"What about April?" Dinah, her foster sister, who was lying on top of one of the two bunks in the room while playing Candy Crush, questioned "She's cute."
"She doesn't like girls, Dinah, I told you twice. And I don't like her" She immediately refused while wrinkling her nose "Black or red?" She asked when placing two sweaters in front of her body, finding herself completely undecided.
"Red says you're sexy and daring," observed Normani, another of her foster sisters, who was lying on top of the other bunk bed with a laptop on her legs
"But the black says you're a tough, intimidating girl, and you go to work at a tattoo shop while you try to pretend your skin is full of ink, so I think that'll keep the curious away," observed Ally, the oldest of them. She was doing a test in a magazine next to Normani.
"I guess I'm going safe" She decided while removing the blue T-shirt that was now full of Seth's paintings and drool.
"Speaking of going safe... you can go with Ariana -Dinah suggested casually.
The room was quiet.
"I broke up with her six months ago, Dinah. I'm not going with Ariana, let alone for Milika to let you go to a party with your stupid boyfriend."
"Come on, Mila. Please," she begged making a pout. The tattoo artist rolled her eyes.
"I will," she ended up giving in "but definitely not with Ariana. You'll have to find someone else."
"How about Marco? He's gay, you get along and I'm sure he'll get away from you as soon as he sees how many boys there are."
Marco had been Dinah's first boyfriend. They separated after a week, because he had realized that he liked boys and Dinah... she just liked another guy. However, after their failed affair, they had kept in touch.
"You'll have to talk to him" Camila accepted with a shrug. Quickly the black sweater passed with her head, and with a sigh she sat down in front of the vanity mirror.
Dinah let out a shriek.
"You're the best foster sister in the world, Mila!"
"What about me?! I'm amazing!" Normani said offended.
"You are, but when I asked you to join me, you refused and said you'd rather stay with Ally than do crafts."
"That's because I'm her favorite" Ally bragged while cuddling with Normani, a slight smile decorating her lips.
"It's actually because I hate Dinah's boyfriend..."
"Mani!"
Camila laughed from her place as she tried to put on makeup to make herself look a little more mature and professional.
"What are you tattooing today, Mila? Asses or something?" Dinah attacked with her very typical curiosity.
"I don't know" She responded by looking at her distracted foster sister through the mirror reflection. She didn't seem interested at all "I have a couple of appointments with some brothers who want their parents' names on their wrists and an old lady who plans to get a tattoo of a butterfly on her chest... I suppose the rest will be a surprise."
She looked in the mirror, amazed at the powers of her makeup. She looked older, professional, intimidating. And she liked it, because that way no one would ask any questions.
She loved being a tattoo artist and could not imagine being anything else, but every time she had to hide because of the possibility that her work was discredited by the lack of ink in her body she felt sadness.
Did it really matter that much?
Yeah, it did.
***
"Mila!" Simon greeted her on arrival. He was sitting behind the counter, his arms completely tattooed across his chest "You're on time, as usual."
"Boss" She corresponded quietly as she looked at the clock with pride. Six minutes before "Where is Troy?"
"He asked for the day off. He wanted to surprise your sister for their two-year anniversary..."
"Two years?" She was completely amazed. "I didn't realize it had been so long."
"It is also the time you have as a tattoo artist."
"You're right" She confirmed with a smile.
Of course, she had begun her apprenticeship much earlier, at the age of twelve, but she'd only obtained her license two years ago. That day she had also done her first official tattoo, which was nothing more and nothing less than the face of her older sister on the blonde's arm.
Camila smiled because it had not been easy to get there. It had taken hours of effort, money and many lies to her adoptive mother.
"Will you celebrate in any way?
Camila thought about it before she answered.
"I don't think so" She refused. "It's a day like any other, Simon."
Later she'd realize she was wrong.
***
Camila knew she knew the intimidating girl sitting elegantly in the waiting room.
She knew this not only because Simon had told her that she had requested her as a tattoo artist without even seeing the folios -something that only her clients did-but because those features of a soulless vampire and her delicate movements like those of an angel told her so.
"Her name is Lauren Jauregui and she says she'll only get tattooed by you... I know it's your free time and you should go to lunch, but you can get out when you finish her tattoo and... She's quite influential, Camila. You have to tattoo her. You don't know how much it will help the studio."
"I will" she said. When it came to tattoos, she couldn't say no, much less to her boss and instructor. Besides, she wanted to know who that woman of strange beauty was.
Minutes later, Simon had already politely led that young woman named Lauren Jauregui to her area, who thanked him without looking into his eyes. She seemed too busy appreciating the mural on Camila's wall to concentrate on anything else.
""Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." she read delicately as she took off her sunglasses. She seemed to be tasting every word she read "It's not my favorite book, but I admit the phrase has a certain charm... And Zayn's cartoon is very well done. Congratulations."
Lauren turned to look at her, perhaps to inspect her like the wall mural, and when she saw that peculiar green in her eyes she knew that she had seen her before. The point was, she didn't remember her.
"I want a dragonfly" She said suddenly while rearranging the dark beanie in her head.
<<She wants a dragonfly>> Thought to yourself with concern <<Will she want fire with it? Broken wings? What atrocities is she thinking about to get tattooed? >>>
She got a sense of déjà vu. A moment in her life was repeated, but she didn't know which one.
"Okay" She nodded with some insecurity. She was not good for sinister designs, as she possibly wanted them, but she could try. Of course, the safest thing was for her to fail and lose her job "Anything special?"
<<Don't say fire. Don't say fire. Don't say fire>>
"Do you think this jacket makes my breasts look too big?" She asked unexpectedly as she looked into a mirror on the poster wall, ignoring the tattoo artist's question.
