CHAPTER FOUR

OTÁVIO

To which Megan read " of course " and looked scornfully at her as she washed her hair:

" You see, even your boss wants you to have sex. And you have to lose your ass, huh?"

That was Megan, her best friend. Direct. 

They had met when Clara was just starting in the profession, six years ago, and Megan had been one of her clients, in the beginning, still in another salon where she worked, all insecure, and Megan noticed her insecurity and chose to upgrade her hair. It was there that she decided to change the color of her full, brown hair to purple.

Of course Clara loved doing this for the first time. She sweated profusely as she bleached her thick strands, cut them off more than four fingers and dyed it. After that, many, many other colors were swapped by her friend. At the moment she was wearing an outrageous green. The whole time she was working on her hair, her boss, at the time, would not leave her side so that if she couldn't handle it, she would take it herself and finish it.

" Look, if everything doesn't work out," Megan said to the woman, who was biting her nails and cracking her knuckles, hissing and making Clara even more nervous as she stood over her shoulder, checking and whispering in her ear, "just shave it off. " The woman almost had a heart attack, foreseeing a lawsuit, when Megan looked in the mirror and calmed her down. " It's just hair, relax. Let her work in peace and I swear I don't mind being her guinea pig, okay? Hair grows back.

Clara would never forget the relief she felt when she saw her boss leave her side and go do other things, much more relaxed. And she would also never forget Megan's screams of joy at the final result. She jumped in the salon and showed off to all the other clients that were there, who were also excited to change their looks as well. Megan became a VIP client of the salon and had to insist that the owner accept payment for her services.

This was Megan and Clara loved her like a sister.

And there they were, with Clara finally getting to know where her friend lived.

Megan was absolutely right when she said that she didn't enjoy life much, but Clara was quieter. She wasn't much for clubbing and loved to curl up under a comforter on the couch on the weekends and marathon series, that was more her style. Most of the times she went out to have fun, it was at her friend's insistence, and she never regretted it when she was convinced to go out.

Clara picked up her little bottle of booze and began to explore more of the house. She entered a room at the end of a long, wide hallway and it was clearly a TV room, more like a movie theater, the TV itself didn't really exist, but a projector on the wall projected an old movie. The room, or salon, must have been well over twenty square meters and had many simple chairs, the only thing that differed from a movie theater were the chairs, assorted, plastic, spaghetti or kitchen chairs, one next to the other. Four sofas of the same color could also be seen there, leaning in one corner, and she noticed that the film that was playing on the screen was from the eighties: La Bamba.

She entered the room, closing the two large doors behind her, and sat down in the last row. The movie was towards the middle, but she had watched it so many times that she could say the lines by heart.

The audio was of good quality and was as she liked it, dubbed. At least she liked this movie dubbed, it gave her a pleasant nostalgia. She watched it for the first time as a child with her mother and aunt. At the time it was watched on DVD and her mother loved it, Clara ended up liking it, as well as City Of Angels, and even today she still gets goose bumps in some parts of the movie. Depending on her mood, she would even cry, that was the truth.

" Shall I go back to the beginning of the movie?

The voice startled her, making her jump in her chair. She hadn't noticed anyone there and plopped down in her chair, one hand over her racing heart.

" I'm sorry I startled you. Shall I go back to the beginning?

The dimness of the room didn't allow her to see the boy lying on the sofa. He had one foot propped up on the arm of the couch, and she could only see him clearly now because her eyesight had become accustomed to the dark.

" No need. I've seen this movie dozens of times. But thank you. I'm Clara, by the way.

" Okay.

The boy didn't look at her once, he was focused on the movie and didn't even introduce himself. He had a bowl with something to eat, and there were also some books on a coffee table in front of him.

Clara was silent and sat up better in her chair. Without looking at her, he asked:

" The sofa is more comfortable.

" Thank you," she said, and getting up sat down on the sofa next to the boy, who she could see was now quite young. As the TV lighting became brighter, she could see him better. Disguising her curiosity, she just looked at him more closely and noticed that he was about twenty"five years old, wearing jeans and a white tank top, barefoot, and wearing a black beret.

He realized that she was watching him and held out the bowl, it was popcorn.

Clara took some and put it in her mouth, putting the bottle beside it on the floor.

" I'm Clara, " she spoke again.

" I heard you the first time you spoke.

Wow. The guy wasn't much for talking. Feeling her face flush with embarrassment, she removed her sandal and put her feet up on the sofa. The boy put the bowl of popcorn next to her for both of them to take, and they stayed immersed in the movie for more than ten minutes. Only when he paused the movie did she realize that he had stood up.