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Just a normal day for Zanka, the college student in her first year, who's out in the main part of her town and looking for a place to do her monthly manicure. She would go to her usual one but the shock of it being closed—the owner not even sharing on the Instagram that it was closed—was enough to put her in a bad mood. All she wants is her usual manicure quickly done so Zanka can go and sulk whilst studying for the upcoming exams.
Eventually she stumbled upon a rather downscale salon—bit of a downgrade from her usual posh place. It was tucked away in a random back alley of the town square and had its letters of its shop falling by a screw—if you could even call them letters. The paint job was chipping away and there was random scribbles of graffiti around it.
What a place.
Maybe Zanka should turn back the way she came.
She would yet her nails were bugging her; she had lost an entire nail from a fencing accident a couple of days ago and most of them were bruised and chipped from all sorts of adventures so it was probably better to suck it up and get it done.
Zanka took a deep breathe and opened the door. The jingling of the charm clanked in her ear as she was met with the strong scent of a collection of smells: it seemed to be bleach mixed with the scent of orchids and incense—stinging her nose.
The shop was small with only two tables and one chair for feet manicures; it was coloured in shades of purple and pink around the walls with different tapestries and posters that were crumbling off the walls; in the back was a purple beaded curtain that led to who knows where. From behind one table was a young girl that looked to be the same age as Zanka; she was a dread head with long dreads down to her waist with golden beads in them; she wore a purple tracksuit with a number of rings and bangles on her slender fingers. Zanka wasn't a blind fool and knew that the girl in front of her was beautiful.
She was gorgeous even.
The girl must have caught on to her presence as she got up from her chair. Zanka got swept back into reality—after standing like a idiot for a couple of minutes. The girl moved in front of her and cocked her head, her dreads shifted with her:
"You alright, love? What's a pretty thing like you doing here—stumbled over here accidentally?" The girl smiled; a soul shuddering smile yet Zanka found it beautiful.
"Uh—Uhm—I'm 'ere for a manicure!" Zanka almost shouted as the girl got closer to her face—turning a shade of pink.
"O' course or youse wouldn't be 'ere! Come miss—this seat 'ere," Zanka followed her and sat in the seat whilst her duffer bag dropped on the floor; the seat was purple (a theme occurring) and was covered in different robes but it was comfortable, "So Wha' ya wan'? French tip o' short nail for the pretty lady?"
Zanka could feel her heart beeping out of time; being called "pretty lady" was doing something to it that was embarrassing to say especially when a girl that was her type was calling her.
"Can I 'ave short duck nails please—?" Zanka started.
"DUCK NAIL?—Miss, ya don't wan' that—trust me," the girl grabbed Zanka's nails and examined them with her tweezers, "Why 'ould sucha pretty madame like ya wan' duck nail? There's so much betta choices out there—like French tip!—"
Zanka snatched back her hand from the girl, "Ya the nail tech! If I wan' duck nail, then ya betta give it to me—yur makin' fun of my choice and I don' even know ya name!"
"Jabber Wonger, Miss—sorry for no' mentionin' it sooner!—as yur new nail tech, I can a' least have a say in wha' suits ya miss and duck nail just ain't it!" Jabber looked properly taken back by Zanka's words like it was something she never heard before; she's the nail tech giving the service surely?
"Then I'll be goin' to a new salon then!—see ya never—" Zanka made for the door whilst grabbing her bag but got stopped before she could open it.
"—Miss, don' be like tha'!—fine, come back and Ill give ya the duck nail—I guess..." Jabber grabbed Zanka's hand and guided her back to the seat. If Zanka wasn't being grabbed by a beautiful girl with a desperate look in her eyes then it wouldn't have worked. Maybe this was apart of the service.
"So ya really wan' duck nail?"
"Yeah—Can ya do this shade to?" Zanka reached for her flowly earrings; the deep cyan shade she always wore.
"O' course miss! A beau'iful shade of blue—matches ya eyes." Jabber got right to work; first filing down Zanka's nails with excellent precisions and smoothing down all the rough edges. She grabbed the colours from behind her—dark cyan and different shades that were similar to it and monochrome colours. Jabber finished the manicure whilst disregarding the finger with the missing nail—in fact it was two on the right hand, the ring and middle finger. Totally a coincidence.
Jabber reached for the fake nails next to her—the duck nails that she was so against. It almost hurt her to use them on someone with such beautiful fingers—to use such an ugly nail shape. It was what the client wanted so she could only oblige. Maybe one last push would stop her.
"Miss, I kno' ya really wan' duck nail but maybe—"
"No!"
She tried.
Jabber got back to applying the fake nails; she attached them with glue and smoothed out any edges; the duck nails fitted perfectly on her cilent's nails that it was such a shame but alas what else could be done now?
