Free Paintshark by Kingsley Pilgrim Page B

didn’t know what to do.”
    Aphrodite raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
    Sabrina rolled up her sleeve to reveal her arm; it had started turning green. Aphrodite hid her shock and craned her eyes. “Are they scales?” Sabrina nodded and wiped away a tear.
    “It’s been itching ever since we were knocked out in that nightclub.”
    Aphrodite gave her a quizzical look but she knew exactly what her friend was talking about.
    “All day my arms have been itching and now their turning green, WHAT SHOULD I DO?”
    Aphrodite looked to see if anyone had taken notice to her friend’s raised tone –they hadn’t. She then simply continued to stare at her friend’s arm.
    “Oh Sabrina,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to say.” Aphrodite hugged her friend and took a step back. “Wait, maybe my dad can help, he knows stuff and knows people who know people.”
    Sabrina bit her lip, her turn to look puzzled. “Shouldn’t I go and see a doctor?”
    “NO, just leave it to me, let my dad speak to you…he’ll take care of it.”
    Sabrina nodded nervously and only just noticed Aphrodite wearing sleeves. “Have you been affected?” Aphrodite shook her head, keeping her eyes in line with Sabrina’s.
    “So why are you wearing sleeves?”
    “I got this in a sale,” said a confident Aphrodite. “End of season it was.”
    Aphrodite kept her arms covered keeping the fact that she had large brown hairs forming on her arms as Sabrina had scales. She took Sabrina by the hand. “Come on, let’s get a drink and get out of this dump.”
    The bar was buzzing. Some had just gone for a quick drink after work, while for others it was just a stop-gap before hitting the serious nightclubs, this was the case for Aphrodite and Sabrina who were dressed to kill, even with sleeves covering their arms and skyscraper killer heels. They sat at the bar, twisting the stools to see what available talent was on offer. They didn’t have to wait for long. A smartly dressed man sat on the stool next to Aphrodite, he was in his early twenties and his nerves were getting the best of him, he turned around to his table of friends who egged him on and gave him the ‘thumbs-up’ sign.
    He fiddled with his tie and breathed out hard, rubbing the butterflies he could feel in his stomach, he tapped Aphrodite on the shoulder.
    Aphrodite knew what was coming, she was a beautiful young lady and she knew it, there wasn’t a time when she went out to a bar or nightclub where someone hadn’t tried to chat her up, this bar was no exception, usually if she didn’t fancy them she would engage in small talk and let them buy her a drink before she shooed them away.
    But tonight was different.
    “Hello there, can I buy you a drink?” he asked. Aphrodite had already checked him out long before he had taken his seat at the bar and she didn’t like what she saw, her brow furrowed and she swung her chair around to talk.
    “Do you mind if I ask you a question?” The man shook his head.
    “Do I know you?”
    “No.”
    “You’ve never seen me before?”
    He nervously smiled. “No.”
    “Then why do you think I’ll be remotely interested in you, did I show you any attention since you’ve been here? Did I smile at you? Wink at you? Or flirt with you?”
    The man was taken aback and his face was confused. “No, you didn’t.”
    Aphrodite kept on. “Are you famous? Are you on the small screen or big screen? Or maybe you’re a footballer? Are you rich at all? Do you have loads of money? What do you do for a living?”
    The man answered while focusing on the drinks selection on the bar shelf in front of him.
    “I’m a school teacher.”
    Aphrodite had a wide-eyed gaze. “Do I look like someone who would go out with a teacher?”
    “You tell me.”
    She sipped her drink. “I just did, it sounds like a very boring job…would you want me to be bored if we were dating?”
    “Dating? But you said–”
    Aphrodite cut him off. “I was