Lockdown! 15

Chapter 15

Feeling Tim’s elbow nudge him in gently the ribs, Kamsi looked over feeling a little annoyed. He studied his feminized friend’s face for a second. Looking on confused as Tim’s thinly arched eyebrows moved up and down and his dark pupils darted from side to side.

“So, any luck at the jobcentre today, girls?” Veronica said as she approached and sat down on a chair opposite.

Tensing up, Kamsi slowly turned. “Not yet,” he replied as he faked a smile. “Nobody seems to be hiring at the moment.”

Squinting her eyes, Veronica stared over towards Kamsi, making the nervous man shake. “Oh, really!” she replied, her voice monotone and slow. “How unfortunate.”

Trying to hold her gaze, Kamsi wondered if Veronica knew that he and Tim had actually been going out of their way not to find a job.

For the first two weeks, they had avoided the jobcentre completely, choosing to sit in a café around the corner until it was safe to return home. This changed when Veronica insisted on seeing some proof that they were attending their meetings. So, forced to change tactics, the embarrassed pair had been going along a few times a week, for the last month, to speak to an advisor.

“How about you, Kylie? Any progress?” Veronica asked, looking over at Tim, who had been trying to ignore her.

Looking over, Tim shook his head before quickly looking away again. “No, it’s like Karmen said. We’re trying. There just aren’t any jobs out there for us.”

As the room fell silent, Tim stared intently at the TV, trying not to shake as he thought back to the idea Kamsi had come up with a few weeks back.

At the time, he thought it was silly, but he had to hand it to his friend, it was working. When attending their appointments, all they had to do was pretend to be stupid or as Kamsi had put it, “act like typical airhead bimbos.”

“So, they didn’t even offer you an interview?” Veronica poked, looking back towards Kamsi.

“Err… no like I said nothing,” he replied timidly, thinking back to earlier that morning where he had indeed been offered an interview at a call centre. Feeling himself start to go red in the face, he tried to block the memory of how he had responded from his mind. The image of himself flicking his hair, nibbling on the end of one of his long acrylic nails while telling the man that he was allergic to landline telephones.

“Well, that is a shame, but you know what that means, right?” Veronica announced. “Tomorrow you’ll be helping in the salon. I’m sure Paula will be delighted to know she has two models to practice on.”

“Veronica, please!” Tim whined, “we’ve done everything you’ve asked. It’s not our fault if no one's hiring during a pandemic.”

Looking deadly serious, Veronica stood up “Sorry, girls but that’s not strictly true is it?” I asked you to bring some money in to help out, not to sit around in a coffee shop or refuse every job that the jobcentre offers you.”

Simultaneously, the heads of both men shot around. A mass of hair flew across their makeup-covered faces as their mouths hung open in surprise.

“I told you weeks ago there would be consequences if you lied to me,” Veronica announced in a menacing voice. “It looks like the punishments so far have been too or subtle or perhaps just not meaningful enough. I guess we need to up the ante a little!”

After watching Veronica turn and begin to stride across the room, Tim turned to Kamsi and pulled a face. “Shit, perhaps we should have tried a bit harder. How the hell did she know?” he whispered.

Glancing to make sure she was out of earshot, Kamsi shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, man. But who cares? Let her dish out her punishments. I’d much rather help decorate the spare room or have my hair done than have to go out to work every day looking like a woman.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Tim replied with an uneasy smile. “I guess helping to paint the new salon wasn’t too bad, but recently my body has started to feel strange.”

Looking down, Tim poked a long pink nail into his flabby chest feeling a jolt of sensitivity. “I mean, have you noticed any changes? Recently my nipples have become really sensitive, and I’m pretty sure my whole chest area is getting bigger. You don’t think it has anything to do with Veronica, do you?”

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“Ok, that’s a little better, Karmen, but come on, Kylie. You need to look a lot happier than that, or we’re going to be here all day. We’re advertising a beauty salon, not a funeral parlour.”

The afternoon had flown by in a blur for Kamsi and Tim as the pair had endured hours of hair and skin treatments at the hands of Paul, who not only looked like a human Barbie doll these days but also obeyed Veronica commands like a well-trained dog.

Teetering atop a tall pair of uncomfortable boots that reached mid-thigh, Kamsi tried to avoid eye contact with Tim who was staring at him with fury in his eyes.

Almost hyperventilating, Kamsi's padded chest heaved up and down through the tight leopard print dress encasing his body. The hot lights aimed right at him weren't helping as he felt a bead of sweat start to form high on his forehead, where his new hairpiece had been glued securely into place.

Stuffed into a sparkly gold peplum dress, Tim was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Refusing to look down the lens of the camera, something in his mind had snapped earlier as he had his hair dyed and curled.

The thought of someone he knew seeing him looking like some skanky Asian girl on her way to the clubs to bag herself a rich guy was too much shame to bear.

Shaking on his high-heeled feet, he scowled angrily at Kamsi, fantasizing about ripping out his jugular with his long acrylic nails.

(See image 23)

Opposite the models for the salon’s new Instagram page. Paul stood with a blank expression on his face as Veronica barked instructions and snapped pictures next to him. He could no longer bring himself to look his friends in the eye. The humiliation he’d felt that morning after giving his friends their new haircut do's, now paled in comparison to the guilt he felt after injecting their faces and lips with filler.

Tugging on the short hem of his little uniform, Paul wiggled his foot to try and get some feeling back in his numb toes. For the first time in his life, he felt devoid of ideas. He knew he had let things go too far, but what scared him most was how easily he was accepting his fate. It was just so hard to fight back. He always felt so sleepy these days, like he was high or something.