Her cilent in front of her remained such mystery; such a beautiful girl dressed in a dark blue tracksuit that sort of matched her purple one apart from the fact that Jabber's was hitched at her knee; the girl had short hair that was a light tan colour that flowed in one spot like it was waxed back and Jabber could see a shoddy dye job behind it. She could do so much better then however the girl's hairstylist was—or even boyfriend.
"So miss, ya nails are in sucha bad condition—wha' could 'ave possibly happened? Especially by the missin' nails on these two," Jabber pointed at the middle and ring finger.
"Ah—this is so embarrassin'—I'm apar' of the fencin' club in my college so I always end up losin' nails and wha' not—" Zanka avoided eye contact at the mention of her fingers without nails—interesting.
"How interestin' miss! I'm a college studen' too—am a stem nerd—haha—guess ya couldn' tell from my shoddy appearance."
"I 'aven't seen ya much around college—ah—I forgot to introduce myself!—Zanka Nijiku, I'm a english major—ya must 'ave seen me in the newsletter recen'ly!"
"Ya right! Yur the chick that's runnin' for chairman right? I knew I saw yur face somewhere before—it's such an 'onour to meet ya!" Jabber's eyes lit up with (lesbian) interest.
"Ya make me blush, hah!" Zanka laughed along.
Eventually, Jabber applied the pattern and the nail polish; she decorated Zanka's nails with the dark cyan colour like she wanted and applied the pattern carefully; she felt immense pressure from an unknown source—probably the fact that she was doing someone's nails from her college. That someone being a beautiful girl in front of her that she couldn't tell what team she played for.
It wasn't hot in the shop—due to the open windows and the massive industry fan in the corner—but Jabber was sweating like she was back in the tundra again.
Zanka wasn't talking either and Jabber hated sitting in silence so she tried her best to make conversation.
"So Zan-zan, ya got a boyfriend?" Jabber muttered as a sweat droplet fell from her neck.
She tried okay.
Zanka jumped at her words and went a bigger flush of red then Jabber could manage, "Me?—uh—well—boyfriend?—"
"I know—it's sucha dumb question—"
"No I don'—I—well—I uh—don' look for men!" Zanka screamed, surprising Jabber with how loud it was, "I uh—this is so embarrassin—"
"Nah—I understand it—ya rather get the cookie right? Ya enjoy birdwatching more then cockwatching, huh?" Jabber giggled, seeing how nervous it made the poor girl; it was entertaining in her eyes—watching Zanka squeal was part of it too.
"When ya pu' it like that! Ya make it sound so vulgar—but I suppose...how abou' ya..." Zanka settled down again.
"Ya just like me—I support the other team too—twins!" Jabber said a bit too excited.
The two settled back down into the uncomfortable silence; maybe it wasn't that bad now that they both knew the two of them were lesbians.
On one side, Zanka was overthinking everything; the gorgeous girl in front of her was a lesbian. A lesbian. Trying to find someone like her in college was like trying to find a grain of sand in the ocean (she knew it was there but it required great amounts of energy to actually succeed). So she was actually successful—soon—and just needed to make one final push to get what's hers.
On the other side, Jabber was absolutely smug that she ended up finding out such a crucial information of the beautiful girl in front of her; the girl was a girl kisser just like her and was someone she knew—or didn't know quite enough—someone who was right in her grasp. This would be easier then pie to get her.
Talking about the manicure, Jabber was almost finished; it just needed the final gloss and it was finished. Plenty of time to ask one more question.
"So are ya free—"
"What ya got—"
The two girls said at the exact same time; they realized and went pink again. Jabber let Zanka speak first as she was finishing the final coat on her nails.
"Are ya free after this—I mean—do ya perhaps wanna get coffee with me later? O' course if ya busy I understand—" Zanka fumbled her words. Jabber thought it was adorable.
"Sure—I got one more scheduled appointment after this but ya can stay around and wait if ya want—coffee sounds nice but only if ya paying!" Jabber laughed. Zanka laughed too so surely she must think she's funny. After drying the final coat, Zanka's nails were done; a array of dark cyan mixed with hyper pop patterns of white and blue—it matched Zanka perfectly with a special twist of Jabber's style.
"Wow—these are so beautiful! I'm 'onoured to be ur model—so what's the payment?" Zanka held her hands up in front of her, admiring the work.
"Payment? Hah—no need, Zan-zan—here, somethin' extra jus' for ya," Jabber handed Zanka a piece of paper. She unfolded it and tucked it away into her pocket to look at later.
"Are ya sure? I could always send ya somethin'—I'm not broke ya know—"
"It's fine, Zan-zan—I promise—" Jabber went to grab Zanka's hands, tracing her own fingers with acrylics on to the ring and middle finger of Zanka's hand, "That's wha' these two fingers are for."