"I save up money every month to have a little beauty day!" Roxi explained as they walked together. "I'm gonna dye my roots, wax and do my nails!"

"I like your nails!" Garofița said, glancing at the overgrown almond-shaped acrylics.

"Gosh, thank you!"

"If you get acrylics, do you have to keep getting them done? Like, uhm, go to a salon to take them off every time?"

"It's better like that. I mean, you can try to remove them yourself, but I almost ripped off a whole nail trying that."

"Oh, damn."

"I used to know a girl who would bite them off, like nyack!" She mimicked biting her own fingers. "She was crazy."

"I only ever did my nails with regular polish, for, uhm, a few weddings."

"I do regular polish too sometimes! But it's not good to constantly get acrylics, or regular polish either. You gotta let your nails rest sometimes."

"I like how long nails look." Garofița smiled. "Not huge claws, but a little long."

"You should let your nails grow long!"

"Should I?"

"Yeah, you can use it for self-defense too!" She smiled, then wrapped her fingers around her thumb in the shape of a fist, the thumb's long nail poking out, and made a stabbing motion.

Roxi liked her hair pin straight, perfectly horizontal ends, warm cappuccino honeyed brown with golden dandelion subtle highlights. Whenever her natural dark brown roots and curlyness started to return, she executed them with quickness and haste.

The salon was named "The Golden Scissors", and there was a very pretty pair of antique scissors on the logo above the door. It was located about halfway between the encampment and the town center, tucked in the ground floor of an apartment building.

As soon as they entered, the air changed from the cool autumn chill to hot and smelling of all sorts of chemicals. Garofița didn't expect to miss it.

The only haircuts she received in her life were trims ordered by her mother, keeping her hair a little over shoulder length. Garofița didn't ask for anything else, because she knew it would be shot down. One time her mother ranted for a whole day that long hair made her look like a "pocăită", as if only neoprotestants can have long hair?! But there was no point in arguing. It was one of her parents’ many fixations, like when she was allowed to eat or not. Really, her mother just didn't want to deal with long hair, but there just had to be a stray bullet against neoprotestants.

She shoved the resentment away and tried to focus on having fun with Roxi.

The hairdresser was a young woman named Bianca, with a Ferrari-red short bob, who was currently busy with giving someone a blowout.

"Roxi, sweety, we'll get to you in a bit. Me, I've got about... half a head left." She said over the hairdryer's roar.

"Don't you worry, I arrived early!" Roxi said, taking off her coat. Garofița followed her example, then went after her to an adjacent room with a bed. "Hey giiirl!"

"Heeeey!" The lady inside said. Her hair was blonde and put up in a messy bun, and she was pouring fuschia pink pearls into a square-shaped wax heater.

The waxing room had lavender purple walls, a bed with a white sheet, a couple chairs, a teal counter with all the tools, and a TV mounted up on the wall set on a news channel. The blonde lady, Maria, had a very jolly smile with freckled cheeks and she offered to do Garofița's eyebrows as well.

"Thank you, uhm, they're already thin." Garo said.

"Give them a bit of a shape, dear!"

Roxi laid down on the bed while Maria continued to prepare and Garofița sat on one of the chairs, looking around the new environment. There was a window with drawn curtains and a very bright light-fixture, shaped like a flower. The door was left open and she could see the hairdresser at work.

"What's your roommate's name again?" Maria asked.

"Gabriel?" Roxi said.

"No, the hot one."

"Uh, Mihai?"

"Yeah, him. What's his deal? I drove past y'all's block last night at 1 am and he was just standing in the window, like a cardboard cut-out. Freaked me the hell out."

"Don't worry about it."

The wax was turned into a silky, shiny liquid and Maria put it above Roxi's upper lip, on either side of her mouth.

"It's emptier than usual." Maria huffed, looking out the door. "Nobody can afford to pamper up these days . Hell, not even I can afford it sometimes. But I can't lower my prices either!"

She grabbed the edge of one strip of wax and snatched it. Garofița jumped harder than Roxi did, who only squeezed her closed eyes a little bit. She took off the other one too and rolled up the wax between her palms.

