It was only one hair. Nothing to get hung up about Jade told herself. All she could say for certain was that it wasn’t her hair. Her’s had been blonde for at least six months now. She took the long black hair from his motorbike helmet and laid it on the kitchen table. It started to curl, big voluptuous waves. Not that Vietnamese neighbour then, Jade ticked off their acquaintances. Bludger, Jason’s mate had long hair, but that was about two weeks ago before he went to prison. The temp at the garage maybe? Jason has taken her home more than once. She had red hair at the moment, but Jade had seen her with pink and black at different times when she went to pick him up from work. And she was a flirt. All the lads at the workshop played up to her. Jason said she was too young, but Jade knew age was no barrier to lust. She tried to think of a black haired minx, a viper who could woo her Jason into indiscretion. One name popped up and she gasped. Amber.

 

Her sister had always liked Jason and even told her in a drunken moment she would have had him if Jade had been stupid enough to let him go. She picked up the hair and studied it looking for the minutest hint of DNA. She stretched it out and smelt it. Then she let it fall back onto the table.What was she thinking? Jason was as solid as a rock. She convinced herself that she could trust him implicitly. He had an eye for the ladies, but then what man didn’t. Look but don’t touch, she joked sometimes at the pub. They watched women together making a game of it. She knew it was only a game. Jason knew too, and he called her 'his woman'. That had to count for something she thought.

 

They never talked about their past lives preferring to think life started with each other. She knew he had had a succession of girlfriends, he kept an album in the wardrobe, stuffed carelessly under his motor bike boots and girly magazines. She had seen it once and was struck by how alike they all looked. Thin, young, big breasted and dark hair.

 

Jade first met him while she was working at Bob’s big exhausts on Seventeenth Avenue. He would come in and hang around, trying to get a rise out of her. She played along with the chat up lines and then he eventually asked her out to the drags. He was a fun guy, and shouted her a rum and coke, so they decided to meet again. As the dates mounted up she forgave him his little flings back to the past. After all, some of his girlfriends were also his good friends. They sometimes came back to her flat for a drink and a smoke. It all seemed so innocent and cosy at the time. But when Jade found him in her flat one afternoon with Samantha, she blew her cool. He tried to explain although the sight of her underwear hanging on Jades mirror said it all. Jason was out of line, way out, and not likely to come back into fashion until hell freezes over, she yelled at him. Amber said her sister was well rid of him. She shouldn’t have to put up with trashy behaviour like that. Jason cooled his heels for about a month and then he rang. It was Amber who suggested they all go out together. It was Amber who said she would put him straight. And it was Amber who asked Jason for a lift on the back of his Harley, because she was over the limit. Jade mused on the possibility of a double cross, but knew her sister wouldn’t do something so bad as to steal her boyfriend. Stuff like that only happened on Jerry Springer, not to Jade.

 

She looked at the hair, willing it to divulge its owner, when she heard a car pull up outside.

 

Laughter and the clinking of bottles announced the arrival of Jason and two of his mates, Tommo and Cracker. They shoved the slab of beer in the fridge and plonked themselves down in front of the tele. One whiff told Jade they had been at the pub most of the afternoon. Jade beckoned Jason to come into the kitchen and he heaved himself out of the settee and walked through the door. There was no easy way to ask him about the hair, and so she just came out and said it. She threw the question at Jason and he physically took a step back. Then he played the dumb card, but Jade had seen that too many times to be drawn in, and answered with the one word that she knew would make him cringe.

 

"Well?"

 

He lost his cool and she supposed because he had been drinking he threw a punch at her. Up till now he had only ever poked her in the chest a bit, but this time it was different. The punch landed on her cheek and she reeled back, too shocked to speak. For a split second she saw he was shocked too, then his rage took over. Jade positioned herself on the other side of the table and looked pleadingly in his face trying to judge how far he would go before it ended. She smelt his beery breath as he flung insults at her, the tattoo on his neck bulging with the effort. When the tirade of abuse ran dry they stared at one another, out of breath. Jade knew the routine and was forming the words to say, "I’m sorry" when she stopped. It only took an instant to take in the whole kitchen, the home she had tried to make, the semblance of normality she had cultivated, her bloodied face, and she knew she was more than this.

 

Jason saw something different in her eyes and told her to 'just forget it'. He turned his back on her and started towards the doorway.

 

Jade turned, and grabbed the fishing knife on the counter, her knuckles turning white as her grip tightened.

 

The moment was distracted as the screen door opened.

 

Jade threw the knife and it landed in its victim.

 

Amber staggered back, the screen door sprang shut, and with her black wavy hair covering her face, she fell to the floor.

 

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