Tattoos and Soul Mates

The More Normal it Gets, the More Different I Feel

Jake and I goofed off for the rest of period. I had grabbed my crap from the room and taken it with me. "Skip?" He asked. I nodded, grinning as bell rang shrilly and students flooded the hall way. 'C'mon, I have an idea.' Jake rolled his eyes and allowed me to drag him through the halls. As we had wandered through the halls earlier, I had seen a way out of the school, and I could barely see a fire escape from the crack in the door.

"Seriously, Andy? The roof? Well, at least Mike and Tony will be up here." Jake sighed with mock exhasperation. I giggled and thudded up the rusty fire escape, the rust gathering on the metal ladder near the top cutting against my hands. Jake hoisted himself up just after me, and he smiled as he saw me sitting there, reaching out towards the birds. Seagulls were flocking through the air, and they were my favourite birds. Three other boys had found refuge on the roof.

Two of them looked destinctively Mexican. One had tattoos all over his arms, neck, and legs, as well as several piercings. The other had tattoos in similar places and massive ear gauges. The third was him; Ashley. He had his head bowed and earbuds placed in his ears, his music blaring loud enough for me to hear the KISS song playing. He was sorting through a bunch of M&Ms and Skittles, almost obsessively. Sorting them by colour, then by number, then by type... I couldn't help but watch his long, tan fingers nimbly moving the colourful sweets around feverishly. Jake sighed again, sitting on the edge, near the two Mexicans goofing off and throwing bits of...cheese at each other?

"Andy, this is Tony Perry, and this is Mike Fuentes. They're pretty cool. If Mike asks to use your locker, say no, cuz last time that happened, Vic almost got suspended and got grounded for, like, a month." Mike rolled his eyes and snorted. "They weren't mine, they were Matty's. Besides, the only reason Vic got grounded is because mom's really protective and she though he was a pot head, which is the most unlikely thing I've ever heard." Tony burst out laughing, and Mike used the opportunity to throw a ball of cheese into his mouth. Seriously, what the hell?

'Who's that?' I signed, gesturing to Ashley. Jake sighed, eyeing him wearily. "That's Ashley Purdy. CC and Jinxx hang out with him, but he doesn't talk much. He's pretty OCD, so he has a lot of triggers for his panic attacks and stuff. He's 18 and still hasn't gotten his name, so we think he might be one of the Singles you always hear about." Jake said in a low tone.

Ashley looked up and tossed him a glare before going back to the candies. It's moments like these when I wish I could talk. I wanted to go over to him and say hi, to ask how he's doing, to ask if I could help him sort the candy with him. Sadly, most everyone didn't know sign language, and there was no way I was speaking. I'd never had the urge to until now, and I didn't want to put a stop to all the effort I put into staying silent. "Andy, don't even think about it. Believe me, he's not worth the trouble. He's in detention almost everyday, he's quiet, he's a handfull, and quite frankly, he isn't worth all that struggle."

Jake sighed, earning a glare from me. 'Everyone is worth a struggle.' I signed furiously, my lips pulled into a thin line. I scampered over to Ashley, my tattered notebook and chewed pencil in hand. I flipped it open to a clean page as I sat next to him. He didn't look up. If I couldn't sign to him, I'd write to him.

Hi. I'm Andy.

He didn't look up. I nudged him with my foot, alerting him of my presence. I slid the notebook to him. "I'm Ashley. Why don't you just speak?" He didn't seem like he was being rude, more like he was curious.

I'm mute. Sorry. Kinda makes life a bit difficult, ya know?

He smiled sadly and nodded in understanding.

Do you want help? I mean, would you mind if I sorted the candies with you?"

He seemed startled, but nodded all the same, a small, relaxed smile tugging at his lips. He looked so very familiar, and not just from Starbucks. I felt like I had known him all my life, despite this being the first time I'd talked to him, if you could even call it that. "Uh, sure. I'm sorting by type; ya know, sour, crazy core, pretzel, tropical, peanut, whatever. Then I'm sorting by colour, and then by whether they're M&M or Skittle." He said softly, sliding the plastic Ziplock bag the myriad of sweets was in. I nodded, tucking my hair behind my ear.

My wrist was stinging, so I rested it against the cool leather of my pants. He had basically every type of both the two candies. One the Skittles front, he had regular ones, crazy cores, tropical, sour, and some that I couldn't even name. He had pretzel M&Ms, peanut, regular, dark chocolate, ones of all different colours, Valentine's Day one, Christmas, Halloween, you name it, it was there. It was impressive. In the end we had small groups peppered out in front of us, spanning the rainbow in every hue and tone. "Thank you. This would have taken me a lot longer to do by myself." He said shyly, toying with the ends of his hair. I smiled.

No problem. Any time you want to hang out, just find me.

I scribbled down my number and tore it off, handing it to him. He saw the page below it, which was filled with small sketches of eyes, Starbucks cups, fingernails, just little bits and pieces of the other sketches in the book. Towards the back was where I expiremented, trying out different ways to draw things. He flicked through the pages after asking permission, his lips parted in slight awe.