Love, Lies, Secrets and Manipulation (Divergent/Eric OC)

20. Give Me A Sign

"Which one are you going to get?" Jesse asks me.

I scan the several different tattoo designs against the wall, contemplating what size tattoo I want to get.

"Probably something not too big. But something big enough to look good on the back of my neck."

"You want your first tattoo to be on the back of your neck?" He asks, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, why not? I can always get more later on."

"I think I want this one," Jesse says, holding up a glass plate with a long tribal tattoo design on it. "On both my forearms."

I raise my brows at him. "Wow, watch out for this bad boy," I tease, making him laugh.

As I turn back to look at the wall, a small tattoo design on the top row catches my attention. It's a nice size flame with the word 'Dauntless' right underneath it. It's the perfect size tattoo for the area I want done.

"Okay, I think I found the one I want."

Jesse comes to my side just as I pull it down from the top row. "That'll look good on the back of your neck," he says, while poking in that area.

"Did you guys figure out what you want?" An unfamiliar deep voice speaks.

We turn our heads and find a tall, muscular, tattooed man standing behind us. He looks no older than thirty, and his black undershirt exposes his tattoo sleeves on his muscular arms.

"Yeah, I'll take this one," I say, turning around and holding up the small glass plate to him.

"Alright," he says. "I can take you in the back room." He points over to a small secluded room towards the back of the tattoo parlor.

"Okay."

"Tori can take you next," he tells Jesse, pointing to the left of us.

Jesse and I separate. As he heads over to the other tattoo artist, I walk down the short, narrow hallway and enter the dark room in the back. The tatttoed man walks in behind me and flicks on a bright light that's in the center of the room above us.

"You want the door left open? Or closed?" He asks me.

"Open is fine. I'm just getting this on the back of my neck." I lift up the glass design.

He cocks his left pierced eyebrow at me. "You do know that's a sensitive area, right?"

I shrug. "So? I can take a little pain."

"If you say so," he mumbles. He points over to the black leather chair. "Go ahead and get comfortable."

"About how long will it take?" I ask as I take my seat.

He fidgets with a flat, black box on the side counter. "The one you want is pretty small. It should only take about five to seven minutes to ink up."

With the black hair tie that's on my wrist, I put my long hair up and tie it into my signature, lazy hairdo; a high, messy bun. I then straighten up the baby hairs that hang down over the back of my neck, and insert four bobby pins to keep the strands in place with the rest of my hair.

"I'm Damon, by the way." The tattooed man speaks as he puts on a pair of black gloves. "What's your name?"

"Natalie." I answer.

"Natalie, the initiate?"

"Yeah," I answer, stretching out the word.

"Damon laughs loudly. "You're the girl who fought Eric in the ring the other day?"