Raphael was the type of person you meet and then can't stop thinking about. Nate was kind of the same, except now I hated thinking about him. Hated seeing his name on my screen, feeling his name on my lips, tasting his skin whenever I missed him.
I texted Raphael when my shift was over.
I sat at a random bench on the street as we sent messages back and forth and he finally got the hint and invited me over, sending me his address.
I pulled it up and set off trying to find his apartment in the busy city, while he still managed to struck up a conversation, earning himself some half-assed responses as I had zero multitasking skills.
"Finally," he said when he swung the door open. "You only took ages to get here. I'd thought you'd found yourself in Paris at this rate."
"Have you ever been to Paris?" I asked as I stepped through, shrugging off my jacket.
He took it away from my hands. "No, never was into change."
I didn't know what to say, so I let my eyes study his apartment.
It looked exactly as I thought it would. Right down to the fact that he did actually own a record player. Most of the walls that I could see from the entrance were filled with art work and tapestries. His living room was cosy, with vintage leather seats, a worn out colorful rug, a coffee table in similar condition, and several books and sketchbooks scattered around.
"It's sort of messy."
"I like it," I said, taking a closer step inside.
"Thanks," he murmured. "Do you want anything? Coffee?"
"Sure."
"The kitchen's down here."
Raphael led me to his equally homey kitchen. Pans hung from the walls, wooden cupboards lined the area, some ajar, revealing cans of food and different colored bottles. Raphael knocked his hips against a drawer that was open and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Forgot about this room," he muttered under his breath. "Take a seat."
I fell back comfortably against one of the chairs surrounding his kitchen table.
I watched as he moved around the kitchen, grabbing a mug and starting up the coffee machine.
Armed with two mugs of fresh, steamy coffee, Raphael beckoned for me to follow him to the living room, where he seemed a lot more comfortable laid back against his couch.
He sat and instantly curled his legs beneath him, blowing gently against the liquid in his mug.
I grabbed my own mug and settled in beside him.
"How was work?" he asked.
"Fun," I replied honestly. "It's really interesting."
"No trouble with any customers?" he pulled a face. "They can be quite a handful at times."
"Nah. Not yet, at least."
He cracked a smile and took a sip, peering at me behind the rim of his mug. "What would you like to do?"
"I don't mind. What were you doing before I came by?"
His fingers tightened around the mug. "Working on some designs."
"Could you show me?" I asked.
"I seem to do that a lot lately," he said. "What do I get in return?"
I grinned. "Can't I see them simply because I'm your friend?"
"Nope. Where's the fun in that? Come on then, think of a good bargain."
I shook my head. "You think of one."
He raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure you want to do that?"
"No, not really, but I'm in no mood to dig up my own grave so you do it."
"Now you're just being dramatic. I'm not cruel."
"Oh? What ideas do you have so far?"
His smile was dangerous as he set his mug aside. "It really isn't so bad."
"That always means it's going to be bad."
"I just want to read through your emails with Nate."
My lips parted. "You're joking."
"No, I really do. I'll just skim through a few while you sit here and flip through some of my sketches and ideas. Deal?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Why do you want to read our emails?"
"I just want to understand why he's so special to you."
I bit the inside of my cheek.
This is a bad idea. A very, very bad idea.
"Is that the only thing you can come up with?" I asked.
"At the moment, but I promise they become more sinister the longer I take to think them up."
"Fine," I blurted out before I could change my mind. "Fine, you can read our emails."
He smiled and got up before disappearing behind a door.
I stared after him.
Definitely a bad idea.
Raphael wandered back with his laptop in hand and dropped it gently on my lap after plugging in his password.
"I can't believe you're making me do this."
"I'm not. It's called bargaining."
I ignored him, holding the laptop away just as he was about to grab it.
"Your sketches first."
He then grabbed a sketchbook from the coffee table and handed it to me.
I held on to the laptop as I grabbed the sketchbook.
"And," I added, "I want to see what you've drawn on yourself."
"That wasn't part of the deal."
"It is now."
He raised an unamused eyebrow before he grabbed at the edge of his pants and pulled them down.
"What-," something warm pooled into my stomach. "Oh."
My eyes fell to a drawing on his inner thigh, a lively picture of a cherry blossom with a few stray flowers falling from its billowing branches.
I noticed a faded image of the mountains he'd referred to before on his other leg.
"It's beautiful," I breathed, moving closer to his leg.
He backed away, tugging his pants back on.
I felt myself flush and quickly moved backwards, handing him the laptop without looking him in the eye.
"I'll be on that chair," he said carefully, moving up from the couch.
I nodded and clasped the sketchbook in my hand, taking a few deep breaths before I flipped open the cover page.
I wasn't prepared for what I saw on the first page, and instantly felt my breath lodge in my throat.
What I did expect to see was a brilliant drawing of something. Maybe scenery, a city landscape, a random street dog, a portrait.
he image, his messy, but still somehow readable handwriting indicating the colors he would use on it, the technique he would have to use on his tattoo pen.
