Taking Your Love Hostage

Chapter 8: 'A Lot To Think About'

A Lot to Think About

I don’t know when I fell asleep but I woke up leaning on Daniel, his arm around my shoulders and his head on top of mine. I gently lift my head to look up at him and smile at how peaceful he looks while sleeping. I notice that his shirt is slightly in disarray and I see his tattoo peeking out. I slowly pull the edge of his shirt down and my breath caught at what I saw. Daniel had a tattoo that was almost tribal-like but looked almost exactly like an E. I knew that Daniel had that tattoo before I even knew him but I thought that it was strange that he had a tattoo with the letter of my first name. I tried to slow my heart rate and control my breathing thinking that it could stand for anything. His mom’s name could have started with an E, his middle name, Emarosa started with an E and that was his favorite band so maybe that was it. I didn’t notice I still had my hand on Daniel until I felt him stir and put his hand over mine.

‘If you wanted to see me without my shirt, all you had to do was ask. I would have gladly taken it off.’ His cheeky grin was back in place.

‘You’re a pervert. Of course I want you to take your shirt off.’ I looked over at him, his signature smirk in place, his lip ring flashing and realized what I had just said. ‘I didn’t mean that. I mean that of course I don’t want you to take your shirt off, I just forgot don’t.’

‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of Emily. A lot of girls want to see me with my shirt off, you wouldn’t be the first but I might actually take it off for you. You should feel lucky that I would do that for you.’ He winked at me before pulling me in closer to him. I buried my face into his shoulder as the blush rose into my cheeks. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever blushed this much in my life…

Well, except maybe when I got ‘the talk’ from my parents… But I don’t want to think about sex when I’m sitting beside Daniel. That would just make me feel ten times more awkward.

‘Daniel, I do not want you to take your shirt off.’ I growled through my teeth.

‘Give it time. You will.’

‘Daniel, you are one of the most perverted and cocky people I know. But you’re oddly sweet too.’ I look up at him smiling.

‘I’m sweet in more ways than one.’ He muttered under his breathe but I’m sure he said it loud enough for me to hear on purpose, just to see how I would react. So instead of giving him the satisfaction of that I simply shrugged my shoulders and went back to watching TV.

After about ten minutes of silence I decided that I would ask Daniel what his tattoo was of.

‘Daniel, while you were sleeping, I was kind of being a creeper and looking at your tattoo. Is that an E?’

‘Yeah.’ That was all the answer I got.

‘So, what does it stand for? Or does it stand for anything at all?’

‘I don’t know how to explain it without sounding cheesy or like a weirdo.’ He looked at me kind of sheepishly and I felt my heart rate spike.

‘I like cheese.’ Really Emily, is that all you can come up with?

‘Hahaha. Well, don’t make fun of me or anything but one day; I guess I was feeling kind of upset about my mom being gone. About how she had left us. I just couldn’t understand how she had left her supposed soul mate and kids out of the blue and without warning. My dad was really upset about her being gone and it made me want to give up on ever finding anyone to be with. I mean, I had believed I was going to have some kind of soul mate, until my mom left my dad here and I saw what it did to him and I was scared of that and I gave up on that all together. But that day that I was upset about it, I decided I wanted a tattoo. I wanted something with meaning behind it,’ Daniel paused and took a deep breath, ‘I wanted something that could somehow tell about my soul mate. Who I wanted them to be, I guess. I went to the shop and there it was. They had this tattoo on display and for some reason it meant a lot to me. I don’t even know why it meant so much to me. I knew I wanted that tattoo though. And here we are. You probably think I’m some crazy psycho stalker who followed you around before we even met, but I’m not. When I got this tattoo I didn’t know the meaning of why I wanted it so bad, but as I thought about it… I think it had something to do with what I want in my life. The person I’m supposed to be with.’ He looked at me from under his hair and I couldn’t breathe. Was he trying to say that his tattoo had something to do with a soul mate he had never met? Someone he didn’t know and that it just somehow managed to be the initial of my first name.