Fighting for life -ENGLISH VERSION

Chapter 8

"Look, that's not so easy... My mom loves my long brown hair. She already nags at me enough, I don't want to endure that too," I said in despair.

"As I said, you should do what feels right for you," she replied. I looked at her with desperation.

"Come on, let's go to the hairdresser instead of the jeweler!" Mira tried to convince me.

"Mhm, I don't know. On my birthday? Can't we wait until the holidays?" I asked.

"Alright," she replied. You could hear her disappointment.

We arrived at the jeweler.

"WOAH, Alex, look! These beautiful necklaces and rings!" she said dreamily.

"Yeah, they're really nice," I replied.

"But they're all so expensive!" she remarked. I nodded. "Let's buy clothes instead," she suggested. I agreed with her decision.

"Wait, Mira!" I called out. She turned around. "I'm getting my ear pierced now!" I said confidently. "But you're not 18," she replied. "Yes, but look who's walking up there," I said, pointing to Jonas and Lionell. When they saw us, they came running towards us.

I tried to butter up Lionell: "You'll surely sign the permission for an earring for me, right?"

"Please what?" he asked. "An earring," I confidently repeated. "Since I'm a cool brother, I'll do that. Just because it's you!" he laughed. "Thanks, Lionell!" I squealed with joy.

We opened the door and greeted the man behind the counter.

"Hello, I'd like an earring," I asked.

"Are you already 18?" he asked.

"No, but my brother can sign for it. Is that okay?" I replied.

"Actually not, but I'll make an exception. If you could show me your ID, good sir!" the man requested. Was he questioning Lionell's age? It's clear that he's over 18. In fact, he's 23. He signed the papers. Then the man asked me to choose a design for a medical earring. There were stars, hearts, circles, squares, and triangles. Since I only wanted one earring on the right side, I only had to choose one earring. I chose the triangle.

After that, I sat on a chair, and the man marked a spot on my earlobe where he would shoot the earring through.

"Higher, lower?" he asked me. "That's okay," I replied. He nodded and loaded the earring into the gun.

Somehow, I was now scared. He positioned it at the marked spot and pressed.