Unbroken C.B

23

*Leighton's POV*

"He did my nails." I showed Landon the nail art Colby did on my fingers, watching him eye the black lines on the white paint, Colby grabbed the black nail polish that my brother wanted to use. "You can do a different color other than black" Colby noted and I watched Landon sink a little more into himself.

I could see the insecurity swimming around in his eyes and his brain ran with countless thoughts. 

I felt sympathy for my brother, and anger at gender norms. 

This felt so stupid. It felt so incredibly stupid that boys felt nervous to paint their nails anything other than black, because someone might say something. 

It was so weird to think that if the world was backwards, how I would have felt.

I couldn't imagine wanting to paint my fingernails purple, but sticking to black because someone at school might say something, or someone might look at me weird.

"I'm not peer pressuring you. You know I love you. We can do whatever you want. If you want to do neon pink we can do neon pink. If you want to do black, we can do black" I smiled at my little brother.

Colby, Landon and I were currently sitting on the barstools in Sam and Colby's kitchen, my bucket of nail polish sitting next to us. Landon and I were on FaceTime last night, and he kept sending me pretty makeup looks, and one thing led to another, and he asked if I was willing to do "girly" things to him, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes when he added "I don't want to be a stereotypical gay"

It was supposed to be just Landon and I at my current living residence, but Colby had came home early from filming with someone named Amber, so he walked in on us digging through my nail polish bucket, and decided he wanted to join.

Ever since my brother decided to become a little more experimental with who he was as a person, he's always been nervous to share little things with new people.

It took a little coaxing to even let him consider me doing it on him, so Colby walking in on it made the hair on his body stand up.

I watched Colby fish out his phone from his pocket and then scroll through something.

"If you just want to do black, that's totally fine Landon" I leaned on my forearms, watching my little brother glance over all my nail polish. "If you want, we can paint them a color and then take it off with nail polish remover?"

"I feel like I'm being the stereotypical gay if I mess with girly things" He admitted softly and Colby scoffed.

"Nothing against gays, but I've painted my nails for years, and I very much like girls. It's nail polish man, one day someone woke up and said it was for girls, but it doesn't have to be. Just like one day someone woke up and was like "girls can like girls and boys can like boys" even though it used to be punishable by death. Live life for you. Don't give a fuck. If you want to paint your nails pink, paint them pink. It's hurting no one and pink is a pretty cool color" Colby stared directly into Landon's eyes, and I saw my brother let a small smile slip past his nervous exterior.

"Leigh, can you hand me the nail polish remover?" Colby asked and I nodded, sliding the bottle over to him.

Landon and I looked confused as we watched Colby flip the bottle upside down quickly and back upright, coating a cotton ball.

"Hey I spent hours on those!" I yelled, watching Colby take off my artwork.

Colby ignored me until his nails were cleared of the blue and green polish.

"Leighton, can you paint my nails a pretty pink color please?" He asked, spreading his hand out on the table in front of Landon and I.

"You don't have to do that-" Landon spoke quickly and Colby shook his head.