Delilah Lavigne
I woke up startled to my alarm blaring in my ear.
Waking up early is most definitely the worst kind of torture you can go through.
Although, early for me is any time before 10 am.
I take my phone off the nightstand next to my bed to make sure I didn't press snooze and groan at the fact that it's 9:15 am. I decide to just scroll through my phone since that's basically my morning and night routine.
I have to be at work by 11:30 am almost every morning and usually I don't get too dolled up just because of how tired I get during the day, but today I decided to at least do my makeup to get rid of my god awful eye bags.
I get out of bed eventually after 30 minutes of contemplating whether to just not go to work, like I do literally every single morning.
I flip the light switch to my bedroom on, since my room is always pitch black no matter what time of day it is because of my blackout curtains.
My bedroom is the place where I feel most safe and most like myself. I have it decked out with black furniture, posters of my favorite bands scattered everywhere and tapestries covering my walls and ceilings.
When I was growing up I couldn't style myself or my room how I wanted. My parents are very strict and religious, so when I'd play my own music or put up a poster here and there, I'd basically get threatened to be evicted.
Evicted. At the age of 13.
Once I turned 18, I took the first opportunity I could to get as far away from my family as I possibly could and eventually found an apartment within my price range and already knew right away how I was going to decorate it.
My apartment is basically the same as my bedroom. All black furniture, even the damn floors are black. My kitchen has black marble counters with the same backsplash. My bathroom is the only room in this place with white in it.
Now that I think about it, I think I like the color black.
I mean it goes with literally anything so who doesn't?
I'm 21 now and living in LA. I'm very comfortable here, since I grew up in California. It's familiar to me and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.
The only thing that bugs me is the terrible traffic and the people who think that they are entitled in this world.
After deciding on what to wear, I go with a black lace crop top and black baggy jeans with my airforce 1's.
As I walk out of my room I'm met with my cat, Nicks.
Yes, I named him after Stevie Nicks because she's a literal goddess.
"Good morning, baby!" I squeal as I reach down to pet him behind his ears. That's the one place he will allow anyone to pet, anywhere else he will literally attack you.
"Come on, let's go feed you since I won't be back until later tonight" I say, walking to my kitchen and grabbing his food from the pantry.
He meows, as a way of telling me that I'm an irresponsible mom for leaving him alone all day.
Yes, I have conversations with my cat, mind your business.
"Oh shut it, you know how busy work can get. Oh, and I might go out with Lennon later." I point out as I finish putting food into his bowl.
He meows again and this time I just ignore it because I need to put on some makeup.
I walk into my bathroom and open my drawer to pull out some mascara, concealer and eyeliner.
They are my go to's when I'm putting on makeup. You either catch me in those or nothing.
I apply the concealer first to cover up some pimples and my eye bags, then my eyeliner. I decide to go with a winged look today because why the hell not?
I finish up putting my mascara on and brush my hair. My hair is naturally brunette but I dye it jet black. I don't know why though because of how fucking pale I am but I like the way I look better with black hair.
Nobody knows I dye it though and I plan on keeping it that way.
Pleased with the way I look, I check the time on my phone and see that I only have 30 minutes until I have to be at work.
"Bye Nicks, be a good boy today. Please don't let me come home to see that you shit all over the couch again just to prove a point that I'm gone all day" I lean down to kiss him on the head and grab my bag, heading out the door.
I reach into my bag to pull out my keys as I walk into the elevator and press floor 1. I'm on the 6th floor in my apartment. It was a bitch moving everything in, let me just tell you.
As I walk out of the elevator I see the receptionist, Nora. She's the nicest person I've ever met.
"Morning, nora!" I smile waving to her.
"Good Morning, sweetheart! Off to work?" She asks with the sweetest voice. She's basically a mother figure.
"Yup, as always." I roll my eyes but give her a half smile
"Have a good day!" I hear her say as I walk out.
Somehow I always manage to forget where I park my car but eventually I found it and walk up to it.
After I get in I connect my phone to my aux and start playing Killer Queen by Queen. A classic.
The drive to work isn't too bad, it's only 10 minutes away but takes 20-30 since again, there's always traffic.
Eventually I pull up and park in the front of my store. I take the store keys out to unlock it and walk inside.
I flick all the switches on including the OPEN sign and sit at my desk.
I opened my own tattoo shop at 20. After I moved out everything went super fast. I never expected to own a business, let alone at the age of 20 but here we are. I guess I just got super lucky.
I named it Caim because that word describes me and my life in every possible way. It's Gaelic and it means "an invisible circle of protection to remind someone of being safe and loved."
Like I've mentioned, my family life was never too good so when I moved out I made sure to keep all of that in the past and after that I came to terms with the thought of only needing myself and loving myself.
Don't get me wrong, I have many problems mentally, but I try not to let it get the best of me.
After sitting at the desk for about 10 minutes, I hear the bell to the door go off and I look up to see Leo walking in.
