Bloodsport

21. Todo Carinho.

"Well," Marcela chuckled. "It's the first letter in my name, and I have yours on my hand, so I can with certainty say that I love it."

Josie giggled and looked down at their hands again, cocking her head to the side as she studied the sight. It did not feel quite real to her yet that she was tattooed. She had a tattoo. The black ink on her hand was her first one, and she knew she would get more, even though it hurt right now. She could tell by the excited twitches that went through her sister that she was just as happy about this sight as Josie was.

"I thought I recognised you."

Both of the sisters looked up at that, but the tattoo artist was looking at Marcela while cleaning his hands off. Marcela blinked at him a few times as if she was trying to think if she'd ever met him before, and Josie could tell by the pause that she was coming up blank.

"Oh?" she simply said, clearly wanting for him to tell her where he recognised her from.

"You're Kit's girlfriend, aren't you?"

Josie felt her throat contract at the sound of that name and she stared at her sister to catch her reaction. It even took two seconds before Marcela answered shortly. "Yes."

"I'm a mate of his," the tattoo artist went on. "Shame he's in prison for simply liking drugs, innit?"

Marcela narrowed her eyes a little at that, tilting her head to the side. "No matter how 'in control' he says he is when he's high, it's still illegal in the UK. He broke the law, so there's nothing he can do about it until he's done his part and stayed in there for nine months."

That seemed to shock the tattoo artist and he was left staring open-mouthed at Marcela for a few seconds. "You think he deserves it then?"

Marcela squeezed Josie's hand. "Something like that."

The tattoo artist raised his eyebrows.

"If he's stupid enough to get caught, I think it's his fault." Marcela shrugged. "Easy as that."

She pulled Josie off the tattoo chair and got both of their purses before she walked the two of them out. Marcela walked over to the till to pay the last bit of the tattoo, and Josie was left staring in the direction of the room they had just been in, for some reason scared that the tattoo artist would follow after them and hurt Marcela for speaking back to him like that.

Marcela was done paying before that happened, though, and she made Josie walk in front of her out of the tattoo shop. It was a nice day for May, and though Josie hated the sun, it wasn't too hot and she actually managed to walk without breaking a sweat. She hated to sweat and hated that her birthday was in May when it was always starting to heat back up again, but today had been a fairly good day.

Finian stood waiting for them, leaning against his red car in the car park with a cigarette between his fingers and eyes following the women walking past. As soon as he heard their footsteps, he looked over at Josie and Marcela. Since Kit was in prison, Finian had to be their driver, and as uncomfortable as that made Josie, she understood that there was no other way when their papai was also working all day.

"Let me see, then," Finian said, throwing his cig to the ground and stepping on it. He smiled over at Josie, holding a hand out so he could get a good look at her very first tattoo. Marcela was right beside her and Josie knew nothing would happen if her sister was there.

Finian's smile grew into a grin. "Well nice. You like it?"

Josie nodded as Marcela got into the passenger seat.