CHAPTER 35

June was a fortunate month for Kim. She had gotten the brief escape of Germany and a Sisters of Mercy concert, and now to keep her from going insane because of band politics and messed up friendships, there was the release of the American movie Batman Returns and its soundtrack. She couldn’t care less about the movie, really, even with Tim Burton directing it and Michelle Pfeifer prancing around in a vinyl cat suit. It was the one song on the soundtrack that she had been waiting so very long for.

            Face to Face.

            Written not only through the perfect stylings of Siouxsie and the Banshees, this song had Danny Elfman’s touch as well. Kim brought it home reverently on the day of its release and sat down on her bed with Jessie, listening through Elfman’s score first in an attempt to prepare herself for the sheer wonder that the song had to be.

            By the time Elfman’s entire CD of scoring was drawing near its end, Kim was sprawled out across her bed, moaning at every chord she approved of. Jessie rested her head on Kim’s stomach, unable to stop smiling. She reached out blindly for Kim’s hand and gripped it tightly when she found it. “The song’s coming,” she whispered. “Face to Face.”

            Both of them held their breath as the song opened, a strange mix of the sounds of Siouxsie and Elfman. Kim gasped in when Siouxsie’s voice, somehow more mature than it had ever been, started in. “Face to face, my lovely foe. Mouth to mouth, raining heaven’s blows.”

            So maybe the lyrics of the song hit a little close to home, but as the music filled the room and flew around them, they were living only for the sensations. Jessie’s gentle hands were following out the bass line across Kim’s arm. Kim was gasping and shivering every time the slightest piece of the song rang true.

            “Another life, another time, we’re Siamese twins writhing intertwined.”

            They were both overrun by the very essence of the song, not even capable of coherently voicing their reactions. Kim would moan, Jessie would whimper, huddling closer together as the song pressed on.

            “Face to face, the passions breathe.”

            Kim was only half aware that she shouldn’t be embracing Jessie or feeling anything she was feeling while holding onto the half-American bassist. But the song was getting right into her, waking up places that hadn’t even felt since Gwen first shut the door behind her.

            “And you’ll never know.”

            This song was getting Kim in a way nothing else could; it was Siouxsie Sioux, picking away at inhibitions that were best left in their proper places.

            “No, you’ll never know.”

            Kim shot up, not letting go of Jessie. Without even thinking about what it could lead to, she gasped out the words “Redye my hair.”

            Jessie, her hand pressed right under Kim’s neck, watched her for a moment before answering. “It doesn’t need it.” Her voice was forced and halting, though. “It hasn’t faded.”

            “But it will...” Kim brushed Jessie’s hair out of her deep brown eyes. “It will, if you leave it any longer. You don’t want me to have faded hair, do you?” She took a breath, unable to look away from Jessie’s eyes. “Straggly red showing through. That won’t do, Miss America. You know that.”

            Without another word, Kim led Jessie into the bathroom. More on instinct than anything, Jessie locked the door behind them. She was shaking, but it was fine tremors. Her breath caught when she tried to calm it, so she gave up. Kim was breathing heavily too, knocking things over in her attempt to find the dye.

            “It’s been a long time,” Jessie murmured. “Don’t know if I remember how.”

            “It’s easy.” Kim led Jessie to the edge of the tub, where they both sat. She rested the dye between them. A hairbrush was in her hand. “First, you find the section of hair you want to dye.” Her voice was soft. She handed the brush to Jessie, who moved in closer, barely noticing when she nudged the jar of hair dye.

            Carefully, Jessie started brushing out Kim’s hair, barely able to look away from her intensely green eyes. She forced herself to pay attention as she gathered together the two blue streaks. “Now what?” She let the streaks hang in front of Kim’s face, hiding her eyes for a moment.

            “Open the jar.”

            Jessie put the brush down. It ended up sliding into the bathtub because her hands were still shaking, but they both ignored that. She opened the jar of electric blue hair dye and let the lid follow the brush down into the tub. “And now?”

            “Now...” Kim reached two fingers into the jar, withdrawing them once they were blue past her knuckles. “You get messy.”

            “Oh.” Hesitating only a moment, Jessie then plunged her hand into the jar, drawing out a thick pile of blue. “Like this?”

            “Yeh. Nice an’ messy.”

            “And then?”

            “And then... Attack my hair, luv.” Kim pushed at one of the chunks hanging in front of her eyes. “Get it nice and wet.”

            “Nice and wet.”

            “Yeh. Nice an’ wet an’ messy.”

            Jessie took a breath, then spread the dye between both her hands. She caught up one of the chunks of hair, sliding it between her fingers. Pushing it up then smoothing it down, getting a thick paste of blue over the hair. “This is useless,” she murmured.

            “Why?”

            “Won’t need dyeing for two more weeks.”

            “Shh. Don’t talk.”

            Jessie came closer, and the jar of dye was now touching both their thighs. She thoroughly drenched one chunk of Kim’s hair with blue, her face much too close. When she picked up the second streak, she caught the perfect skin on Kim’s face with a smudge of blue. Kim reached up and touched her wrist, smearing blue across it, then trailing it down her arm. Jessie swallowed, concentrating on the hair. Kim’s hand was now tracing lines of blue right above the low neck of Jessie’s shirt. “But people will see,” was all Jessie could manage to say.

            “So take off your shirt,” was Kim’s response.

            Without leaving room for hesitation, Jessie did, getting blue all over it.

            Her bra was white.

            Kim couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a white bra. She put lines of blue down it, pausing to get more of the dye on her fingers before tracing blue down Jessie’s stomach. “You’ve lost weight.” Kim narrowed her eyes, running her hands from Jessie’s sides to her navel again and again.

            Barely able to speak, Jessie managed to say that all Kim’s grrls were skinny. Kim sighed, tracing her nail through the blue streaks on Jessie’s skin. It left snaking trails of white. “Do you believe that’s what I want?”

            “Does it matter?”

            Kim didn’t respond. She took her own shirt off, getting it stuck to her dyeing hair for a moment. She had to fight with it, and ended up laughing, leaning in even closer to Jessie.

            Kim’s bra was black.

            Jessie’s touched it carefully, her soft and gentle hands still trembling. Kim took up both her hands and kissed them, not caring that she was getting the blue dye all over her face. She kissed up both Jessie’s arms, one by one, leaving blue trails to mark the passage of her lips.

            It never went past the bras. Kim’s skirt wasn’t taken off. Jessie’s trousers weren’t taken off. It was still deadly intense, not even half naked and never kissing lips. The entire exchange was all about the movement of hair dye over bare skin.

            Their encounter ended with Kim lying over Jessie, her head resting right under her breasts.

            “It would never work,” Kim said.

This chapter includes lyrics from Siouxsie and the Banshees' Face to Face, written by Danny Elfman and the Banshees, © Polydor Ltd. (UK), 1992.

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