I had been hanging out with my friend Kelly a lot lately. We didn’t live far from each other and we didn’t really have anyone else to hang out with. Everyone was off at college or had moved away. That’s okay though because we were best friends.
It was a Friday and I was happy because I had Friday’s off of work and I hated my job. My job was at a daycare center and I wasn’t too fond of kids. Kelly had had the idea of us going to get tattoos one night and I wasn’t sure if I was ready.
Kelly is the kind of person that is fearless and is willing to try anything. Me, not so much. I’m more of a laid back, go with the flow person.
“Come on Lucy! We have been putting this off for way too long! We have to go tonight!”
I looked at Kelly and rolled my eyes. We were sitting on the couch of her finished basement. We had just got done eating and we had been gossiping about old friends.
“I don’t know Kelly. Let me think about it some more” I said.
She moaned and put one of the couch pillows to her face. I chuckled and checked my phone.
No New Messages.
“Have you been talking to that guy at all?” Kelly had taken her face away from the pillow and was now staring at me.
“Um not really,” I sighed “I don’t know if I’m into him anymore. He doesn’t seem to be that in to me and we haven’t really texted much since we met a few weeks ago.”
“Ah, well sometimes that happens. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be,” she explained looking away.
“Maybe,” I mumbled.
I looked at my phone again furrowing my eyebrows. Honestly it was me who was scared of the relationship thing. I haven’t really had a boyfriend in a while and the last one I had didn’t go so well. Kelly had this bright idea of trying to set me up with some people. There was this one guy that I liked we had been texting for a while and then decided to meet in person. The meeting part went well. We had met in a book store. We had coffee and talked for hours. I was comfortable and that scared me.
I had been thinking about getting a tattoo for a long time now but I’ve been a little nervous. Maybe a small tattoo wouldn’t hurt… (no pun intended.)
“You know what? Let’s go get a tattoo,” I said puffing out my chest.
Kelly squealed in delight.
“A big one?” she asked smiling ear to ear.
“Ha-Ha no, a small one,” I laughed.
“Alright,” she shrugged “Better than nothing.”
Although Kelly seemed disappointed that I didn’t opt for the bigger tattoo; I knew she was still excited.
We walked out of her house and the cool fresh air hit my face. It was mid November and it seemed to be getting colder every day. I shivered slightly as I strolled down the drive-way and into Kelly’s car. I sat down and got comfortable. We didn’t talk much on the ride over but we did listen to some music. I stared out the window and watched the frosted trees as we drove past them. I was honestly trying not to check my phone. I was just so unsure about dating but at the same time I wanted him to text me. I kept feeling my phone vibrate when it didn’t. I kept typing out messages and deleting them. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. At the same time I kind of felt bad but at the same time he didn’t really seem that interested in me either. Maybe I should just let it go and stop thinking so much about it.
We finally pull into the parking lot of the tattoo shop. I look over at Kelly nervously.
“So do you know what you want to get?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I want to get some music notes behind my ear.”
She took off her seat belt and reached behind to grab her purse.
“What about you?” She asked as she got all of her things together to go inside. I was stalling a bit.
“Um, I think I’m going to go with a small heart on my wrist,” I said nodding my head trying to reassure myself.
“Cool, let’s go in!” She said and climbed out of the car. I soon followed, walking slower towards the door.
We got to the door.
I took a deep breath and went inside.
I did a quick glance around the shop. There were a lot of pictures on the walls of drawn tattoos and a lot of different art work. To my left, there was a small sitting area with a couch and coffee table. The table had portfolios and magazines. It was a bit chilled in there. I shivered.
We walked up to the counter. I looked up and my stomach flipped in surprise.
There He was.
He was talking to one of the artists. They were both hunched over a laptop. They were smiling and conversing about whatever they were looking at. He looked so calm and happy. His hair was gelled back into a perfect styled quiff. He had on a tight sweater that fit him nicely and loose jeans. He was just mesmerizing to look at. How could he have such a hold on me?
I looked over at Kelly. My eyes were big and I was shaking my head. I kept my voice low and whispered to her.
“That’s Him, that’s the guy.” I tried motioning my head towards Him.
“What?” She whispered back.
“The guy I was talking too,” I said a little louder.
She was about to say something when I heard someone say, “Can I help you?” We looked over and the artist had come over to the counter where we were standing in front of. Before either of us could say anything; He came over.
“Hey…Lucy, what are you doing here?” he asked looking between Kelly and me.
“Um…getting a tattoo of course,” I laughed nervously “Oh um this is my friend Kelly.”
They exchanged hellos and then we had to talk to the artist. We told him what we wanted and gave him our information. The artist told us that he and another artist could do our tattoos at the same time, but that means Kelly and I would be separated.
I kept glancing over at Him. I couldn’t help the butterflies that came up when I looked at Him. We would smile at each other and look away.
We got seated at our respective artist’s chairs. I hated that Kelly was away from me because I really needed to talk to her. So many questions were running through my head. Did she know He was going to be here? Why was He here? It kept going over and over in my head. Why was He here on all of the days that Kelly and I went to go get a tattoo at a random shop? I don’t think He and I ever mentioned this place or that He was going to be here.
I was explaining to my artist what I wanted when I noticed Him hanging around me.
“So you’re getting a heart?” He asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, something small.”
“Cool,” He said.
He and the artist were talking a bit as the artist was prepping my wrist for the tattoo. I listened along. I tried not to stare at Him too much. I didn’t want to be creepy; although he was staring at me as well. I didn’t know what to say to him, I was too nervous. I wanted to say sorry for not texting you, but no words came out. I was so in my head that I didn’t notice him start to leave.
“Hey so I’ll see you later,” he said to me.
“Oh yeah…um see you later,” I said back.
Too late, I thought, there he goes.
“So this tattoo is small so it’ll probably only take like thirty seconds,” the artist said to me.
As He was walking out the door, He turned and looked at me and said, “It’ll be the best thirty second of your life.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at his joke. We smiled at each other and He walked out the door. I kept smiling even as I was getting my tattoo.
Kelly and I got done with our tattoos. The tattoo artist talked us through on how to take care of them. We paid and then walked out the door.
As soon as we got in the car she jumped me.
“Did you know that He was going to be there?” she asked, staring at me intently.
I shook my head, “No! I thought you knew He was going to be there.”
“I swear I didn’t know. But how weird is that? Going to a random tattoo place and He was just, there.” She said in wonder.
“Yeah I was thinking the same thing actually. Very weird,” I said while shaking my head.
“He’s really cute though and I noticed He stayed behind before He left,” she said while poking me.
I chuckled. “Yeah He did, didn’t He?”
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. Kelly was poking me some more and I slapped her hand away.
“You know I think we should go on an adventure. Let’s just go drive somewhere and have a good time” She said enthusiastically.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Let’s go on an adventure.”
We pulled out of the parking lot and just started to drive. I didn’t know where we were going but I didn’t care. I was just happy and giddy almost and I wasn’t really sure what came over me. Even though we didn’t talk much I could feel a connection between us. He seemed surprised but happy to see me. Maybe he really did like me.
I felt a buzz from my pocket.
1 New Message.
I smiled and said aloud, “You know, maybe we are meant to be.”
© 2016 chelseadwyerbooks.com All Rights Reserved
Chelsea Dwyer 