CHAPTER TWO
In Mark's P.O.V.
Another night, another tattoo, another healing process. A few years in the past, I would have never thought I would be where I was now. I never would have guessed that my Youtube channel would take off so fast, or that I'd be in L.A. But even more so, I wouldn't have guessed that my inner Norman Bates would lead me to finding a girl that would accept me for me and actually help me with my unique condition. Not to mention, we both just seemed to click, plus she was beautiful. So were her tattoos, and her new one was no exception. I admired it as I opened up a new bottle of lotion, since it was time to take off the bandages and start taking care of our new body art.
"You ready?" Claire asked, tucking some of her dark hair behind her ear as she did so.
"Yep. Quick, like a band-aid?"
"Quick like a band-aid." We both counted to three and once we got there, we pulled the bandages off of our skin. We cringed in pain for a moment, but we recovered quickly. We each grabbed a wash cloth, put soap and water on it, and gently washed our fresh tattoos, the skull on my arm and the phoenix on her leg. My skin was raw, and it hurt. I craved the lotion, but I liked to put others before myself for the most part.
"I'll do your lotion if you do mine," I suggested.
"Lotion me," Claire laughed. She squirted some into my hands, I rubbed them together, and lightly applied it to the new bird on her thigh. I had to admit that she rocked the tattoo look, and I was strangely attracted to the location of this one.
"Your turn," she said. Once she had lotion in her own hands, she pushed up the short sleeve on my shirt and rubbed lotion onto my arm. Afterwards, she traced the protruding lines that made the new tattoo three-dimensional. She loved how fresh ink stuck out like that.
"Your new tattoo is amazing," she told me, even though she had basically said the same thing earlier. "The placement isn't bad either," she smiled, and I jokingly flexed my biceps, just to mess with her.
"I can say the same thing about yours," I admitted as I took my turn and traced the lines of her phoenix. I started from the tip of the tail and went up to its head, where the tattoo ended. When I was done, I pulled her close to kiss her. Once our lips collided, I didn't want my lips to leave hers, but she knew better.
"It's getting late. We have to get to bed, Mark," Claire reminded me.
"Let's go, then," I decided. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the bedroom we shared.
"Don't get any ideas. We both need to go to sleep," she warned.
"Okay," I answered. I knew she was right, so I changed out of my jeans and into my pajama pants. I ditched my shirt as well, and when I was done I noticed she had changed too quickly into her own pajamas that consisted of short shorts and a t-shirt. She climbed into bed and I joined her. I wanted to listen to her and just tell her goodnight quickly so we could both sleep, but I couldn't help myself. I kissed her hard and wrapped my arms tightly around her, pulling her close to me without touching her sensitive tattoo area.
"Are you deaf? I'm tired!" Claire scolded me. Her voice sounded stern but her eyes were on my bare upper body.
"I'm tired too," I told her.
"God dammit, Mark. Why do you do this to me?" she asked, and I was a little confused.
"What do you mean?"
"You get in bed all shirtless and you kiss me and then expect me to be able to just go to sleep," she clarified.
"Sorry," I apologized, but I wasn't really. I kissed her a few more times before we finally decided to go to sleep.
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Even though Claire and I had lived together before, this time was way different. Sure, after she had gained my trust and we had both realized there was something between us, things changed. But this time, we started off as more than just roommates. It was nice to wake up in the morning with her next to me, like I did the next morning. The only downside was that I was much busier with my channel, so we didn't have as much free time to just be together as we once did. But we were living under the same roof, and that alone allowed us to get a lot closer than we could be while we lived hours away from each other. I couldn't complain much. The same went for Claire. Well, sometimes.
"What's up with all these boxes? This room is so full of clutter," she commented as she entered the office, where I recorded videos. She was right. In the weeks that we had been living in the new LA apartment, I had managed to put up the sound proofing and set up my computer equipment and desk, of course, but I didn't clean much up. There were boxes and plastic packaging from computer parts and games strewn across the floor.
"I guess I've been more focused on getting things set up than I have been on getting things cleaned up," I answered guiltily.
