Busted by Sean Orlov

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It was a Friday morning and as I got ready for school, I called out to my mother,
"I might be a bit late from school this afternoon mum" I shouted
"Kev’s mum wants him to get a haircut"
Kev lived in the next street and was my closest mate, we had been in school together since we were six and were by now, aged sixteen and in our last year at school, best buddies. We always walked home the five blocks from school together.
Mum shouted down the stairs.
"You might as well get yours cut as well, I meant to send you last week while you were off �" take the money off the table in the hall"
I was OK with that, better than being taken by my dad on a Saturday morning. He always went to his traditional barbers and would insist on a short back and sides for both of us. This way I could ask for just a trim and keep my hair a lot longer, as was the fashion in the 70’s. It was already well past my collar and I loved it. Kev was also growing his hair out but didn’t have quite as much length as I did.
As we left school that afternoon I met with Kev and we chatted and walked down to the high street where Kev got his hair cut. It was a bit more modern than the place my dad used. I looked in and there was only one person waiting so Kev and I went in and took a seat.
There was only one barber as the afternoons were usually fairly quiet. A young woman was working there, Kev said she was new. She was about 20 and quite good looking, slim and petite with long red hair. I picked up a magazine from a pile as she caped up her next client. He was a kid about the same age as Kev and myself with floppy black hair in what would probably nowadays be called a bit of a Goth hairstyle. I didn’t pay them that much attention until I heard the buzz of a powerful pair of clippers. I looked up just in time to see the girl put a tiny guard comb on a large set of chrome clippers and plunge them straight down the centre of the goth kid’s hairline leaving a strip an inch and a half wide cut down to about an eight of an inch. As the boy’s eyes widened a large row of long black hair dropped into his lap. I heard a gasp from next to me and turned to look at Kev who was obviously as surprised as I was that the kid had chosen such a short cut. Without a pause the barber ploughed the clippers again and again through the guy’s hair. We both sat in silence, the buzz of the clippers and the clicking of the girl’s heels the only sound until a ping at the door as another couple of teenaged boys walked in.
"Take a seat boys �" I’ll be with you shortly" she called over, without even pausing. The two boys (one from our school) took seats and watched on, obviously as fascinated as Kev and myself.
She swiftly moved round the kid, pushing the clippers right up to his crown, folding his ears over to clip round them. Within a couple of minutes the whole of the guy’s hair had been reduced to almost nothing.
As I sat there watching the scene unfold I tried to imagine being the kid in the chair, walking out with that haircut, Returning to school looking like that! Although I knew I would never ask for a buzz cut like that, the very Idea of being brutally buzzed to stubble by this pretty redhead quite excited me. I felt myself getting hard, and as I glanced at Kev I could see he was equally aroused by the scene we were witnessing. I think it was the sheer speed with which he was transformed from Goth to almost bald that I found both shocking and in a way exciting, the thought that my hair could be stripped to nothing so quickly and efficiently. A complete transformation in a matter of a couple of minutes. There was no going back for the Goth kid, he would be almost bald for weeks
The girl had finished within just a couple of minutes and was shaking out her cape. The (Ex) Goth kid left the chair and walked to the till, rubbing his newly shaved head as he paid the barber and left the shop. After sweeping aside the pile of black hair the girl turned to me and Kev and said "NEXT" in quite a firm voice.
I started to stand but Kev was there first. As I sat down again Kev hastily rearranged his obvious hard on and walked over to the chair. As he sat down I saw the girl bend and lift the hair from over Kev’s right ear. She whispered something in Kev’s ear, whatever it was made him blush and bite his lip. He looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.
Then the weirdest thing happened, Kev cleared his throat and said in a quiet voice "Just like the last guy". I thought I’d misheard but the girl asked him to repeat himself and in a louder voice Kev said,
"A buzz cut just like the last guy please"
I was gobsmacked, Kev was as proud of his long hair as I was. I couldn’t believe he was now going to get a number one Buzz cut. He hadn’t said anything to me at school today.
As the girl wrapped Kev tightly in the cape I felt myself getting excited again, the fact that it was Kev being shorn making it closer to home. She wasted no time, running the clippers brutally in to Kev’s hairline leaving a wide white strip down the middle of his head, reducing him to stubble. Kev stared resolutely ahead. I tried to catch his eye to get some clue as to what was going on in his head, but he continued to stare straight ahead. Maybe it was a punishment ‘Orders from his dad’ or something, I’d ask him later. I knew one thing, he was going to get a hard time from the rest of our school when we went back Monday.
This time, maybe because it was Kev it seemed to take longer for the girl to finish the cut, however in a matter of minutes Kev was relieved of the last of his hair. The pile of hair around Kev’s feet looked huge. Unlike the Goth guy’s hair, Kev’s was fair like mine, and now almost invisible. He looked as good as bald and I wondered what it felt like. As Kev reached up to run his hand over his newly clipped head he shuddered and looked shocked.
As Kev rose from the chair almost in a trance, the girl once more snapped her cape and beckoned me over. As I passed Kev I tried again to catch his eye but he walked past me like a zombie.
As I sat in the chair, the barber leaned over me and quietly whispered in my ear.
"Another dammed kid with a hard on, and that’s going to cost you the same as it cost your mate �" A good shearing" She smiled as I blushed and my eyes widened. "Either that or everyone gets to know what makes you get hard �" watching little boys get sheared"
As she wrapped the cape around me she suddenly changed from a whisper and said in a voice loud enough to make me jump, "What’s it going to be then?"
I just sat there with the hugest of lumps in my stomach, did I have a choice?, and how could I escape Kev’s fate? My mind was racing, what was I going to do? I glanced round the barbers shop and at the lads waiting. They had seen Kev get shaved and, like the barber, were eagerly awaiting my answer.
She repeated herself and after what seemed like forever I heard my tiny voice say "Same as the last guy please"
There was no pause for reflection. I heard the huge chrome clippers burst back to life and immediately plough into my hairline. Blonde hair started to tumble past my eyes and down my cheeks. Immediately I could feel the cool air from the shop air con across the top of my head, and with four more rapid passes of the clippers, the front of my head was hairless, like a balding old man. As the girl stepped to the side I could at last see my reflection in the mirror, the face staring back at me with wide eyes was a stranger. A knot formed in my stomach, I was back in school tomorrow morning and I sat there imagining the reception I would get as I walked into class. The looks, the shuts of Baldy, Skinhead etc. And again, what about my parents, how do I explain why I’d had such a brutal scalping. They all knew how much I loved my long hair
She moved to the back of my head pushing the clippers all the way up to the crown and then round the sides, pushing my head left and right in order to clip round my ears. With most of my hair now in my lap I could suddenly feel the warmth of her hand on my head. Within a couple of minutes the girl finished up, and un-caped me, my now freed hands shot up to my head but all I could feel was rough stubble, My hair was so fair my head looked completely bald from more than a foot or so away.
As I stood up and walked towards the counter and till I was shocked by just how light and cool my head felt. I was used to having hair on my forehead, and over my ears. It was sinking in that it would be a good eighteen months, and after I left school, before I had hair anywhere near that long again.
I glanced over at the other lads waiting. They were both sitting there open mouthed at what they had just witnessed, and to my amusement, when one of them was summoned by the girl and walked past me towards the barber’s chair I noticed he had a tell-tale bulge in the front of his trousers. I gave him a smile as we passed, I almost wished I could stay and watch him face the clippers, but we would be seeing the results at school soon enough. We paid the girl and as we left the shop
Kev said nothing as we walked from the shop until we got about twenty yards away, He turned to me and I just said "S**t �" Busted"

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