Room Mates Conclusion by P.J.

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I didn't like his tone at all. "Gunner, come on, it's not that short." It clearly was now my turn to whine a little. "Please, no revenge cut, O.K.?" I sat down every bit as gingerly has Gunner had.
"Now Jake," Gunner cooed. "You've told me you were more than ready to get something shorter for summer. You'll be out in the hot sun. No need for all this extra hair to be making it hard to keep a hat on now is there" he ran his hands through my plush mop.

He picked up the brush and stroked it through my long locks. The back and sides were just touching my shoulders. Nowhere near as long as his was but.... significant just the same. My fringe was chin length. Just right for tucking behind my ears in the vineyards. The dark auburn was just starting to take on the sun kissed highlights I'd gotten every year from being outside. Gunner whipped his cell phone out and began snapping pics, walking all around me. "A few shots or posterity" He quipped.

"Jake babe," he said, almost moaning as he stroked my thick bangs, tucking them behind my ear. This cut is going to hurt me way more than it's going to hurt you guy."
"Say What," I barked starting to panic. "How is your cutting my hair going to hurt you, exactly Gunner?" I replied.

Gunner stooped down, eye to eye in front of me. "Jake, do you have any idea how cool this mane is man? You are sooo handsome, especially with this unusual color. 95% of me doesn't want to cut any of it. I'm forcing that 5% of me to reach over and pick up the Osters" he said, smirking evilly again.

With that he picked up the Oster 76's. He'd never used them on me before. He'd never done more than a small trim on me before. What the hell was he going to do with them? He examined the guard that was on there. "Hmm," he murmured, this should be long enough for now."

In a flash of a panic I realized that the #5 guard was still on there from trimming Gunners beard. S**t, that was slightly more than a half inch of hair length. Oh, God. I heard the sharp clack as the Osters roared to life. Gunner reached for the comb and disappeared behind me. I tried in vain to sink down so low in the chair he couldn't possibly get to my nape. He pushed my head down gently. "Now sit up straight and hold still please sir. This won't hurt a bit," he snickered.

I felt the comb slide in under the long thick thatch covering my neck, lifting a large shank of it up and away from my neck. Instead of the anticipated clack, clack, clack, of the clippers raking across the comb, as I'd done to him, I felt the cold steel of the blades touch down on my neck. The sudden realization of what could happen now sucked all the air out of me. I held my breath, no, he wouldn't, would he? I felt the clippers start to ascend, climbing slowly, the pitch changing as they bit into the thick heavy pile of the mane at my nape. I also felt his finger, or maybe thumb, pressing in against my head, a little above the ravenous jaws of the clippers. Oh, my, God! I had an involuntarily tremble. Just then I saw, with horror, a thick handful of my mane come sliding down into my lap. Landing squarely on top of a suddenly limp little Jake. I was mortified. "Gunner, man, Holy S**t. Please, do not make this a revenge cut, please!" I half barked, half whined at him.
"Jake, babe, come on, your turn to relax man. Like you've told me. It's only hair, it'll grow back right?" Gunner quipped. With that he made a 2nd, and then a 3rd swipe up along my nape. More huge mounds of severed locks tumbling down by the fist full. I could clearly feel the lack of hair on my neck now. One final swipe and it was all gone, now resting forlornly in my lap. The back of my hair had never been this short, it had never felt the clippers at all, in fact. I gave a sharp gasp, breathing in, anticipating several more swipes, higher and higher up the back. That didn't happen though. The clippers shut off. I heard Gunner mumble "Hmm." I exhaled loudly.

I barked "what do you mean by hmm? I know what I've done when I say hmm, and is isn't usually good." I started to reach out from under the cape to feel the hair on the back of my head. As quick as lightning, he grabbed my hand, wrestling it back under the cape. "Ah, ah, ah Jake. No fair cheating." You'll get to feel, and see when I'm all done, just like with me." He'd folded the mirror up and set it aside earlier too. I sighed. "S**t" was all I could muster as I stared down into my lap at mounds of my lush locks.
He proceeded to dampen me down thoroughly. Then he horse shoe sectioned me, wide on top, and deep in the back. I started to settle down a bit. At least that meant he was done with the clippers, at least for now, I thought to myself. I probably wasn't going to get scalped at least.

This was weird. Usually we kept up a nonstop chatter while we were cutting each other's hair. Usually there was some soft caressing and fondling going on too. Not this time. Right now it was so quiet I swore I could hear each of us breathing. I was also pretty sure you could hear my thumping heartbeat from across the hall. I hadn't realized until this moment just how much I didn't like someone else in control. Especially without strict instructions from me as to how to cut it. My gut was churning. The realization of how Gunner must have felt was beginning to dawn on me.
Jake had exchanged the clippers for shears. He started combing the hair on my right side. He made an initial horizontal cut, about half way up my ear. I estimated that about 5 inches of thick locks slid away, into my lap. "Crap! Jake, really, you know how I feel about having my whole ear exposed dude." I barked.