"I guess I can't talk. I still have clothes in boxes," Claire remembered.
"I'll clean and unpack if you do," I decided.
"Deal."
"But first, I need to get at least one video done. I've finished recording this one, I just need to work on editing."
"Alright, I'll get to work on the bedroom, then. If you want help in here later, just yell. I'll probably be done by the time your video is uploaded."
I got to work on the video. I had gained a lot of subscribers recently - we had gotten past two million - so I knew I needed to make some changes to my channel. I wanted to put more work into the videos, since more people were watching. It put a good kind of pressure on me to work harder, and I wanted to impress new viewers and keep the old ones on their toes. I recorded a lot more in each session and only kept the best parts, plus I added some comedy by editing them. Of course, not all my videos were exactly like this, but some were. I was also working a lot with other Youtubers already, including Tobuscus, and I wanted to try doing impossible lets plays. All in all, I was just trying to get better and hopefully allow the channel to grow in the process. So far, it seemed to be working. I still tried not to get too caught up in the numbers, even though it got difficult at times. I reminded myself almost every day what the original purpose and goal of my channel was, and I reminded myself and my viewers in vlogs when I could - there had been a point where it seemed like I had lost sight of that, and I couldn't let that happen. Too many bad things had happened in my life, and this channel was way too important to me. I couldn't screw it up. I wanted it to only go up from here.
An hour and a half later, I finished editing the video. I let it upload and I turned in my swivel desk chair to look at the mess around me. Luckily, almost everything I needed was out of boxes and packaging, so I grabbed the garbage can under my desk and got to work, picking up all the random crap that was sitting in the boxes and on the floor, not of any use. Then I began flattening out the boxes so I could store them and Claire and I could use them again, when we moved in the future. I didn't even want to think of moving yet, but I knew it was inevitable. So far we had no plans on moving out of LA, but we hoped to get a house or at least upgrade our apartment eventually.
"It's looking better in here. Is there anything you want me to do?" Claire suddenly asked, interrupting my thoughts.
"You could help with these boxes. I'm just flattening them out so we can store them for future use. I'm going to empty these two and organize my computer stuff while you do that," I told her. We both got to work and after about thirty minutes, the room looked considerably nicer than it had in the beginning of the day.
"So, how's the bedroom looking?" I wondered. I had managed to unpack all my things for that room and I had organized my belongings. Claire, however, had more things than me, at least when it came to our bedroom, and she had been a little lazy about it, much like I had been about the office.
"Come see for yourself," she answered. She took my hand and led me to our room. She flipped on the light and I was actually very impressed. There were no longer boxes on the floor, under the bed, or in the closet. All of her clothes and shoes and knick knacks were put away nicely where they belonged. I imagined she would be a lot less stressed now that she didn't have to tear through boxes to try to find whatever she wanted.
"Wow, it looks like we're completely moved in now!" I realized, and it was pretty true. We had worked hard on getting the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bathrooms done completely as soon as we moved in, almost. We had just a little bit of work left, and it had happened very gradually until today, when we had basically finished our work. It was nice to be able to say that we were truly moved in and things looked decent enough for people to actually come over, not that we had a whole lot of time for that. I had high hopes that we'd be able to fly some people out soon, though. I already missed Bob, Wade, and my brother Tom so much, and I knew that Claire missed Stephanie. I couldn't wait to see them all, but I had to be patient. That and grateful, because I was already meeting so many new people and there were plenty more that I was going to have a chance to meet and collaborate with in the very, very near future. L.A. was a very big city, and I had to take the experience of living there one step at a time. Claire and I both did, together. It would be a challenge, but I was up for it, and I was sure that she was up for it too.
Hey guys! Can I say that I'm super excited to be working on this sequel? I forgot how fun it was to write about Mark and Claire, and I'm looking forward to continuing their story. Some future chapters are hopefully going to be super interesting and exciting, so I can't wait to write them :) I know this story just started, but please feel free to let me know what you think of it so far. Do you guys like the way it began? Leave me some comments, and vote if you're enjoying it so far!