The Unwanted Haircut by TyeSays

---

An overwhelming sense of nausea washes over young Matthew Parry as he watches his close-knit group of friends form an inescapable circle around of him. They all stared down at him with expressions that reminded him of the ghost in The Gravedancers, only not nearly as tacky or cartoony.
"Are we ready?" college student Jonathan Bell asks before holding up his newly bought Oyster clippers. It was because of him, and that stupid piece of plastic, that Matthew was in this situation in the first place...

They had been hanging out in their typical hangout, talking about nothing of real importance (music, homework, work, etc etc), when Jonathan suddenly ran up to them; his new favorite toy tucked away beneath his arm. No one knew, truly, how to respond as Jon told them - rather excitedly - about all the guards and cleaning supplies it came with.
"And we care about this...why?" one of the newer members of the group asked as they turned the box around in his hands. It was right then-and-there that Jon revealed the reason he brought it over was because he wanted Matt to be the first person to receive a haircut with it. Once the words left his mouth, everyone's interest in the oyster clippers grew a full 100%.

Matt had, of course, rejected the idea; claiming he had worked on growing out to just sheer it all off. Unfortunately his protest fell upon deaf ears, and everyone basically ganged up on him; telling him it was just hair, it'll grow out, to live a little and stop being a sour sport. After ten minutes of nonstop arguing, Matt reluctantly agreed on the condition that Jon use a decent sized guard...

Matt absently runs a hand through his flowing locks as he listens to the excited chants of his friends. His hair, at least for the moment, was just long enough to cover his eyes and ears. It was wavy, it was blonde, and it was his favorite part of his appearance..and now it's about to be taken from him. "Lets do this!" Jon shouts before switching on the clippers. The sound of them roaring to life causes Matt to jump.
"Is there anyway I can talk you out of this?" He asks, hoping against hope that there is.
"Nope," Jon says before reaching out and grabbing ahold of the younger boys thick fringe, "Now be still. The less you move, the faster this'll be," Matthew sighs and, not wanting to watch his beloved hair fall away from his head, closes his eyes. Jon places the humming clippers on his forehead and, in one swift movement, pushes it into the hair. The hungry teeth chew savagely through the thick locks, leaving behind a strip of fuzz in its wake. The crowd goes completely insane as they watch the thick clumps of blonde hair fall to the ground.
"You look better already!" Jons girlfriend, a girl named Tiff, calls out patronizingly. Matt opens his mouth, prepared to answer back with a sarcastic comment, but all that comes out his a tiny whimper that causes the crowd to burst into uncontrollable laughter. Matt's cheeks turn a vibrant shade of red as he glares at Tiff.
"Oh, relax, will ya?" Jon asks before running the clippers over his head a second time; the feeling of the clippers gliding against his skin makes him sick, while the feeling of his soft hair tumbling down past his arms to the ground makes him feel like puking up anything and everything he's eaten today.

Jon makes another swipe, and then another, and another, till all the hair atop his hair is reduced down to about an inch and a half. Once that's done, he sets to work on the left side of his head. He plows the clippers straight up, and Matthew watches as the curly blonde hairs that once created his sideburn flutter down to the ground. It only takes Jon seconds to buzz down the side of his head. Everyone in the crowd watched in awe as he pushed the clippers up and down, all around, and above his ear and behind it. It may have only taken a few seconds but to Matthew..it felt like a lifetime.

"Oh isn't that cute," Tiff pipes up once the hair on the right side has been mowed down, "He's got himself a cute little mullet!" And it was true. While the front and sides were all buzzed, the back was still long to fall down over the collar of his shirt.
"You should leave it like that," Matthew heard someone in the crowd call out.
"Hmm..." Jon stares at the thick curtain of blonde wavy hair, "nah. This is too fun to just stop now," He says with a smirk. He then proceeds to push Matt's head forward - enough so that his chin is to his chest - and plow the clippers into what's left of the boys precious locks. A few tears fall unnoticed from Matts eyes as Jon buzzes off the last of his hair. "Almost done," he snaps the guard off the clippers, "Gonna tidy up the edges a bit. Then we're done." A moment passes before he feels it, the warm vibrating teeth of the clippers. Slowly, carefully, they begin to move...but not in the way he expected. No, they don't move sideways...they move up.
"What are you doing?" He asks as the blade goes higher and higher, stripping off more and more of hair as it goes.
"Just cleaning up," Jon says mischievously. The clippers continue to move higher, stopping only once it reaches his crown. Jon moves over to the left side, places the blade at the end of the once magnificent sideburn, and pushes it up; Matt watches in horror as patches off inch long hair falls away and joins to over growing pile of hair on the floor.
"Jon!"
"Too late now," Jon replies casually as he pushes the clippers once more around his ear, "You should've know this would happen," he says as he finishes off both the sides and then shaves off the top...

In just a matter of minutes, Matthew has gone from shaggy - to overgrown buzz - to almost a skinhead. It was his worst nightmare come true! "Done!" Jon turns off the clippers and takes a step back to admire his work, "You look so much better!" Wordlessly, Matthew stands up. Every scuffles to the side as he walks silently away.
By the time he reaches his car...he's in full blown tears. He climbs into the car and, without giving his friends a second glance, speeds away.
"That was amazing," Tiff says before snapping off her camera.
"Hell yeah it was!" Jon agrees, his grin telling us he doesn't care how upset this whole ordeal has mad Matthew, "Who's next?"

The tears stop falling moments before he arrives back at the campus. After parking his car, he rushes inside and to his room. His roommate Joseph, a good-looking man with short-but-shaggy blonde hair, looks at him with concern.
"You ok?" He asks tentatively as Matthew buried his reddened face into his pillow, "What happened to your hair?" He asks. A moment passes before Matthew raises his head off his already soaking pillow. He explains tearfully to Joseph everything that has happened: about being ganged up on, about being peer-pressured, and about Jon ignoring what he said and going guardless anyway. Jonathan frowns and, in an attempt to cheer him up, tells him about how recently one of his friends did the same. Told him all about being tackled and tied to a chair before having his hair forcefully buzzed off.
"It was horrible."
"This was horrible as well.." He takes a deep breath, "We need new friends.." He absently runs his prickly scalp, "New better friends.." Jonathan smiles.
"Agreed."

Authors Note: I've officially picked a username to stick with. I've written "Man of my Word" "Trip Back Home" and "Marco, Age 16". The username I post this under us the one I'll stick with [it's the username I use for every website I use]. Hope you enjoyed the story.

---