Cherry Bomb [h.s]

26

"Stay still!" Violet tells me as she continues to bend her head over my hand. Her long dark hair brushes over my fingers.

"It hurts!" I say, flinching a bit as she sticks the needle back into my skin. 

"Well no shit it hurts, it's a tattoo." She says.

"Are you going to tell me what you're putting on my hand now?" I ask, trying to stretch my neck to see what she's doing.

"Nope," she replies, popping the 'p', "You'll just have to see when I'm finished."

I roll my eyes with a slight smile and take a swig of the Jack Daniels bottle I stole from the liquor cabinet.

We're sitting on the floor in my room, My Chemical Romance playing out loud from my laptop. It's the middle of the night, but Dad was away for the weekend so we didn't have to worry about waking him up.

Violet dips the needle back into the ink, then brings it back over to my hand. She continues this same motion over and over again until finally she looks up at me.

"All done!" She says, "You can see what it is, now."

I pull my freshly tattooed hand to myself, and examine the ink.

Sitting just next to my thumb is a daisy, complete with a stem and leaf. The dark ink is surrounded by red, irritated skin. 

"Do you like it?" She asks.

"I love it," I reply.

"Yay!" She says, "Okay, my turn!" She sticks out her hand for me to take, but I push it away.

"No, I'm not giving you a tattoo." I tell her.

"Why not? You have one!" She pouts.

"Because I'm fifteen, and you're only thirteen." I declare as I cross my arms.

"That's not fair!" She says, "I'm almost fourteen. Plus, you gave yourself a tattoo when you were my age!"

I think about it for a moment, and realize she's right. I did give myself a stick and poke of a smiley face on my ankle when I was thirteen.

"Okay, fine." I sigh, "But if Dad asks, this was all your idea."

•

"Pssst! Zayn!" I whisper shout as I hang over the top bunk. "Zayn!" I repeat as I shove the curtain of the bottom bunk back. 

"What?" He groans, "I'm trying to sleep!" 

"You've been sleeping all day!" I say, "I wanna talk to my best friend." 

He had been sleeping since we left for Tacoma early this morning, but I had been awake for hours at this point and was getting bored. 

"God, you're annoying," he sighs, but I see his legs pop out over the edge of his bed. He crawls out of his spot, and stands up to meet my eyes as I continue to sit on the top bunk. 

"Hi," I smile. 

"Hi," he laughs and shakes his head. 

"C'mon, sit up here with me." I nod towards my bed.