"You good?" Maria asked.

"Yup!" Roxi said.

"You don't have a lot anyway."

Garofița unconsciously touched her own upper lip with her finger.

"You don't have any, dear, don't worry!" Maria said.

Garo quickly put her hand down.

"Check my chin too, please." Roxi said.

"I don't see anything." Maria felt with her finger. "Just some acne."

"Okay."

"Have you been picking your skin again?"

"No!"

"Don't lie, Roxi!"

"I haven't!!"

Maria soaked a cotton ball in blue sanitary alcohol and dabbed it over the bare skin. Roxi scrunched her face a little more this time. "Garo, don't look at my forehead." She said, reaching her hand up to pull off her bangs. Maria gave her a headband.

"Okay." Garofița said. Oh damn, it was wide.

Maria pressed lines of wax above and under Roxi's eyebrows. She put a line between her brows too. She tugged at them with a sound like removing duct-tape. The left eye seemed to cause more pain than the right one. She then fetched a pair of tweezers and put her face very close to Roxi's, plucking off the survivors.

"That looks painful." Garofița said.

"Beauty is painful!" Maria said.

"Does shaving hurt less than waxing?" She asked, feeling rather dumb for having to ask.

"It does, until you get ingrown hairs." Roxi sighed. A tear was pooling in her left eye.

"Girl!" Maria said, looking at Garofița, pointing at her with the tweezers. "Shave underwater!"

"Underwater?"

"Fill up a tub until your legs are fully submerged and just glide a razor over them. You will not get any bumps, I swear!"

"Really?" Was it that easy?

"You lost a client." Roxi said.

"Shush." Maria pouted. "Your armpits or your legs next?"

"Only legs. I'll wear long sleeves from now on anyway." Roxi got up to push down her socks and lift her skirt above her knees.

Maria shut the door. Instead of going to the wax heater, she went to the TV and turned up the volume. It was a report about the missing dead girl from Văleni.

"Ugh, I hate shit like this." Maria said, remote still in hand.

"You don't like a little ghost story?" Roxi asked.

"Not like this!" She gesticulated with the remote. "I know there's a ton of fucking creeps in the world, but being aware of how close they are to me makes it 100 times worse. My brother and my sister-in-law live in Călimari! Everybody thought the Seekers were just a bunch of homeless hippie junkies camping out in the woods. They let them be, you know, like with the encampment here. Nobody had any idea they were a full-blown sex cult! My niece is the same age as this missing girl!!"

"Yeah, Gabi told us about it. The more he looked into the Seekers, the more he regretted having eyes."

"As if being perverts wasn't bad enough, they did some supernatural fuckshit too! God knows what they did to that poor girl!"

"I wish we could find her and ask her directly what was going on." Roxi sighed.

"My niece had discord on her phone! I told her to uninstall that crap immediately!"

"I think your niece will be fine. They targeted people at the end of their ropes. No family, no friends, sad people like that. Gosh, they might have gotten me if I knew about them when I was a teen."

"I don't know, Rox, even at my rock bottom I never considered joining a pseudo-christian sex cult."

"Never say never!"

While they talked, Garofița stood up and took a closer look at the melted wax. It was terribly hot, but still looked like it would have felt nice to dip her fingers in it. The shine was almost glittery.

"Careful, honey!" Maria said and Garofița quickly moved away. "Wanna try waxing someone?" She pointed to Roxi's leg.

"No, thank you!" She said.

"It'd be a good job!" Roxi said, turning her head to look up.

"I know, but I don't wanna... touch people."

"After a while you don't even think about it." Maria said. "Someone could walk in here butt booty naked and I probably wouldn't even notice."

"The cult would have liked you." Roxi giggled.

Garofița wondered how does one come to the conclusion they want to wax people for a living. It's not like being a vet, because you like animals, or like being an artist, because you like drawing. Then again, a lot of jobs are things that nobody likes.

Maria took a larger wooden popsicle (they looked like popsicles), scooped up the wax and drew a very long and wide strip along the side of Roxi's left calf. Garofița cringed in advance of it being removed.