"Miss Jauregui" tried to call her, but she kept looking in the mirror as she moved the garment from one side to the other, as if this would change anything. "You look perfect, Miss Jauregui."
"Okay" She agreed before turning her head and giving her a look full of seriousness "...I want the dragonfly to be on my back, just below the one on my neck. Do the same path."
She sighed, and Camilla expected a macabre demand as a cherry on top.
"It has to be blue."
Camila nodded with a polite smile, feeling relieved at her request, but at the same time somewhat confused. Lauren had another dragonfly on her neck, but she couldn't remember if she had tattooed it.
Well, she'd only know that when she sees it.
***
Camila Cabello never forgot her tattoos.
She could forget faces, names and even her own birthday, but never her tattoos.
So, seeing that green dragonfly on the girl's neck, she knew it was her work. The delicate contours and the filling filled with small details that anyone would have missed.
"It's a good tattoo" She murmured, placing her head on her crossed arms, lying face down on that stretcher with nothing but a black bra on her torso.
Camila thanked the flattery in a low voice and began to work.
She remembered that green dragonfly, and now that she had seen it she could also remember Lauren Jauregui. She recalled her walk full of security as she entered, her dark attire identical to the one she was wearing that day, and the way she had cried at the sight of the result. She remembered her grandmother's story, and also that talk about vaginas.
"I had forgotten the pain" Lauren said with obvious discomfort as she closed her eyes, Camila plotting the contours of the dragonfly slowly.
"You can talk. It helps a lot."
"You told me that last time" she said. Camila nodded. She didn't remember doing it, but she knew it was something she used to constantly repeat to their first-time customers "... Do you want to know why I'm getting this tattoo?"
"Only if you want to tell me" She answered sweetly while cleaning the area to continue with the strokes. She had to admit that she liked to work on that smooth pale skin that under the gloves he could perceive as soft as the petal of a delicate flower, especially since the colors seemed to shine on it, looking so vivid that she could almost have believed they were breathing.
"It's for my brother, Chris" She confessed gently even with her eyes closed "He died a few weeks ago."
"I'm sorry about that."
"It was not a quick or heroic death" She counted with sadness "He just went to a party, drank too much and got into a fight. An entire gang against him, can you believe it? Forensics say it took him half an hour to die."
"Did they catch those who attacked him?" She asked immediately.
Lauren sighed.
"... His favorite color was blue" Again she ignored her question, something already typical. She was too busy with her memories to pay attention to the question of a young, humble tattoo artist. "I hadn't decided to tattoo myself in his honor until yesterday, when I saw my dragonfly in the mirror. I decided I was going to get one for every person I lost."
Camila said nothing, because the idea of the girl with green eyes made her reflect. It wasn't crazy, because the meaning she was giving to her tattoos was really touching.
Sighed. If she was ever going to get tattooed she wanted to have motives as strong as that girl's, although she really preferred to avoid the part that involved the death of her loved ones.
"What about your tattoos?" Lauren asked when she opened her eyes. Had the glasses been on nobody would have noticed the sadness she felt, because her hard features didn't fit with her sore-looking. "Do you also do them in honor of someone? Did you lose a brother or something?"
Camila tensed up instantly and tried to find the best way to avoid the matter.
"No" She denied after a few seconds. "At least not someone worth tattooing for. My biological family sucked. Violence, drugs, dirty money... when they were killed, my little sister and I were adopted by Milika and Gordon. Now we're happy, and we're fine, so I don't complain" She sighed. Telling her story was always hard "I haven't lost anyone, Lauren."
"You don't know how much I envy you, Camila."
And coming from those words of those features full of seriousness, that dark makeup and that girl walking like she was the best creation in the world, Camila Cabello knew she was truly lucky.
"Now" She interrupted her thoughts, her raspy voice echoing in her mind "after this brief exchange of stories we will resume our previous conversation about the majesty of the vaginas. I discovered new things during these two months."
***
When Lauren saw her finished tattoo, she didn't hug Camila like she did before. That time she simply cried covering her face with both hands, the tattoo artist not daring to hug the girl with the appearance of a cruel vampire and feelings so pure that they did not fit the rest of her personality.
Taking courage, she laid her hand on one of her pale shoulders and squeezed it slightly.
Lauren immediately seemed to react and simply stopped crying, pulled her hands off her face, wiped her tears and was again the same serious-faced girl who had entered the store.
"Do you like it?" She asked sweetly.
The girl ignored her question.
She said nothing for a few moments, and the silence that was made while Camila covered the tattoo was almost sepulchral.
She wondered how many things were going through Lauren Jauregui's mind at the time.
"I'm going to lunch at the sushi restaurant a few blocks away" She suddenly notified, putting on a white T-shirt with the face of Lana del Rey, who had her lips half-open, like letting out a silent, eternal moan as she feels Lauren Jauregui's smooth, warm, pale skin under her. "I heard your boss say you could leave after I did my tattoo, so maybe we can have lunch together."
Lauren was a complete stranger to Camila Cabello, but she still wanted to go. She wanted to talk to her. She wanted to understand her. She wanted to listen to her and look at her a little more. She wanted to reveal each of her mysteries...
Still, she was forced to refuse.
"I am forbidden to interact with my clients in this way."
Although she tried to remain expressionless, she knew she had not succeeded when Lauren looked at her with her green eyes still slightly moist, and smiled at her in a funny and seductive way at the same time.
"I'll see you in fifteen minutes" She said before winking at her. She put on her jacket, glasses and beanie slowly. She knew that Camila was looking at her "...Outside this store, I'm not your client anymore."
Anyway, you should pay attention to Harper Lee's phrase. It may mean something later.
-Lore-
How are you doing?
Have a good life.