laughed. “So you have an idea of what I looked like when I started treatments.”
“Well, when my dad and I came here,” he continued, a bit more serious than before. “I had 3 different cancer spots. All on my skin at first, but threatening to spread. I had to do my first round of chemo pretty quickly. And as it goes with chemo, I lost all my hair.”
Dana shifted again to sit closer to him, a reassuring hand on his leg. Andrew moved his sights again to the window.
“I was pretty upset about it at the time. My dad told me I looked cool, but he’s my dad, and is legally obligated to tell me that. When I skyped with some friends back home for the first time, they all were really shocked. And I know I looked more sickly then too, but my friend Max said that he didn’t even recognize me without my hair.”
“Was it really that different?”
“I don’t know. To me, it seemed like the world was ending. But at the end of the day, it’s just hair. I survived that chemo. And when the cancer came back, I survived it again.” Andrew swallowed. “And if it comes back? I’ll just have to survive it again.”
Dana ran her hand over the top of his head a few times, feeling the incoming hair but imagining what it must have been like completely smooth from the chemotherapy.
“I decided after I was cancer-free the second time that I wanted to just stay bald.” He took Dana’s hand from his head and held it palm to palm with his own. “So that when new people met me, I wouldn’t look weird, or unrecognizable, in case I ever had to do chemo again. And so that I would be more comfortable with it.”
They finally made eye contact, and Dana smiled. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
“Yeah,” he replied in a light voice.
“Though I think to test that sentiment, I’m gonna have to shave off your eyebrows too.”
Andrew scrunched up his face. “Hey, watch it, Ordoñez,” he warned, pushing her back. Giggling, she went to jump on top of him again.
“You know, I pierced my ears for a similar reason.”
She grabbed a throw pillow and hit him with it. “Yeah. I’ve always been straight terrified of needles, but once I was diagnosed,” thwap! “I decided no more fear, and immediately went to Claire’s to get my ears pierced.”
She shot up and stood on the couch, defensive pillow in hand as he grabbed one to hit her back with.
“You make fun of my Bieber cut, but you got your ears pierced at Claire’s? Pretty uncool of you, Ordoñez.”
“Excuse you,” she said, striking a pose and turning her head to show off her ear, where a diamond stud connected to a small dangling silver disk sat. “I’m the coolest person ever, ‘cuz Claire’s does earring sales all the time. Being thrifty is cool.”
“Okay, tell that to all the other 8 year olds browsing their selection.”
Shifting to the left, she dodged the pillow Andrew had thrown at her, but got hit in the side by his second one.
Andrew let out a celebratory whoop before getting hit smack in the face by Dana’s return fire and promptly falling back onto his couch. Dana plopped down next to him. They looked at each other and burst out into a fit of giggles.
“Yeah alright,” Andrew said, slyly putting his arm around her. “You’re very cool.”
“Just remember that I’m infinitely cooler.”
She raised her eyebrows at him before shoving another pillow in his face.
