luck for the night - rl.

35. no time for useless dinosaur facts.

"Phoebe, I have to tell you something." I wasted no words. The truth had been building up like bile in my throat, and I felt that it was bound to come out any moment.

"Good morning to you too, Rylin." My friend smiled, but her eyes quickly went to a chair next to the door. A girl our age was sitting there. Oh, a client. Abort mission. But when I looked again, I saw it was someone I knew from way back when. "Mindy! What are you doing here?"

A tall, black-haired woman got to her feet. "I was in the neighbourhood, and decided to come say hi."

I wrapped my arms around my old friend, pulling her in somewhat of an awkward hug. "I thought you moved to Brighton?"

Mindy let go of me and took a step back. "Yeah, let's not talk about that. Not many people wanted permanent makeup done there. Or at least, not by me. So I decided to come back home." She stopped talking for a second, shooting a quick glance at Phoebe. Something was going on. "But how are you, Rylin?"

"I'm doing great," I said, even if it wasn't true.

"Well, I have to go now, but I will probably see you around!" And with those words, Mindy left, leaving me and Phoebe in an uncomfortable silence. I fled past her, into the break room, my head filling up with worries again. I could vaguely hear Phoebe greet an incoming client.

"Coffee," I muttered, grabbing my pink mug, and choosing a cappuccino this time. No more espressos for me.

"Hey," Phoebe whispered as she walked into the room, "are you really doing okay?"

I nodded, faking a smile. Anyone could smell from a mile away that this would be the worst time, to tell the truth. "These days off really... put some things into perspective for me." It wasn't all the truth, but it wasn't a lie either. Nerves rushed through my body, but I quickly added: "And Phoebes, there is something I need to talk to you about."

My friend did not seem surprised. Did she know? "Okay, now?"

Well, if she knew she had been hiding it extremely well. "No, I think we need to have some time just to sit down."

Phoebe nodded. "Okay. But I don't think I have time until the end of the day." She glanced at her phone, "No, I don't. I moved my lunch break because someone is coming in for a check-up on their lunch break."

I took a deep breath. "Okay, that's okay. End of the day, then."

Phoebe stepped closer, wrapping her arms around me for a few seconds. "I don't know what's going on, but you really do seem better today." She let go of me, a warm smile on her face. "And you can talk to me about anything, Rylin. I know work has been difficult for you lately, but I'm not just your business partner, I'm your friend."

It took all I had to keep a straight face when the dark, heavy guilt dripped into my blood again. I should have told her days, weeks ago. Judging by the way she looked at me now, the way she had looked at me before, she thought that my mental health was plummeting again. Well, she wasn't all that wrong, but it was plummeting because the pressure of my own lies, my own shitty decisions, had pushed it into a freefall.

A deep sigh left my lips as Phoebe walked out of the room, welcoming the client into her tattooing room. One more day, I had to survive one more day with the guilt of lying, and then I had to live god knows how many days with the anger of my best friend.

***

The day went by fast, way faster than I had hoped. Before I knew it, I had seen a bunch of clients, tattooed, done some checkups, and had two intake appointments. I went to the nearby bakery for lunch, because my fridge was still empty, and took just a few smoke breaks. My phone was awfully quiet, but that was because for the first time ever, I had forgotten to charge my phone last night, and it had run out of battery playing the podcast of some guy reading me an entire Wikipedia page. I had no clue where my charger went, and Phoebe had a Samsung. I cursed Apple for having such an annoying charger hole.