Quarantine Stories Ch. 08

Eighth entry in my anthology series of people living under quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry if this story seems a little dated, considering how far we've come in this pandemic. I began writing this story during the height of the pandemic but thought I accidentally deleted it on my computer. Then recently, I found it in another file the whole time and decided to finish it as it was. Considering how far we've come in this pandemic, this is going to be the last story in this anthology series.

...

"How's it going, shaggy?" asked Tom.

"Shaggy? Wow, that's original," Bryce replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're hearing it all the time now, but I couldn't help myself."

Bryce was speaking with Tom through Zoom Chat, one of the most preferred video chat sites since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of social distancing, most people weren't meeting with each other in public, out of risk of catching or spreading the virus. So, for the time being, most people are using video chats to stay in touch.

"You need a haircut badly," said Tom. "Why aren't you using those trimmers like you were doing before?"

"I can never do it right because I have to do it myself. I messed up quite a few times, if you remember."

Tom laughed. "Yeah, of course I remember. That's why I was hoping you'd do it again. You looked so ridiculous."

Ever since the lockdown, all non-essential businesses have shut down, which includes barber shops and hair salons. Most people who were lucky enough to be living with other people during this time have resorted to giving each other haircuts. Sometimes they turn out alright, but other times, very badly.

Bryce had a small beard and used a beard trimmer that came with multiple attachments to maintain it. He decided it was his best option to give himself a haircut until he could get a professional to do it for him. But since he was living alone, he had to give himself his own hair cut using those trimmers, and the first two times he did it, it did not turn out so well.

So, this time, he decided to just wait it out and see how long he could last without a haircut. This decision resulted in his hair getting extra-long, including his bangs, which were getting in the way of his eyes.

"You look like a homeless person who's squatting in someone else's apartment," Tom joked.

"That sounds about right," said Bryce.

"Maybe you can go to your parents' place and let your mom give you a haircut," Tom suggested. "I spoke with your brother recently; he said your mother gave him a good one."

Bryce laughed. "And I bet he told you this on the phone, not through a Zoom chat where you couldn't see how my mother butchered his hair."

Tom laughed as well. "I thought that sounded fishy."

"My dad wants to give me a haircut badly. He keeps talking about wanting to give me a military buzzcut. He's very excited about doing it too."

"I didn't know he was in the military," Tom responded.

"He wasn't; that's what's so weird about it."

Bryce got a good look at Tom on the screen. The last time they video chatted with each other over a week ago, his hair was getting a little long also. It was not like Bryce, but it was noticeable. Now, his hair was short and perfect.

"By the way, did you get a haircut recently?" Bryce asked. "If you know of a place that's open, please tell me. Did you have to go out of town somewhere?"

"No, I stayed in the whole time," Tom replied. "I got lucky. I got a hair stylist in the family. You remember my cousin Emily, don't you?"

"I barely remember her," said Bryce. "She was a grade below us back in high school, wasn't she?"

Bryce actually remembers her perfectly. She was a sexy redhead with a killer body. All of Tom's friends, including Bryce, couldn't help commenting on how hot she was which was why he made sure none of his friends went after her throughout high school.

"That's her," said Tom. "The salon she worked at got shut down because of the pandemic, and to make some extra money, she's been doing it on the side for a few select customers."

"Is she allowed to do that?" Bryce asked.

"Yes, she just can't work in a location that has a lot of foot traffic. So, instead, she's been going to other people's houses."

"Now that can't be safe for her to do," said Bryce.

"It's OK, she's only been doing it for a few customers she knows well and a few family members like me. And she only comes to their place after she makes sure they take proper precautions to stay safe."

"Still sounds very risky," said Byce. "But I'm desperate. Do you think she can give me a haircut?"

"I don't know. She's been very selective since she started doing this," Tom replied. "She doesn't want to risk getting infected herself, so she's keeping her clientele very small."

"I'm kind of desperate here. I really need a decent haircut," Bryce pleaded. "I'm willing to pay extra if she comes here to give me a haircut."

"Are you sure about that? She's already charging $100."

"What?!"