A little blob of wax was left on the other side of the popsicle, untouched by skin, and Maria gave it to Garo. It was still warm as she folded it in her fingers over and over. She could see her fingerprints in it.

Maria tugged three times to remove the long strip off Roxi's leg, leaving it glossy and bare.

"Roxi, why don't you shave underwater?" Garofița asked.

"I like the pain." Roxi laughed.

"Freak." Maria added.

"It feels like I'm actually getting something done." She continued. "And I get to hang out with the girls. We never do otherwise."

"You're at freaking Amante all day." Maria said. "And then you work at the club too. Never heard of a 20 hour work shift until now."

"Technically, I only work at night!"

"What the hell do you do all day, then?"

"I do whatever I want. Same things I do at home, but in the restaurant instead." She shrugged. "At least one person has to be there, so it's not left empty."

"Do... Do other people not eat at Amante?" Garofița asked, suddenly realising she never really saw anybody else but her, Vitalis and Mirabela's people.

"There are people, now and then, who take food-to-go." Roxi explained. "But it's really rare that someone sits down to eat who isn't us, or someone from the Bisclavu family."

"Imagine opening a restaurant that only your gang wants to dine at." Maria scoffed. "Worst mafia front ever."

"Are you saying the food I make is bad?" Roxi demanded.

"No, bitch, I'm saying it's dumb to pretend to keep a restaurant open when the whole town knows what's up. What's the point of this charade?"

"Taxes!"

"As if they don't have the money to shut ANAF up!"

Garofița threw her ball of wax into the melting pot, watching it slowly disappear.

"A couple days ago, Anetta Bisclavu came here to get a balayage." Maria recounted as she finished up Roxi's left leg and moved around the table to start the right one.

"Anetta Bisclavu, here?" Roxi raised both eyebrows.

"I know, right? She broke up with her last hairdresser, this girl named Otilia from the salon on Marie Curie street. Anetta wanted a simple basic balayage, right? Girl, when she walked in here and took her hat off, Bianca damn near gasped. I don't know what got into Otilia, but Anetta's hair was segmented into two colours, no gradient whatsoever. She looked like one of those tubs of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. "

"Oh, gosh!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if we found out Otilia disappeared. So anyway, Bianca sits Anetta down and gets to work fixing her hair. I don't like the Bisclavus, you know that."

"I have heard it many-a-times."

"But I did like Anetta. She's got a loose tongue. You're not gonna believe what I heard. Maybe you already know it."

"I don't really interact with the Bisclavus, except for the muscle I serve soup to. I only ever really talked to Agnes, if you know her. Gosh, I don't think I ever talked to Anetta in person, now that I think about it."

"Who is Anetta?" Garofița whispered.

"Jean Bisclavu's wife." Roxi whispered back. "The big boss's wife."

"Alright, so Anetta is talking with Bianca and she's a yapper, alright." Maria continued. "I didn't close my door because I'm a nosey bitch, but I still heard everything. Apparently, one of their kids, Christelle, has a new boyfriend. But Christelle's boyfriend is the ex of her older sister, Anne-Charlotte! Anne-Charlotte dated this guy for 2 years and broke up with him last year but wouldn't say why, just that it wasn't working out. Time passes, then Christelle tells everyone she met a boy that she really likes. Last week she brought him home to meet the parents and it's the freaking ex! Pandemonium in the Bisclavu household! He claims he did not know Christelle was Anne-Charlotte's sister, and Christelle says she didn't know he was Anne-Charlotte's ex."

"Buuullshit!" Roxi said.

"Not to be their unpaid lawyer, but Christelle did spend like 3 years in the UK, so they technically never met in person until after the break-up. But yeah, come the fuck on. How many Bisclavus are out there? Anyway, so everybody was freaking out, Anne-Charlotte threatened the guy to leave her sister or else, Christelle declared she loved him and refused to break up with him. Now here comes the juice: Anne-Charlotte broke up with this guy because she found out he cheated on her with her best friend. They were meeting up behind her back for a whole month! But it gets worse! Anne-Charlotte didn't tell anybody out of embarassment, because she had an STD scare because of him!! That's how she figured out he was cheating! And despite learning all this, Christelle still wants to be with him!"

