Read Online The Bad Girls' Club by Kathryn O'Halloran - Free Book Online

the door to her flat and I stood in the doorway, stunned. It was amazing, like those rooms they have set up at IKEA. When they first set them up of a morning, I mean, not after a Saturday of family shoppers have trounced them. I wanted to check that the television wasn’t a plastic replica and the books weren’t all printed in Swedish.
    My hopes of vegging out were shattered though. I couldn ’t imagine flopping on Beth’s immaculate white sofa. It would disturb the five perfectly aligned blue cushions.
    ‘ Sorry the place is such a mess,’ Beth said. She walked over to the coffee table and scooped up a leaf that had fallen from the vase of lilies.
    ‘ You live here?’
    ‘ No, it’s just a place I rent for special occasions.’ Beth laughed. ‘Of course I live here. Relax, make yourselves at home.’ She spread some newspaper on the kitchen floor. ‘Well, not you, Juliette. Don’t relax. Get here so we can get started.’
    Imogen hunkered on the balcony outside, sucking on a cigarette. She thought that smoking was a habit all bad girls should have. Beth had told her there was nothing sexy about lung cancer or emphysema. No way were we going to start, no matter what anyone dared us.
    Beth wrapped a towel around my shoulders. I was worried that she would wreck one of her good towels but she said it was old. She pushed up her sleeves, ready for business then snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and mixed the hair dye with one of those brushes like real hairdressers use.
    The dye felt cold and globby as she dabbed it on my hair. The fumes stung my eyes and the dye burnt my scalp. I flinched as she started on the next section.
    ‘Hey, try to stay steady.’
    ‘ Is it supposed to burn?’ I asked.
    ‘ Yes, of course it is.’
    ‘ It’s not going to be permanent is it?’
    ‘ It’s just highlights. How permanent can it be?’
    I picked up the dye box. ‘But it says here –’
    Beth grabbed the box out of my hands. ‘Never mind about that. Anyway, it’s only hair. It’ll grow back.’ That was easy for Beth to say. She already had the perfect hair, the perfect teeth, and the perfect body. All I had was a burning scalp and stinging eyes. That dye was really strong.
    Imogen walked back inside. ‘Couldn’t we have just gone to the hairdressers for this bit?’
    ‘ I guess so,’ said Beth. ‘But I like doing it. It’s more relaxing than hanging around the hairdressers. Oh, Imogen, can you grab a bottle of bubbly out of the fridge? I always wanted to be a hairdresser when I was kid. For my eighth birthday, I got one of those Barbie fashion heads so I could do the hair and makeup.’
    ‘ Wow. I had one of those too,’ I said. ‘I never played with it much though. I thought Barbie was kind of boring.’
    Imogen poured the champagne and sat up at the kitchen bench.
    ‘What did you get for your eighth birthday?’ Beth asked her.
    ‘ I can’t remember. When we were kids, Mum either forgot our birthdays completely or she did this whole overblown production number. Either way, it sucked.’
    ‘ I dunno. A big party could be fun.’ Beth kept dabbing away at my hair.
    ‘ You think? They were damn awful. She’d serve paté and canapés. Or more likely have the caterers serve them.’ Imogen frowned. She hated talking about her mum, you could tell by the way her voice went all tight. Didn’t Beth notice that?
    ‘ Sounds good to me.’
    ‘ Not when you’re five years old. The only decent party I ever had was one time when Mum was away. Nan looked after us and she threw a party with fairy bread and sausage rolls and raspberry cordial.’
    ‘ Standard kid stuff,’ said Beth, nodding.
    ‘ Yeah. Mum chucked a mental when she found out. I must admit we did get a bit hyper. She’d have never known we’d been jumping on the couch if Suzie Kingston hadn’t left her muddy footprint behind. Damn her.’
    ‘ Still, you must have had some good times growing up with your mum.’
    ‘ Yeah, fantastic.’ Imogen