Polish Me Off

Brian and Michael quickly dashed out of Debbie's bedroom and back into Michael's. They giggled as they locked the door.

"I don't think she heard us," seventeen year old Brian said with a smirk.

"She'll kill me if she finds out that I took this," Michael said holding up the bottle of fuchsia pink nail polish.

"Is it her favorite?"

"It's bright pink! Of course, it's her favorite," Michael stated.

"Well, I don't see why the fuck we're doing this in the first place. All I asked you was to help me cover up the toenail that has turned black since I whacked it on the leg of my bed the other night."

"Well, if you wore shoes sometimes, you wouldn't have this problem. You could have broken that toe," Michael observed knowingly.

"I think I did. It hurt like a mother-fucker! But it looks so ugly," Brian said observing his toe that they had tried painting a light skin color.

That had been fun, buying the fucking bottle of nail polish at the drug store. Brian had not liked the smirk of the sales clerk who had seemed to gloat as she rang up his purchase. But he wanted to cover up this blemish on his otherwise perfect body. At seventeen he knew the importance of perfection, and was not about to let anything, including a black toenail, keep him from being just that.

So, they had covered the toenail with coat after coat of the nail polish Brian had bought. All to no avail! The color was just too light. The black still showed through and if anything looked more ugly than ever.

They had gone to Debbie's bedroom looking for nail polish remover to take off the layers that they had already applied. Wherever she kept it, they hadn't been able to find it. That was when Michael had said he had a great idea, had grabbed the bottle of fuchsia polish, and they had beat a hasty retreat back to Michael's bedroom.

"So what is this great idea of yours?" Brian asked as they flopped on the bed. "Are we mixing the colors together?"

"I thought we'd just put the pink on top of the other stuff. That should mute it down and then we'd have something that would cover the black," Michael explained.

"Are you sure?" Brian asked looking at his toe.

"All we can do is try."

"I don't know," Brian said shaking his head.

"Come on, let's give it a try," Michael said egging him on.

"All right, but if it looks awful, I'm painting your toes and then making you go to the drugstore to get the remover."

"Deal!"

Michael shook the bottle and carefully unscrewed the top. Brian reclined on the bed extending his foot for Michael to work on. Michael carefully painted the offensive toenail. Brian watched as his friend concentrated so hard trying to get the polish on the nail and not all over Brian's toe. Mikey was cute when he threw himself into something so completely. Sometimes Brian wondered if painting toes was about the extent of his capability though.

"Done!"

Brian looked down at his toe. "Jesus Christ! What the fuck have you done?" Brian demanded. His toe was bright pink shining like an ugly beacon from the end of his foot.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked with a frown. "I got it on evenly."

"You fucking made my toe look like a fucking girl's! It's bright pink, for fuck's sake!"

"I can't help it if the colors didn't blend the way I thought they would."

"Get it off, right fucking now!" Brian practically screamed.

"All right! All right," Michael said shaking his head. Sometimes Brian was such a drama queen. Michael pulled a tissue from the box by his bed and began wiping at Brian's toe. "Uh oh!" he said suddenly.

"What?" Brian barked looking down. The tissue had stuck to the drying polish and Michael was trying to pick pieces of the tissue from Brian's toenail. "Fuck! What have you done to me?"

"It won't come off," Michael whined.

"You get that fucking off me right now, or I'll … "I'll … I don't know what I'll do."

Michael continued to pick at the gobs of tissue but he knew it was hopeless. "It won't come off," he said. "I don't know what to do."

"Shit!" Brian reacted. He reached down and tried to remove the tissue himself. He couldn't get any more of it to come off.

"Nobody will see it if you put shoes on," Michael suggested.

"Till I have fucking phys ed tomorrow!"

"Oh shit. Maybe I should get Ma. She might know what to do."

"I'll never hear the end of this if you do."

"But I don't know what else to do."

"Get her!" Brian barked out.

Michael ran from the room relieved that somebody else would now have to take responsibility for Brian's toe. He returned quickly with his mother. Debbie took one look at Brian's foot and burst into gales of laughter.

"Fuck!" Brian reacted. He knew this would be bad. "Can you just fucking do something and save the hilarity for later?"

"We could paint them all so you had a matching set," Debbie suggested trying to contain her laughter.

"No fucking way! Get it off!"

"All right, little boy. Wait here," she said as she left the room.

"Like I'd fucking go anywhere with this!" Brian grumbled. Debbie returned with a large bottle. "What's that?" Brian asked warily.

"Nail polish remover. What do you think?" Debbie asked.

"Where was it, Ma? We couldn't find it."

"What do you mean you couldn't find it? It was under the sink in the bathroom where I always keep it. Have you boys been in my bedroom? Is this my favorite nail polish?" she demanding examining the bottle of fuchsia polish.

Both boys looked sheepish and refused to meet her gaze. "I should just leave you like this to suffer," she said ticked off that they had messed with her stuff. "Buy your own goddam nail polish next time."

"I did," Brian said, "but it wouldn't cover my black toenail."

"So you stole mine?"

"I guess so," Brian admitted.

Debbie smiled. She had made him suffer long enough. "All right let's get this off and then I will teach you two the fine art of the pedicure."

"Sure, Deb. Sure, Ma," they responded willing to do anything at this point. They knew they would never hear the end of this.

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