Old Me

68 - All the Small Things

"When did you change your piercing?" I asked, admiring it.

"Oh," he instinctively touched his brow, "Luke got it for me."

"It looks good," I said, "I like it."

"Thanks," he smiled as he removed his sweater.

I was happy to have a nicer view of his body in his black v-neck tee.

"When did you get your piercings?" my mom asked as she pulled out measuring cups. 

"Uh, I got the brow one pierced when I was fifteen I think. And then I had my ears stretched but thank God I didn't get very far and I now can just wear studs. And then I had my lips pierced--snake bites--when I was sixteen. That's when I also got the industrial, or the bar one," he said as he pointed to it. 

He let out a breath, feeling his ears, "Oh, and then the helix," he pointed to his left ear, then his right, "and the tragus were when I was eighteen."

He chuckled to himself before adding, "My friend almost pierced my tongue but I chickened out. I'm glad I did, that would've been a disaster. We were like thirteen."

"Which one hurt the most?" my mom asked.

Michael thought silently as he opened the giant can of pumpkin puree.

"Probably the bar, because it was a bit--t painful during the healing process. Mostly because I guess I sleep on that side so I would end up rolling onto it in the middle of the night."

I smiled as he almost swore in front of my mom and sister but corrected himself.

"What made you take the lip piercings out?" my mom asked as she measured liquid into a cup and placed it into a mixing bowl.

"Uh," he looked at me uncomfortably before continuing, "when I was in juvie they don't let you have any piercings. So, most of mine ended up closing up. I had to actually get things re-pierced. I decided I didn't want the lip piercings anymore but I re-pierced the others that had closed when I got out."

She nodded, "Ouch," she said, "you must really like them to go through the pain twice," she chuckled.

 "Yeah, I guess I really did when I was eighteen. Now, I honestly forget I have them, but I don't want them to scar if I remove them," he said, "anything else I can do to help?" 

"Yeah, can you get down the electric mixer from above the fridge?"

My mom handed me a cutting board, a knife, and the sweet potatoes. 

"In cubes," she instructed before continuing with making the pie crust dough in the mixer.

While we continued baking and the topic of conversation shifted to other things, I thought about how much more I had to learn about Michael now that he was being honest. I wanted to know everything about him that he hadn't shared before. All the small, seemingly insignificant things that made him who he was. 

When the pies were just about done and we had cleaned up the kitchen my dad finally got to work on his beloved turkey. He ushered us all out so that he could work in peace. 

I put on a movie for Cat and sat on the sofa next to Michael. 

I focused on the numerals peeking up from under his shirt. 

"So, what makes those dates so special?" I asked him softly. 

He looked down at me perplexed. 

"What are you on about?" he chuckled.

"Your tattoos. You never explained them to me," I said smiling. 

"Oh," he breathed, "um, this one," he pulled down his shirt and pointed to his left shoulder, "is the day that Marcus got shot," and this he pointed to his right shoulder, "and this is the day that Mr. Hood asked me to move in with him."

I nodded and he continued, "Reminds me of where I've been and where I'm going."

"That's really meaningful," I smiled.

"Yeah, the rest, I promise, aren't as interesting. I just liked the designs. Well, except the one you saw me get and the one my shoulder, the skull and dagger. I got that one with Marcus and I didn't have the heart to get it covered up."

"When did you get the neck ones?" I asked as I traced one of them.

He blew out a breath, "I was seventeenish."

"Wow they look much more recent than that," I commented. 

"Yeah, I've had to get some touchups on a lot of them in the last couple of years," he said as he ran his hand over his forearm, "when I was young I didn't think about the fact that it would be so expensive to keep them up."

I nodded and snuggled against him, holding his hand and focusing on the movie that was playing. I was so happy that he was being so open. I could tell that he was a little uncomfortable, but he wasn't deflecting like he did before.