Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
by Ani King
Named Tiffany, with long brown hair, who plays basketball and softball, who prefers pop but is listening to Nirvana because you picked them, who is looking at a picture of Jenny Shimizu, Madonna’s famous model girlfriend. Tiffany whose wide shoulders and biceps tense into tight lines when she holds the magazine out, who says, “I don’t think a woman can get much more naked than a shaved head,” and Tiffany’s loose tank top exposing a flash of sports bra and a distraction of tanned skin, and Jenny Shimizu in a black and white CK One ad with barely grown out black hair, and you, a girl asking, “Will you do it for me? Do you have clippers?”
Tiffany who says, “Fuck yeah, this is going to be so rad, who has you sit on the toilet, shirt off, and who dusts off your bare shoulders and drapes you with a towel that smells faintly of Pantene Pro-V and cucumber melon body wash. Tiffany who tugs your already short hair, hair that you cut yourself, twisting two inch sections up and sawing at them with a pair of old scissors, your hair that Tiffany has called, “so fucking punk.”
Tiffany who is pressed against you, and her bare knee cap against your lower back, and your whole body vibrating as the clippers chew through thick, uneven hair, Tiffany who is careful to protect your eyes, but tiny hairs still fall on your neck and between your bodies, so you can’t tell what’s making your skin prickle, the hair, or Tiffany and her body heat. Tiffany gazing at down at you, and fuck, Tiffany and her clean long ponytail, Tiffany laughing when you tip your shaved head back and rub it against her chest, pushing your own sharp hairs into her tank top, under her skin, Tiffany who tells everyone she’s gay, and you, not pop enough to admit you are too.
Ani King (they/them) is a queer, gender non-compliant writer, artist, and activist from Michigan. They can be found at aniking.net or on Bluesky.
