Lila Pham works at one of the busiest nail salons in the city; with business booming out of proportion and her fear of her friends and fellow classmates discovering her location of work is at bay, all seems to be going well.
Except for the fact tha...
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The phone rings. I rolled over, my eyes peeling off of the laptop screen to find Kenji's face appearing as my iPhone's lock screen. His labelled name hovering over him in bold as the ringtone stretches into annoyance and the flash of red or green urging me to be make a decision.
I press the button, stopping the makeup tutorial I was watching on YouTube and answer. My phone laid out besides me as Kenji is being held on speaker. "What?" I greet, my voice laced in slight irritation.
"Wow, what's with the tone?" Kenji asks, his voice echoing in a joking yet concerned tone. He adds. "You good?"
I run my hand through my black hair and sigh heavily, nodding my head despite him not being able to see me. "Yeah," I answer, my voice morphing into tiredness with a hint of regret. "It was some issue at school that happened and I'm just over it, really."
"Do you wanna talk about it?" It almost sounds like he was settling into a seat on the other end. I sigh.
"It–it's nothing," I said, finding my voice sounding fake. I felt the need to clarify. "It's just—you know how Raelynn likes Beckham?"
"Yeah."
"Well, when she saw that Beckham loaned me his jacket during the soccer game, she got jealous. Then, when we saw each other again at school today, she was giving me a whole ass lecture because of it. She was going on and on about how she likes Beckham first and she called first dibs. She basically spent the day being mad at me and not even bothering to look my way. It was kind of annoying. I don't like it when my friends are mad at me."
I let it all out in one breath, feeling a sudden weight off my shoulders. I never liked talking to my other friends when I'm having an issue with one of our friends; because being us, it would rotate back to one another and would cause loads of more problems. It was always better to keep shut. At least then, no more issues or rumors would stir.
Kenji didn't reply. He stayed silent on the other line, and I had to tap on my phone to check if he was still with me. He was.
"Are you hungry?"
"Huh?" His question took me off-guard. Usually, I believe, when you're ranting to someone about your situation, they would comfort you... right? That's how people do it in the movies.
But Kenji on the other hand... he thinks about food?
"I said, are you hungry?" He repeats the question, a bit more louder on his end. It notified me that I wasn't hearing other things. "Obviously if I tell you about how I feel in this situation, you aren't going to listen to me. Especially if I'm talking about your friends. So, are you hungry?"
"Umm..." I didn't know how to reply to this situation. I'm not prepared from all the movies I've watched. "Um, sure."
"Alright," Kenji sounds like he was shifting on the other line; he lets out a heavily exhale. "Send me your address and I'll come pick you up at your house in a few."
