"I need you to draw me a soulmate tattoo."
"What."
She gave a scoff, annoyed. She pulled something out of her pocket.
"I'll give you a giftcard to that new art store that opened."
He stared at the card now in his hands.
Don't be a fart make some art! was written across the front in bold, obnoxious rainbow letters.
"Uh-"
"Listen," she slammed her hands on the table, leaning in closer to his face. "I already gave you something in exchange for your help, right? So, you should help me, yes?"
"Well-"
"I need that tattoo, Nath. I need it. You don't understand!"
"Um-"
"Look! Look at my arms, my hands!" She rolled up her sleeves, shoving her arms and hands in his face. "Look! Nothing, right? Nothing! There's no tattoo anywhere else too! Can you believe this? Unbelievable!"
"Oh-"
"I just don't understand, you know?" She looked away, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. "Me, the Chloe Bourgeois, has no soulmate tattoo? The one thing everyone else is supposed to have since birth? I just don't get it! Where's the sentence my soulmate's going to say to me? Where's my special phrase?" She jabbed a finger in his face as she continued. "Listen, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I probably just don't have a soulmate tattoo, aren't you? You're thinking 'poor you,' aren't you? You are, aren't you!"
"What? No-"
"That's right! That's exactly what everyone else will say once they find out I don't have one when we go on that beach field trip two days from now! And you know I'm not going to pass off an opportunity to show off my swimsuit! Do you understand what I'm saying? I need a soulmate tattoo! And a romantic one too! You better make it romantic, you hear me?!"
"Wait-"
"Here, if you need waterproof permanent markers, I got it." She dumped various colored markers of different sizes from her bag in front of him. She then started to take off her yellow cardigan, dumping it on a chair as she rolled up the T-shirt sleeve on her left arm. "Okay, I'm thinking about a romantic line like 'You're the most beautiful girl in the world,' or 'I just can't stop thinking about you,' or something like that. What do you think?"
"Uh-"
"Yeah, it's pretty good, isn't it? Of course it is, I thought of it. Anyway." She pulled up a chair, sat down and turned her left arm to him. "Hurry up."
She can't be serious.
He watched as she sat there, tapping her foot, impatiently, waiting for him to draw her that tattoo on her bare exposed arm, clearly not going to leave any time soon.
Again, she can't be serious.
Class had just ended, and just when the classroom had emptied out, she had come stomping over out of nowhere, demanding for him to draw her a tattoo as if she owned the place.
Just as unreasonable as ever.
He could care less about whether or not she has a soulmate tattoo. Afterall, this was Chloe Bourgeois, and although he did notice her seemingly mellowing out a little over the years (and maybe once in a while even smiled at people although he's still pretty sure that's probably just a trick of the light), he'd still rather have nothing to do with her.
