Jon slammed the front door, startling his sister who was on the couch in the living room.
"Watch it dweeb, you almost made me spill!" She said, indicating the bottle of pink nail polish in her hands. It looked as though she had stripped the blue and was painting her fingers to match her toes. Jon barely acknowledged her and went upstairs, hoping to get away from any reminders of the day.
Before he got to his room, however, he passed by Mikey's room, with the door wide open. He frowned when he saw what Mikey was doing. He, too was painting his nails the same shade of pink.
Great, Jon thought, Everybody must match He shuddered at the thought of everybody in town painting their nails the same shade at the same time. Maybe... maybe he could do something about it. He spoke up.
"Hey Mikey, whatcha doin?"
Mikey looked up and smiled, "Oh, I was tired of the blue. Besides, I thought the fingers should match the toes."
"Right," Jon said, feigning interest. "Say, you wanna play some Mario Kart or something?"
Mikey rolled his eyes and cocked his head to the side, holding up a pink-tipped hand "Duh, do you want me to ruin all this work?"
"Why... Why do you paint your nails, anyway?"
"Everybody does it. You think I want my nails all gross and chewed up like yours? What would people think?"
"They'd think you're a normal kid who doesn't wear nail polish."
Mikey gave him a puzzled look, then seemed to ignore the question. "Let me finish doing my nails, then I'll play some stupid video games or something."
Stupid video games? Video games used to be his favorite thing. Jon just shook his head and went to his room. And stayed there until dinner.
Jon was sullen during the family meal. It was hard not to be. Forty fingers, each with hot pink polish, expertly applied, shuffled about the table, moving forks, knives and napkins. There was conversation, but Jon could barely pay attention to the words when everyone in the family had shiny, glossy lips.
They mostly talked about typical family stuff, but unfortunately that wasn't all.
"So I, like, heard the new Ke$ha song on the radio today," his mother said.
"OMG," Mikey said, "I love that song."
The whole table giggled and sang a few lines of "Your Love Is My Drug," except for Jon who could only stare. After dinner everybody nonchalantly reapplied their lip gloss. Mikey and Zoe went to their rooms to do homework, while their parents cleaned the table. His mother looked at him.
"Something bothering you, honey?"
"N- nothing, no. Why?"
"You barely said a word during dinner. You know you can always talk to your father and I if you have a problem."
"I know," Jon said.
"It's about a girl, isn't it?" his mom asked.
"I guess you could say that."
"I knew it. A mother always knows."
"Yeah," his father chimed in, "Teenage girls can be pretty manipulative. Try not to let them get into your head."
Jon nodded and turned to go to his room. "It's not my head I'm worried about," he said quietly.
He slumped onto his bed and sighed. He tried to imagine what the next day would hold, but his exhaustion got the better of him and he fell soundly asleep.
