Summer Delinquent

Chapter 10

After thirty minutes of listening to Drew argue about having to drive us to this 'suspicious location' but not actually getting to know where we're going, we finally pull into a strip of stores across a from a beach. I step out of the car and look over at the dark waves crashing against the shore, letting the sound calm my nerves for what is about to happen.

Drew looks wary as we walk closer to the stores. "I hate that I'm still clueless right now," he comments, his long strides keeping up with mine.

"How brave do you feel right now?" I ask slowing down.

"Uh... I don't know," he trails off, putting his hands in his pockets leaning from one foot to the other.

"Like if I stabbed you with a needle... multiple times," I tilt my head waiting for him to catch on to what I'm saying.

He stops shuffling his feet and looks at me with wide eyes. I smile back cocking my head to the side and he looks forward in the direction that we're moving. "Are you insane? No, I am not doing that," he looks at me as if I've lost a head and I can't keep the smile off my face.

"Oh come on, we used to talk about doing this all the time!" I walk after him. Once I've caught up to him I pull his arm to turn him to face me. "It's like all we talked about last year, you thought it would make you look more badass."

"Yeah we spoke about it, but that doesn't mean that I would go through with it, Tess," he looks panicked.

I shrug, acting indifferent, "Fine, then you can watch me do it."

His face slackens, "You're getting one? You're sixteen Tessa."

"I'll be seventeen in like, three weeks," I reply casually.

"And your parents approved?" he asks cautiously, staring me down.

"Of course not, but I'll worry about that later, come on it'll be fun," I pull him with me in the direction of the tattoo parlour a few feet away.

"I can't believe we're doing this," he groans.

"Hey, I never said you have to get one, I'm just giving you the option since you have mentioned it a few times." The door jingles as we open it and walk through into the quiet tattoo parlour.

"Yeah, well I can't let you one up me like that if you have one and I chickened out," he chuckles nervously, looking at the walls where rows of customer pictures are, showing off their tattoos to the camera.

I turn to him and hold his arms, making him look straight at me. "You seriously don't have to do this if you don't want to," I say without any humor in my voice. "I just thought that this could be a tick off of our bucket lists before you head off to college."

Drew's tense face softens as he leans forward and wraps an arm around my shoulder, turning us to face the front counter, "Let's do this."

I look over at him, a smile slowly gracing my face, "Yeah?"

"As long as we get matching tattoos, I'm thinking unicorns or butterflies, whichever you're in the mood for," he laughs at his own joke.

A man walks out from the back area. He's older guy with a grey stubble on his face but his arms are covered in tattoos. He smiles at us, coming to a stop behind the counter. His eyes land on me and he points, "Tessa?"

I nod my head, "That's me."

He claps his hands together, "Great, nice to meet you, I'm Arnov and you must be the graduating friend," he shakes hands with Drew, who smiles nervously in return. "Okay, do you guys know what you want to do, or need any ideas?" he asks, gesturing to a few folders that have some designs on them.