Junebug - (On Hold)

Ch. 8 - The Pedicure

As far as manly colours went, Miles was a bit out of luck. I tried to get him to settle on a nice olive green, but he refused. I could tell I was losing him as he observed the different options with a look of distaste twisting his features, so I quickly pointed out that he could just get a clear coat put on before he backed out for good.

He begrudgingly agreed and stepped aside so I could pick my colour. I couldn't decide between a deep reddish shade or a light robin's egg blue, so I held them up and asked Miles for his opinion.

He squinted, as if deep in thought, until finally pointing at the blue.
"Go with this one, it'll bring out the blue in your eyes."

"My eyes are green, genius."

Offering up an apologetic shrug, he said, "Sorry Juniper, but I just want to get this over with. So pick a flippin' colour already cause this place is giving me the creeps!"

Chuckling, I settled on the robin's egg blue and led Miles over to the chairs we would be sitting in.

Ten minutes later it looked like Miles was struggling to keep himself from peeing his pants. Giggles kept escaping his mouth as he tried, and failed, not to squirm around in his seat. The lady attempting to paint his toenails kept sending him subtle glares as his foot kept wobbling around.

"How do girls do this?!" He said between laughs, "It tickles so much. Oh my goodness. I am going to kill you Juniper."

I couldn't help but laugh at his antics. Turning towards the lady that was attempting to wrangle his squirming foot, I said, "Sorry for his behaviour, ma'am. He doesn't get out very much."

By the end of the appointment, Miles was so red in the face that I was surprised he could even stand up. I admired my blue toes and wiggled them to catch the light on the shiny surfaces from different angles. Miles just frowned at his toes before turning his gaze towards mine.

"That is a really pretty colour, Junebug. You should take my fashion advice more often," He said with a sassy smirk.

"Likewise, Miles. The shine that polish gave your toes really compliments the girly little tears that you were releasing throughout that whole appointment," I matched, "I'm sure the guys will really love it."

His smirk promptly dropped from his face. I guess he failed to consider how our brothers would react to his shiny new nails. I certainly hadn't. This was going to be fun.

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It wasn't until later that evening that Xander and Finn caught on to the fact that Miles was hiding something from them. We were all chilling in the living room together when Xander started asking us about our days.

"I'm sorry that we had to skip out on you today, Junie. I sure hope Miles made your first full day here a fun one. If not, I promise to take him out back and rough him up a little for failing in his brotherly duties," he had joked.

A quick death glare shot from where Miles sat on the couch told me not to share what we had done. It was gone from his face as quickly as it had appeared, but I could tell that Finn caught the look.

"Oh, my day was great! After you and Finn left, Miles and I just hung out." I thought that I had kept my voice fairly steady throughout my explanation, effectively masking how Miles and I really spent our afternoon, but once Finn rose from where he had been lounging on the ground I knew we had been caught. Not that I cared, I wanted to see how the guys would react.

"Nope. I'm afraid I don't buy that. I saw that little look you two shared. What did you really do today?" Finn turned to Miles, he has always been the worst liar in the family, so Finn knew he would be more likely to spill the beans.

"Oh you know, man," Miles stated with a flustered look appearing on his face, "we took a little drive, sang along with the radio, nothing much."

"Where did you drive to?"

"Uh, the... um, park?"

"And what did you do there?"

"Oh not anything real exciting. Just, uh, I guess the, um, the playground! Yeah! That is what we did, we went to the playground so Juniper could swing on the swings." Miles actually had the audacity to look proud of the lie he formed.

Before Finn questioned him again and Miles dug his hole even deeper, I decided to step in. "Okay, first of all, seriously, Miles? The playground? I'm seventeen! If you are going to tell a lie, don't spin it so you harm the dignity of your partner in crime. That is just common knowledge. Secondly, in case you two couldn't see past the crap that Miles just told you, no we did not go to the park. We went to a spa. Miles booked me a pedicure appointment."

Xander looked puzzled. "Well that isn't so bad. Why would you try to hide that from us, Miles?" His brow furrowed in thought for a moment, until suddenly they shot up in realization, "Unless you were embarrassed about something."

Huge grins spread across both Xander and Finn's faces.

"Let me see your feet, Miles."

"No!"

"Come on. Show me the toe, bro."

"Nuh uh!"

"Miles, I have been able to pin you down since, well, forever. If you don't show me your toes right now I will not hesitate to bring you down myself."

Xander's shameless threat seemed to do the trick, so a resigned Miles slowly removed his socks.

Finn frowned.

"Aw, come on, clear?!" He turned towards me, "You couldn't have persuaded him to get a colour?"

"Trust me, I tried."

"Well this isn't too bad, dude," Xander said as he held Miles' foot in a tight grip so he could examine it, "I mean, it is definitely better than that time we convinced little Finnegan here to wear a dress all day."

"Are you guys ever going to drop that? It was one time!"

"Nope!" All three of us exclaimed in unison.

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After Xander and Finn lost interest in Miles' shimmery toes, we settled in to watch a movie together before bed.
I sat sandwiched between Xander and Miles on the couch. I could feel myself getting sleepy since I hadn't got any sleep the night before. Usually I get at least a couple hours.

The action on screen ceased as the film morphed into a more serious scene, and my head began to feel too heavy to hold up. I let it fall onto Miles' shoulder, and he lifted his arm to wrap around my shoulders.

"Thanks for today, Miles," I whispered so the others couldn't hear, "I really appreciated it. I know that was hard hit to your masculinity."

"It was my pleasure, Junebug. And it wasn't a hit to my masculinity. Nothing could ever damage the manhood of one so manly as I," he joked, "Besides, I think that being willing to do the things your little sister enjoys without complaining is a sign of a different kind of strength. And in that department I am definitely more manly than either of the other two idiots here." He raised his voice at that last part so our brothers would hear him.

Finn sputtered indignantly and Xander turned a scary scowl towards his younger brother.

"You really think so, eh? Well my offer from earlier still stands. Let's see how fast I can pin you now, little bro."

I could see the joking glint in Xander's eye, but that didn't keep me from trying to shuffle away from Miles'side before I got pinned by my eldest brother too. Despite my frantic efforts to get away, I was quickly caught in the fray between the guys. Finn looked left out and jumped on Xander's back, effectively becoming the cherry on top of a rather violent sunday.

Turns out I either get treated like royalty by my brothers, or I end up at the bottom of their dog pile. Either way, the excitement never seems to end with this lot.