Tattooed Hearts

First Performances & Slow Realizations

I probably watch her for ten more seconds, nearly mesmerized by her. Luke clears his throat catching my attention.

"Dude," He smirks, looking from Grace to me. "You're totally whipped man."

I shake my head. "No, I'm not," I say, turning to him.

"Dumb ass! Yes you are!" Luke laughs, not mad anymore. I give him a stern look, signaling for him to keep his voice down. "It all makes sense. Well shit."

"I'm no where near whipped," I argue. I blow out a deep breath, running a hand through my hair and peeking back at Grace. "Look," I say to him. "I like Grace. She's cute, she's nice, she's funny. I'm not in love with her or anything, and she isn't even my girlfriend. So you can't say I'm whipped."

"Aww," Luke smiles and tilts his head. "Isaac has a crush. How sweet."

"Doesn't matter. It's not like she would go out with me." I say, rolling my eyes. If only it were that easy.

"Why not? Anyone other girl here would. Hell, Macy Louis is always checking you out."

"Grace is different than the other girls here. She's special," I sigh, repositioning my backpack over my shoulder. "She's really smart, and considerate, and she finds the joy in the smallest things. And I don't know why everyone hates her, because she is amazing. There's so much to her that people don't realize, and I've never met anyone so genuine, so sincere, I've never seen anyone like her."

Luke has a stupid ass grin plastered on his face. He shakes his head and pushes off the lockers just as the bell rings. "Just a crush?" He asks before walking away. Dammit, why does he always have the last word?

But then I go over everything I just said in my head, and think,

Fuck man. You're whipped.

❁ ❁ ❁

"Which golf shirt?" I ask, holding up a blue and a red one.

"Hmm, blue. Goes with your eyes better. But RED also matches your hair. And your skin–"

"You're making this too complicated!"

"No I am not! There's lots of things to consider when selecting a shirt to where, thank you sir." Mia replies smartly, legs criss crossed, sitting on my bed.

"Just choose one, please?" I grumble, looking at the clock. Only 15 more minutes before I gotta leave.

"Well, I would say Blue so it matches her dress better."

"Thanks." I say, hanging the red one back up and shushing Mia out of my room, giving her a piece of gum for helping me. Mia can be bribed with the weirdest things. Gum because she isn't supposed to chew it with her new braces, and mom won't let her have any. I'm her gum dealer.

"You should bring her flowers." Mia says. "Like roses?"

"I already got her tulips." I smirk and shut the door on her. I hear her shout at me, but I go ahead and slip my shirt from school today off and put on the blue on, straightening out the collar.

I fix my hair really quick and grab my keys and the flower bouquet off my desk. Hopefully she likes them. I didn't want to get roses, those are too much. So I got white tulips, because I remember seeing several pictures of tulips on her photography account.