Author's note: I've got to keep thanking you all for reading. Please remember to comment and vote. I love hearing your thoughts and opinions.

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I didn’t wake up when Jimmy’s alarm went off. He must have sedated me with too much of that drug, like he accidentally did on my first night here.

He was shaking my shoulder and brushing his fingers through my hair to wake me. He was treating me like I was fragile, like shaking me too hard would break me. I wondered if he felt sorry for drugging me last night. Probably not since it was what was best for me.

I struggled with my eyes when I slowly opened them. Jimmy was leaning over me and I noticed that he had already got changed. I watched as his lips slowly curled into a smile.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said.

He leaned down to kiss me. My body was reacting slowly, so I didn’t realize what he had done until he pulled away from me. He had his hand on the top of my head and stroked my hair and forehead with his thumb. I opened my mouth to speak, but another one of my pathetic noises came out.

“Don’t worry,” he told me. “You get to sleep in today. I want you to rest up. Go back to sleep and when you wake up you can start your chores. Understand?”

I tried to say yes, but I couldn’t get the word out. I settled for just nodding my head. Jimmy leaned down and kissed my forehead.

“That’s my girl,” he said.

He left the bedroom and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

I had slept for a couple more hours and lied in bed awake for a while. All of my muscles seemed to ache and it made cleaning difficult. I focused most of my time on making dinner. I wanted to make sure that it tasted really good. I needed to apologize to Jimmy for my outburst last night. I even made a batch of cookies to show how sorry I was.

“Wow, this house smells good,” Charles said as soon as he walked in through the door. Jimmy and Tommy came in behind them and I watched them take in a deep breath.

“Thank you,” I said.

I could feel the heat rush up to my cheeks and Jimmy wrapped his arms around my waist. He reeked of sweat and dirt, but it’s a smell I familiarized myself with. He nuzzled his face down into my neck.

“It smells delicious,” he told me.

I turned around in his arms and put my hands up against his chest. I got on my toes and gave him a quick kiss.

“Go wash up before it gets cold,” I said.

“Of course,” he said leaning down to give me another kiss. “I wouldn’t want to miss it.”

Jimmy ran upstairs and a couple minutes later the entire family was sitting around the table. The passed around the plates and bowls of food and filled their plates. I was happy to see that they were enjoying it.

“When are you going to cut your hair?” Charles asked looking over at Jimmy.

“What?” he asked before shovelling a forkful of food into his mouth.

“When are you going to cut your hair?” Charles repeated himself. “It’s touching your neck now.”

“He’s right,” Tommy said with a mouth full of food. “It’s looking really girly.”

“It’s soon going to be as long as Juliet’s.”

I couldn’t stop myself from giggling. Charles and Tommy were laughing too. Jimmy scowled as he continued to eat. I don’t think he should be mad at me for laughing along with the family.

“Can we leave my hair alone?” Jimmy asked.

“I’m telling you I don’t know why you don’t cut it,” Charles told him. “It looks odd and gets in the way. Tommy’s right, only girls have long hair.”

“Well, I like it,” Jimmy said wryly.

“Trying to hide the scar?” Tommy asked him.

“The scar is on my face you idiot. If I was going to hide it I wouldn’t use hair.”

“Juliet,” Charles said. I was happy to just be listening. I didn’t want to be put on the spot, but I knew that I should probably stick to Jimmy’s side. He had looked up from his plate and stared at me. “What do you think about it?”

“I…I think it’s fine,” I stammered.

“Do you really?” Tommy asked me. “We’re saying it that it’s okay to disagree with him.”

“Leave her alone!” Jimmy snapped at him.

“Loosen up, Jim,” he told him.

Jimmy dropped his fork on the plate and stormed upstairs. I wanted to get up and follow him, but I knew I had to clean up dinner after. I felt awkward being around the family without him, especially Tommy.

They continued to eat like Jimmy had never left. Their conversation changed to a different topic and I quickly ignored them. They were talking about work outside, and I got confused easily. It was a lot of terms I didn’t understand.

After they had finished, Charles went into the living room to read. Tommy grabbed a handful of cookies and went up into his room. I tried cleaning up as quickly as I could. Jimmy must be upset and I wanted to be there with him.

I dried my hands on the towel and then rushed up the stairs. The bedroom door was closed and I slowly opened it up. I peered in and I couldn’t see him anywhere. The bathroom door was closed too so I lightly rapped on the door with my knuckles.

“Jimmy?” I called out.

He didn’t answer, but the door slightly opened. I pushed it completely open and walked in. Jimmy had a tight grip on the edge of the sink and his knuckles were turning white. He was staring at himself in the mirror.

“Are you alright?” I asked him. I timidly step forward towards him.

“Tell me what you honestly think,” he told me. “Don’t worry about upsetting me, I just want to know what you really think.”

He was still upset about his hair. I’ve heard Jimmy and Tommy tease, joke and bug each other, but he has never had a reaction like this before. I wondered why he was so angry about something so small as the length of his hair.

“I like it,” I said. “It’s your hair Jimmy, you can do whatever you like with it.”

“Would you have been with a guy like this?” he asked me.

“What?”

“Before we brought you into this house, would you have been with a guy that looks like this?”

“Yes, but why does that matter?”

Jimmy opened up one of the cupboards under the sink and started to frantically searching through it. I had no clue what he was looking for, but he seemed to want it desperately.

He slammed his hand down on the counter. A pair of shiny metal scissors sat on top of the counter. He left them on the counter and sat down on the edge of the bathtub.

“I want you to cut it off,” he told me.

“Jimmy, I don’t know how to cut hair,” I told him.

“It’s not hard and I’m not picky. My Dad or Tommy do it all the time. Just cut it off.”

I watched as he face started to twist and he began to chew on his bottom lip. I know what he said, but I knew he didn’t want to do it.

“Well,” he hesitated. “I don’t want it all off. Not as short as Tommy’s, but still a lot shorter than this.”

I picked the scissors up off of the counter and looked down at them. I looked up at Jimmy to see he was staring at me with those big, soft, brown eyes of his. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

“Are you sure you want me to?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Do it now before I change my mind.”

I picked up the scissors and curse myself out silently when I saw my hands shake. I couldn’t mess this up and make him even more upset, I would be punished for sure.

I started cutting it off little by little. It would be easier to fix if I need to cut a little more to make it even than cutting it all again. Jimmy didn’t say anything to me and I was too focused, so we spent the next hour or so in silence.

Once I was finished, the bathtub was full of Jimmy’s brown locks. I was pretty proud of myself for getting it even all the way around. It was short, but it was nowhere near the length of Tommy’s buzzed cut head.

“Done,” I said.

Jimmy sprang up and went straight to the mirror. His jaw dropped when he saw his reflection and he began pulling at the ends of his hair. I feared I cut it too short.

“How is it?” I asked him.

He turned around to look at me. The first thing that came to mind was Tommy talking about the scar at the table. The line of ripped, tore, jagged flesh seemed to stand out much more. His eyes that were already seemed so big appeared to be even larger. He no longer had the curtain of hair to hide his features behind.

“I like it,” he said.

He went over and kissed me. I ran my fingers up into his new soft hair and he had his hands on my hips.

I have done so many things in this house I never thought I would. I wondered what would be next, and knew that with Jimmy by my side I could handle it.