I glanced at him, his curled up figure on the leather arm chair, neck slightly bent over the laptop screen as his eyes actively skimmed through my emails.
My emails.
He had his thumb between his teeth, slightly gnawing at the nail as he read.
After carefully leafing through the rest of his sketchbook I discovered that the rest of the pages consisted of designs in the same concept.
Tattoo ideas, lyrics, different fonts, arrows, explanations on the side.
By the last few pages, I could see where he'd improved. He started coloring in the images, swatching some of the colors to the side. Organizing his notes in categorizes under titles like, "Ideas," "Notes," "Colours," and "Technique."
Most of his ideas were original, unique, but I didn't read his explantations to why he wanted to get the tattoos. I felt that was too personal even through he was reading through my emails.
As if on cue, Raphael shut the laptop abruptly and placed it on the table.
Our eyes met from across the room, and Raphael quickly looked away, standing up to put his laptop away.
I closed his sketchbook and put it back where it belonged.
"Nate is seriously oblivious if he can't see that you like him through those emails," he said, joining me on the couch again.
"I guess so. Your ideas are really cool."
"Thank you."
I took a deep breath, feeling a sudden need to say something else, to tilt his chin up, make him smile again.
"I have other things you could look at," he said quietly after a few seconds. "If you're interested."
"Of course," I said, standing when he did.
He led me to a smaller room in his apartment, one with bigger windows and far better lighting. The most modern I'd seen in his apartment so far. There were white panels against the windows, matching table tops, and up-to-date equipment.
"It's stupid," he said after we stood by the door for a while.
"It's not stupid. Everything is trial and error."
"Jake, I bought a tattoo machine and I can barely stand looking at a needle."
I walked closer to a stool which faced a desk, above it were shelves with different colored bottles of ink.
Raphael had hung up several of his other tattoo ideas, with more details, colors, post-it-notes.
"I think it's really cool," I said finally. "That you're facing your fear like this."
"It's a phobia."
He joined me by the desk, eyes trained on a bottle of ink.
"You're brave."
He scoffed, eyeing me like I'd gone nuts.
"This is the next step, right?" I continued. "First, you accept the fact that you have this fear of needles. Next, you do something about it. You bought this stuff to change your own mind about what you think of needles."
He looked away. "It's not working. My hands still shake and..."
"Well, it won't happen over night. You just need to keep practicing."
He didn't say anything. Instead, he walked away from the desk, switched off the lights and walked out of the room.
I followed him out after giving the room one last glance in the dark.
I'd thought he was going to kick me out after showing me his tattoo room. Instead he led me to yet another room. His bedroom, to be exact.
"This is where I keep my other art supplies," Raphael said.
His bed was pushed back against one corner, dull, and nothing special.
Whereas the rest of his room was something else entirely.
I joined him by his desk, where he switched on a lamp that glowed down at the flat surface and revealed a large empty paper.
Raphael tugged open a drawer and pulled it out completely from its place before placing it on the desk.
"Those are my markers. Safe for your skin," he said. "They don't have all the horrible chemicals that normal pens do. They're like face paint just not for your face."
"Cool," I said, lifting one up and admiring it. "Looks kind of pricey."
"You have no idea."
I smiled slowly. "I could be your model if you'd like."
I pushed up my sleeves and waved my bare arm. "I kind of liked it last time."
"Really?" he asked.
"It's just like face paint right? Plus, it'll help you get used to drawing on other people since you tend to do it just on yourself."
"Good point," he said. "Thanks."
He sat me down on the stool before grabbing another chair and setting it in front of mine. He held my arm carefully in his hands.
"Anything you want in particular?"
"None that I can think of right now. What about one of your own ideas?"
"Oh, I don't know...They still need a bit of tweaking."
"C'mon, who're you kidding? They're great and you should know that already. I specifically liked the one where you drew a daisy."
"The daisy? It was just a doodle on the side..."
"But that's what I liked about it. It was simple and sort of neglected but still really important since you come up with an actual design because of it. A warm up, right?" I said.
"Yeah, exactly that."
Raphael set off with drawing a daisy first, which then progressed to several other daisies.
"I think I'll fill up your whole arm," he said, glancing up at me as if to ask if that was okay.
"Go ahead," I said.
"Tell me about Nate," he said as the tip of a marker brushed against my skin to form the sixth flower on my arm.
"You've read the emails."
"No, tell me other things. The small details."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."
"Right." I inhaled. "He has a dog which he hasn't named yet."
"Really?" He chuckled. "I wonder why that happened."
"I honestly have no idea."
"What else?"
"I haven't thought of him much lately. Thanks to you," I confessed.
His movements faltered and I felt him lift the pen off my skin. "How so?"
"With finding me the job and just being there, I think. Telling me to snap out of it, basically."
"Glad I could be of help," he said, and bent over my arm again, a few of his curls falling forward.
"Me too."
Nothing new going on. Might watch a few creepy cartoons with my friends for Halloween. Do you guys have any plans?
Thanks for reading <3333