Bryce was shocked, but not entirely. He knows people all over the country are making money in any way they can. They've even been overcharging people for some basic services that were a lot cheaper before the pandemic.

"Yeah, and I'm not getting a family discount myself, so I have to pay up too," said Tom. "But I don't know how long this pandemic will go on for, so I'm not going to use her that much, only when I really have to."

Bryce had to think about it for a moment. He was desperate for a haircut, but not so much that he wanted to pay an exorbitant price for one. Bryce wasn't trying to be cheap; he just didn't want to spend that kind of money on something like this.

"I can probably convince her to take you on as a client. But are you sure you want to pay that price?"

"That's a lot of money for a haircut. I have to think about that now," said Bryce. "I may try to do it myself again. I'm sure I can do it better next time."

Bryce was wrong as he gave himself another terrible haircut. It was so bad, he refused to do a video chat with anybody without a hat on. But it didn't matter; his friends and family knew why he was wearing the hat and made fun of him for it.

He tried to hold out against having to get another haircut, hoping businesses would open up again very soon and he could get a professional cut for a decent price. But again, his hair was getting too long for his own good. Finally, when his parents threatened to break into his apartment and shave his head, something he was afraid they might actually do, he decided $100 for a haircut was worth it.

"I give up," he told Tom in another zoom chat. "I'm willing to pay anything. Can you talk to your cousin for me?"

"I already did," Tom replied. "I figured this was going to happen and asked her if she could give you a haircut, and she said yes. She's just waiting for you to call her."

"Thank you," Bryce said, with a sigh of relief.

"By the way, she has a boyfriend," Tom told him.

"I wasn't even asking about that. Why did you tell me that? " Bryce asked.

"Because when you see her, you'll probably want to ask her out the first chance you get."

"Is she really that hot?"

"She's my cousin, and even I wanted to bang her."

"You probably would you perv," said Bryce. "I remember she was pretty back in high school--"

"Just admit you thought she was hot back then, too. You all reminded me of that whenever you could," said Tom. "And she has only gotten hotter since then. I'm just letting you know as a friend that she's seeing someone, so you wouldn't embarrass yourself."

Bryce made a small laugh. "Yeah, I probably would've flirted with her or something if she was really as hot as you say she is. So, thanks for the warning."

Tom sent Bryce her number, and he texted her immediately after they stopped the zoom chat. She got back to him a few minutes later, and they scheduled a time for her to come by his place in a few days. He tried to convince her to come over sooner because he was so desperate, but that was the best she could do for him.

It was a rough three days, and he was sure his hair was getting longer. He was able to keep his beard trimmed, since he at least knew what to do with that. And he did cut his bangs a little to keep them from going over his eyes, but not too much since he didn't know how much to cut off. He figured he'd just leave it all to Emily to fix up for him.

Emily came on time that day. When he opened the door to greet her, he was surprised by how she had gotten more beautiful from the last time he saw her back in high school. Emily, on the other hand, was shocked to see the shaggy monster before her.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?" Emily asked. "I'm sorry, that was rude. Tom told me it was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad."

"Yeah, it got out of control."

Emily joked, "You look like one of those guys they show on the news right after they find a bunch of bodies in his basement. Should I be worried about being alone with you?"

"I live in an apartment, so I don't have a basement. So, you're safe... for now," Bryce replied, with a joke of his own.

Bryce invited her into the apartment, and she entered, pulling a small carry-on suitcase that contained her tools of the trade, as she put it. But before they went any further, she insisted that she take his temperature, something he agreed he'd do in their text exchange. She also asked him some typical questions about symptoms and if he had any exposure to people with COVID, and he answered them all. Bryce didn't blame her for any of that; she was just trying to be careful. If she was going to visit some people's homes in private, she needed to be extra careful.

Bryce also asked her questions to be certain himself that she wasn't exposed to COVID and might have spread it to him. He asked how many clients she had and how often she saw them. She told him she only had twelve customers, which included three family members, such as Tom. She sees them sporadically and always takes their temperatures and asks them the same questions that she asked Bryce about.

