Too Close

Chapter Thirteen

"That's so nice." Gianna pouted. Brooke had all the qualities of a great friend. Sweet, thoughtful, and spontaneous. Which was Gianna's favorite trait of hers. "Check please!" Gianna called out to their server making Brooke chuckle. Once their bill was paid, they took the quick walk to the tattoo parlor.

As they sat in the waiting area, the girls looked through the books of premade designs and piercings.

"I lowkey want my nipples pierced too." Brooke thought aloud. "You think they fit me?" She held the example picture to her chest to get Gianna's opinion.

"Girl put that down." She laughed. "What's your pain tolerance? My sister has them and she said they weren't bad at all. But she also said giving birth was a five out of ten, so." Gianna shrugged her shoulders as Brooke's eyes widened.

"I'ma just stick to my belly ring." She said looking off to the side. "You know what you wanna get?"

Gianna nodded while going into her camera roll to search for her inspiration picture. Once she found it, she showed it to Brooke.

"Ouu I like this! It suits you." The tattoo consisted of two abstract faces with she is art written above it. "Getting it on your back huh?" Brooke smirked and nudged Gianna's side with her elbow.

"It's for the aesthetic and nothing else!" She made the same as Brooke before they started laughing. The two spent the rest of their night in pain, but they knew the end result was well worth it.

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"Today you all are going to write your own poem, using the format we went over. I want you to be creative but still have some structure." Miles began to pass out copies of the example poem he wrote.

He began to explain how his example followed the guidelines and everyone listened attentively. Well, everyone except Gianna whose heart felt like it grew wings as it was fluttering in her chest.

The poem titled Cell Phone Girl caught Gianna by surprise. Everyone around her was so casually listening to the lecture while she was growing hotter as the seconds passed.

"Miss Graye?" The sound of his voice brought her back down to Earth. Miles stood adjacent to the table she was sitting at, watching her get lost in her own thoughts.

"Yes?" Gianna tried to keep a neutral face.

"Would you read the next line for us?" It was clear that she wasn't paying attention by how her eyes scanned the paper, unsure which line was next. Thankfully, Brooke was in tune and used her neatly decorated acrylic nail to point to which line was to be read next.

Gianna's heart was racing after she'd quickly read the line in her head. She cleared her throat, hoping she could recite the line without any stutters. "She mesmerizes with her innocent smile, but it's her words that keep you there for a while."

The two briefly made eye contact. "Thank you, Miss Graye." She could hear the smirk in his words. "As you can see, I used rule three here." Miles resumed his lesson as if it was nothing. For the duration of his speech, Gianna didn't hear a thing he said. She found herself reading the poem he'd penned about her, over and over again.

It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for her. The fact that it was something only the two of them knew and shared made it all the more special.