"Hey boss, how's this morning treating ya?" He asks, holding a cup of coffee.
"Not too shabby, glad to see you in today." I smirk at him.
"That is not fair! I've just been having a hard time." He breaks eye contact.
"Yeah I can tell, having fun I see." I point to his neck full of hickeys.
"Oh fuck off, I'm gonna go set up for my appointment" He says while walking away.
Leo is very good at what he does. I mean he's covered head to toe in tattoos that he did to himself so it's not really shocking, but it's what I love about him.
He's very dedicated to his work, most of the time.
By most of the time I just mean when he's not partying and hungover or with some girl. But hey, I'm not one to judge. Everyone has needs.
He's very attractive. He's only 27, has barely any facial hair which most girls here enjoy and is super tall. I understand why he gets attention.
While I'm sitting at my desk going through inventory and some finances for about an hour, I hear the bell chime again.
As I look up I'm met with two men.
I make eye contact with one of them, he has golden brown eyes with black hair, covered in tattoos and is wearing a leather jacket with jeans and a t shirt. Not gonna lie, he's very pretty to look at.
I look behind him and see, what I'm assuming is his friend, who has brown hair with bright blue eyes with some tattoos here and there and a grey hoodie with black jeans. Again, not too bad to look at.
"Welcome in, I assume you're here for Leo?" I direct my attention to the one with the golden brown eyes.
"Yes ma'am. I'm Zayn, this is Louis. Our appointment was for 12:4." He says, his voice masked with a deep British accent.
"I'm Delilah. He should be ready in about 5 minutes he's just setting up his room. If you guys want to have a seat go right ahead." I point to the chairs in the corner by the door with a polite smile.
"Cool, thank you." His friend Louis says as they sit down. He sounds more British than the first guy.
Leo walks out after about 5 minutes and brings them to the back.
I also do tattoos for people as well, so usually when there's two or more people scheduled for an appointment I step in to help if Leo, Finn or Lennon won't have time.
Finn, Lennon and I met when I first opened the shop. They started working here a few weeks after and we have been so close since then. If Leo isn't here, then Finn or Lennon are.
There are some times where only I will tattoo someone, but I only do it if they make an appointment in advance and if everyone else is booked.
After a little over an hour, Zayn and Louis walk out with fresh tattoos.
Zayn has a checker board flag on his left forearm and Louis has what looks to be a stop watch on his right inner forearm.
"I hope you guys like them, they look sick." I admire the work Leo did.
"I love mine, thank you." Zayn smirks.
"Yeah, me too." Louis adds.
"Alright well let me add up each of your totals and then you're all good to go." I say while marking it on the computer.
"You said it was Delilah, right?" Zayn questions while pointing at me.
I look up at him and nod with a soft smile.
"I love your tats. Very minimal." He looks at all of the ones showing on my arms with different expressions showing on his face as he looks at each one.
"Thanks, yeah I love patchwork art. You can't see but I'm mainly covered in all minimal tattoos." I show off my arms.
"That's cool. Do all of them have meaning?" Louis asks.
"Almost all. Some of them I did myself or got while I was drunk though." I laugh. They both start laughing as they made it clear that they got most of theirs for shits and giggles as well.
"So do you own this place? If so that's pretty impressive." Louis compliments while gazing his eyes around the shop.
"Yeah, I opened it up about a year ago. Took a lot of hard work but I'm proud of it." I nod while looking back at my computer.
After they finish paying they say their goodbyes, but as they are walking out Zayn turns around to get my attention. "Hey, it might be weird to ask this but we are going to a club later. Would you wanna come?" He hesitantly questions.
His face tells me he doesn't want me to come but his voice says otherwise.
"What's it called?"
"Reign. We know the guy who owns it, it's about 20 minutes from here."
Not gonna lie, it's a little weird that they are inviting me to a club after just meeting me but I honestly see no harm in it. They seem like fun people to me.
"How about this, I'll give you my number and text you the address to the place. Come if you want, if you can't then that's okay too." He walks back up to me holding his palm out.
"You know what, fuck it. I'll come. Is it cool if I bring a friend?" I ask.
I hand him my phone to put his number in it and he hands it back after typing it in.
"Yeah of course, the more the merrier." Louis chimes in and shrugs.
"Great, I'll text you for the address, Thanks." I bid my goodbyes.
"Of course. See you later, Delilah." Zayn winks at me then they both walk out the door.
Usually I would turn down someone I had just met inviting me to a club but considering they seemed pretty chill and knew the guy who owned it, I was kind of sold. I was planning on hanging out with Lennon later anyways so why not do something fun?
What could go wrong?
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first chapter complete :)
i hope you enjoyed it, it was honestly a short first chapter but there's a lot to get through in such short time so I'm trying my best to spread it out as much as I can!
i wonder what's gonna happen later at the club....
^^This is what I imagine Delilah's tats to look like, very patchwork to me