A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 4

"What?"

"I missed you." She said sadly, "Everyone at the store is really happy you're okay. We visited you at the hospital everyday. Although-" she twisted her hands together, silver rings standing out on her thumbs. "-I doubt you'd remember." Her voice got quieter as she stared at her hands, "It was really scary for us. And I know- I know we aren't close. You kind of stuck to yourself but it's been different here without you." She looked up at me. The phone started ringing and she just ignored it. I guess she wasn't the best receptionist.

I took a step back. Her emotions affecting me strangely. I felt tired suddenly, even if I was no longer shaking.

"I need to sit down." I groaned, clutching my broken arm.

Chrissa swallowed, "of course!" I followed her throughout the store. Clients were getting tattooed, and a few were getting pierced. The piercings made me uncomfortable. Why would anyone want to get stabbed?

"So what? I work here or something?" I murmured.

She looked back at me, "Something like that..."

We got to what looked like an office, with a desk, chair and a couch along with a book shelf. Shit, I was a reader, wasn't I?

I opened my mouth, "Is this-"

"Yeah, this is your office. The past week and a half or so have been kind of weird without you. But business has been continuing. The spells you made for the moving tattoos are hard for the rest of us to do but we've managed. It's our biggest sell, really."

That hurt unexpectedly. These people managed just fine without me. It didn't seem like anyone really needed me around. I swept my hand over the desk...It was collecting dust.

"What do I do here again,Chrissa?" I fingered a skull in the dust on the desk. Vines started crawling up my hands, and into my fingers.

Chrissa was staring at my hands, watching as the flowers bloomed and withered, then the vines receded back up my arms.

Chrissa rubbed my back, "Derrick, are you okay? That only happens when you're feeling stressed. " she wheeled a chair over to me, "Why don't you sit down?"

I half sat half collapsed into the seat. She pulled up a chair to sit across from ne.

"Okay," she started slowly,"Let's start over. Nice to meet you, Derrick. I'm Chrissa. We work together at the tattoo shop. DC tattoo and piercings. You hate the name, because you prefer marvel over DC. But the D stands for Derrick and the C stands for me-"she pointed at herself, "-Chrissa. We own it together. You apprenticed under me when you were in university. You're the best tattoo artist we have-" she looked at my arm, pointing again-"So how long is that gonna be an issue for?"

I frowned. Was that all I was worth, the usefulness of my abilities as a worker?

Chrissa sighed, "I'm not saying I don't value you as a person but you're basically a workaholic. I'm sure you've already felt aimless and antsy."

"What if I don't want to-" I searched her eyes, "be a tattoo artist anymore? I got discharged today, Chrissa. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm just focusing on getting back to normal, whatever my normal is."