"Is she insane?!"

"She's stubborn! Just like the rest of that damn clan! So everybody is shouting, the whole house is mad, and Christelle leaves with the guy. They could not get a hold of her for hours. They damn near made Anne-Charlotte apologise to her sister for screaming at her, just so she would come back."

"Oh my gosh, did she?"

"Of course not! I wouldn't either. And so for the past week they've been negotiating Cold-War style to convince Christelle to come home. Anetta looked 5 kilos lighter after talking to Bianca, I think she really needed someone to vent to."

"Jeez..."

"I'm surprised they didn't just force her to come home. Stuff her in a bag and drive off. Get rid of the guy too while at it."

"Well, she's one of their own. They aren't so brutal with their own daughter, or at least I'd hope not."

Garofița listened with bated breath.

"You didn't hear this from me!" Maria warned, holding up a strip of wax like it was a fish. "Don't tell anybody else! What you heard is not leaving these walls!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Garo squeaked.

"Speaking of boyfriends, you're not gonna believe what I found out just yesterday!"

"Ooh, tell me!" Roxi said.

Maria started putting wax above Roxi's knees. She only waxed up to the approximate line where the short skirts would reach, since nobody would see any higher.

"You don't have to shave everything?" Garofița asked.

"I'm lazy." Roxi said. "I could not shave at all, tbh, but I don't like how leg hairs look through panty-hose. If I left my moustache on I'd be upset to look in the mirror, though."

"I understand." She said. Garo thought she herself looked masculine from certain angles with her long face and big nose, but that's not comparable, so she kept that thought to herself.

Garofița still found it strange sometimes that anyone would want to transition to a girl. Being female was a nightmare more often than not. It was surreal hearing about people who wanted nothing more than to live as girls despite the nightmare, talking about girlhood like it was a wonderful, desirable thing. Then again... life may have been easier as a boy, but it would have sucked in different ways. She wouldn't be able to do feminine things without being called slurs. There was no way to win.

"I used to know a girl who wouldn't shave her armpits but who would shave her bikini line." Maria said. Wait what. "The only thing worse than hippies is fake hippies, swear to God."

"I gotta save up for laser..." Roxi remembered and sighed.

"You'll get that done too, eventually! Don't worry about it!"

"Does laser hair removal really get rid of hair forever?" Garofița asked.

"It's kinda misleading." Maria said. "It removes hair for a long time, yes, but you have to keep doing it to keep it up."

"Oh, okay."

"You can use Nair too!" She told her. "If you can handle the smell."

"Thank you!" Garo smiled. "I'd rather, you know, not be in pain."

"It's kinda therapeutic sometimes." Roxi said. "Like getting a tattoo."

"You have tattoos?" Garo perked up.

"Only one." Roxi giggled. "A cherry flower on the back of my neck. I got it done in, like, 30 minutes at the encampment."

Garofița always kind of wanted a tattoo. She saw really cute ones on pinterest, like woodcut illustrations in old books. A swan gliding through reeds, a weeping willow, princesses, saints. She wished they didn't hurt to be made.

"All done!" Maria said, clapping her hands once. "As smooth as a babe!"

"Thank youuu!" Roxi swung her legs off the table, admiring the smoothness then letting her skirt down.

Next was the hair. Bianca was finished with the other client and took a quick bathroom break. As Roxi settled in the chair and Bia draped the cape over her, another girl entered the salon.

"Hey, sugar-tits!" Roxi grinned, seeing her in the mirror's reflection. Garofița's head immediately snapped towards them.

"What's up, blood-bag?" The new girl replied. She was very tall, wearing black from head to toe, with black lipstick and elaborate black eyeliner. Garo was gobsmacked.

"Took you long enough!" Bia said, snapping a new pair of rubber gloves on her wrist.

"Apologies, my boyfriend wouldn't let me leave the bed." The goth lady took off her jacket, revealing a sleeve of tattoos, flowers with bird bones peeking through. She was so cool!!!

Her name was Silvia and she was the manicurist. She snapped open a large box and it unfurled into several shelves of clippers, files and colours. Her own nails were deep red, shining like velvet under the lights, with golden flourishes that matched her eyeliner.

