ɪꜰ ɪ ᴋɴᴇᴡ ɪᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇɴ | ʙ.ᴇ

- chapter 6 -

- Kamari -

Finally, I had enough clients to open my salon. It's been a few days since I last saw Billie and to be honest, she has crossed my mind more than a few times. Maybe it's her odd behaviour or perhaps it's just her absence. I don't question why I don't see her, everyone has their own lives.

My salon is all set up and to be honest, I'm buzzing with both nerve and excitement. I had of course done other clients nails from my old house but I'm now advertising myself as a professional. It's a lot more pressure.

The nail day was alright, I had 3 clients who all had very different nail ideas so it was a fun exercise for me. Even when they come in with the ugliest designs I don't mention anything, $40 is $40 if you know what I mean.

I was tipped $60 in total so I'm counting that as a win. I finish quite early, around 4 so I decide to ask Otis if he wants to come round for tea if I cook us something and he says yes. My cooking isn't anywhere near as good as his but regardless, he admires my effort.

We don't really have much to talk about to be honest. Otis is unemployed at the moment but picks up the odd job of babysitting or cleaning. When we both don't really work on someone else's terms we have a lot of free time that, as 18 year olds, we have annoyingly nothing to do with. We both don't really drink so it's not like we even go out partying with Chloe. We both also don't have many hobbies. I mean, I have my nails but that's my career now it's not something that can bond us together. Plus, pursing hobbies can be dead expensive and I don't really want to be wasting money right now.

"Do you ever listen to songs or watch movies and you just feel like you're wasting your life?" I ask randomly, breaking apart the mince as it cooks, sizzling in the oil. "Even though all anyone does it tell you you have your whole life ahead of you."

Otis thinks.

"Yeah that's a nice way to put it. But, I've never really known anything different. Maybe I would be wasting my life even more should I be sat in an office all day. At what point is unemployment cleansing for the soul? Cause right now I do just feel like I'm wasting my time and I'm not even halfway through life."

"It's quite scary." The mince is browning, it stresses me out trying to make sure I get every single bit cooked on both sides. "Like I'm not doing anything really worthwhile with my time. I know I've just bought a house and started a business but those things don't feel real to me. What does is that I'm sat at home 80% of the time and I actually don't know what I'm supposed to do to change that."

It's quite a deep conversation but I like talking about these kind of problems. It helps reassure me that I'm not the only person in this whole world going through what I am right now. Something I am overly fond of are those moments when you get into a topic both you and another person have a lot of opinions about and no matter how close you may or may not be you can literally speak completely truthfully without fear of being judged. They provide insight into something you lack much knowledge on and you can agree with their opinions. It's a weirdly bonding moment but I love them.

"I think we need to start having fun." Otis lets a look of pure excitement spread across his face as he jumps off the counter he was previously sat on. "Let's get tattoos!"

My mouth opens to a smile, not really taking this idea seriously. I'm too busy trying to add the veg before it spills off the chopping board onto the hob. He has crazy ideas like this once a month and whilst we have fun with the idea we never go through with it. "Oh yeah, what would you propose we get?"

"How about we get matching tattoos on our wrists?"

"Absolutely not." I shut the idea down so fast, Otis is still putting his hands out in gesture after I finish my denial. "You know the second we get matching tattoos, we'll fall out and grow to hate them."