They had a beer in the kitchen first to catch up since they hadn't seen each other since high school. Bryce thought Emily had gotten much sexier since then. He remembered how he and his friends were lusting after her, but Tom made sure none of them would go after her. He couldn't control who she dated in high school; he wasn't her brother, after all. But he was going to make sure his own pervy friends wouldn't try to take advantage of her.

Emily was 28, a year younger than Bryce. She had short red hair, a slim body with decent sized D-cup breasts. She wore jeans and a tight, low-cut t-shirt of her favorite band that showed a small amount of her cleavage. Tom was right; she was extremely hot and Bryce would've hit on her immediately. He was glad Tom warned him about her having a boyfriend, so he wouldn't embarrass himself if he ended up asking her out.

After they finished their beer, they decided to begin. She suggested the kitchen as the perfect place to give him that haircut, because the floor would make it easier to sweep up the cut hair afterwards. He gave her the money they agreed on, and he sat on a comfy chair that was low enough for her to stand over him to give him his cut. She tied a cutting cape around his neck, the apron-like cloth that professional haircutters use to wrap around their customers to make sure the hair doesn't fall on their clothes.

"Do you want a shampoo and wash also?" she asked.

"How would you do that here?"

"I'd just take you to the kitchen sink and make you stick your head in it while I washed your hair," she told him. "It's not a comfortable position, but it's effective. Some of my customers are OK with it."

"No thanks, I don't think it's necessary."

"Do you want me to fix up your beard as well?" she asked.

"Does it look bad? I usually keep it well trimmed."

"It's alright, but it could use a little touch up, and I can make it look better with the cut I'm going to give you."

"Sure, if you can make it look better."

"Trust me, you'll look fantastic," she assured him. "Now let's talk about the extra stuff."

"Extra stuff?" Bryce asked, perplexed. As far as he knew, this was a standard haircut and beard trim. He couldn't think of what else she could do for him.

"What did Tom tell you about how much I charge for the extras?"

"Um... He didn't go over that with me"

Bryce was now worried that she was going to try to sell him some things that he didn't want to buy from her. He could understand why she wanted to make more money during the pandemic, but he wasn't going to buy anything he didn't want. He was going to hear her out and politely refuse whatever it was she might try to sell him.

"I'll tell you exactly what I charge for the extras. It's the same for Tom and all the others. It's an extra $50 for me to be in my underwear, which is something sexy, in case you were going to ask."

"Say what?" Bryce asked, very shocked by what he had just heard.

"If you want me naked, then it's $100, but my panties stay on."

"Ok, wait a second. We need to talk about this."

"And if you want to touch me while I'm cutting your hair, that's a full another $100 on top of that, so the whole thing would be $200."

"Touch you?" he asked, shocked.

"Yes, you can touch me anywhere but my pussy. That's off limits," she told him. "But you have to be gentle with your hands, and you can't try to kiss me."

"Kiss you?"

"Yes, a few times a guy would try to kiss me or put his mouth on my tits in some way, but that's a definite no," she replied. "I'll get my tits close enough to your face for your viewing pleasure, but that's about it. The second you try to put your mouth on me in any way, I'm leaving, even if I haven't finished your haircut and I'm keeping the money."

"This is a lot to take in," said Bryce.

"And this goes without saying, but still needs to be said. Under no circumstances, no matter how much you offer me, I'm not going to fuck you. What I do may be a little slutty, but I'm not a whore."

He was happy to finally have a professional haircut, but now he was hearing all of this and he didn't know what to make of it. He thought she was going to sell him on other hair-related services and was ready to turn that down, but he wasn't sure if he was going to turn down this kind of offer.

"So, what will it be?" she asked. "I know it's a lot to consider, but you can take your time to figure it out."

"Emily, I need to be honest with you. I had no idea about those extra services you are offering. Tom said nothing about it to me."

"He didn't?" she asked with a surprised look. "I was sure he told you everything."

"No, he didn't," he assured her. "Trust me, I would've remembered if he told me something like that."

Emily's face suddenly had a slight tint of red in her face as she felt some embarrassment.

"Dammit," she said. "I was only offering that because I was sure you knew about it. Tom said, you desperately wanted to see me."