"Yes babe, I do remember," He replied soothingly. Patting my shoulder gently. He proceeded to layer that side all the way back to just behind my ear. Then I heard another soft "Hmm." He was killing me with the Hmm.

He repeated the process on my left side. More hair piling up in my lap. It felt like Mr. Happy had a five lb. weight on him. And all of it was my treasured locks!
Next he unclipped my fringe and top locks, combing them straight down. He picked up a section that was solidly on my chin, pulling it all the way up and back, touching the back of my head. "Um Hmm." was all I heard.

"Gunner, I get the feeling you have no idea what you're doing , what with all the Hmming going on man. Please tell me you at least have a clue, please?"
"Jake, I know exactly what I'm doing, you'll see, just be patient. You might be good with the scissors but you make a lousy client dude," Gunner said sighing.
He recombed my fringe straight down again. He stooped down in front of me so he was eye to eye with me. I could see enough through the thick fringe that the scissors were being moved in for the kill to shorten my precious fringe. "Dude, what have I told you about cutting the fringe length when its wet?" I barked. "I know, I know," he replied in an exasperated tone. "Always cut it dry because when it's wet it'll be shorter than you think when it dries."

"My fringe is pretty wet at the moment dude" I barked back. "Yep, it is," he quipped. "I'm allowing an extra inch for shrinkage, sound good?" My shoulders sagged at the thought.
Before I could respond, he'd slid the shears in at my lower lip and snipped. I held my breath as he continued snipping his was across. My shoulders slumped. Now I think I knew how he felt when I clippered off most of his long locks on the back of his head. "So, this is a revenge cut then," I groaned at him. My fringe would only be to the tip of my nose at best when it dried.
"Jake, I don't know why you keep saying that. It's not. You told me you were looking forward to getting it cut shorter for summer, did you not? This is just shorter, I'm not shaving your head dude, really."
"Well then how come you just cut my fringe, my most favorite part of my hair, shorter than it's been the whole time we've known each other, huh." I was getting upset. "Now it's too short to tuck behind my ear. Just great, when I'll be outside bending and squatting tending grape vines. I'm gonna have to use sun block all the time too, my ears are showing, just great." I sighed deeply. " I'm sooo sorry I ever suggested this idea Gunner. Now I'm gonna have to wear a hat all summer, this sucks!"

Gunner had moved back behind me. He was brushing all my fringe straight back. Then he gave me my left part. No matter how long or short I wore my hair, I always parted it on the left, it just didn't feel right any other way. He started carefully combing and snipping along the upper part of the back. Not insignificant small bits of hair were again raining down into my lap. Eventually the frequency slowed, then stopped altogether. I saw him reach for the peanut clippers. He carefully removed the neck fuzzies and trimmed in front of my ears. Next he picked up the big Osters again. I tensed back up and started to squirm. Then I realized he was going for my beard. He'd not said a word since my last whiny pout a few minutes ago, hmm.

Gunner proceeded to trim my beard down , how short I didn't know, but would soon enough find out.
He lined up what remained of my beard in silence, not even making eye contact. This was a first for us. We usually couldn't take our eyes off of one another during haircuts.
Next, since my hair was still damp, he got out his blow dryer(he hardly ever used it) and proceeded to finish drying my hair.
"O.K. " he said flatly. My long, but not so long now fringe was brushed to the side and hanging over my right eye just slightly. Still nice and thick at least, that was something, I lamented to myself.

He unfolded the mirror and stood it where I could see myself from 3 angles at once. "You can either wear it like this, without product in it, or I can show you how I thought you might like it with product in it. Your choice." He stepped back looking anywhere but at me, arms crossed tightly against his chest.

"Um, O.K. I guess I'd like to see what you were thinking with it." I responded, quietly. He silently got out one of my favorite lite hold matte finish pomades. Taking a small amount and warming it, he worked it through my fringe and sides. Then he finger combed my fringe up and back, wriggling his fingers through it, much the same as I did. He also pushed the sides more back, showing more of my ears.

