Free All My Life by Rucy Ban

the long-winded story she’s just recounted, I give up and prompt her.
    “So? You think what Neil just said was better than that or… what ?!”
    Nalini gives me a confused look. “What?! No. The girl had this off-beat sidekick in the movie. You know the quirky friend? Who’s just there to make the girl look prettier? Well, right now I feel completely like that,” she says and sniffs.
    My brain feels frazzled and numb, both at the same time and I’m still thinking of what an impossible state of mind that is, when she summarizes with a shrug. “Just saying.”
    A few more seconds of stunned silence and then I roll back on my heels. “O-k-a-y then.” Then for the next hour, I put my head down and focus on my work. When a scheduled client walks in an hour before lunch, I’m proud to say that I’m the very picture of cool and calm as I handle her. She selects the design, I load the machine and then I proceed to etch out a flight of stars on her back. When she leaves feeling happy and satisfied, for the first time in my life I feel… invincible . Because nothing that ever happens now can take this away from me. The tattoo I inked on Neil yesterday was not a fluke. I really do have this.
Talent.

Chapter Six
    I fidget with my hair until I finally give up on the unmanageable mess and decide to leave it open. Blow-dried to hell, my hair bears an uncanny resemblance to a huge bearskin hat. Now all I need is a red tunic and I could march off straight to Buckingham Palace.
    Maybe my skinny jeans and silk top will offset the balance? Maybe my special Green Lantern mask will give me that extra edge? Especially, since I’ve matched it with a power ring blinging bright on my finger. Who can beat that I ask you? No one. That’s who.
    In addition to the bearskin hat hair, the brown monstrosity of this overcoat that my Mom insisted I wear does somewhat lessen my whole kick-a-pow impact but then there is absolutely nothing I could have done to avert that.
    I remember how Mom had reacted when I had told her about my night out with Nalini. Mom’s been to the shop before and she’s met Agnas, Nalini, even Josiah. So obviously she didn’t get all excited at the prospect of my going out with a girl who is into piercing and her headbanging boyfriend.
    Thankfully, our argument didn’t drag on too much as it had intruded into Mom’s weekly dose of Saturday night football. Other girls’ mothers spent time watching soap melodramas. Mine is into sports. Secretly I think it’s more about the varied six packs on display than about the actual mechanics of the game. But I have no patience to actually sit through an entire game and catch Mom red-handed ogling at some hunky quarterback.
    Now, I’m standing outside the shop waiting discreetly in the shadows, trying hard not to terrorize the passers-by and failing completely. I push myself deeper against the wall as an old couple hurries past me, throwing nervous looks in my direction. Can’t blame them. A huge coat topped with a green mask and a toupee lurking on a dark street would scare the shit out of me as well. A sudden loud roar startles my ugly hat hair right off my scalp.
    I watch with dread as a huge-ass bike turns the corner up ahead. My whole body stiffens with alarm as the lone rider starts closing in towards my side of the road and then stops right in front of me! As I stand there contemplating flight or fight scenarios, the rider takes off his helmet and I realize it’s… Neil !
    Shouldn’t he be grinding into Ms. Stiletto somewhere against a wall or maybe taking care of his Mom or should I say, Agnas ? And what the hell is that all about anyways?
    As I contemplate these weighty thoughts, my traitorous eyes roam over his black-booted leg, the distressed jeans, the leather jacket, the bristly jaw, the broken nose and the tousled silk of his hair. Holy! Smoking mother of hell!  As my eyes reach up and meet his, he winks and my stomach dives straight into the abyss.