"Yes, because my hair is a long mess."

After a long, awkward moment, Emily started laughing. Bryce was surprised by her behavior, but glad she didn't feel embarrassed about the situation anymore.

"That's so funny," she finally said, after she finished laughing. "I guess this is my fault for assuming you knew everything."

"Do you really do that stuff?"

She told him how, after the pandemic forced her out of work, she wanted to make money by going to a select few clients' houses. For some reason, she couldn't get much of her old female customer base to want her to come over to their homes to cut their hair, but she had plenty of male customers who wanted a cut from a beautiful woman.

After a while, a couple of those men kept offering her extra money for extra services, mostly to fuck her, and she always said no. Then, one day, a customer simply asked if he could pay her to be topless. She initially declined, but it got her thinking about other ways she could do for extra money. So, the next time that client asked her to be topless for extra money, she accepted. After that, she developed a price list of her extra services, and over time, she came up with a few rules to make sure the men she did this for wouldn't get any other ideas.

"And you offer this to all of your customers?" Byce asked.

"No, only for about half of them, the ones I'm sure would keep a secret. Not all of them want me naked; a couple just want to see me in my underwear and that's all."

"And you did this for Tom?"

"Oh yeah, he loves it," she replied, with a big smile. "I know he's my cousin, but it kind of makes it more exciting."

Bryce understood why she did this, but it was still surprising to him to hear it. Back in high school, she was flirtatious, but she never behaved in any way that would indicate she would ever do something so slutty with her life. She was that girl-next-door type that every guy liked.

"This is surprising. Tom used to do whatever he could to keep us away from you," said Bryce.

"Yeah, that's because he wanted me all to himself," Emily revealed. "He used to hit on me all the time, that little pervert."

Suddenly, everything about Tom's behavior all these years towards his cousin Emily made sense.

"And what about your boyfriend?" Bryce asked. "Tom said you were seeing somebody."

"I am, but he doesn't know about this extra stuff. He would never be OK with it."

Bryce wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do to keep her boyfriend in the dark like that, but he wasn't going to say anything about that. He figured he would let her deal with the repercussion on her own if he ever found out.

"You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you?" she asked. "I don't want this to start getting around, especially to my parents."

"No, I wouldn't do that, I promise," he assured her.

"In that case, what do you think about my offers?"

"You still want to offer me those extras?" he asked.

"Yes, you seem like you can be trusted."

Bryce thought about it for a moment. This was a big opportunity for him. Because of the lockdown, he couldn't go to a strip club, and because of social distancing, he hadn't been laid in months. She wasn't offering him sex, but the chance to feel up a sexy woman like Emily was close enough.

"I don't have any more cash on me right now. Do you have any cash transfer apps on your phone?"

"I have several of them," Emily answered.

Bryce pulled out his phone and used one of the cash-transfer apps he had to transfer $200 to Emily. After Emily completed the transfer, she put her phone away and began taking off her clothes. Bryce was very excited; he hadn't seen a naked woman that wasn't on his computer in months, and he hadn't touched a real woman in a much longer time than that.

After Emily took off her shoes and socks, she removed her t-shirt and jeans to reveal the sexy black demi-cup bra that barely held up her tits and the matching black thong. She smiled at Bryce as she took off her bra and threw it at him. Her breasts were immaculate; Bryce did his best to hide how excited he was about seeing her naked.

"Please remember my rules about how you can touch me," said Emily.

"I promise, you won't have any kind of trouble with me," he assured her.

"By the way, you can jerk off, but only underneath this cape where I won't see it. And don't ask me to jerk you off either."

"That happens?" Bryce asked, very surprised.

"Not often, but enough that I had to make a rule about it."

"I don't think I'm going to do that, even if I am tempted," he told her.

"You didn't seem the type who would. But I thought I'd bring it up just in case."

Emily first pulled out a spray bottle and sprayed some water around his hair. Then she combed it so she could straighten it up a little to get a good idea of what she needed to do. As she did this, Bryce got his hand on her thigh and rubbed it a little. He then moved it up to her perfect ass and gave it a gentle squeeze.