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Allison took one look at Neil’s butchered cuticles and gasped.
“Neil!” She covered Neil’s hands with her own as if she was covering a crime scene. “Have you been…” she pretends to gag, “chewing?”
“What?!” Neil batted Allison's hand. He took a quick look at his fingers. The entire skin was raw from his episode last night. Andrew calls them anxiety attacks. He also insisted on Neil talking to Bee. That was a hard no.
“Oh” Neil breathed and tucked his hands behind himself. Awareness and self consciousness bloomed in Neil's gut like a bruise. He had never cared about his appearance. Things like vanity didn’t survive on the run. Now, Neil actually had time to be concerned with how he presented himself.
“Yeah ‘oh’! It looks like your fingers went through a paper shredder!” Allison exclaimed dramatically.
Neil gnawed on his cheek nervously. A part of him couldn’t believe he was about to ask this. Another part of him revelled in the safety he had found himself in where he felt secure enough to ask this question.
He turned to the taller girl. Allison's long blond hair was done in two, tight french braids. Her makeup was sharp and precise but still feminine and beautiful. The defensive dealer's eyes track the court with cat-like grace. Kevin had called it laziness before.
“Can you- help?” Neil fiddled with his fingers.
Allison scoffed loudly. “That was never a question, Josten” she rolled her eyes.
After practice, Neil went straight to the girls' dorm. Dan opened the door. Instead of a greeting, his Captain looked directly at his nails. Her jaw dropped.
“Oh my god Ally was right” Dan said in disbelief.
Alllison appeared behind Dan. She clucked her tongue at Neil. “Take a seat” she jutted her chin at her obnoxious vanity.
Renee was sitting on one of the three beds in the room reading some magazine. She tilted the magazine when Neil entered the room. She gave him a pitying look.
“Hey Neil” she said
Neil chuckled dryly. “You heard about this too?”
Renee smiled sheepishly and climbed on her stomach. She held out her hand and Neil automatically gave her his. Renee tried to school her reaction but her eyebrows ticked up. She patted the back of Neil’s hand and looked at Allison. She nodded.
“Ok Josten” Allison gestured to the two small dishes of clear liquid on the vanity.
“Soak ‘em”
Neil didn’t hesitate to follow Allison's orders.
Dan flopped on the other bed across from Renee and fidgeted with the remote. “Not exy!” Allison complained. Neil perked up at the mention of exy and his eyes whipped to the tv. An exy game was playing. An old game from a low division but Neil wasn’t picky.
It was halftime when Allison dried Neil’s hands and uncapped a thick, clear pen.
Neil furrowed his brows. He struggled to read the pen's small label. Allison hummed as she used the pen to rush coconut scented liquid along the edges of his fingernails.
When she was finished, Allison capped the pen and picked up Neil's limp hand. She studied the nails.
Neil didn’t recognise any of the tools Allison used. All he knew was his fingers felt cleaner when Allison set his hands down.
Allison squinted in contemplation as her eyes flicked between Neil’s nails and her tower of polishes.
Neil began to shake his head with skeptical eyes as Allison held up a pale blue bottle. She shushed Neil and told him to look up. Neil did so and the cold surface of the bottle was pressed up against his face beside his eye. Allison tsk’d and retrieved a different bottle of what looked like the same colour and repeated the process.
Five minutes later, Neil had nails coated in light blue polish. Allison called the colour "iceberg blue” she had also said "to match your eyes!”
Renee applauded politely when she saw the art. Dan’s smile bordered on crazy.
Then Matt entered the dorm.
“Hey girls-” Matt stopped in his tracks. His eyes were fixed on Neil’s hand tapping absently under his ear. The idiosyncrasy was a habit Neil never managed to kill.
Matt dropped the plastic bags he was holding in his arm. Dan immediately bent down to pick them up. Then she used the back of one hand to nudge Matt’s agape jaw closed.
Matt’s swallow was audible. He coughed and banged on his chest.
“Uhh…” Matt wouldn’t make eye contact with Neil, “Andrew is asking for Neil” he stared at Neil’s shoes.
Allison was smirking like the cat that got the cream. “What do you think about Neil’s nails, Matt?” Allison’s eyes were alight with mischief. Neil jabbed Allison in the side as Matt turned red. Allison threw her head back and cackled.
Dan knee-walked to the end of her bed and affectionately pecked her boyfriend's hot cheek.