Museum Studies

The Date

"Bobbi, did he show up to see you at the airport?"

"No, but he was busy with seeing his bros! I don't wanna be too clingy with him, in case I lose him." Roberta sighed, and pronged a piece of bacon.

"He isn't, like, the love of your life! He's literally just a guy!" Kylie sighed.

"He loves me, I know he does. Anyway, I've got a big surprise for him!" Roberta rolled up her sleeve, and took the bandage off her new tattoo, as it had fully healed. It showed the Mayan calendar, done in simple black lines.

"Oh my gaaaaawd! It's, like, so cool!" Kylie squealed. "He'll love it! Can I take a picture?"

"Sure." Roberta replied. Kylie snapped a photo, and posted it to her Instagram.

"Remember in 2012 when we thought the Mayan apocalypse was gonna happen?" Kylie laughed. The two had been pen-pals before Roberta had gone to uni, as their schools had a pen pal programme.

"Oh man, don't remind me..." The punk grinned. "Anyway, shall we paint this bloody place?"

As the day went by, Roberta and Kylie painted up the entire apartment. It was pretty small, and Roberta had decided to paint the living room black, the kitchen violet, and the bedroom hot pink. Music blared from her speaker as they did so, but since Kylie liked BTS and Justin Bieber whereas Roberta liked Bjork and Lordi, there was no real theme to their mixed playlist. Still, although they were opposites the two got along like peas in a pod. By 5pm the entire apartment was painted up, and they were sitting on the couch with celebratory smoothies.

"That was, like, so fun! Maybe I should've become an interior decorator instead of a hairdresser." Kylie said, sipping her drink.

"Yeah, it was pretty fun, actually." Roberta said. She'd decorated her entire apartment, and her bedroom was strewn with posters from punk bands, merchandise from horror films, Frida Kahlo prints, roller derby gear, and a few cute touches like a shelf of Bratzillaz dolls from her childhood. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Kylie smiled. She opened the door, to reveal a pale guy with messy black hair, one earring, a red plaid shirt, grey camo pants, chunky black boots, a beanie, icy blue eyes and a "tribal Aztec" pendant necklace.

"Oh!" Gasped the blonde. "I... I should go." Kylie headed off shyly, as Mark closed the door behind her.

"Mark!" Roberta got up from the couch and ran up to hug him. "Oh, I missed you, love!"

"I missed you to, Bobbi-boo."

"Me and Kylie were just decorating the apartment when you got here. Do you wanna look around?"

"Maybe later. Anyway, Bobbi, I've got a surprise for you!" He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his head onto hers, reminding Roberta about her surprise.

"Well, so have I. Ta-da!" She grinned as she pulled up her sleeve, showing off her new tattoo. Mark stared down at it, not saying anything.

"Do you like it? I got it because you got that pendant just before I left for Sydney, and I guessed that you might like it, and I wanted it to be a surprised." She gabbled. Mark stared at the tattoos and sighed.

"Roberta, yeah, the Aztecs were pretty cool. I love killing the Aztec war-bosses in Warmaster 5: Age of Battle. But, like... What would my mom and dad think? They're conservative, they think that tattoos on women are degenerate. Also, like... the Aztecs were savages, they'd be outraged! Sorry, baby, I know you put a lot of thought into this... But it's just a really bad idea!"

Roberta crumpled inside. She'd spent two hours under the needle to get this tattoo, this wonderful Mayan design, only to get the wrong thing! It hurt to know that Mark's relations didn't like her tattoos.