Beautifully Reconstructed

b a r e ( 裸 )

"He lives in a tattoo shop?" KT looks at me in disbelief, the chatter from the rest of the mall growing louder and louder.

"Well, above it." 

"How fitting." She snorts.

"Exactly what I thought!" I laugh. We sit down at a booth in the food court with our teas in hand.

Eric and I managed to get only five slides done last night, it was getting late and I had to catch the last bus.

"He just gets hotter and hotter." She fans herself for emphasis. I roll my eyes.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but he has a girlfriend."

"Oh honey no, you're not bursting any bubble." She shakes her head. "He's hot, but I'd never date him. God no." She sips her Chai tea.

"What? Why not?" I'm taken aback by the disgust in her voice.

"Have you seen him? Have you smelt him? As soon as he walked through the door I could smell the cigarettes from across the room." She scrunches her nose. "And that motorcycle? He's way too bad boy for me. Guys like that-- not my type."

"Oh right, I forgot your type is soccer players and fuckboys." I refer to the time when KT was dating one of the boys on the soccer team, only to be dumped-- for another boy on the soccer team.

"Who would've known that Keith was gay!?" She defends.

"Honey," I place a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Everyone knew." She narrows her eyes at me before roughly shoving my hand off. I can't help but laugh.

Her phone vibrates on the table. I glance over it and see Scott's name.

"Is he here yet?" I ask and take a sip of my milk tea.

"Yeah." She nods as she types.

"Tell him to hurry up or the first place we're going is Victoria's Secret to make him try out the sports bras."

She holds in a laugh and types faster. "Done."

Within minutes, I see Scott enter through the automatic doors. I stand up and wave to let him know where we are.

"Bold of you to assume I don't want to try on the sports bras." He says as he approaches our booth.

"Oh?" I look up at him. "My bad, let's go try them on right now." I stand up, just as my phone chimes on the table. KT and Scott both look down at it.

Eric : when are you coming tonight

"When are you coming tonight?" KT reads the text aloud. "You're going back there!?"

"You went to his house!?" Scott shrieks in horror.

"We're partners for the project." I answer both of them at once.

"So what? Meet him at Starbucks or something!" Scott exclaims.  "Why would you go to his house? A secluded place with only you and him? What if he's a rapist? Or a serial killer? Or--"

"We weren't alone, there were a lot of people there." I roll my eyes.

"His family could be in on it! They could all be some kind of crime family!"

"He lives in a tattoo shop, hon. A very public place." KT joins in the conversation.

I don't bother to answer either of them and unlock my phone. I look at the time.

Me : Around 7?

4 hours should give us more than enough time to shop.

Eric reads the text, but doesn't reply.