Savin' Me (Part 1 of 3)

Part 1

Raya's POV:

Considering where we left off I guess you might have a few questions so let me bring you up to speed.

So after Levi died I really struggled with every emotion I felt, I was rejecting food at mealtimes but not to the point of having an eating disorder at the level of Anorexia Nervosa where I would straight-up not eat for days and days or Bulimia where I would eat and throw up. To be honest it was just difficult to get Levi and his death off my mind, what is the proper way to grieve when you lose anybody? For me, this is what it looked like, refusing meals, emotions running through my head like a runaway train, it wasn't an easy process then again death isn't meant to be.

I'll be honest though even if I ate very little at least my auntie/non-biological mother, Mollie never tried to strap me down and force food down my neck she did, however, encourage me to eat at my own pace so that was a good thing.

The only thing that made me get better in a slow process was working at my dream job, Inside a Mind Counselling and helping the clients through their struggles during the day before having to go back at 5 pm.

One night though I remember being laid awake after a meal, my head just a wreck of emotion that was when I called Nathan, who picked me up, got us a hot chocolate from Costa and we headed out onto a country lane. Spent the whole night until 1 am talking about everything, from our relationship that had grown since September, to Levi and the weekend before his self-righteous suicide but I guess people cry when angels deserve to die but diamonds don't turn to dust and energy doesn't die.

But this story isn't even about me this time around so much as the last story I told you, this story is Nathan's with a tiny part of mine.

So let me set the scene for what we are about to get into:

This story takes place on a freezing, cloudy, January midday when Nathan and I went to Ace's tattoo shop Markin' and Piercin' it was part of my Christmas present to myself. When we walked into the tattoo shop there was Ace, Nathan's mate, he was almost like a modern rapper mixed in with a hipster, he had a tattoo of a dragon on the side of his shaven head, a small cross under his eye also tattooed on his face, he wore a pair of ripped jeans that just were the knee was there were two tattooed eyes on each knee, his neck had tattooed incision markings and just near his Adam's apple read the words "SLIT ME" deadly gangsta (haha). Ace stood up as Nathan and I walked into the shop "Nathan" says Ace as we entered he was sat down near the till "Ace man!" said Nathan laughing, they did the bro hug, I just smiled and looked at Nathan with a smile on my face, Ace soon sat back down after the bro hug "right so what can I do for you today lad?" says Ace "I was wondering if you could do me a tattoo" says Nathan "sure what you planning on?" asked Ace, I then see Nathan leaning over to whisper to Ace "bit different for you that but I'll see what I can do", "Raya this is my mate Ace, Ace this is Raya" says Nathan as he introduces us I shake Ace's hand "what are you after today, Raya?" asked Ace "I was wondering if I could get a semi-colon on the side of my wrist?" I said "yeah certainly," says Ace, he called one of the tattoo artists to come through as he leads me and Nathan into the tattoo parlour.

I sit in a chair, as does Nathan, I have a female tattoo artist called Dionne, she had dark hair but half of her head was shaved, alongside her dark hair she had the brightest shade of pink that was ombre into her hair, she was what you would expect a tattoo shop worker to look like articulate, tattoos, a ring in the middle of her nose, her eyes were icy blue, "so what's the plan?" asks Dionne, "right so what I'm wanting is a semi-colon on the side of my wrist" I say "okay no problems" says Dionne and she begins to get the needle ready as well as a stencil, now for those of you who don't know the semicolon is a symbol for suicide awareness, and for those who have lost family and friends due to suicide, but in literary terms, the semicolon is used for when an author could have chosen to end their sentence but instead, they choose not to.

So the needle starts buzzing as it goes onto the stencil, I take slow, steady breaths to calm myself. Dionne looks up and takes the needle off "is this your first tattoo?" asks Dionne "no my second" I say "oh right just keep doing your breathing hun you're doing good" says Dionne and she goes back to the needle that's puncturing my skin, I see Nathan looking over from the seat where he's sat getting a tattoo done by Ace "you alright babe?" says Nathan, Dionne turns her head around "she's in safe hands Nate don't worry" says Dionne, with how gently Dionne was being with me I slowly started to relax it wasn't until 2 minutes later that I heard the tattoo machine be put back on the metal cart, and Dionne say "right that's it hun", I breathe a sigh of relief, that's when my eyes go down to my left wrist and I see this semi-colon on my wrist "what do you think?" I smile "that's lovely that thanks Dee," I say "you're welcome just need to tape that up," says Dionne and she goes to get a film dressing, I watch Nathan getting his tattoo as I wait for the dressing to be slowly and carefully wrapped around my wrist, I follow Dionne out so I can pay whatever price is necessary for the small work of art on my wrist.

Nathan's POV:

I watch as Ace's tattooing machine goes into the stencil to form the perfect dandelion blown away with the wind. "Mate what's the reason behind this tattoo?" says Ace, "basically Raya has a dandelion on her back so I thought fuck it I'd get one myself" I laugh "yeah mate" laughs Ace, to be honest things in my life changed from being with Raya the same way things had changed with Raya. Raya has been one of the best lights in my life so far and everything seems to be going swimmingly with us both I really love her, worship the ground she walks on she's just completely and utterly perfect and just getting a tattoo with lots of meaning behind it is just another sign of how good things are going.

When my tattoo is finished, Ace dresses my tattoo and I can finally show Raya what I whispered to Ace, Ace gets up and says "so mate if you'd like to come with me". Ace walks out of the room and I follow him "right mate that'll be £25 please", I go in my wallet and pull out a £20 note and a £10 note and hand it over the counter to Ace "cheers buddy" "thanks mate" I say, then we do a bro-hug kind of always been mine and Ace's thing since primary school really.

Raya and I exit the shop, and start making the walk to my car "so what did you think of Ace then babe?" I asked Raya, Raya gave me a playful eye-roll "he seems alright" says Raya "yeah he's a really decent lad" I say, praising Ace, "so is that Dionne who he works with his girlfriend or?" asks Raya I laugh "no babe Dionne's his sister" I say "oh right" says Raya "so what tattoo did you end up getting?" I smile, let go of Raya's hand as I pull up the right side of my jacket, revealing the clear dressing but underneath that clear dressing the dandelion with 3 seeds blown off, Raya looks incredulous but amazingly shocked "do you like it?" I say after a moment of Raya gawking at it as if she'd never seen a tattoo before "it..." starts Raya before her chin goes up, her sparkling eyes from the smile that has formed on her face "it's perfect" that's when she puts her arms around me, gets up on her tip-toes and kisses me, my arms hold her as she kisses me, she's a complete goddess with the most bewitching kiss ever, pretty, chocolate-coloured eyes, perfect face, and her cute stature, her curves in all the right places what more could a man want? When we finish the kiss we carry on until we walk over to my car.