Page 31 of Falling With a Spin

“Hell yeah, let's get out of here.” I grab my purse and keys as we head for the door.

We arrive at the spa ten minutes before our appointment, which gives us enough time to decide on a color and what we actually want. I normally don’t get my nails done unless I’m with Taylor, which is on rare occasions. There’s an endless amount of colors to choose from, so I walk over to Taylor, who is flipping through a binder of designs and colors.

“Do you know what color you’re going to get?” she asks, continuing to flip through the book.

“No, I'm not sure. I might go with something neutral like usual,” shrugging and looking at the wall of nail polish in front of me.

“Hm,” she looks through the binder and then at the wall of color. “Why don’t you go with something bold,” she grabs a color off the wall. “like this yellow! It’s sooooo your color,” she says excitedly, then shoving it into my face. It’s a really beautiful yellow, not one that's on the mustard bottles in the grocery store or diners.

“Come on, get out of your comfort zone for once.” She pleads, bumping her hip against mine.

Do I really stay in the same bubble all the time?

Sighing, “Alright, I will go with this one. Maybe I will have her do a flower on one of the nails.” I take the color from her hands. “Have you decided on what you are doing?”.

“You know, probably just my usual sparkly pink. I can never find one that I love more than that.” She closes the binder and picks up the color she got from the wall.

My eyes roam the nail polish in front of me to see if there’s one calling her name. A light purple catches my eye, and it reminds me of the hair color I did once during my first year of college during emotional distress. I grab it, walking over to Taylor as she looks at another set of pink nail polishes.

“Hey, what about this,” showing her the bottle of nail polish. “I know it's out of your normal, but it reminds me of when I dyed my hair that light purple freshman year and how you loved it,” I say, holding it out for her.

“Emma, I love it! Thank you so much.” She says, excitement shown on her face. Taylor takes the color from me and holds it in her hand with a wide smile on her face.

“Ms. Kane and Ms. deKanter, if you two are ready, will you follow me this way.” A petite lady with black pixie-cut hair calls for us.

She leads us to two nail stations in the right corner of the salon. Taylor sits down at the one closer to the wall, and I sit on her left. I place my bag on the hanger and take my jacket off, setting it on the back of the chair. Pulling out my phone to search for a design, I see a text from my mom and immediately regret opening it.

I glance at Taylor, and she gives me a questioning look. She has always been able to read me, no matter how much I try to hide from her.

“It’s nothing; we’ll talk about it later,” I say with a smile.

Locking my phone, I place it back in my bag and push the guilt to the side. Because no, I haven’t spoken to Caleb since I saw him at basketball practice. He’s been calling and texting me, but it’s been too hard to respond, considering how close he is with Chad. I shouldn’t be ignoring him because I guess you can call it a punishment, even though it’s not, since he is teammates and friends with him.

“Hi, Ms. deKanter. Can I get you anything to drink? We have water, wine, juice, soda, or sparkling water?” The nail tech asks, pulling me from my thoughts. I look up and see a young woman in front of me, probably a few years older than me. I glance down at her name tag, which reads Belle. She has long brown hair and short bangs that sit on her forehead, wide blue eyes, and lashes that are so long they could have been extensions.

“Hi, Belle. A bottle of water would be fantastic.” I give her a small smile. I lean back in my chair as she walks away. When she comes back a few minutes later, she sits down in front of me and hands me the water bottle.

“What are we doing for you?” She scoots closer to the counter.

I tell her what I decided, and she nods her head, yes, starting the process. I glance over at Taylor, seeing that she is deep in conversation with her nail lady. I turn back around and watch Belle do her magic.

We walk out of the nail salon with our freshly done nails when my phone starts ringing. I pull it out and see Caleb's name across the screen, and I chew the inside of my cheek, debating on whether I should answer it. I decline the call, typing out a message to him that we’ll talk later. Digging myself deeper into my guilt.

“Are you going to tell me what is going on, or are we acting like everything is fine and continue to shove the problems under the rug like normal.” Taylor twists in her seat, looking at me. She sits criss crossed and plants her elbows on her knees, resting her head on her hands.

I glance away, looking out the window and fidgeting with my finger, but the sound of her stomach rumbling makes me chuckle. “It’s a long story. Can we go get some food, and I’ll explain it to you then?”

“Oh, thank god, yes. There’s this new sushi place right down the street I want to try. Is that okay?” she asks, facing forwards and buckling her seat belt.

“Sounds perfect.”

The difference between my perception of right down the street and Taylor’s is on a completely different spectrum. The sushi place that's “right down the street” is actually thirty minutes away. When we pull into a parking spot, it feels like I’m about to wither away and die. My stomach continues growling as we walk into the restaurant, and the hostess gives me a weary look as he walks us to our booth,

“Alright, please explain what has been going on. I need all of the details from the very beginning.” Taylor says, sipping on her water.

“You know that party we went to a couple of weeks ago?” I ask, taking a deep breath and calming my nerves.

She nods her head and sets her water down, brows drawing in with confusion. I proceed to recall the events that happened, keeping my eyes focused on the table as I try not to let the damn break behind my eyes. My voice starts to crack towards the end. It’s the first time I’ve spoken about that night to anyone.

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