Courage

Chapter Nine

[Francesca]

I couldn't help but take little glances at Maya, sitting on the floor next to my nightstand, while I looked for an outfit to wear for a party tonight. She'd look away immediately whenever my eyes met hers.

When I picked out an outfit she, Camila and I were off. Willow came to pick us up. My sister sat in the front and I sat in the back with Maya.

"Willow, did you get another tattoo?" Camila asked.

"Where?" Willow questioned.

"What do you mean, where? I can see the transparent bandage on your ankle," Camila pointed down.

"Oh right, I did," Willow chuckled. "It's an anklet tattoo."

Willow had about three tattoos. One behind her ear, a heart. A small Willow tree on her forearm that apparently she's had since she was sixteen. A tattoo that says "May the force be with you" somewhere on her left arm. Though I didn't really talk to her in high school until the end of the year, I remember teachers telling her to cover her "marks" and sometimes I'd see her in the bathroom concealing her heart tattoo.

"You guys should get a tattoo," Willow suggested. "Body Art is on the way to the party anyways."

"I want a small one," Camila chirped.

"Are you doing it?" I turned to Maya and asked.

"Are you?" she returned. I nodded. "Then I am, too."

The shop was empty. The tattoo artist, Josie, showed us all different designs we could get.

"Who wants to go first?" Josie asked.

"I'll go," Camila said eagerly. I dozed off as she told Josie what she wanted and where she wanted it.

"What are you getting?" I asked Maya quietly.

"I don't know," she replied. "Tattoos are supposed to be a symbolism. I don't know what I want to symbolize."

"Your tattoo doesn't have to be a symbolism, it can be whatever you want," I told her.

"Well, what are you getting?" she inquired.

"A serpent curling around my middle finger." I accidentally stuck up my middle finger at Maya while telling her. "Oops. Sorry." She just chuckled in response. "Why don't I just pick out your tattoo for you?"

"You'd do that?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll allow you to. Promise me you won't pick out anything weird or vulgar." She held out her pinky.

"I promise," I wrapped my pinky finger around hers.

"Who's next?" Josie asked, as Camila was getting out of the seat.

My sister flitted eagerly toward me, and stuck her arm. A pink bear and blue bear on her forearm. I could see it clearly through the transparent bandage. The blue bear had a star in the middle of its stomach and a pink bear had a rainbow in the middle of its stomach.

"They're Care Bears," she stated.

"I can see that," I nodded.

"It's kind of a representation of us. The pink bear is you because there's a rainbow, and you're a lesbian/gay. When I say gay I'm talking about your sexuality, not the one that means happy because, well, you're never happy."

"Yeah, I kind of got that."

"And the blue bear is me because I'm a star, though that should be obvious," she explained.

"She's too pure for this world," Josie remarked.

"I'm going to go next," I stated and sat in the chair.

It was actually quick for me, and it didn't hurt.
When I was done with mine I grabbed a mechanical pencil and paper off a shelf to sketch Maya's tattoo. I drew a lighter and wrote "I am a God" underneath. I told Josie to give it to her on her forearm where it would hurt the least.

As soon as the buzzing of the needle filled the room, Maya panicked.

"Don't look," I told her. She then started breathing in and out, heavily. "Maya, does it really hurt?"

"Yes," she breathed.

"Here hold my hand." She seized my hand quickly and buried her face in my stomach. I held my free hand on the back of her head so she wouldn't look at the needle.

"Franny, it hurts," she mumbled in my stomach.

"I know, I know." I stroked her hair back.

"Hold still, love," Josie said. "I'm almost done."

"See, she's almost done," I repeated.

"All done," Josie announced.

Maya looked up at me with her bloodshot eyes.

"Oh, Maya," I muttered.  I wiped her eyes with my thumb, making sure not to mess up her eye makeup. She wasn't crying, but she was about to. "Baby." She giggled.

Maya kept her hand on her forearm as we went to the car.

"It really hurts," she muttered in my ear.

I ignored her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.