"Same as always?" Bianca asked Roxi, pulling at her locks.

"Yup!" She said. "Make my roots gone!"

Silvia looked up and saw Garofița standing near her table, eyes sparkling.

"Hello!" She smiled.

"H-Hello!" Garo said. "You look really cool!"

"Aww, thank you, dear!"

"Bibi, do I need a retouch too?" Maria came out of her room while sipping on mineral water.

"Nah, you can wait a few more days." Bia said. "Look at Roxi, almost two whole fingers. Looks like her scalp is rotting."

"Hey..." Roxi pouted.

Bianca mixed bleach and developer and put it on Roxi's roots. It looked blue.

"Silvi, is Georgie still coming back on Sunday?" She asked, turning her head suddenly and earning a curse from Bianca.

"Yeah, theoretically."

"Okay, because Mirabela wants to get her nails done."

Why isn't she asking me to do it?"

"I think she's lowkey scared of you."

"Little old me?" She said and giggled sinisterly.

As Garofița would learn from their conversation, Silvia was a "retired hooligan". Roxi knew her back when she was homeless and Silvia provided some of her first outfits. Roxi also needn't worry about safety with her around.

Before the pandemic, Silvia decided to turn her life around, become an upstanding citizen and get a proper job at a McDonalds in Văleni. She then burned down the McDonalds after working there for 5 months, right before the COVID lockdown. A KFC was built in its place.

"Always doing too much!" Maria shook her head disapprovingly.

"You try dealing with customers all day!!" Silvia protested.

"Bitch, we're a salon."

She turned her life around again and went to beauty school, while Roxi begged Mirabela to keep her under their protection against Bălașa.

So the key to not getting hired by Mirabela was to be unemployable, Garofița thought. "Vampires can get their nails done?" She asked out loud.

"Yeah, why wouldn't they?" Silvia said.

"What about UV lamps?"

"Ooooh, no no no. They either get regular polish or press-on nails."

Roxi's roots turned really yellow. Bianca mixed the hell out of the hair dye, smacking the plastic brush against the plastic bowl. This one looked light purple.

Garofița sat opposite of Silvia, as if she were her client, and looked at the nail design samples, spreading the colourful tips in front of herself like a fan. Silvia made herself a coffee in a hidden backroom and sipped it, leaving dark purple marks on the cup.

"So I'm arguing with my man, right?" Bianca recounted to Roxi, the whole salon able to hear. "We gotta get our son to a counsellor, it's not normal to be sent into hysterics because clothes are 'too loose', or to tighten a pants belt until your circulation is cut off. But he keeps going like 'oh, there's nothing wrong with him!', 'there's a difference between being neurodivergent and just being a little quirky!'. Meanwhile Alin is 1 meter away from us sitting on his head on the couch until his face is red."

"You should get him a really tight hat." Silvia said. "If he likes the pressure, you know?"

"My man says all that, meanwhile he's the reason for it!" She continued ranting. "Mister Please Make This Phonecall, I Can't Talk Today. Mister 50 Of The Same Figurine Collector!"

"Autism is so beautiful." Roxi said.

"Your husband sounds like Maria's niece!" Silvia laughed.

"Yes!" Roxi smiled. "Gosh, I love her!"

"My niece isn't on the spectrum!" Maria gasped. "She just really liked how the carpet felt when she was little!"

"Girl." Bia looked at her. "She was carrying around a piece of that carpet like it was a blankie. I'll never forget the photo you showed us!"

"She appreciates quality fabrics!"

"Like Garo!" Silvia said.

"W-What?" Garofița looked up from the polish bottles with a couple seconds of delay.

"I said your sweater looks interesting."

"Oh, thank you!"

"What kind of fabric is it?"

"I-I have no idea."

"Hmmm..." Maria felt the fuzzy sweater's shoulder between her fingers. "Looks like mohair, but feels a little too rough. Where did you get this?"

"In a second-hand shop. It didn't have any label."

