The cold war 04

Chapter 3 – In over his head

After tossing and turning all night, the sound of the alarm on his phone ringing out felt like a jackhammer to Ben's brain. Reaching over to silence the piercing sound, Ben fumbled with his phone, knocking it to the floor and feeling a sharp pain in his cracked nail, letting out a small groan as the events of the previous day came rushing back to him.

Reaching down to pick up his phone, he struggling to slide his finger across the screen to switch off the infuriating alarm. Using his phone had now become a tedious task, he needed to position his hands to the side, bend his fingers upwards as far as they could go, and carefully place the tip of his finger on the screen in order for the touchscreen to register his touch.

Closing his hands into a limp fist, he carefully rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his knuckle as the door to his room opened and Irina popped her head through the opening, “ah, good, you're awake”, she said, “get dressed and meet me in the gym in five minutes”.

Ben nodded his head and watched her disappear, looking down at the time on his phone, 6.33 am, "why on earth would anyone willingly chose to wake up at this time", he thought to himself, wanting nothing more than to lay back down and rest his tired eyes.

Throwing on a pair of shorts, he lumbered over to the bathroom, and after emptying his bladder, he joined Irina in the gym. The morning exercise routine, seemed much more difficult that morning compared to the previous day, his muscles ached, and his stomach felt completely empty, having only eaten a few pretzels in the last 24 hours. But not wanting to show weakness and admit he couldn’t compete with his stepsister, Ben went through the motions, stretching and moving his body in time with the instructor on the video, all the while, dreading what the day ahead had in store for him.

“Well done”, Irina announced switching off the video, “you’re already becoming more flexible, how do you feel”?

Ben couldn’t help but smile at the compliment even if he didn’t feel particularly happy having to do a full exercise routine first thing in the morning, “hungry and tired”, he replied looking at Irina who seemed to be in a good mood that morning.

“Yeah, that’s understandable”, Irina replied, “your body needs time to adjust, but it won’t take long to get used to your new routine, you’ll see. And besides, we’ve got nothing too strenuous planned for today, we’ll eat brunch, do a little light shopping but first, we’ll head back to the nail salon and fix that nail of yours”.

Ben nodded his head, brunch sounded like a wonderful idea, and he was keen to stop the pain he received from his finger every time he tried to use his right hand, but light shopping, he had his doubts, he knew Irina well and knew full well what she considered light was probably going to be anything but.

“Ok, go and take a shower, I’ll find us something to wear”, Irina announced, “oh and seeing as we have more time today, I want you to shave your legs, armpits as well, you’ll find an unopened pack of razors in the bathroom, do you need any help”?

Not liking the idea one bit but having already come to the conclusion, he would be asked to remove his body hair at some point, Ben didn’t argue as he thought back to the previous evening. It was true what Irina had said, he would indeed have plenty of time that day, as he no longer needed to work on the pretzel stand.

Having finished his shift, the previous evening, he was approached by Mr Davidson, the owner of the pretzel stand, who didn’t look happy. The woman who he had accidentally sworn in front of had made a complaint and when Mr Davidson saw the way he was dressed and the floor around the stand littered with dropped pretzels, he had fired him on the spot.

“No, I don’t need any help, I can manage”, Ben replied starting to walk towards the door.

“Ok, just take your time, you don’t want to cut yourself, meet me in my bedroom when you’re done”. Irina said as she watched him exit the room.

45 minutes later, Ben entered Irina’s room, his skin feeling all tingly and sensitive, he had successfully managed to remove all his body hair, without cutting himself, but the sensation of having hairless skin was a strange new experience. He had never been the hairiest of people, just a light fuzz that had covered his body, but without it, his body looked pale and thin even the touch of the towel wrapped around his waist now felt rough against his sensitive skin.

Stepped into the room, the thought of his hairless body was suddenly replaced with the feeling of worry as he eyed up a neatly folded pile of pink clothes on the bed and knew they were for him.

“There you are”, Irina said as he entered the room, “ok, your clothes are on the bed, get dressed”.

“Irina, do I really have to wear pink? Can’t you pick out something else”? Ben whined.

“No”, Irina announced in an authoritative voice, “It’s part of being a girl, being able to express your mood with the colour of your outfit, and today I’m in a pink mood”.

“But I’m not a girl”, Ben moaned, “you know I’ll look ridiculous”.

“Irina smiled, “Well, that’s your problem, try to change the way you think from now on, you need to think as I do, try to imagine yourself as a girl, and you won’t look ridiculous, you’ll look cute, especially when I finish with your hair and makeup”.

“Makeup! Hair!” Ben exclaimed in horror.

“Of course,”, Irina quickly shot back, “when do you ever see me out of the house without my hair and makeup done, I went easy on you yesterday, but today we do things properly, now get dressed and remember to tuck, when you're done come over to my vanity and I’ll help you out for today, but eventually, you’ll have to learn how to do this stuff for yourself”.

Ben sighed, the day was already off to a bad start, could he really make it an entire month, it was only day two and he was already way out of his comfort zone, had he perhaps bitten off more than he could chew?

As Ben swung his legs out of the yellow cab, feeling the chill of the wind against his feet, he ducked his head slightly to stop his hair colliding with the top of the door frame, still not used to the extra height of the ponytail extension, Irina had attached after pulling back his hair.

Placing one foot on the sidewalk, he once again felt the unusual, angled position of his foot, inside his extremely girly pink wedge shoes, the ones he had tried to argue against wearing but having been told he could have a pair of stilettos instead if he wanted, he had quickly backed down and strapped into the clumpy wedges to his feet without further complaint.

Placing a long-nailed hand against the frame of the car door, Ben lifted himself onto his feet, closed the door and watched as the cab sped away, leaving him standing in the middle of lower Manhattan dressed in an embarrassing unicorn-themed, pink outfit, which he suspected was something Irina hadn’t worn since her early teens.

“Come on, let go”, Irina announced, striding on towards the entrance to the nail salon.

Ben watched as she confidently strode ahead on her much taller heels and more mature outfit, like him she was dressed entirely in pink, but unlike him, she looked trendy and stylish. For a moment, a stranger thought popped into his head as he felt a tinge of jealousy but quickly dismissed it as realised what he was thinking.

“Come on”, Irina shouted back from the entrance, getting impatience at being kept waiting.

Snapping out of his daze, Ben looked up at her unhappy face, “sorry, coming”, he announced as he started clomping his way towards the nail salon, his second visit within the last twenty-four hours. At least this time he knew what to expect, but as his heart started to beat a little quicker in his chest, he knew knowing what to expect wasn’t going to make the experience any more pleasurable.

(See image 3.1)