Inner Desires

17.

Terhi Koskela was in a good mood, taking a relaxing bath after a long day at work. Being a makeup artist could be tiring, but she truly enjoyed it. All she had to do was make people look better, which she felt was one of her talents. Drawing and painting was one of her hobbies, so she had a good sense for shapes and colors and could use it in her job. The only thing she didn't always like was chatting with the clients. In her homeland, small talk wasn't exactly one of their strengths. Luckily, her years abroad had made her a bit more outgoing than that, but she didn't always find it easy to make conversation with her customers. When she had that problem or simply wasn't in the mood to talk, she would just exaggerate her own accent, making them believe she didn't speak the language too well.

Her cordless telephone, which was lying on the edge of the tub, rang loudly and brought her back from her reverie. She didn't usually pick up her phone when she didn't recognize the caller ID. Yet it had caught her completely off-guard, so she simply reached for it and answered.

"Hello?"

"Terhi?" a tearful, weak voice spoke to her.

"Yeah, it's me. Who is it?" she wanted to know.

"It's Hanna..."

The Finn let out a small exclamation. Now she understood why she had seen such a long number on the display. Hanna was calling her from the Netherlands, where she and Kimberly had gone on holiday. To celebrate their nine months together, the brunette had thought they could take a trip to Europe and meet her family.

"Oh, hey!" she smiled "How was the trip? Did you get there yet?"

"Yeah..."

"Good! And how's everything?"

"Not too good, I'm afraid..."

She could hear Hanna sniffling, and the sound of her voice already showed that something bad must have happened. Terhi started worrying about her friend.

"Just give me a second, ok?" she told her before carefully stepping out of the tub.

Putting a bathrobe on, she dried herself a little and sat on the toilet lid. She took the phone back to her ear and said:

"Tell me, what happened?"

"It's my family" Hanna explained.

"What about them?"

"They've kicked us out."

"What?!" the Finn gasped.

It was about seven in the evening, which meant in Holland it'd be past midnight. She could already imagine her two friends there, with no place to go in the middle of the night.

"Oh my gosh!" Terhi exclaimed "I suppose you guys can't find a hotel or something around this time..."

"No, that's fine... my cousin picked us up. We're staying at her place."

"Well, that's good. But what happened? Why are you crying?"

"I had a terrible fight with my parents. They don't ever want to see me again."

Hanna broke into tears loudly. Although she didn't know exactly what was going on, Terhi would have liked to give her a comforting hug, but for the moment, words would have to be enough.

"Sssh, honey. Tell me everything."

The other girl continued crying for a while more, unable to utter a complete word. Her friend took a deep breath, waiting for her to calm down.

"My mum and dad didn't take my coming out well" she finally said.

"Oh..." Terhi bit her lip "I'm so sorry for you!"