inkspresso

don't say that

The group of five gets into the nail salon at the mall. All spoke excitedly about what nails to choose and what colour looks best on each other. Kristin chose a ferrari red. Sydney and Isla settled on a funky design with plenty of colours, Ava chose a beautiful shade of deep blue. Lastly, Zach chose simple French tips.

"Are you sure?" Isla asked. "They can make all kinds of designs." She explains worriedly.

Zach nods. "I like my nails simple. Besides, I've always wanted to try French tips." He shrugs as he looks at his hands.

Isla grabs his hand and inspects it up close. "Your hand is pretty.  And you totally bit your nails when you were a kid."

"I so did." He chuckles. "My grandma used to put chilli pepper on my nails so it would sting when I bit them."

"And did you stop?"

"You see, I really love chilli pepper, so it only made me want to bite them more." The two chuckle.

They're told to sit on the tables to get their nails done. Because they had three tables, Zach and Sydney decided to do their nails after them.

The two sat on the couches in silence. Right, Sydney doesn't speak much. Zach smiles as he watches Ava and Isla laugh along to a joke Kristin made.

"Despite looking like a serious woman, my mom can crack a few awesome jokes." Sydney comments.

"She's so fun to around." He smiles at her. "You all take on a bit of her lively-self."

"Please, my mom is like the epitome of calmness next to my dad. That old man knew how to party."

Zach chuckles. "Tell me more about him."

She smiles. "Okay, so, when we reached the age of ten, our dad taught us how to play the piano, right?" He nods, invested. "I mean, the man had the patience of a saint. Like, he would teach us how to read music sheets and then play them, all because he had one dream: make a piano sextet."

Zach chuckles. "Like a sextet where everyone plays the piano?"

She nods as she laughs. "It gets better." Sydnie pats his leg. "Because when my dad went to teach Jack, the little shit managed to untune the piano while playing it."

They two laugh loudly.

"Isn't it like impossible to do that!?"

She nods as she laughs harder.

Zach wipes a tear of joy that escapes his eye. "Can he play it now?" He chuckles.

"Yeah, after that, he practised like crazy. But then he got bored of playing on the piano and made our dad teach him how to play the guitar to impress girls."

Zach chuckles. "He's such a dork."

Sydnie nods, very much aware of her brother's way of being.

The two keep chatting as they get their nails done, making even the nail technicians laugh with their stories.

Once the nails were done, they moved onto clothes. Zach happily helped them all choose something cute to wear, but when it came to himself, he didn't really know what to wear.

Ava suddenly stuffs clothes in his face and pushes him onto a dressing room. Zach, flabbergasted, quickly understood he had no other option but to put on the clothes she handed him.

He quickly gets dressed and looks at himself in the mirror. A cropped white tank top that showed off his navel piercing and some pink shorts that hid the loves bites on his thighs perfectly. His long legs were on display.