"Lina has been looking for a mohair sweater." Silvia said. "She wants this very specific deep blue colour, slightly green but not straight-up turquoise, that she saw one time on tumblr. I told her it'd be quicker to get a white sweater and dye it herself."

"Ooh, how is Lina doing?" Roxi asked.

"Girl, she's pissing me off! She broke up with this girl who was perfect for her because she wanted a different set of dinner plates! Fucking dinner plates! Said 'it wouldn't have worked out, it's for the best', like oh my Goood! I swear she nitpicks so much for reasons not to be with someone who makes her happy if that person happens to be a woman! And I told her BITCH, men are only gonna get worse with their incel shit and no woman is gonna have infinite patience. Do you want to stay single forever?"

"Who is Lina?" Garo asked.

"Silvia's sister, Mădălina." Maria responded.

"She's bisexual," Silvia explained, "but growing up our mom was one of those batshit insane evangelical christians. I'm talking get married at 16 and have 5 kids by 20. So we are working on accepting herself and healing from everything. Baby steps, you know?"

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Garo said.

"I never gave a fuck, but Lina was always more sensitive. I mean, I was 9 years old in church being told that if my husband hits me, I must forgive him and pray he changes his ways. Even back then I was like 'fuuuck no, I'm swinging back and divorcing his ass'."

"Lina likes men that look like David Corenswet and women that look like 2000s Eminem." Roxi giggled.

"And her last girlfriend, Cristiana, was peeeerfect for her! She was the sweetest, kindest, softest girl I ever met in my life! Definition of a gentleman! But Lina! Keeps! Fumbling! And it's so infuriating to watch! Like, get over yourself already!"

"What's up with butches having the most feminine names ever?" Bia asked.

"Easy for you to say!" Roxi told Silvia. "You have a boyfriend."

"Bitch, I want to be gay so badly!" Silvia cried out. "If me and Daniel ever break up I am never dating a man again!"

"My mom was like that too, kinda." Maria said, fully sitting in the main salon rather than her own quarters. "She said that if dad died before she did, she would never remarry because she neeever wanted to go through dating again."

"For me..." Roxi said, "...it’s like: do I want a boyfriend? Yes. Do I want to be in a relationship? No."

"Garo, stay single forever." Bianca said. "It's for the best."

"Okay!" She giggled.

"Or only date girls." Silvia said. "Though that's not 100% safe either. There's some diabolical lesbians out there. You like girls?"

"Silvi!" Rozi scolded.

"N-No, not really." Garofița said. "I kind of never liked anybody like that."

"Nobody?"

"No... I liked a-a few characters, but not real people. Honestly, I thought people were exaggerating when talking about crushes and stuff. I never feel like that."

"God, I wish I was asexual too." Silvia said.

"Girl!" Bianca burst out laughing.

"Oh, shit!" Silvia straightened up and checked her phone for the time. "Okay, all's good."

"What's up?" Roxi asked.

"I have a makeup appointment today too. If you're done soon, I can finish you on time."

"You do makeup too?" Garofița asked.

"Yesss, I'm a Jack of all trades."

"Master of none." Bia completed.

"I'm doing wedding makeup today." Silvia ignored her.

"People are still having weddings in this weather?" Maria raised an eyebrow. "And during the Nativity Fast, no less?"

"Apparently. Some people don't give a fuck."

"I went to a wedding in November once." Garofița said.

"What was it like?"

"Cold."

"Roxi, have you been using conditioner?" Bianca asked.

"Uh, yeah?" She said.

"Stop."

"I wanna do my makeup too, but I don't know how." Garofița said. "And, uh, I don't have makeup."

"You think I knew how to do it first try?" Silvia laughed. "I looked like a raccoon on a daily basis."

"I like how you do your eyeliner!"

"I just grab a pencil and scribble until it looks good. Wanna try?"

"Can I?"

"Yeah! Here you go!" She searched through her bag and pulled out a small tube of liquid eyeliner.

They excitedly went in front of the mirror next to Roxi and Bianca.

"Your eyes are downturned, so angle it like this." Silvia adjusted her hand. The ink felt cold against the corner of her eye.

"What do I do?"

"Whatever you want!"

"A Girlie Maintenance Day"

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