"There, that's for when you need to look more put together and neat." He tossed the tin back in my bag and started picking up the gear and cleaning up.
I reached out from under the cape and felt the back of my head and neck. I was staring at myself in the mirror. Head swiveling back and forth. I raked my hands through the fringe and top. I cringed when I felt the soft stubble at my nape. It started at my nape, and only extended up about a half inch, before it quickly died into the longer sections above. Yuck, I thought.
" If there's nothing you want me to change, I think we're done here, I'll brush you down and remove the cape." Gunner said, very stiffly and crisply.
All I could muster was "O.K. sure Gunner." He gave me a very perfunctory brush down, and unsnapped the cape, shaking it as he moved it out of my way. I carefully stood up and turned to face him. What I saw scared me.

I knew him well enough to know he was barely holding it together. He wouldn't look at me. I reached to tip his head up and he jumped back out of reach.
"Gunner, come on. Talk to me. What is going on?" He walked around me and flopped onto his bed. Sniffing loudly. I saw his shoulders start to shake.
I walked over and sat down next to him. I was afraid to touch him. "Gunner, talk to me babe, please. Tell me what's going on, please."

He scooched away from me and turned over. Staring with the most hurt look I've ever seen on him. Suddenly I was a bit distracted, he looked so f***ing hot with that new cut. If he wasn't so upset with me at the moment, I'd have pounced on him in a heartbeat. The hurt look brought me quickly down to earth again though.

Gunner started talking, softly, "Jake, look, I know I screwed up royally here. I know you hate what I did to you. I know you think I did it as revenge for this." He ran is hands through his new cut. "I'll tell you one last time, it's not. I know you don't believe me and you think I cut it way too short. I thought you wanted it shorter than you usually did with the comments you'd made this semester. Clearly I misread you. I cut the back short because I really liked it when you cut Nicks hair that way for baseball last summer. It's neat but not short, short, or at least really short. You always push your fringe and sides back behind your ears, When it's like that you ears show all the way, so I decided to just trim it shorter and expose them a little, not all the way though.
I trimmed your fringe a LITTLE shorter, mainly because I love it when it hangs just over you right eye a tiny bit. You are sexy as f*** like that, at least to me anyway. I'm sorry man. I know it'll take most of the summer for your fringe to grow out. And" .... He sniffed and sighed..."for what it's worth I don't ever want to try this again. I had no idea you'd be this upset. Really, I'm sorry." He rolled onto his belly again.

"Gunner, turn over please" I'd never seen him get this dramatic. He rolled onto his side and looked sideways at me like a puppy that had just been spanked.
"Look" I began. "I think I over reacted. Actually I don't think, I know I over reacted. I know you were uneasy going into this. I saw how much hair you were cutting and I panicked. And yes, I know I did say I was looking forward to getting it cut shorter. What I meant was back to the way I usually wear it though. We'd both grown it out quite a bit this last school year. I get now how you could have interpreted that differently though. Yes, this is shorter than I expected. And I did jump to conclusions that it was a revenge cut. Once you explained what you were thinking though, I realized that you'd put a lot of thought into it. And for what it's worth , it's very well cut. O.K.? I'm sorry I behaved like a brat? And I PROMISE I'll never give YOU another unwanted transformation type cut again. I now know just how sensitive you are about the whole short haircut business. Are we good now? Forgive me? Please?"

"Gunner sighed" Yeah, I guess so, sure. I'll finish cleaning up here. YOU can go get in the shower while I clean up."

I walked into the bathroom and took a good look in the big mirror. I was still standing there tugging at it when Gunner came into the bathroom. " You really hate it don't you" He said and started to walk out again. I grabbed him and pulled him up next to me. Wrapping my arm around his shoulder.

"I don't hate it" I said quietly. "But now I know how you felt earlier too. It's shorter than I wanted, shorter than I expected. I never would have picked this willingly. I believe, unless I'm way off here, that you feel the same way about your new cut too though, correct? I also think that we each think the other looks smokin hot with the new cut he's got, or at least I do." I gave him a small hopeful smile.

He turned to face me and wrapped his arms around me, working them up into the short nubbins he'd created at my nape. "Mmm, this is a whole new experience for me Jake. I never thought I'd feel velvety stubble anywhere on your noggin, wow." I knew he was settling down a bit by how he was talking, good.

"Mmm, yeah babe", I replied. "I'm kind weirded out about that if I'm honest. I've never had it clipper short, ever. I've also never had my smokin hot boyfriend run his hands over it either though, hmm."

I looked at him affectionately. "Let's get showered up. This has been a long day, O.K." Gunner nodded yes.

We took a long leisurely shower together then got ready for bed. As we got back into our room I playfully flopped him onto the bed. Then I flopped down on top of him. "You know, I said, looking at him with lust filled eyes. I think it's time for a little revenge, yes?" I reached up and tugged my short locks, wiggling my eye brows at him playfully. Gunners eyes got wide, then he smirked. I reached up and snapped off the light. It was gonna be a long night.

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