bed peace

Leilani was the kind of woman Maya can only hope of being. She was driven, optimistic, and an overall ray of light. And Maya often found herself overly jealous in the face of someone else’s light no matter who it was. But it was different with Leilani. For once, Maya didn’t feel that pang of sudden jealousy when around her, because her light and happy personality was just too infectious. Even now, Maya can feel her already good mood improving. 

“Oh my God, speaking of, I was playing that game where you shoot hoops and you won’t believe how bad I was. I swear at one point the ball like, swerved mid-air and completely missed the basket by an embarrassing amount. It was horrendous and all the kids were laughing at me and rightfully so.” When they’re back on the topic of tattoos, Maya’s lips purse in thought. Her eyes wander, attempting to think of something they can get. “Well, the best tattoos are the ones that mean something to you. Something timeless that you know you’ll never get tired of. My first was this one,” She begins, reaching up to pull her sweater down to reveal her tattoo, the words ‘MORE WONDER’ in small uppercase letters near her right collarbone. “This is from an essay I wrote for English class during my senior year where I talked about wanting to be more adventurous, to seek wonder. And that meant something to me.” She nods to Leilani, “So, that’s a good place to start. What means something to you that you’d want on you forever?”

As she listened to Maya explain her experience with one of the festival games, Lani ordered a malibu pineapple from the bartender. “Oh I bet those kids were roasting you. It’s okay though. Maybe you’ll run into someone special who will win a few prizes for you and make this whole thing worth it.” She winked, before perking up with a devious smile as another thought came to mind. “Or you can have a little rollercoaster moment à la Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg in that one 90s movie.” She was probably being a bit too starry-eyed but festivals always brought those date clichés to mind for her. It was too bad she didn’t have a date this year.

“That work is really beautiful.” She complimented, taking in the tattoo on her friend’s collarbone. Lani had a lot of things that meant a lot of her. Her salon, her family, her friends, but those were way too many things to get tattooed. If she was being honest with herself, the first thing that came to mind was her love for music. “I’d want something maybe whimsical, but true to me. I could see myself getting a music note or maybe a song lyric, but like a really short lyric.”

                                                        ~

SONG CHARACTER IS BASED ON: Put Your Records On by Corinne Rae Bailey

FULL NAME: Leilani Morton

NICKNAMES: Lani, Lei

DATE OF BIRTH: September 3, 1986

AGE: 35

GENDER: Ciswoman

PRONOUNS: she/her

OCCUPATION: Owner of Red Flush Salon

FACECLAIM: Amber Riley

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN PARTON: All her life

A SECRET OF THEIRS: She was offered a record deal in her 20s but turned it down out of fear of failure.